The 24 hours following Super Bowl XL will be the litmus test gauging the advertising world’s skill at integrating their offline and online campaigns. Those who’ve successfully stretched the $2.6 million spent on a 30-second spot will no doubt have ensured their brand’s presence in the search engines and have rewarded the searcher once they’ve hit the advertiser’s website.
Gone are the days of throwing out the net and hoping for the best. Results are immediate and measurable in a way they’ve never been and harnessing the power of viral appeal while getting the most for the offline buck should be the focus of any advertiser whether they can afford a Super Bowl spot or not.
Reprise Media launched their Super Bowl Search Marketing ScoreCard last year and reported abysmal results for companies that really should know what they’re doing. While online companies like CareerBuilder and Napster obviously would need to integrate their campaigns, heavy hitters like Visa, Pepsi, and Degree Antiperspirant scored low on Reprise’s ScoreCard for funneling TV viewers into search engines and then to landing pages.
“In an era when consumers turn to search engines to research companies and investigate products, Super Bowl advertisers must harness the online demand they’re creating, and turn viewers into instant customers,” says Peter Hershberg, managing partner and co-founder of Reprise Media in a statement.
GoDaddy.com not only caught the attention of the TV viewer (and ire of the prude), but delivered handsomely to those who found their website by offering an extended Web only version of the Super Bowl commercial.
Advertisers in general saw a 600% increase in Web traffic during the 24 hours that followed the game. Most of that traffic was generated through search queries on Google and Yahoo!, and paid search was an integral part of driving page views.
The online/offline integrated approach of Super Bowl advertisers is an excellent example of basic principles marketers should be following on a smaller level year round. Offline ads must direct the customer online for more information and reward the customer for seeking them out. Websites and the content on them need to be dynamic, viral, and informative.
Reprise Media will be keeping their Super Bowl Search Marketing ScoreCard again this year to see if advertisers have wised up, available at SearchViews.
