Too many 2009 Super Bowl TV commercials won’t get the full value and attention they deserve. This is because advertising companies still don’t fully understand traditional vs. non-traditional marketing and have yet to come full circle online with their consumers.
My bias aside as a die-hard fan of the New England Patriots, who incidentally beat the Cardinals this season 47-7, many viewers may not remember the actual Steelers vs. Cardinals matchup years from now, but some TV commercials will.
Fortunately, some of the best national marketing agencies will bring their best examples of work to debut on Sunday night. Great creative minds when it comes to messaging and positioning will team up with seasoned visual media specialists to showcase commercials everyone will be talking about the next morning. As creative and unique as they can be, are TV campaigns fully optimized?
By fully optimized, I mean, will the campaigns get the best possible return for TV ad spend and cost of production?
For many advertisers, the answer is “no,” and that’s a shame, especially during these times of economic downturn when budgets are more closely monitored and scrutinized to ensure they’re getting the most value.
TV optimization with Online:
Few fully capture changing consumer behavior. In recent years, the strong correlation between television advertising and search engine queries on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN has been observed. Television and other cross-channel marketing campaigns are one of the main reasons why, for many businesses, their brand name is the number one search term that drives clicks, conversions, and revenue. This correlation between cross-channel advertising and search queries becomes much more important during peak search periods, such as what will be experienced during the 2009 Super Bowl TV commercials.
What television advertisers should do:
Assuming you have a great commercial, what happens next? Soft stats like “brand awareness” are confusing at best and won’t necessarily drive additional revenue. If your organization is prepared to spend millions preparing and distributing a 30-second clip, in 2009 you better be prepared for that commercial to survive beyond its original debut.
Many companies have become experts in this. Go Daddy is perhaps the best and in the past, and has completely circumvented the ad censorship and approval process of it, posting all rejected ads online. While posting your ad online is an essential and obvious step, today making sure your business is converting your ad’s customers instead of your competitor’s as a result of your ad can be much more confusing.
Is your competitor outranking you?!?!
Picture this: you are a car company with a great sales force. You spend a lot of money on a specific ad – people follow the ad online and provide positive feedback. Sounds like you did a great job, right? Maybe. How did people find your ad? If they typed a search engine query for phrases related to your ad and video now online, will they find it easily? Will they go to your site or another online video site? Where do you naturally rank among keywords in relation to your TV commercial? Does your competitor rank for these words in natural or paid searches? Did you remember to buy these phrases in a pay per click (PPC campaign)?
– If you’ve done your homework, you should rank for these phrases before your ad debuts and dedicate resources to ensure you get maximum impression share after your ad debuts.
– If your competitor did their homework, they could be buying up keyword phrases, often at very low prices due to the long-tail nature of keywords, and outperforming you in paid search.
Don’t forget about PPC:
Companies are getting better at harnessing the power of PPC in short campaigns after Super Bowl TV commercials. They have to get even better and find ways to turn the novelty of a TV commercial into an interested lead and ultimately a customer. It’s not a complete secret to most companies what will be released on game night. Many have incorporated Web 2.0 to engage their customers. This strategy is a great way to build excitement for the brand, but it also reveals to your competitors what you will do. Any savvy competitor will know that there will be an increase in activity around a set of keywords in relation to their ad, and for a relatively small PPC ad spend budget, they can ride the success of your TV commercial.
The example of the 2009 Super Bowl TV commercials is just one example of why better synergy and cross-channel marketing should be achieved between television and an online marketing agency. By planning ahead and incorporating Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Search Marketing (PPC), your business will ensure you have closed the loop and have greater confidence that you have done your due diligence in getting your message across. of your brand to the consumer before, during and after the commercial debut.