Study: Some Super Bowl advertisers 'missing the boat'

Reprise Media released results of its fourth annual study on companies' use of search marketing to complement their Super Bowl advertising campaign.

With the cost of ads rapidly approaching $3 million per spot, one would figure that a company would want to make the best of that investment. However in many cases, research group Reprise found that these advertisers were failing to cash in.

Pepsi was named the survey's "most valuable player," a turnaround from the firm's first survey in 2005 where it finished near the bottom. However, it noted that Pepsi and other non-alcoholic beverages fail to include a URL or "call to action" in their spots. Only 6 percent of the ads had some kind of call to action, although 84 percent included some kind of URL in the ad.

Reprise also applauded CareerBuilder.com and GoDaddy.com for their spots' integration with search and social media, as well as Cars.com, T-Mobile, and Tide.

However, the firm had the opposite to say about Disney, Zantac, and Hershey's all of which failed, for the most part, to have any connection between their online presence and their ads.

It also criticized the entertainment industry, and said the group was still failing to purchase search ads on Super Bowl-related keywords, or use ad copy that would attract fans of either team.

"The buzz created by an audience that large can cause huge spikes in online behavior," Reprise managing partner Peter Hershberg said. "Marketers that overlook search and social media are potentially missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with interested consumers during the game."

A notable exception was Edmunds.com, who stole some of the Super Bowl thunder by using search ads to grab football fans. The company did not advertise on television, and saved itself millions in the process.