Why 2009 Super Bowl TV Commercials Need PPC Online Marketing Ad Spend

Too many 2009 Super Bowl TV Commercials will not get the full value and attention they deserve. This is because companies advertising still do not fully understand traditional versus non-traditional marketing and have yet to close the loop online with their consumers.

Turning away my bias as an unapologetic New England Patriots fan, which by the way beat the Cardinals this season 47-7, the current match up of the Steelers and the Cardinals may not be remember by many viewers a few years from now, but certain TV commercials will.

Fortunately some of the best national marketing agencies will be bringing their finest examples of work to debut Sunday night. Great creative minds in regards to messaging and positions will team up with experienced visual media specialists to showcase commercials that everyone will be talking about the following morning. As creative and unique as they may be, are the television campaigns fully optimized?

By fully optimized, I mean, will the campaigns be getting the most mileage for the television ad spend and production cost possible?

For too many advertisers the answer is “no,” and it is a shame, especially during these downward economic times where budgets are being monitored more closely and scrutinized to ensure they are getting maximum value.

Optimizing Television with Online:

Few fully grasp the changing behavior of consumers. In recent years it have been observed the strong correlation between television adverting and search engine queries on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Television and other cross channel marketing campaigns are a leading reason why for many companies their brand name is their number one search term that drives clicks, conversions and revenue. This correlation of cross channel advertising and search queries becomes much more important during periods of search spikes such as what will be experienced during 2009 Super Bowl TV commercials.

What Television Advertisers Must do:

Assuming you got a great commercial out, what happens next? Soft statistics such as “brand awareness” are fuzzy at best and won’t necessarily lead to additional revenue. If your organization is prepared to spend millions preparing for, and distributing a 30 second clip, in 2009 you better be prepared for that commercial to live on past its original debut.

Many companies have gotten savvy at this. Go Daddy is perhaps the best and in the past, and has made a complete mockery of the censorship and approval process of their ads, posting all the reject ads online. While posting your ad online is an essential and an obvious step—today ensuring it is your company is converting customers from your ad versus not your competitor, as a result of your ad, can be much foggier.

Is your Competitor Outranking You?!?!

Picture this--you’re a car company with a great commercial. You spend a lot of money on a specific ad--people are following the ad online and providing positive feedback. Looks like you did a great job, right? Perhaps. How did people find your ad? If they typed in a search engine query for phrases relative to your ad and the now online video, will they find it easily? Will they go to your site, or to another online video site? Where do you rank naturally across keywords relative to your TV commercial? Does your competitor rank for these words in natural or paid search? Did you remember to buy these phrases in a pay per click (PPC campaign)?

- If you’ve done your homework you should be ranking for these phrases before the ad premieres and dedicate resources to ensure you get maximum impression share after the ad debuts.

- If you competitor did his homework, he might be buying the keyword phrases, often at very low prices because of the long tail nature of the keywords and outrank you in paid search.

Don’t Forget about PPC:

Companies are getting better at harnessing the power of PPC in short burst campaigns after Super Bowl TV commercials. They have to get even better and find ways to convert the novelty of a TV commercial into an interested potential consumer and eventually customer. For most companies it is not a full secret what will be premiering on game night. Many have incorporated Web 2.0 to involve their customers. This strategy is a great way to drum up excitement about the brand, but it also reveals to your competitors what you’ll be doing. Any savvy competitor will know there will be a surge in activity around a set of keyword relative to your ad and for a relatively small PPC ad spend budget they can ride the coattails of your TV commercial’s success.

The example of 2009 Super Bowl TV commercials is just one example of why better synergy and cross channel marketing must occur between television and an online marketing agency. By planning in advance and incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC) marketing, you company will ensure they have closed the loop and have additional confidence you have performed due diligence in communicating your brand’s message with the consumer before, during and after the commercial debuts.