Super Bowl and Search Marketing

Yes, like a much of America, I watched the Super Bowl. I Tivo’d it and later skimmed through to watch … the commercials! Yes, I like football and yes, I was sad to see the Bears lose, but like any marketer worth her salt, I wanted to see who got their creative game on and who left it home.

As a Search Marketer, I had to go to the sites and see the ads again and guess what I found? A lot of them are not doing a very good job with their online marketing. And a lot of them have pretty miserable user experiences. I never did get all the way into the Dorito’s site because of their heavy handed flash use. I’m not the only one who noticed either. Reprise Media did a Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard that makes a pretty intersting read on how not to market your brand online. Search Engine Watch also ran a story about the Super Bowl Advertisers.

I guess the biggest thing that jumped out at me is that these are really big companies with really big advertising budgets being run by really big agencies, and still they left out the online piece. I mean, come on! Not even a URL in the ad? It may seem like a no brainer to us, but to a lot of traditional marketers, it’s still an afterthought.

I’ve got news…. to capture the lead in the future will take thinking of this “online stuff” first. Because increasingly, that’s where people go first to find something. Like your brand, or even if it’s just to see some silly Super Bowl ads.