IRVINE and SANTA MONICA, Calif. — When it comes to generating shoppers' interest via Super Bowl advertisements, it appears this year's big winner was Hyundai, whose commercials Sunday night appear to have generated significant Web traffic boosts for some of the automaker's models, according to separate analyses from Kelley Blue Book's Kbb.com and Edmunds.com.

The Hyundai Sonata, in particular, seems to be benefiting the most from the Super Bowl exposure.

Edmunds.com reported that Web traffic for the Sonata climbed 594 percent from the Sunday average in January.  Other models from the Korean OEM surged, too, as the 2010 Hyundai Tucson saw a 123-percent rise in traffic and the 2010 Hyundai Genesis showed a 72-percent upswing.  

"This is yet another major event in which Hyundai achieved major Web site traffic gains through expensive ad placements," explained Michelle Krebs, Edmunds.com senior analyst.

"Hyundai's marketing team seems to believe that they need to make big splashes to be considered a major player," she added. "And, I must admit, their efforts — and those of their product planners — are working, because the company's image and its market share are growing at an impressive clip."

Meanwhile, Kbb.com noted that the Sonata saw a 91-percent increase in traffic on the site versus the previous Sunday, marking the second straight year where the new vehicle that Hyundai most heavily advertised during the football game showed the steepest upswing in Kbb.com traffic compared to all other new vehicles advertised during the event.

The Tucson also showed a strong increase in Kbb.com traffic (up 42 percent), behind the Honda Accord Crosstour (up 66 percent) and the Kia Sorento (up 47 percent).

"The latest Kbb.com traffic data shows that big-budget ad buys really can pay off when you have engaging product and a creative, eye-catching spot to capture football fans' attention during the big game," shared James Bell, executive market analyst for Kbb.com. 

"The Saints may have taken home the Vince Lombardi trophy, but Hyundai captured the big win this year in terms of new-car interest increasing from their ads," he continued.

"It's impressive when a car commercial can compel someone to take their eyes away from the big game to research a new-car online, and we know informed car shoppers come to Kelley Blue Book's Kbb.com to get the most timely and trustworthy vehicle values and information," Bell added. 

As far as Edmunds.com's traffic analysis, some of the other vehicles to show strong gains were the 2010 Audi A8 (up 127 percent) and 2010 Audi Q5 Hybrid (64 percent) following the automaker's "Green Police" ad.

Kia's "Joy Ride" ad helped boost traffic for the 2011 Kia Sorento by 142 percent, while Volkswagen's multi-vehicle "Punch Dub" spot helped the 2010 VW GT see a 73-percent rise in traffic and the 2010 Touareg climb 62 percent.