The big game is over and the results are in. Jumpstart Automotive Group released highlights of its fourth annual Super Bowl Advertising ROI Analysis today—a study that reveals the automotive brands making the biggest impact with online car shoppers immediately following the big game.

For marketers, this study is especially critical in revealing the immediate effectiveness, or lack thereof, of traditional media investments among new car buyers—the majority of whom (79 percent1) turn to the Internet to research their vehicle purchase.

Jumpstart’s analysis gauges online traffic to automotive brand pages across 12 vehicle shopping and research websites in the company’s partner network on Super Bowl Sunday and Monday compared to the prior week. Gains in share of car shoppers to these brand pages are then calculated as a percentage.

• Lincoln, with its ad “Phoenix” that featured the sleek MKZ sedan emerging from the desert, scored the biggest points with online car shoppers, leaping 63 percent in share over the prior week and nearly three times as much as the next closest automotive advertiser.

• Hyundai Santa Fe’s hilarious ads “Team” and “Epic Playdate” combined kids with comedy to great effect, while Fiat 500’s “Sisters” and “Topless” commercials used ‘sexy’ to sell its L and Abarth models. Both brands saw the second and third greatest Sunday/Monday share of shopper gains over the same timeframe the prior week, with increases of 24 percent and 15 percent respectively. Interestingly enough, Fiat saw an increase in share of shoppers even though both of the automaker’s commercials aired during pre-game coverage.

• Toyota’s humorous and wacky wish-granting spot for the RAV4 (13 percent) and Hyundai Sonata’s “Stuck” (12 percent), featuring clever driving situations in which the Sonata turbo helps a couple get ‘unstuck’, rounded out the top five increases in share of shoppers across Jumpstart’s partner network of automotive sites.

• Three of the top five advertisers ran multiple commercials (Lincoln, Hyundai and Fiat). Kia followed suit with ads for the Sorento and Forte, yet the automaker saw a half percent decrease in share of shoppers despite its multi-spot investment.

“While the top five contenders saw considerable lift in brand interest among millions of car shoppers in our network, this year’s increases were significantly smaller than last,” said Nick Matarazzo, CEO of Jumpstart Automotive Group. “The online pre-release of commercials prior to the game helped dull viewer response and ultimately online shopper response, however, we were excited to see an influx of mobile car shoppers to our network, particularly among iPhone users.”

Notable Post-Super Bowl Mobile Trends

• Jumpstart’s mobile device traffic grew 12 percent on Super Bowl Sunday compared to the prior week.

• iPhone users represented the heftiest week over week mobile user increase at 27 percent.

• Tablet traffic decreased by one percent on Super Bowl Sunday compared to the prior Sunday.

In the coming weeks, Jumpstart will release a longer-term analysis to help marketers gauge the sustainability of their Super Bowl campaigns among online shoppers in its partner network of sites, along with an estimated Super Bowl Advertising Cost Analysis that reveals the expense of each brand campaign weighed against the gain in share of shoppers.

1J.D. Power and Associates 2012 New Autoshopper StudySM

About Jumpstart Automotive Group
Jumpstart Automotive Group, a Hearst Media Services company and a division of Hearst Magazine, brings innovative digital marketing solutions to automotive advertisers by empowering the performance and reach of automotive publisher partners. Jumpstart’s unavoidable audiences span online and mobile platforms to generate awareness, shift perceptions and drive consideration for automotive advertisers with intelligent analytics and strategic product innovation. For more information, visit JumpstartAuto.com. Follow Jumpstart on Twitter @JumpstartAuto (http://twitter.com/#!/JumpstartAuto).