Super Bowl XLI Landing Pages - Highlights & Fumbles
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | February 14, 2007 | Share This
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Our ongoing coverage of Super Bowl advertisers continues today with a guest post from our partners over at Optimost, the leading provider of online multivariable testing solutions. Optimost provided all the landing page analysis for the scorecard, so we’ve invited Mark Wachen, the Chief Executive Officer of Optimost, to share his thoughts here on SearchViews.
Reprise Media released a Super Bowl Scorecard that analyzed how advertisers integrated their $2.6 million dollar Super Bowl television ads with their online marketing. Optimost focused specifically on landing pages and website performance. Here’s our color commentary on some of the key players:
Blockbuster – Integrated Campaign Leads to a Touchdown
Their early first quarter advertisement got the game off to a great start with a textbook example of how to integrate offline and online marketing. The television ad drove people to the website, and the landing page imagery tied directly to the Super Bowl spot, and the call-to-action and messaging were crystal clear. A clear, 2-step signup process followed. Although PETA was surely not happy about the mouse abuse in the television spot, in my mind, this was the best individual effort of the game.
Sprint – Leveraged Multiple Media to Get the Point After
After their memorable Connectile Dysfunction ad ran, the Sprint site was very slow to load (ironic given that they were promoting their broadband service), but ultimately they nicely integrated the TV message with the online message. And as the icing on the cake, they leverage a third-medium, print, with a full-page ad on the back of the USA Today’s Monday sports section to further promote the website. It is curious, however, that the Sprint homepage and the print ad mention a Free Mobile Broadband Card promotion, while this same message is not found on the landing page the ads promote.
GoDaddy.com – Liked to Showboat in End Zone
For pure online spectacle, the award has to go to GoDaddy.com. The bad boys of Super Bowl marketing leveraged their Super Bowl tie-in to the hilt, showing not only the ad that ran, but also the ads that were rejected by CBS. They do lose points though for promoting $1.99 domains during the television ad that ran, but then highlighting $8.95/year domains on the landing page, with the $1.99 offer buried below.
Bud Light – Goes Deep with Television Advertisements, Punts with Online Effort
Beer advertisers can’t advertisers in search engine marketing, so all of Anheuser Busch’s spots were unfortunately left off of the Scorecard. That didn’t stop us from evaluating all the other aspects of their campaign. The “Rock, Paper, Scissors” ad for their Bud Light brand was great, but the site needs some work. It’s understandable that their landing page requires you to verify that you are 21 before entering. But the usability of the form entry is very problematic. They require you to enter your birth date in mm-dd-yy format EXACTLY. Stray from this at all, and you’re in trouble. Wonder how many people lost interest at this point?
The ensuing page prominently promotes “TV Commercials” on the top right of the page, yet clicking on this does not lead to the Super Bowl ads. These can only be found by clicking on Bud Bowl 07 on the right - . but when was there any mention of Bud Bowl? And why are they requiring you to choose a media player and bandwidth? With $30 million apparently invested in their Bud.TV effort, they certainly could have spent a little more on usability.
Flomax – Sacked in End Zone for Unintentionally Promoting Another Company
You’ve got to hand it to Flomax, but not the Flomax you’re thinking of. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals ran a fourth quarter ad for its prostate drug, Flomax. Many people who were interested in this drug surely pointed their browsers to the obvious place, www.flomax.com. Yet on this site, instead of learning about Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, they instead found information about Flomax Products, Inc. a California-based provider of valve automation services. To Flomax (the drug’s) credit, they did highlight the “4Flomax.com” URL in the television ad, and their landing page was clear and to the point. But I can’t help thinking what a banner day it must have been for Flomax Products, Inc. of Livermore, CA – Super Bowl-style traffic without spending a dime.
So there you have it. Overall, a pretty good showing by the advertisers in Super Bowl XLI, but there is still a ways to go. Some suggestions for next year’s Super Bowl advertisers include:
- Reward visitors who saw the Super Bowl television ad and go visitto the website
- Use the website to generate buzz and solicit input before and after the Super Bowl
- Be consistent in messages and offers across television ads and web pages
- Make the website easy to navigate and understand
With some simple changes, we’re certain 2008 will bring an even better integration of online and offline media in the premiere sports and television event of the year.
If you want to learn more about who succeeded and fumbled in the Super Bowl online marketing game, please check out the Search Marketing Scorecard (PDF) that Reprise Media produced in conjunction with Optimost.
Optimost is a technology and services company specializing in comprehensive real-time testing and conversion rate marketing. For more information about Optimost, please visit our website www.optimost.com.
Read some Optimost success stories to learn how clients achieved success using our platform, If you would like someone to contact you from Optimost, please click here.
Topics: Search Marketing Scorecard |