In honor of the most anticipated advertising day of the year (no not when they put up the new billboards on the highway (for you kiddies out there, billboards weren’t always digital, and the ads were only updated monthly at the most)), I have decided to give my take on this year’s Super Bowl ads. I’m not here to applaud or criticize their poignancy, or humor, or creativity (or lack thereof), but rather take a look from an online marketer’s standpoint. Some of these advertisers failed massively by letting their $3M budgets go only as far as 30 seconds in a crowded and noisy bar or living room could, while others were able to extend that budget into measurable interest and return, by directing the viewers to their website. There, the conversation changes from a one-to-many relationship, to a one-to-one experience. Now, I’m not saying that just having a URL at the end of your commercial is enough, as I’ll show a few examples where the advertisers still fell short of what they could have accomplished. Without speaking too much in generalities, let’s go over some of these ads - the ones that got a few things right, the ones who seemingly have never heard of the internet, and the ones that hit it out of the park.
CARS, CARS, & MORE CARS
This Super Bowl we saw car ads for Audi (cool throwback, Jason Statham/Transporter-esque, Lexus-snubbing, car-chase commercial), Toyota (please tell me who is ever going to have to drive up a 45 degree spiraling incline with a 1,500 lb payload while fire is spitting out at the car), Acura (subtly inspiring ‘Dreamer’ spot), and Hyundai, the latter of which stole the show. All of these manufacturers are well known brands, and anybody trying to find them online can do so quite easily. For this reason, Audi and Toyota neglected to include a URL in their ads, while Acura placed their’s so discreetly that it probably wouldn’t have made a difference if it wasn’t there. But Hyundai, promoting the yet-to-be-released Genesis Coupe, excited audiences with sexy racetrack scenes and a very blatant call-to-action at the end – EDITYOUROWN.COM (not to mention music by Smashing Pumpkins and editing by Billy Corgan). A visit to this site quickly immerses you in all things Genesis Coupe, literally putting you in the driver’s seat racing down the track; engines revving, gears shifting, tires squealing as you drift around hairpin turns. This 30 second spot turned into a 20 minute experience of me interacting with the website, learning about all of the car’s cool features, and making me wonder how close I would’ve come to actually buying this car if I hadn’t just bought a car 2 months ago. And, just in case the edityourown.com URL wasn’t simple enough to remember, a Google search for ‘Hyundai Genesis Coupe’ results in a prominently displayed SEM ad sending users to the microsite. Bravo, Hyundai, for covering all the bases.
A MOVIE TICKET COSTS HOW MUCH?!
Missing URLs and lack of SEM support plagued this year’s movie ads during the Super Bowl. Land of the Lost included the movie’s URL , but a search on the movie title produced no paid ads. In fact, the site (landofthelost.net) does not even appear in the first page of search results. Does Paramount Pictures really want searchers to go to the movie’s IMDB page instead of the official site? Tisk tisk.
Year One prominently displayed their URL crackle.com/YearOne (yearone.com and year1.com already being taken, the latter by a squatter likely ransoming the domain), and is supporting searches for the movie title with SEM ads promoting a sweepstakes around the movie. Well done.
Race to Witch Mountain did a good job by displaying their URL, and also supporting searches on the movie title with SEM ads. But, as I’m sure others did, I forgot the full name of the movie, and searched just for ‘Witch Mountain’. No SEM ads were displayed there, and I had to do further investigation to find the movie’s official site. While I wouldn’t call this a failure, it was a minor oversight on their part for not anticipating that some viewers would not recall the full movie title after being bombarded with ads for over 3 hours straight.
But the biggest movie ad fail of them all was for the Transformers sequel. First, the trailer failed to include the movie’s URL, where webgeeks everywhere are pining to see every possible clip and screenshot of the movie already available. And then, they failed to capitalize on two opportunities, with a search for “Transformers” resulting in neither an ad leading to the highly-anticipated sequel’s site, nor any sort of ad promoting the sale of the original movie’s DVD (or Blu-ray).
REFRESH EVERYTHING (ESPECIALLY YOUR WEBSITE)
Oh, Pepsi. You came so close to truly capturing the essence of our generation, and countless others. Despite my unwavering loyalty to Coca Cola, I actually got that fuzzy, warm feeling when I saw the Pepsi “Refresh Anthem” commercial, mirroring Bob Dylan with Will.I.Am, John Belushi and Jack Black, Gumby and Shrek. Then I followed the URL refresheverything.com, only to feel a complete disconnect from the emotions that the ad invoked. I wanted to continue on the nostalgic journey (preferably with more Bob Dylan tracks), and see Pepsi continue to bridge the gap between these generations. Instead, I got to a cold and cluttered site, which alternates between the commercial I really liked, and the 2 other humor-attempting ads (PepSuber? Really?). And to top it all off, a search for ‘pepsi’ features no paid ads leading to the microsite, and no natural listing for refresheverything.com (at least on the 1st page of results, but really, who goes to the 2nd page of search results anymore anyway?).
FREE? I CAN SWING THAT.
Who would’ve predicted a year ago that Denny’s would come up with one of the most compelling (I didn’t say creative – that one goes to Cash 4 Gold, more on that later) ads/promotions for the Super Bowl in 2009? Well, our economic woes are a bitter reality, and Denny’s is pushing hard to gain some market share as people start eating out less. With some decently entertaining ads, Denny’s introduced their Free Grand Slam promotion, which has gotten it more than enough publicity to offset the associated costs. It seems that the $3M spot, along with the costs of all those free meals, has prevented the company from running SEM ads unbudgeted for the 2 days leading up to the promotion since its announcement. But, the campaigns were set up, and the ads were there, reminding people when the offer was taking place, and linking them to the site where they could find the Denny’s restaurant closest to them. And visitors to Dennys.com are greeted with a page focused around the promotion, letting them locate their nearest restaurant rather than going to the main site. Because, of course, who would go to the Denny’s website when there isn’t a free meal involved?
