• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, February 13, 2023

Kia and Jeep were the automotive winners of the Super Bowl, based on data from two shopping sites. 

Only four automotive spots aired during the game, which is defined as from the coin toss to when the last second ticks off the clock during regulation play. Ultimately, there was no overtime last night, although it was a very close game throughout.

After “Binky Dad” aired, Kia’s traffic spiked 230% to its branded pages on Cars.com. On Edmunds.com, the Kia Telluride saw a site share lift of 122% compared to its typical site share after the airing of the third-quarter spot. The Kia brand saw a 1% over its typical site share. 

The big winners on Edmunds were Jeep, Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe, which saw site share lifts of 182%, 1,560% and 319%, respectively after “Electric Boogie” aired. 

Three of the four 60-second spots were for electric vehicles, leading to a 21% increase overall in EV page views on Cars. com.

Collectively, advertising automakers saw an 81% lift to pages on Cars.com. General Motors received a 50% brand lift on the site following “Why Not an EV?” while Ram was up 46% after “Premature Electrification” and Jeep was up 13% as a result of “Electric Boogie.”

“Americans are inundated with brand messages on a day that’s as big for advertising as it is for sports, and advertisers ‘win’ when consumers take the next step to find out more,” said Jennifer Vianello, Cars.com chief marketing officer. 

Of the models featured in GM’s spot, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and GMC Hummer EV saw site share lifts of 160%, 6,970% and 1,374% respectively over their typical shares on Edmunds. GMC Sierra Denali EV and Chevrolet Blazer EV did not record an immediate lift in their site shares. 

Cadillac's brand share increased by 117%, Chevrolet's brand share increased by 62%, and GMC's brand share increased by 117% over each of their respective typical shares on Edmunds.

Only about 5% of Americans are actively in the market to buy a car at any given time, so many brands strategically sit out the big show and spend a fraction of the cost on hyper-targeted digital advertising, per Cars.com.

Although Ford wasn’t advertising during the Big Game this year, the Detroit-based automaker’s electric-vehicle page views saw a 118% increase in EV engagement on Cars.com from Ram’s “Premature Electrification” ad and a 146% lift on Cars.com during GM’s “Why Not an EV?” ad. 

BMW also benefited on the marketplace, with a 70% increase in views of the luxury automaker’s EVs during GM’s partnered ad with Netflix and a 33% bump during Ram’s pharma-spoof commercial.

The game brought out a few more surprises, including cross-shopping consumers. Used Teslas saw a 26% bump on Cars.com during Jeep’s “Electric Boogie” ad. The electric-car brand saw an even greater bump (29% for used Teslas) when Elon Musk was shown in the stands, proving consumers are still very EV-curious. 

Porsche 911’s saw a 47% increase in page views on Cars.com following the trailer for the new “Transformers” movie that features Mirage, a "Transformer" character that replicates the Porsche 911. 

It’s understandable that many automakers chose to sit this game out, says Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights.

“The Super Bowl does a lot to boost product and high level brand awareness -- but given the costs associated with advertising on such a large scale, other brands are likely taking a bit more of a pragmatic approach by waiting until they have a lot more metal to move, or until market conditions become a bit more favorable,” Caldwell says.