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Super Interest in Cars During Big Game

Cox Automotive research sites saw major spikes in traffic for automotive brands that took advantage of the Super Bowl to market their cars. How can dealers convert?

February 10, 2026
Super Interest in Cars During Big Game

Toyota's RAV4 was among the models getting elevated online traffic during the big game.

Credit:

Toyota

2 min to read


An analysis of car ads that ran during the Super Bowl shows a sharp uptick in consumer shopping on Cox Automotive listings and vehicle valuation sites.

The Cox Automotive data crunching found that the $10 million cost of airing a 30-second ad during the annual National Football League championship game nowadays appears it may be worth it.

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General Motors, global car sales leader Toyota, and Germany-based Volkswagen took advantage of the event to tempt consumers. 

Game viewers seemed to particularly take advantage of the halftime segment of the bowl to research the automakers’ cars online, based on consumers tapping Cox’s Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book sites.

For instance, the featured Toyota Supra sports car saw a 300% increase in traffic during the break after getting just a small lift in the hour a Supra ad aired, according to Kelley Blue Book visitor data.

Toyota also ran a “Super Belt” ad just before halftime featuring its compact RAV4 crossover, bringing the popular SUV a 52% increase in shopping activity.

Volkswagen, whose U.S. sales flagged last year amid U.S. trade tariffs on imports, brought back a 1990s ad theme, “Drivers Wanted,” for its Super Bowl ad. The third-quarter spot highlighted its ID.Buzz electric minivan and brought VW a 445% game-time increase in traffic on Autotrader and a whopping 1,200% bump on Kelley Blue Book.

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Cox didn’t include data on GM traffic based on its game-time commercial.

“The automotive ads from Sunday’s Super Bowl show that when people see a car they want or want to know more about, they take direct action online—but where does it go from here?” said Cox, which indicated that this year’s bowl drew more than 127 million viewers, a rare TV spike in the streaming era.

“This is where OEMs and dealers need to make sure that great advertising pays off by delivering a personalized experience either fully online, in the showroom or a hybrid of the two.” 

LEARN MORE: Consumer Interest High Amid Price Concerns

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