NASHVILLE, Tenn. -

While some analysts believe Chrysler and Volkswagen received the most consumer traction through their Super Bowl advertisements, an aggregator of Internet automotive shopping activity tells a different story.

Dataium’s promotional impact charts say BMW actually benefited more. Why?

Dataium explained that its analysts measured shopping, inventory search and lead activity of more than 3 million active shoppers during the Super Bowl at the precise times each of the manufacturers’ television spots were broadcast. Dataium believes its resulting statistics clearly indicate BMW’s Super Bowl commercials delivered the greatest impact for franchise dealerships.

“It should be noted that in every instance but Hyundai, commercials that ran prior to kickoff generated better performance metrics for their respective local dealership websites than those commercials that ran during the game,” firm analysts shared.

Dataium asserted the Super Bowl’s impact on overall online auto shopping was negative with a 24-percent decline in shopper activity at the start of the game.

However, the firm discovered online shopping returned to pregame activity levels during halftime.

After halftime, Dataium determined activity declined dramatically, sinking 42 percent by the game’s final tick of the clock.

Analysts indicated overall inventory search volume declined 23 percent while lead volume actually increased 2.65 percent during the game. And the week following the Super Bowl, they found all performance metrics remained down when compared to a typical non-Super Bowl week.

These measures prompted Dataium to ask, “So do Super Bowl ads stem the tide or perhaps deliver gains in auto shopper activity for those manufacturers who advertise during the game?”

Firm analysts quickly provided a clear answer.

“No, there was no appreciable variance in auto shopper behavior for those brands that advertised than for those that did not,” Dataium stressed.

“Consumer shopping behavior seems to be more impacted by the game itself than the ads within it,” the firm continued. “However, much of the goal of Super Bowl advertising is to build brand recognition and definition rather than generate website traffic and lead volume.”

Eric Brown, chief executive officer of Dataium, elaborated about how his company arrived at these assertions.

“It was exciting for our team to watch the Super Bowl commercials on one monitor and watch consumers’ response on another,” Brown shared.

“With the real-time auto shopper activity data we collect, for the first time we can see the impact of national advertising initiatives by the OEMs on the local dealership showroom,” he continued.

Dataium indicated a full report of promotional impact charts for each automotive Super Bowl commercial is available upon request at dataium.com/contact. The firm noted the report includes performance statistics by make and model, comparative statistics of auto buyer behavior pre-Super Bowl and post Super Bowl, as well as keyword usage trends and more.

Custom reports are also available by request.