• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 29, 2013

Super Bowl advertisers will see a 20% rise in Web traffic to their sites for seven days following Sunday, while mobile video views will double on the day of the game, according to Adobe Systems data built on billions of visits to Web sites and content in the two prior years.

The advertising data, based on 33 million visits, reveals an increase in traffic prior to the Super Bowl. Adobe Senior Marketing Manager Tamara Gaffney believes it has to do with the increase in digital marketing campaigns inviting online conversations prior to the game.

Rather than think about online videos and 30 seconds of airtime at an estimated $3.8 million this year as separate campaigns, marketers need to view the two as complementary, Gaffney said. "There's also a lot of mobile video consumption during sporting events," she said.

This year, as with last, VW began showing off its new Super Bowl commercial for the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle on YouTube, accompanied by a dude with a Jamaican "be happy" accent. The Beyonce and Pepsi campaign in New York's Times Square asks consumers to log on at pepsi.com prior to the game to engage with the brand. Coca-Cola ask fans to vote on the ending of its Super Bowl ads, while Audi suggests viewers tune in to catch the ending.

The Adobe Digital Index team also analyzed Web traffic for companies that ran Super Bowl ads during 2011 and 2012 to estimate mobile video consumption. Based on 1.4 billion video starts during 10 large sporting events, the data reveals that online videos from tablets and mobile phones reached 16% on a day with a major sporting event, up 100% compared with a typical day in sports.

Gaffney suggests that advertisers look for more targeted media, or if they are unable to afford a Super Bowl television ad, capitalize on low CPMs and an affluent audience. U.S advertisers spent $180 billion in 2012, but directed only 2% into mobile advertising, according to eMarketer.