February 5, 2008
A new marketing war is under way, as some of the biggest brands work to capitalize on the excitement
created by Super Bowl TV commercials.
With half-minute TV commercials selling for between $2.7 million to $3 million, how many advertisers optimized their exposure
by successfully linking their TV spots to their online presence?
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This essay will reveal some of the fresh new numbers that just got in this morning.
Reprise Media just released its 4th annual Search Marketing Scorecard (SMS), which ranks Super Bowl advertisers
based on the level of integration between their TV ads and their actual presence in social media and search.
Reprise Media essentially measured just how exactly prepared each brand was in order to efficiently capture
online interest. The Search Marketing Scorecard is the longest-standing study of its kind.
Among this year's key findings:
Pepsi is this year's most valuable player. A surprising rebound from its performance in our 2005
inaugural SMS, where it finished at the bottom of the pile.
Once again, web-based direct marketers - such as CareerBuilder.com and GoDaddy.com - are doing well
with search and social media. Both companies have consistently scored touchdowns every year on our SMS.
Cars.com, T-Mobile and Tide rounded out this year's winner's circle with the best integration of Super
Bowl TV commercials and search and social media.
Disney, Zantac and Hershey's miss their opportunities for cross-channel integration, with nearly no
connection between game-day ads and their online presence.
The entertainment industry continues to under-perform. Overall, while movie studios are generating buzz
with their 30-second spots, the majority are still missing the boat. With the exception of New Line Studio's
Semi-Pro, which scored high for both search and social media presence, most studios are not buying search
ads for their films, and none are using Super Bowl-specific keywords or copy to capture the attention of
Giants and Patriot fans.
Edmunds.com didn't advertise in the big game, but did the next best thing - bought paid search ads that
got them in front of the Super Bowl's massive audience when they headed online for more information.
Though Pepsi clearly led the pack in this year's SMS, the majority of non-alcoholic beverage advertisers
consistently fail to include a URL or call to action in their TV spot.
Only about 6 percent of the Super Bowl advertisers gave a call to action in their commercials. Less than
10 percent have worked the mascot, celebrity or tagline into their paid search terms.
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 percent
increase over last year.
Advertisers are getting better at including the relevant URL in their ads (with 84 percent displaying a
URL in their commercials) and 100 percent of them led 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.
He added "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, a leading web analytics company, Reprise Media will analyze data on user
behavior and online traffic trends surrounding Super Bowl last Sunday.
The company also said it will release a whitepaper reviewing the results of this analysis at the Online
Marketing Summit on February 21st in San Diego.
Source: Reprise Media
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