95% of Super Bowl Ads Scored Online

So were you one of the 148.3 million people that watched at least part of Super Bowl XLIII this past Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals? It was the second-most-watched Super Bowl ever, just behind 2008's record-breaking  game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

NBC said it did sell out of all its ad inventory getting $206 million dollars, which is up from the $186.3 million Fox sold last year for the game. So advertisers did pay more and got less viewers. I've been writing about the ads and promotions associated with Super Bowl XLIII here and here and I asked the question in my last post of how many ads would actually try and get their money's worth by driving viewers online to extend the experience?

Last year I learned that 64% of the Super Bowl ads promoted their website after which I had predicted a much higher percentage. So I wasn't sure what to expect this year. Would the advertisers get it right and make their $100,000 a second ad pay off?

Reprise Media’s 5th Annual Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard which shows us which advertisers integrated their TV ads with search and social media gives us the best answers. Here's what I learned:

• 95% of Super Bowl advertisers were visible on the first page of organic search results
• 69%, 2/3 of advertisers, bought paid search keywords on their brand and products
• 22%, 1 in 5 Super Bowl ads, included a specific call to action directing interested people to their website.

This added up to the highest percentage in the 5 years that they've conducted the study.

• 42%, nearly half of all advertisers, rewarded users for seeking them out with “bonus” site content such as behind-the-scenes footage or sweepstakes.
• 25%, a quarter of all Super Bowl advertisers, linked their landing pages to social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube

Here's the top companies that were rated a "Touchdown"...those that had their TV ads connect with online search:

• E*Trade
• Cash4Gold.com
• Frosted Flakes
• CareerBuilder.com
• Diet Pepsi Max
• GoDaddy.com
• Pepsi

E-Trade bought terms related to "talking babies," for example, and Cash4Gold bought terms related to its celebrity pitchmen, Ed McMahon and MC Hammer. E-trade also had a viral hit with their outtakes on YouTube:

These are the companies that "Fumbled"...those that were next to invisible online:

• Budweiser, Bud Light and Bud Lt Lime
• Chase Bank
• Denny’s
• Heineken
• Up - Pixar  and T’formers 2
• Vizio
• Coca Cola
• Year One
• Angels & Demons
• Taco Bell

Denny's didn't include a URL in its TV ad for a free breakfast promotion which ended up a good thing  since it's site crashed right after the ad aired and was down for the rest of the game.

I've also been covering Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl interactive promotion which was in it's third year of developing a consumer-generated content contest. This year again the winning ad was aired during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. However, Doritos added another layer and also offered to award the winning contestant $1 million if the ad took the #1 spot in the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings that rates the popularity of the TV spots appearing during the game.

Well the 288 people that vote in USA Today's Ad Meter panel decided that Jeff Goodby and Alex Bogusky, two unemployed brothers from Indiana, were worthy of scoring the top spot and winning the $1 million. Their "Free Doritos" ad which cost only $2,000 to make, featured two guys and a snow globe that "can predict the future," essentially by throwing it at things, one being a guy's crotch. Not my favorite ad, but I guess it resonated with the tone of the audience.

So now we have to wait another whole season for NFL football and some new ads and promotions from top brands. Maybe we'll be closer to a 100% online integration. Can you predict the future?

Blogger's Note:  Today was my guest blogger day at Lipsticking.com, so you can find the same post there. I wanted to make sure I covered the Super Bowl here as well since I've been writing about it for the past month.

Comments

[Landscaping Raleigh]

I posted your blog to my facebook group

Regards
Alexander