<<DID ANYONE NOTICE THE INCREDIBLE ONSLAUGHT OF INTERNET ADVERSTISEMENTS ON THE SUPER BOWL???>>
IMO, there were too many dot.com adds during the SuperBowl and very few were memorable. Many of these internut firms are spending there HUGE VC and IPO cash infusions on marketing. Yet, a lot of these firms seem to be clueless when it comes to effectively building a MEGA-brand <VBG>. Check out the article below.
Best Regards, Scott
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FOCUS-Can you remember those Super Bowl dot-com ads?
By Franklin Paul
NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Did you see Muhammad Ali shadow boxing? How about the ''cat herding'' one or the people mumbling Robert Frost's ''The Road Not Taken?''
Now, can you remember the Internet ''dot-com'' companies that spent up to $3 million each on those 30-second Super Bowl football championship game ads on Sunday?
Advertising experts say few of the ads will stick with viewers. That means that some may have spent their way into the big game but fumbled, and, at $2.2 million for a 30-second spot and no profits in sight, may be sacked by investors.
''It's possible that there might be one success that comes out of this, but it probably was not an especially good use of their money,'' said University of Southern California Professor David Stewart, who chairs USC's Marshall School of Business, Department of Marketing.
Some 17 ''dot-coms'' advertised on the game this year, up from three last year, including new faces such as kforce.com, OurBeginning.com and Computer.com. All were chasing the runaway success of last year's winners, Hotjobs.com and Monster.com.
Allen Weiner, vice president at Web research company NetRatings, said that the winners will be the sites that see a spike in traffic in coming weeks and build loyal customers.
''It's not the day after that matters,'' he said noting that data on post-game Web activity was only just trickling in. ''It's getting people to come back. The site must have something that makes people say, 'Wow, how did I ever live without this?'''
Still, PC Data, another market research firm, said initial data showed a significant jump in audience visits to most dot-coms that advertised on Sunday night's Super Bowl game according to a survey of home Internet traffic.
Monster.com's poetry reading and Webmd.com's image of an unstoppable Muhammed Ali provoked the largest amount of visits, with an 80 percent and 18 percent increase in traffic to the their respective Web sites. Monster.com had 250,000 visitors while webmd.com with 234,000 Web users.
Simply having a Super Bowl ad does not guarantee a rise in traffic, analysts noted. To strike gold, one must make memorable spots that create buzz, spark discussion. Experts said many failed to do so.
''I could not tell you a single dot-com that I remember seeing advertised last night,'' said USC's Stewart. ''Most of these dot-coms would have been better off putting their names and Web addresses on for 30 seconds, rather than being cute,'' he said.
Indeed one firm, Lifeminders.com, came close to doing just that. Its ad posted a Web address in black type on a yellow background, at one point silently declaring that they ''don't know diddly about making commercials.''
Others created spots that poorly defined what consumers would gain by traveling to their site, or promoted products and services that would not pique an average football fans' interest.
''If you are not a mass vehicle offering, then when you advertise on the Super Bowl you are wasting a lot of money,'' said Michele Slack, an analyst in Jupiter Communications online Advertising group.
Web sites focusing on jobs and pets, should score with viewers, while business-to-business and electronic commerce companies might not, she said.
''Those companies that are more directed toward a large segment of the U.S. population tend to succeed better with the Super Bowl,'' she added.
While such drastic spending by a small company can leave a firm with little funds for follow-up promotion, Slack notes that boasting you have aired a Super Bowl ad -- playing in the ''big leagues,'' if you will -- can woo new investors.
''It's not always about spending $2 million in order to make $2 million,'' she said. ''It is about getting additional venture capital funding and looking like a real ''player," since you advertised (during the game).
Experts agreed that Super Bowl Sunday's traditional big spenders, such as Anheuser-Busch Cos.(NYSE:BUD - news), PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP - news) and automakers, again hit the mark with viewers who routinely drink beer and soft drinks and drive cars.
Humorous ads by financial services companies, namely E*Trade Group Inc. (NasdaqNM:EGRP - news) -- featuring doctors working on a man with ''money coming out of the 'Wazoo''' -- and Charles Schwab Corp.(NYSE:SCH - news) (making smarter investors of retired pro athletes and Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr), also made memorable impressions, they said.>>
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