Advertisers involved in Super Bowl XLV, which saw the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, were no doubt pleased with the news that the game was the most-watched U.S. telecast of all-time. So did the large viewership have any impact on the number of visitors to their websites? Nielsen looked at web traffic for the week following the game and compared that to the week’s traffic leading up to it for a selection of advertisers who aired a TV commercial during the Super Bowl. The selection of advertisers included all the pure-play online advertisers (e.g. GoDaddy.com) and any “traditional” advertiser (e.g. Volkswagen) whose commercial appeared among the 10 most watched during the telecast.
Of the sites reviewed, web hosting site GoDaddy.com saw the largest lift in post-Super Bowl traffic, with a 41 percent increase in unique U.S. visitors during the week following the game compared to the week before. GoDaddy aired two commercials during the game with their 1st quarter ad starring Joan Rivers as the new GoDaddy spokesperson ranking as the ninth most-recalled commercial of the telecast.
Volkswagen and travel site HomeAway.com were the other two telecast advertisers reviewed who saw double-digit gains in web traffic during the week of February 7, both having a 27 percent increase in unique U.S. visitors. “Traditional” brand Mercedes-Benz also saw a noticeable uplift of 9 percent.
FOX, the Super Bowl XLV broadcaster, also saw traffic to its site increase by 11 percent to 1.5 million unique U.S. visitors during the week following the game compared to the week before.
On the other hand, when looking at online buzz, Groupon’s ads – a spoof on celebrity charity endorsements –caused plenty of conversation, placing the rookie Super Bowl telecast advertiser as the #5 most buzzed about brand out of all Super Bowl advertisers. Among the pure-online players, Groupon took the top spot, capturing 10.5 percent of total Super Bowl marketing buzz the day after the game, three times the buzz of GoDaddy, which had the largest increase in web traffic. Discussion of Groupon continued over the next few days as buzz volume for the advertiser grew as high as 34 percent during the week following the telecast.
Methodology: This piece of research covered all the pure-play online advertisers (e.g. GoDaddy.com) and any “traditional” advertiser (e.g. Chevrolet) whose commercial appeared amongst the 10 most-watched during the Super Bowl XLV telecast. The piece measured the number of unique U.S. individuals who visited the advertiser website from a home or work computer between January 31 and February 13.
Buzz volume is depicted as a percentage of total Super Bowl marketing messages – any message with mentions of Super Bowl XLV and ad-related terms (e.g. advertiser, commercial, sponsor, campaign, marketer) – between January 31 and February 13.
