Poorly Received Super Bowl Ads Draw More Online Traffic
The Super Bowl ads people claimed to dislike more than others, or that performed poorly in ad popularity studies, turned out to perform quite well in terms of acquiring website visits. GoDaddy, Salesgenie, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Audi, Gatorade, Under Armour, most of which weren't too well received, saw significant gains in site traffic the day after the game, according to Hitwise.
Couple this with disparate results from most surveys this week, and it's clear the only people who will ever know how well a particular Super Bowl commercial did are the advertisers themselves when they realize changes in sales or in brand awareness. Most will opt not to share this information, leaving us forever in the dark.
|
Super Bowl Advertiser Websites Ranked By Percent Change Based on Daily Market Share of U.S. Visits |
|||
|
Advertiser |
Domain |
Sunday % Change |
Monday % Change |
|
Hyundai |
www.hyundaigenesis.com |
1450% |
-55% |
|
Paramount |
www.ironmanmovie.com |
800% |
-33% |
|
GoDaddy |
www.godaddy.com |
616% |
-30% |
|
Audi |
www.truthinengineering.com |
433% |
NA |
|
SalesGenie |
www.salesgenie.com |
333% |
15% |
|
Office of National Drug Control Policy |
www.theantidrug.com |
200% |
0% |
|
New Line Cinema |
www.semipromovie.com |
200% |
133% |
|
Gatorade |
www.gatorade.com |
200% |
-33% |
|
Under Armour |
www.underarmour.com |
156% |
-22% |
|
Bud Light |
www.budlight.com |
100% |
0% |
|
Tide |
www.mytalkingstain.com |
57% |
NA |
|
GMC |
www.gmc.com |
39% |
-25% |
|
Coke |
www.coca-cola.com |
33% |
25% |
|
CareerBuilder |
www.careerbuilder.com |
27% |
39% |
|
Budweiser |
www.budweiser.com |
25% |
20% |
|
Planters |
www.planters.com |
15% |
0% |
|
Dell |
www.dell.com |
8% |
9% |
|
Cars.com |
www.cars.com |
2% |
5% |
|
Garmin |
www.garmin.com |
0% |
22% |
|
T-Mobile |
www.t-mobile.com |
-1% |
-7% |
|
Victoria's Secret |
www.victoriassecret.com |
-2% |
19% |
|
Toyota |
www.toyota.com |
-10% |
-3% |
|
Toshiba |
www.toshibadirect.com |
-15% |
32% |
|
Disney |
www.disney.com |
-17% |
-34% |
|
Taco Bell |
www.tacobell.com |
-20% |
-25% |
|
eTrade |
www.etrade.com |
-27% |
175% |
|
Sunsilk |
www.lifecantwait.com |
-29% |
100% |
|
FedEx |
www.fedex.com |
-31% |
136% |
|
20th Century Fox |
www.jumperthemovie.com |
-50% |
-50% |
|
Claritin |
www.claritin.com |
NA |
100% |
|
Vitamin Water |
www.vitaminwater.com |
NA |
-50% |
|
AMP |
www.ampenergy.com |
NA |
200% |
|
Note - the data is based on the daily market share of U.S. visits among all US Internet users from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. The Sunday percent change is based on comparing the daily market share of U.S. visits for Feb. 3, 2008 vs. Feb. 2, 2008. The Monday percent change is based on comparing the daily market share of U.S. visits for Feb. 4, 2008 vs. Feb. 3, 2008. |
|||
|
Source: Hitwise |
|||
Comments
While the creative is the primary draw for tv ads driving traffic to online destinations, I did notice a post-Superbowl ad that used a different format for framing the creative with a border that highlighted the URL. While the ad itself was weak, the product was generally of interest to me and I did visit the website simply because the URL was visible 100% of the time and called out separately. My point in this comment is that advertisers should be sure to make efforts to isolate the variables at play, test, and measure.
Further proof that funny and hip doesn't necessarily = effective!