While most sports fans will be keeping score on the field during the Super Bowl this weekend, others will be keeping score of the commercials as advertisers try to make marketing touchdowns.  Last year, over 95 million viewers watched the Super Bowl. According to eMarketer, less than 10 percent of the advertisers that purchased TV ads used their mascot, celebrity or tagline in their search terms. None of the ads during the game referenced search or social media presence.

According to ABC news online, there were two commercial spots available for Super Bowl XLIII as late as this past Wednesday…4 days before game day.  The current average cost of an ad during game broadcast $3 million dollars.  With the country in a recession, everyone, including Super Bowl advertisers, is scaling back on what they spend.  This would be the perfect time for companies to stretch their advertising dollars and add social media to the mix and drive consumer participation through search – a strategy that makes you a part of the ongoing conversation and gives your brand extended shelf life online. Continue reading »

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This weekend, families and friends will gather to eat, drink and scream their heads off for what is arguably the largest unofficial American holiday – Super Bowl Sunday. Millions of viewers will tune in to see the Cardinals and the Steelers fight for the championship…and, as always, the highly-anticipated Super Bowl commercials.

Super Bowl Sunday is a unique opportunity for advertisers, in that not only are your ads being shown before a mass audience that spans several demographics, but these viewers actually want to see your ads. They’re waiting and anticipating the commercials. During that :30- or :60-second spot, you are the main event.

But in these tumultuous economic times, glitzy Super Bowl ads can seem like an unnecessary extravagance for some companies. Media buys around the game are down and costs are up. Long-time Super Bowl advertisers such as General Motors and FedEx are sitting this one out, and the pressure is on those companies that are advertising to maximize ROI on this year’s game-time spots.

To ensure these expensive buys pay-off, smart advertisers should not depend only on the eyes that are watching their ads, but also leverage this increased exposure in their online marketing efforts as well.

It’s a pretty standard practice to include a URL in Super Bowl ads, (although, surprisingly, there were still a few who didn’t last year). But how many of the advertisers will not only include a URL, but will tie in their search marketing efforts as well?

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As January 20, 2009 marked a historical moment for the United States of America with the swearing in of the 44th President, Barack Obama, it also marked a historical moment in social media with the partnership that CNN and social platform, Facebook, made to create, what is seen by many, as the first ever ‘social inauguration.’  While an estimated 2 million people flocked to Washington D.C. to see the inauguration live, others chose to watch the inauguration on the internet because they were either working, or because they would rather interact with their online friends.  This is the first time ever that a Presidential Inauguration, when coupled with social media, performed so well.

So there are a few questions one might ask themselves.  Were the results of the partnership that phenomenal? Was this partnership really that big of a deal?  Does social media really have a place among events such as the Presidential Inauguration?  The answer to these questions are yes, yes and yes! The results and turnout that Facebook saw through this partnership with CNN Live was astonishing; over one million people had signed up for the opportunity to update their status’ via the CNN Live page.  It was reported that there were 4,000 Facebook users updating their status per minute during the broadcast, and that there were 3,000 people commenting on CNN’s page per minute.  It was also reported that there were over 1,000 comments on President’s Barack Obama’s wall that morning alone.  The 44th Presidential Inauguration also captivated a larger audience than the 2008 Superbowl (which had a record high of 94.5 million viewers! – good luck topping that audience Superbowl XLIII).  Even the New York Times took advantage of the opportunity to run video engagement ads on Facebook that would connect users to the New York Times page and engage them to participate in answering a question about what they think that Barack Obama should address first as President.

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Ask.com officially announced on January 22 they purchased Sendori, a provider of direct navigational search technologies.  While we haven’t been given any information yet as to how the two will work together or what it means for Ask.com and/or Sendori users, we are excited to see how the merger plays out.

Most people are familiar with Ask.com, formerly known as Ask Jeeves, being a general Search engine.  Sendori works a little different than Ask.  Being a provider of direct navigational search, Sendori sends “qualified visitors from undeveloped web domains to advertiser websites ”  Make sense?  I know, it’s a little confusing.  The example illustrated on their website shows how when someone types in an undeveloped web domain such as NiceDiamondRings.com, Sendori will qualify the visitor by matching the domain to keywords, and then send the user to an appropriate advertiser’s page, such as DeBeers.com.

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This post was written by Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search – The Americas, and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, January 16, 2009.

It’s become the vogue pastime to prognosticate trends and events to come in the new year. This year these crystal balls are met with inauguration balls, as the calendar not only flips to a new year, but to a new message of hope and change from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. However, for all the testimonials and affirmations that we can change, the economic future for the U.S. appears firmly entrenched in a deep recession. So, unless the events of next Tuesday create a spiritual revival of consumer confidence that coincides with an awakening of the consumer checkbook, it’s safe to say that from a business and marketing perspective this year will be one of great challenge.

In difficult times comes great opportunity — an opportunity for companies to take calculated risks in order to establish and grow market position and leadership. Risk is an inherent factor in life. The risk-adverse have given up looking at their monthly 401k, or 201k depending on your depth of losses, statements. Then again, those with low risk tolerance are likely best staying home with the lights off avoiding the news, peanut butter and low-flying birds.

So where in the search space are the opportunities for greatest calculated risk to be taken? I see a few areas for advertisers, their agencies and the media vendors alike.

New Media
Is 2009 the year of mobile? For the sake of our clients, I hope not. I say that because the value and insights our clients are gaining from mobile are in part possible because the inventory availability is so strong, with little cost pressure. Due to size constraints on devices, we will never see 10 blue links or top and side navigation advertising on mobile platforms. As such, whenever the year of mobile finally does arrive, one can reasonably expect that costs will increase as demand outpaces supply of real estate. Until that time, those into the pool are enjoying greater freedom to play and learn without cost pressures.

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