• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 6, 2008

Super Bowl advertisers are improving on cross-media integration, but many still have a long way to go to maximize returns on commercials that this year cost $2.7 million for 30 seconds of air time alone, according to results of Reprise Media Inc.'s annual post-game Search Marketing Scorecard.

 

 

On the positive side, search/social media agency Reprise, which has been tracking Super Bowl advertisers' search and online integration behavior for four years now, found that:

• 70% of this year's advertisers bought placement in paid search against their brand names--a 20% increase from 2007.

• Most (84%) did display a URL in their commercials, and all of the URLs led to the right landing pages, a huge improvement over the scorecard results four years ago.

• 28% purchased ads against Super Bowl-related keywords, versus 25% last year.

However, the tracking also showed that:

• Only 6% of commercials asked consumers to visit their Web sites--a decrease of nearly two thirds from last year.

• 93% did not buy search placement for concepts relating to their ads, including spokesperson names, slogans and taglines. Among the brands that failed to buy featured stars' names as keywords were Bridgestone Tires (Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons) and Sunsilk (Marilyn Monroe, Shakira and Madonna). Unfortunately, notes Reprise, given that the celebrities are often the only thing that viewers remember about an ad.

Why do advertisers forget to buy their own keywords? "In most cases, it's just an oversight," said Reprise managing partner Peter Hershberg, during a post-game Webcast on Monday. Marketers become "presumptuous" because of their confidence in their skills, and have a hard time stepping back into the mindset that drives consumer actions, he postulated.

• 74% still neglected to include a call to action on their Web site landing pages, leaving users "directionless."

Noting social media's now-massive influence on search behavior, Reprise also tracked the advertisers' presence in these media.

Just 14% created custom Super Bowl campaigns for YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, and 6% offered RSS/subscription chiclets on their pages. Only about half (46%) had corporate-owned profiles in social networks, and about half had profiles visible on the first page of social network searches. None of the advertisers who did create a social media presence included references to these URL's in their commercials.

Pepsi's Justin Timberlake campaign received the highest overall marks for tightly integrating search, social media and other channels. This brand leveraged celebrity keywords, the tagline (which actually showed up in organic searches) and branded social media channels.

As in past years, other stand-outs tended to be Web-based marketers, including CareerBuilder.com, GoDaddy.com and Cars.com. T-Mobile and Tide to Go also made Reprise's "Touchdown" list.

Other brands had strong online presence, but failed to use their commercials to full advantage in driving consumers there-failing to include a URL, a call to visit a site, a reference to social media presence, or all of the above. These included Chase, Diet Pepsi Max, Gatorade G2, GMC Yukon Hybrid, Bridgestone Tires, Salesgenie.com, UnderArmour and New Line Cinema's "Semi-Pro" spot.

Although movies would seem to have a natural advantage in leveraging online presence, New Line was almost alone among studios in employing search, and none bought Super Bowl-related terms. About half had a social media presence, however.

The largest group of advertisers had some online presence but little or no channel integration. These included the NFL itself, most of the automotive brands (Nissan Murano, Ford Edge, Audi, Toyota, Acura), Coke, Doritos, Toshiba, Universal, 20th Century Fox, and even eTrade and Dell.

Brands at the bottom of the search/integration heap--the ones that were "next to invisible" in terms of Super Bowl-specific online presence and clearly fumbled the opportunity to channel the interest generated by their commercials, according to Reprise--included Chevrolet, Disney, FedEx, Icebreakers, Idea Cast, Planters, Prudential, SoBe Limewater, Taco Bell and Zantac.

Hershberg maintains that advertisers really had no excuse for not pulling the pieces together around their enormous commercial expenditures, particularly given that Super Bowl ad time was sold out unusually early this year. "You don't need much time to do this--much can be done in 24 hours, if necessary," he said.

The buzz created by an audience the size of the Super Bowl's "can cause huge spikes in online behavior," he points out, and this year, due to the writers' strike, the Super Bowl was one of the only opportunities available to achieve mass reach.

Meanwhile, other brands, including Edmunds.com and ESPN.com, skipped shelling out for game commercials in favor of running search ads for Super Bowl-related keywords, grabbing the attention of millions of game fans who went online for more at minimal cost. Edmunds, for instance, bought "Tom Petty" as a keyword, capitalizing on Petty's half-time performance.