• by Shankar Gupta , February 3, 2006

This Super Bowl Sunday, almost three out of four Web users--72 percent--intend to go online, and 14 percent intend to seek out ads or video clips, according to a report released Thursday by comScore Networks.

The study, based on a survey of more than 1,100 Web users, also found that 11 percent intend to visit the Web sites of Super Bowl advertisers, and 4 percent will forward ads or video clips to friends.

Research company Nielsen//NetRatings also issued a report Thursday showing that Web users seek out sites of Super Bowl advertisers. Total traffic to all advertisers' sites last year climbed 27 percent, to 22.3 million visitors, the Monday after the football game. CareerBuilder.com saw a jump of 89 percent, to 989,000 visitors, while VerizonWireless.com saw 42 percent growth to 374,000 visitors. GoDaddy.com and FedEx.com each drew almost 900,000 visitors--up from numbers too small for Nielsen//NetRatings to measure.

Even marketers that aren't running TV ads Sunday might see a Super Bowl-related spike in traffic, thanks to some opportunistic keyword bidding. Josh Stylman, managing partner of search marketing firm Reprise Media, said many of Reprise's clients are purchasing keywords related to the Super Bowl, regardless of whether they've purchased a TV ad. "You don't have to have an ad in the game to capitalize on the value."

On Google, some advertisers already are trying to capitalize on the game--although the ads aren't necessarily entirely relevant. A search Thursday evening for "Super Bowl" turned up an ad for Norton AntiVirus 2006 and a coupon site, thecloseoutcloset.com. According to a Google spokesperson, ads that are bought on keywords that are not relevant to their product or service are assigned a lower Quality Score, thus raising the bid required to keep them in a high position.