Daily Research News Online no. 2910 - Super Bowl Circus Makes Bread for Advertisers

Super Bowl Circus Makes Bread for Advertisers

February 9 2004

Last Sunday's Super Bowl XXXVIII, complete with an array of unscheduled sideshows, produced the usual crop of impactful ads and big increases in Web site traffic for related companies and products, according to two sets of results from comScore and The Claria Corporation.

comScore's third annual analysis of Internet visitation and preferences related to the Super Bowl tracked game day Web visitation driven by ads and other incidents, including the unscheduled exposure of Janet Jackson and the halftime appearance on the field of British serial streaker Mark Roberts, complete with promotional tattoo. It also revealed this year's most liked advertisements.

According to an analysis of site visitors on Super Bowl Sunday versus an average of the previous four Sundays, traffic to the site of erectile dysfunction drug Cialis rose the most dramatically, to almost twenty times its average level - the largest gain of all major Super Bowl advertiser sites. Apple iTunes saw a nearly 600% jump in site traffic volume driven largely by a Pepsi promotion offering 100 million free songs through the pay-per-download music service. As last year, auto sites did well from SuperBowl ads, especially Dodge, which rolled out its new Magnum model and saw a 140% rise in site traffic on game day, and Ford with a 94% rise. Main sponsors Pepsi saw a 190% rise.

'Aside from reaching an enormous audience, Super Bowl advertisers count on a buzz effect before, during and well past the big game', said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. 'Year after year, our research finds that many Super Bowl advertisements drive immediate spikes in visitation that often pay dividends well past game day'.

A number of television advertisers' Web sites posted dramatic spikes in visitation within minutes of the actual television advertisement airing: Cialis.com by 240%, Dodge by 220% after the ad for the 2005 Magnum, WarnerBros.com by 200% shortly after the studio's ad for 'Troy' and SonyPictures.com by 330 % after airing a promotion for 'Secret Window' (all based on traffic in 15-minute blocks around ads vs other times of day).

Pepsi introduced its iTunes promotion early in the second quarter, but it appears that many Internet users waited until halftime to explore the offer online. Between 8:15 and 8:30 EST, visitation to Apple.com was up more than 400 percent over the day's 15-minute average.

A 30-second TV ad cost around $2.3 million - but GoldenPalace.com opted for a less traditional branding medium, the tattooed streaker. Whilst TV coverage avoided most of the resulting spectacle, many Americans quickly learned of the events and curiously rushed to GoldenPalace.com, pushing traffic 380% higher than average between 9:00 and 9:15 EST.

Gambling sites other than GoldenPalace.com also saw big hikes on Game Day. The largest-gaining online casino site on Sunday was SportsInteraction.com, with growth of more than 400 percent versus an average of the previous four Sundays.

comScore also conducted a nationwide survey of households beginning immediately after the Super Bowl and continuing through February 3, via its Survey Solutions division, to reveal this year's most liked advertisements. For the third consecutive year, Anheuser-Busch took the prize for the most liked Super Bowl advertisement. This year's winning commercial featured a donkey joining Budweiser's famous Clydesdale team. More than 70% of respondents gave this ad the highest rating on a three-point scale and approximately 18% of respondents said the advertisement was their favorite of any Super Bowl promotion.

As in last year's survey, females (37%) were significantly more likely than males (18%) to report that the advertising was the most interesting element of the Super Bowl experience.

Janet Jackson's halftime revelation dominated the fastest gaining search terms on Monday, accounting for three of the top search phrases and an astonishing 50% of the total search volume among the top 200 search phrases.

The Claria Corporation also released initial results of its annual online Super Bowl sponsorship and advertising effectiveness study last week, via its Feedback Research division.

Of Claria's 40m users, almost 200,000 viewed the site SuperBowl.com on Sunday. Claria measured user response to the Pepsi sponsorship and conducted two surveys of 500+ and 900 users of SuperBowl.com, and assessed online traffic to the web sites of companies running SuperBowl TV ads and of other Super Bowl and NFL related sites.

Claria found that Pepsi, sponsor once again of the official web site of Super Bowl XXXVIII ( www.superbowl.com ) retained its popularity while generating high awareness of its sponsorship. Unaided recall of Pepsi's advertising was 40% (up 5% on last year), aided recall was 52% (up 1 on last year) and Pepsi's web site saw a 53% increase in traffic during the seven days leading up to the Super Bowl.

The Claria survey found that unaided recall for Super Bowl TV advertisers was greatest for:

Budweiser - 40%
Pepsi - 33%
Bud Light - 28%
AOL - 13%
Cadillac - 11%

... while aided recall was greatest for:

Budweiser - 63%
Pepsi - 60%
Bud Light - 57%
AOL Top Speed - 45%
Anheuser Busch - 39%

57% of Super Bowl Internet users liked the TV ads as much as or more than the game, but 40% of them said that they thought this year's TV ads were less entertaining than in previous years. 26% of people made some type of wager on the Super Bowl.

The 3 most liked TV ads were all for Budweiser or Bud Light.

Claria Corporation is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with US offices in 5 other cities and international offices in the UK and Asia. Its Feedback Research division uses Claria's GAIN Network to conduct one-to-one research with over 40 million consumers while they surf the Web. Claria's free 'The Final Score: 2004 Big Game Ad Effectiveness Study' will be released on February 17 and is available for request at www.claria.com/companyinfo/press/feb04report

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.