AND THE REMAINING HONORABLE (AND DISHONORABLE) MENTIONS
• Vizio – Despite a lack of bandwidth on the site, leading many users to get to error pages immediately after the commercial aired, the company still knew that a 30 second commercial wasn’t going to sell a $1,000+ TV. To truly communicate the value of their product, users needed to be directed to the site, where they could be educated about the purported revolutionary new technology that Vizio TVs employ. The minimalistic ad and straightforward voiceover explained the benefits, and the giveaway promotion provided further incentive to visit the site. Seems simple, and logical enough.
• Go Daddy – One-trick ponies usually don’t have lasting effects on us, unless of course they involve scantily clad celebrities. Go Daddy’s humorous and titillating ads got viewers excited, but the true payoff was promised to those who visited the site to see the “unrated” and extended commercials. The website had them promptly available right on the homepage, ensuring that all those that wanted to see the full ads would be able to do so.
• Pedigree Adoption – Reminding us why we love our pet dogs, and why we never (ever!) considered getting a pet ostrich, warthog, or rhinoceros, Pedigree went the altruistic route, and did so pretty well (with the subtle help of a David Duchovny voiceover). While failing to include a URL in the ad, a search on ‘pedigree’ does prominently display an SEM ad with the Display URL Pedigree.com/Adoption. Unfortunately, as of my latest search, the title of the ad reads “Ad Text” and the description of the ad reads “Super Bowl Commercial Watch a Video and Pedigree® will”. No seriously, that’s where the ad ends. They drove 99 yards down the field, and then stopped before reaching the end zone (much like Pittsburgh did at the end of the 3rd quarter, preventing me from winning the box pool).
• Gatorade – Bridging the gap between mainstream sports icons, musicians, and artists, Gatorade is attempting to create a movement around ‘G’, and is using its commercials to get people to visit MissionG.com, where they can interact with a variety of videos and different content on the site, some more inspiring, while some providing pure entertainment. While searches for ‘gatorade’ and ‘mission g’ bring up SEM ads for their respective sites, I’m a little disappointed that they are not employing any sort of double-serving strategy to cross-promote the sites on the various searches around these brands.
• Hulu – While it may seem completely logical, it is no less brilliant to host all of the Super Bowl commercials in one place immediately after they air. The irony of this is that Hulu gets users to watch ads, so that they can watch ads. Millions of dollars are spent each year to further enhance DVR capabilities so we can skip commercials, while more millions of dollars are spent each year trying to hinder these exact capabilities. Yet millions of us logged on to Hulu (and YouTube) after the Super Bowl, so we could watch and laugh at all those commercials we didn’t hear or see when they aired. Oh and then there are the thousands of hours of movies and TV shows they have available for us to watch, legally, while actually seeing revenue come in. Well done, Hulu.
• Cash 4 Gold – As Jon Stewart so aptly said, “Cash 4 Gold is a Super Bowl ad? No, Cash 4 Gold is a 3AM ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ marathon ad.” Replacing the 1-800 number usually seen in those 3AM ads was a prominently displayed URL. The perfectly-fitting celebrity ad is right on the home page, allowing people to watch and laugh over and over again. Ok, it’s not that funny. But they still did a good job. And a Google search for ‘cash 4 gold’ displays their SEM ad above all others (side note: the first 2 natural listings are for a complaints site claiming that Cash 4 Gold is a rip-off. But I guess if you were actually gullible enough to sell your gold valuables to them (desperation is no excuse, there are better alternatives), then you probably deserved to get ripped off. Sorry.).
• Teleflora – It’s make-or-break for Teleflora, and this Valentine’s Day we will find out just how effective their Super Bowl ad was. The ad was funny, the URL was displayed, and SEM ads help to ensure that users will be able to find them. But going one step beyond this, Teleflora is also appearing as one of the 3 advertisers on Hulu that display prior to any of these Super Bowl commercials being watched. After watching all of these ads countless times, I know that if I currently had a girlfriend, she’d be getting a nice Teleflora package in two weeks. Instead, I’ll probably just go eat at Denny’s by myself (just kidding).
• GE – At a time when we, as the human race, are each asked individually to do our part to help this world, GE continues to inspire us to do just this. They truly invoke the kind of altruism that we all need to embrace, and the simple-yet-complex strategy behind ecomagination.com helps us do exactly that. It’s a URL most wouldn’t forget, but even if they do, a search for ‘ge’ will show them the SEM ad leading to the site.
According to the Reprise Media Search Marketing Scorecard as reported by the NY Times, “The number of Super Bowl advertisers that bought paid search ads tied to their commercials rose to a record 65 percent, according to the scorecard, compared with 54 percent in 2008 and as few as 21 percent in 2005.” While it’s great to see more of these advertisers following best practices in cross-channel marketing, there is still too much being left on the table, or left up to chance for the user to make their way to the company’s website to further build that brand awareness and loyalty. As Google Hot Trends showed us the night of the Super Bowl, and the day after, people were not typing in URLs that they saw or didn’t see in commercials. They remembered the commercial or the brand, and they performed a search. These people can be your best customers if you can get them to your site, or they can just be one more person that saw your commercial.
