Super Bowl Advertisers Still Missing the Big Handoff to Online Channel; Reprise Media Presents Second Annual Super Bowl Search Marketing ScoreCard

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2006--As the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers battled to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy yesterday, there was another battle taking place on television screens around the world. Many of the world's biggest advertisers spent millions of dollars on Super Bowl advertisements in an attempt to generate massive buzz for their products. While some clear winners emerged, such as Burger King and their fantastic Whopperettes, how well did they hold up once viewers headed online for more information?

Reprise Media, a search engine marketing firm, answers that question with the release of their second annual Super Bowl Search Marketing ScoreCard. The study rates how effectively companies followed up on their Super Bowl commercials based on a series of search marketing best practices including keyword selection, ad text, and landing page content.

Search engine presence enables a transition from buzz to action. The Super Bowl reaches a vast audience - 113 million viewers worldwide last year - and a large portion of those viewers go online during the game to find out more information. "Super Bowl Advertisers spend millions of dollars to build their brand in one night, and all that buzz drives people to the Web," said Joshua Stylman, Reprise Media Managing Partner. "If you aren't present in the search engines when your audience is trying to find out more information, there's a good chance they will visit your competitors instead - that's a big missed opportunity."

Among the key findings from this year's scorecard:

Most Companies Still Missing The Extra Point

Unfortunately, a year didn't make much difference in the overall search showing of Super Bowl advertisers. Surprisingly, many companies still don't even include URLs in their commercials, an easy way to indicate to users that there's additional content available online. Search presence was few and far between, ensuring that those that attempted even a rudimentary campaign linking their commercial to their website would clearly stand out.

Movie Industry Wising Up

Perhaps the most dramatic turnaround came in the film industry, where movies such as Cars, The Shaggy Dog and Mission Impossible 3 utilized Super Bowl specific keywords and listing copy, capturing the attention of interested users and giving them access to trailers, sweepstakes and downloadable information. Overall, 2006 represented a much stronger showing for this buzz-centric category.

Dot Coms Ahead Of The Curve

While we expected a strong showing from the internet-based businesses, it's still good to see that dot-com Super Bowl advertisers Career Builder, GoDaddy and newcomer Overstock each made the most of their 30 second spots, with extensive, comprehensive placement across all the engines, and customized landing pages that rewarded users for heading online during the game.

Automotive Missing Out

Other than Cadillac, a major Super Bowl XL sponsor, all of the automotive companies put forth a fairly uninspired effort, often getting bumped from the first page of results for a long line of resellers and service providers. In fact, some even provided virtually free traffic for their competitors. Ford had one of the more memorable commercials for their new Escape hybrid vehicle, starring Kermit The Frog. Competitor GM purchased the word 'Kermit' to promote their own hybrid car line, essentially getting all of the benefits of having a Super Bowl ad, with none of the hassles.

Were Some Brands Hiding?

It's bad enough to ignore the power of search as a means to get people to your site. It's even worse when interested people can't find your site at all - no URL, no organic listings, nothing. For example: PS Cleaning Products spent a ton of money to launch their new brand amid the biggest advertising event of the year. One problem: We're still trying to find their website.

"Search Marketing can act as a bridge between Super Bowl buzz and a company's online brand presence, said Peter Hershberg, Managing Partner of Reprise Media. "While more advertisers are beginning to realize the immense opportunity in linking search to their offline campaigns, many have yet to take full advantage of the opportunity.

To view Reprise Media's Search Engine ScoreCard results, and download a whitepaper on the study, please visit http://www.reprisemedia.com/superbowlXLscorecard.aspx.

Reprise Media has partnered with iFilm to provide links to viewable copies of all of the 2006 Super Bowl Commercials. To view this year's creative, please visit: http://www.ifilm.com/superbowl.

WHEN/HOW: To schedule a briefing with Reprise Media Managing Partners Peter Hershberg and Joshua Stylman, contact Heidi Jessop at hjessop@reprisemedia.com, or 212-226-0745

About Reprise Media

Reprise Media is a technology-enabled SEM services firm helping companies significantly and profitably grow their businesses in the search marketplace. Through the Reprise Process - an innovative, proven combination of campaign strategy, methodology and management - Reprise Media consistently delivers the value of search to a large and growing client roster, including companies such as CapitalOne, PeoplePC, Guess? and Advance Internet. In 2005, Reprise Media was ranked # 30 in Entrepreneur Magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hot 100, a list of the 100 fastest-growing new businesses in America. SearchViews (www.searchviews.com), the Company's blog, provides a destination for marketers to find the latest news and commentary on Search Engine Marketing.

Reprise Media is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco and Boston. For more information, Reprise Media can be contacted at 212.226.0697, or via the Web at www.reprisemedia.com