Posted by JR on February 5 at 11:02 AM
According to
MediaWeek and researcher, Reprise:
"70 percent of Super Bowl advertisers bought some paid search ads on either Google, Yahoo, MSN – up close to 20 percent versus last year. But just 6 percent of advertisers used their 30-second spots to direct viewers to the Web... Perhaps even more of a blunder these days– according to Reprise,
not a single Super Bowl advertiser directed users to their brand’s pages on MySpace, YouTube or Facebook."
Right now, the only things Googling are MY EYES.
What!? Did I read this right? Or has the cholesterol count from my friend's 12-layer dip and pulled pork sandwiches made me go blind (and insane)?
Delicious, delicious blindness.
The simple thing to do
People. This is such a simple thing to do. DRIVE TO THE WEB. You have spent a gajillion dollars on your ad - writing, casting, location, filming, editing, media planning. With ALL of that invested, you won't even slap your URL on the screen?
Now, I'm clearly not advocating for a good old fashioned URL slap. Of course not. I'd prefer something smart, cliff-hanging, funny and continued on the web. Maybe the talking head (or caveman, or racially insensitive panda) can mention the URL.
Still thinkin' about that dip.
But I'm a stodgy old company! Why would I mention my web site?
You have a captive audience, bored to tears by a rather stagnant (til the end) game. They are in their apartments and homes. Right near their computers. They are drunk as a fraternity pledge (and many of them ARE drunken fraternity pledges). Their fingers are probably clicking at the empty air already.
I mean, I feel like I'm stating the obvious here... but the numbers tell me otherwise. You've spent so much money on 30 seconds of time. Why not make that 30 seconds many minutes longer? Get them to go to their website and stuff them so full of messaging and calls to action and order now! buttons that the amount of advertising marketing goodness outnumbers the percentage of hot wing sauce in their blood?
And again, it's not like I'm saying "spend another 300,000 dollars" or "change your entire direction". No, I am (still cant believe it) arguing that companies should state their URLs clearly and obviously.
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"We don't need no stinkin' Web!"
Client flashback!
It reminds me of this ONE CLIENT I had a long time ago. They were big on television advertising, always putting out funny, cute, endearing commercials. I would forever urge them to drive to web, just to slap that URL on the screen towards the end of their commercial. They yes-yesed me and continued to ignore me.
One day, on TV, I saw their latest ad. The CEO of the company was typing on a Blackberry on his way through the office. He sat down at his computer and pulled up his email. He browsed the web.
...there was no URL shown throughout the entire commercial.
Creator of Internet, clearly upset by the not-driving to web trend
So, in summation...
Numbers don't lie, and this shames me. In a world where MySpace and Facebook and Google and Yahoo! and everyone else are all over the news. In a world where money is being funneled into SEM and SEO and web design. In a world where WE HAVE HEADS AND SEE THE POPULARITY OF THE INTERNET.
How is this possible? It needs to not happen again. If you're going to drop that much coin on an ad. Please make sure you drive to Web.
I'm sure that there are numbers that show that driving to web increases sales and visits and cute fuzzy bunnies and the amount of sun in April... but it's not even about numbers for me. It's about common sense. How does it hurt to show your URL? Even if it did NOTHING, at least you did it.
Oh, and clearly it will do something (duh).
Topics: advertising, interactive SHARE: 
1 Comment so far...
This is like the logo discussion. Used to be the tag-line was near the logo, then the URL got put there. Then that got dropped too. The expectation that people will type the name into Google is high, combined with uncertainty of tracking multi-media campaigns. See this for why marketers need a better metric for understanding multimedia:
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2008/01/25/senior-marketers-little-confidence-in-ability-to-track-multichannel-campaigns/?camp=rssfeed&src=mbp&type=textlink
You raise a good point about driving to You Tube and MySpace, but so much to get across in such a short period of time. The question is, to integrate it into creative elegantly and seemingly consistent with the overall message. I think some movei trailers ahve done this very well, but it is about teasing that content a bit: like Cloverfield.
Posted by Rowland Hobbs on February 5 at 4:51 PM