• by January 6, 2006

Amid a raft of announcements by media and tech companies at the international Consumer Electronics Show this week, it may be easy to forget that the Super Bowl is set for Feb. 5 in the Motor City. It's always an advertising extravaganza and a big coming-out party for what is often considered the "best" advertising in the business--or the worst, depending on your opinion.

So, in the run-up to Feb. 5, published reports have surfaced indicating that 30-second spots during ABC's Bowl broadcast are going for as much as $2.6 million. Every year, it seems, the price creeps higher.

Who said the 30-second TV spot was dead? Of course the Super Bowl is like the Oscars for TV advertisers. It's a time for primping and preening, peacock-style strutting. Get out there. Show 'em what you got. New brand? New service? New positioning? You gotta get in the game! Blah, blah, blah. No matter what's happening in media--and there are plenty of exciting developments these days--the Super Bowl audience remains a significant mass audience and advertisers salivate just enough each year to buy into the cultural mystique and the partying that surrounds this all-American event.

So, not a minute too soon, Reprise Media tells us it's launching its second annual Super Bowl Search Marketing ScoreCard. The report measures how effective Super Bowl advertisers are at capitalizing on the buzz created by their commercials. The ScoreCard ranks advertisers based on a series of search marketing best practices, including keyword selection, ad text, and landing page content.

Reprise notes that advertisers including Gillette, General Motors, and CareerBuilder.com have signed on to pay an average of $2.6 million per 30-second spot. However, many advertisers haven't taken the steps to quantify the effectiveness of their Super Bowl advertising. If return on investment is the name of the game, they can't afford not to know what role search plays in ad effectiveness. For example, Reprise notes that consumers often head online, even during the game, to follow up on advertisers or engage with special content. They're also increasingly participating in polls, contests, and promotions during and after the game. They typically start with a search action.

Reprise says paid search can serve as the bridge between an advertiser's offline campaign and a Web presence. Marketers can ensure that people who turn online to get more information about their favorite commercials are led to promotions or online mini-sites that can help harness this buzz. The search engine marketing company notes that last year's results were mixed. While advertisers such as Cadillac, Volvo and CareerBuilder.com featured tightly integrated campaigns that drove consumers to their sites, most Super Bowl advertisers had little or no presence among the search results.

So we ask what Reprise asks: with Super Bowl XL just weeks away, are marketers planning to optimize their ad's effectiveness by including search engine marketing? Did advertisers learn from last year's successes? It will be an interesting summary when the 2006 ScoreCard comes out.