• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, February 12, 2024

Popularity is subjective, so there is some variability in how the automotive Super Bowl spots fared, depending on the poll.

Like last year, there were only four automotive Super Bowl spots in the 2024 game. 

This year Kia, BMW, and Volkswagen each had 60-second spots while Toyota had a 30-second spot, representing 7% of the 55 minutes of total non-house (CBS, NFL and Paramount+) ad time, according to MediaRadar. 

In contrast, the 2023 spots were from Ram, Jeep, General Motors and Kia. 

The USA Today Ad Meter, perhaps one of the most well-known surveys, placed Kia’s “Perfect 10” spot at number three and BMW’s “Talkin’ Like Walken” spot at number seven. 

iSpot.tv had a different take. BMW was named the top spot, while Volkswagen’s "An American Love Story” came in at number three and Toyota’s “Dareful Handle” was number five. 

According to Cars.com, the MVP was Volkswagen, which saw a 394% spike in Cars.com traffic following the airing of its 60-second ad, which was a cut down from the 120-second extended cut, which I found to be every bit as emotional as Kia’s tear jerker about a girl performing her ice skating routine for her shut-in grandfather. 

Cars.com analyzes site traffic patterns for advertised car model pages during the eight minutes before each spot aired and again eight minutes after. Kia had a 265% lift, Toyota’s views were up 223% and BMW saw a 158% uptick. 

Even though Volkswagen’s ad saw the biggest spike in traffic on Cars.com, each brand that debuted a product during the game saw a triple-digit bump in traffic on the marketplace. 

Kia’s all-new EV9 saw a 2,497% boost in traffic after its ad aired. Used Volkswagen Microbuses and Beetles, which were prominently highlighted during Volkswagen’s evolutionary ad, saw a 4,020% and 1,307% lift in traffic, respectively, after airing, according to Cars.com. 

Meanwhile, according to Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, Kia’s spot, featured the EV9, saw the highest model lift with a 486% increase compared to pre-game levels. The brand overall garnered a 34% lift.

Volkswagen’s spot bolstered the brand to the #1 make in terms of in-game lift: 117% increase. 

Toyota already enjoys high shopper volumes on a regular basis, but over the course of the game, Toyota saw the highest research volumes on Autotrader among advertised brands, and Tacoma saw the highest research volumes among advertised models.

Volkswagen ID.Buzz saw the highest model lift on Kelley Blue Book with a 13,500% increase over the pre-game baseline which drove VW to #1 in brand lift. Kia saw the highest shopper volumes among advertised brands on KBB, and EV9 saw the highest research volumes among advertised models. 

And BMW’s i5 saw the second highest model lift with 3,400% increase and Toyota saw the second highest shopper volumes among brands on KBB. 

Meanwhile, on Edmunds.com, BMW i5's site share increased to 1.1%, representing an 806% increase over its typical site share. BMW 5 Series saw a site share of 1.2%, representing a 246% increase. BMW saw its brand share increase to 7%, representing a lift of 18% over its typical site share. 

Toyota Tacoma's site share increased to 10.9%, representing an 864% increase over its typical site share. And Toyota saw its brand share increase to 22.2%, representing a lift of 34%.

Volkswagen’s ID.Buzz's site share increased to 3.7%, representing a 5,527% increase. Volkswagen saw its brand share increase to 11.1%, representing a lift of 189% over its typical site share.

Kia EV9's site share increased to 20.2%, representing a 4,773% increase over its typical site share.Kia saw its brand share increase to 24.2%, representing a lift of 229% over its typical site share.