Super Bowl Ads Missed Big Opportunities
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | February 5, 2007 | Share This
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With another Super Bowl in the books, it’s time to sit back and review the real winners and losers in Sunday’s big game: the advertisers. The interest generated by their commercials translated into millions of searches as viewers around the world “Googled” the products and services they featured. We took a look at how companies used search marketing to turn that buzz into measurable Web activity. In our third annual “Search Marketing Scorecard”, we’ve ranked Super Bowl advertisers based on their ability to use search engines as a link between their TV ads and a web presence.
Based on our evaluation of multiple search marketing best practices, we found that this year’s advertisers are:
- Improved, But Still Underperforming
Super Bowl advertisers did a better job integrating their online and offline efforts this year, but there were still a significant number of missed opportunities. Few companies put together all the elements necessary to translate interest and buzz into web activity. - Lacking Calls to Action
Advertisers continued to overlook the value of having a strong call to action in their commercials. While a majority of companies provided URLs during their ads, less than 20% actually gave viewers a compelling reason to visit their website. - All Buzz, No Substance
Companies like Doritos, Chevrolet, and the NFL featured buzz-worthy consumer-generated ads, inviting user participation and interaction with the brand. However, these commercials did a poor job of directing users to online destinations, failing to capitalize on the opportunity to expand the communities they had built prior to the game.
Some notable trends this year include:
- Use of YouTube
One terrific example of new media marketing came from Pizza Hut. Though its commercial wasn’t consumer-generated, Pizza Hut used paid search to link users to a customized YouTube channel instead of its own corporate site, allowing visitors to continue a dialogue about its ads and products. - Auto Makers Still Missing the Extra Point
Though they purchased a significant number of TV ads, Automotive advertisers were again among the biggest losers in cross-channel integration, with poor visibility across Google, Yahoo and other major search engines.
To see a list of the best and worst advertisers with notable statistics, visit the Reprise Media Scorecard brief, or download the full PDF.
Though I’ll go into greater detail on winners, losers, and trends later this week, I’m generally surprised by how many advertisers did a half-assed job on cross-channel marketing. Integration of on and offline messages is no longer considered cutting edge. Brands capable of Super-Bowl-caliber advertising should at the very least understand how to bring together multiple points of contact online. That means, not just having a website, but using paid search to connect the dots between the TV ad, a compelling call to action, a dynamic landing page, and new media marketing (aka: YouTube).
This brings us to another interesting thought - once the best practices that we measure become ubiquitous, and all advertisers have established dynamic cross-media marketing campaigns with fully integrated search techniques… what’s next? How might our scorecard evaluation change next year, or in five years?
More thoughts to come…
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Topics: Advertising: Distribution, Advertising: Offline, Advertising: Online, Conferences & Events, Search Marketing Scorecard, Search: How-To, Search: Video, Social Media |
This report is already inaccurate as it says Snapple fumbled yet I saw them everywhere on paid search ads.
Eugene - I’m very curious as to where you saw Snapple’s listings. While Snapple did have some minimal placement on their branded terms, that wasn’t enough to move them up our rankings. We were looking for advertisers with a consistent, integrated placement, and they seemed to fall short in engine coverage, keyword coverage and message integration.
After the Superbow some of my sem friends and I got online to Google who bought ppc search and I saw Snapple on all types of phrases such as superbowl ads, superbowl drinks/snacks, Egcg, green tea, on the back of the bottle and so forth. The reason I remember is because I was surprised they had such high placement on the general superbowl terms along with Godaddy. I saw Snapple in content match blogs too. Maybe they ran out of money towards the end of the night is why reprise missed it for coverage. Their site was definitely getting pounded because it was crawling. I would score Snapple a first and goal and not a fumble.
“One terrific example of new media marketing came from Pizza Hut.”
It’s not only pizza hut but so many other have jumped in for campaigning for their own products on YouTube.