Super Bowl Advertisers Fumble in Search and Social Media but Make Other Gains

February 5, 2008

This article is included in these additional categories:

Brand Metrics | Creative & Formats | Media & Entertainment | Paid Search | Television

Some of the biggest brands in the world vie to capitalize on the buzz created by their Super Bowl commercials, but not all advertisers were able to maximize their multimillion-dollar investments by successfully linking TV ads to their online presence, according to Reprise Media.

Reprise Media released its fourth annual Search Marketing Scorecard (SMS), which ranks Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their television commercials and presence in search and social media – essentially measuring how prepared each brand is to capture online interest and buzz.

Among this year’s key findings:

  • Though Pepsi led the pack in this year’s SMS, the majority of non-alcoholic beverage advertisers consistently failed to include a URL or call to action in their TV spot.
  • Only 6% of the Super Bowl advertisers gave a call to action in their commercials.
  • Just 28% of brands purchased ads against Super Bowl-related keywords, a slight increase over last year’s level.
  • 93% of advertisers did not buy search placement for concepts related to their ads – terms related to spokesperson, mascot, celebrity or tagline.
  • None of the Super Bowl ads pointed to their social media presence on MySpace, YouTube or Facebook. Less than one-fifth showed Super Bowl-related content on social networks.
  • 70% of advertisers were buying placement in paid search against their brand name, close to a 20% increase over last year.
  • Advertisers are getting better at including the relevant URL in their ads (with 84% displaying a URL in their commercials) – and all of them leading to the right landing page.

“In an increasingly fragmented media world, the Super Bowl represents the last of the true mass-marketing opportunities available to advertisers,” said Peter Hershberg, Managing Partner of Reprise Media.

“As we’ve seen throughout the past four years of our study, the buzz created by an audience that large can cause huge spikes in online behavior. Marketers that overlook search and social media are potentially missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with interested consumers during the game.”

Through a partnership with Compete, Reprise Media will analyze data on user behavior and online traffic trends surrounding Super Bowl Sunday and release a whitepaper reviewing the results of this analysis, the company said.

A summary PDF of Reprise Media’s SMS is available from its site.

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