Which Super Bowl Advertisers Will Fumble in Search and Who Will Make It to the Online End Zone?: Reprise Media Measures Cross-Channel Integration

NEW YORK (Business Wire EON) January 22, 2008 -- The Search Marketing Scorecard ranks Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their television commercials and presence in search and social media - essentially measuring how prepared each brand is to handle online interest and buzz. The Search Marketing Scorecard is the longest-standing study of its kind, and it will be unveiled on February 4, the day after the Super Bowl.

The Scorecard ranks advertisers on a series of search and social media marketing best practices criteria including the content of their television commercials, their presence on search results pages and social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. The ScoreCard will give insight into several questions including:

-- Have marketers optimized the effectiveness of their Super Bowl buy by considering how viewers will seek them out online?

-- Were the brands prepared to engage their audiences online? Who was successful, and who fumbled their big opportunity?

-- Have major brand advertisers embraced the marketing opportunity presented by social networks?

Super Bowl veteran advertisers including FedEx, Pepsi, GoDaddy.com and many more have lined up for 30 seconds of airtime on Super Bowl Sunday, at a reported record price of $2.7 million.

"Search marketing bridges the gap between a brand's online presence and its offline campaign - from broadcast advertisements to print to event marketing," said Peter Hershberg, managing partner, Reprise Media. "Advertisers are becoming savvier about creating online buzz around events. Unlike many lost in the previous years, marketers are expected to finally use search and social media sites to capitalize on the excitement and brand awareness generated by their ads in the big game."

On Super Bowl Sunday, an expected 90 million Americans will tune in - many with laptops or computers by their side - and turn to the Web as well as search and social media in order to learn more about advertisers that piqued their interest. In fact, approximately 29 million Americans watch TV while surfing the Internet, according to Arbitron's multimedia study. Last year, King Pharmaceuticals' traffic increased 320% the hour after its Super Bowl ad aired and Frito-Lay's "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign for Doritos crashed the brand's website in the first quarter. With an estimated 80% of all web traffic originating from a search engine, brands need to understand how to strategically link search marketing to their TV advertising campaigns.

"Super Bowl Sunday is the event of the year for many advertisers and the excitement begins weeks before the big game day," said Joshua Stylman, managing partner, Reprise Media. "Last year Frito-Lay launched an innovative campaign featuring user-generate advertisements for Doritos that earned them buzz and interest for weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. This year, with the opportunities available to advertisers, it's even easier for marketers to extend their reach and begin pre-game warm-ups online."

FOX, which is broadcasting this year's Super Bowl, is actively recruiting advertisers to run their commercials for free in parallel on MySpace. Google also plans to run copies of the ads as part of its YouTube AdBlitz program. Marketers creating an online presence through these social media sites and on other online sites will give their brands the opportunity to stand out above the crowd during game day. These brands are beginning to engage consumer before the big day.

On February 3, hear live commentary and get a peek into Reprise Media during the scoring process at www.twitter.com/scorecard or view the February 4 at 1:00 p.m. ET post-game Scorecard analysis, pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/253608377 and call into (641) 715-3222 (access code 289-777-314).

About Reprise Media

Reprise Media offers clients a complete managed solution for their search and social media marketing needs, focused exclusively on improving their return on advertising investment. The Company delivers services and technology that enable advertisers to manage and optimize their customer acquisition programs through search, social, auction-based and category targeted digital media.

The company was named "2006 Agency of the Year: Best Search" by OMMA Magazine, and has been ranked among the 30 fastest growing companies in the country by Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 100 for the past two years.

Reprise Media is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco and Boston. SearchViews (http://www.searchviews.com), the Company's award-winning blog, provides daily news and commentary on the Search Engine Marketing industry.

For more information, please visit Reprise Media at http://www.reprisemedia.com/. Reprise Media is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG)

Reprise Media and Search Marketing Scorecard are registered trademarks of Reprise Media Inc. All other product and brand names are the property of their respective owners.