A year ago, the pricey landscape of Super Bowl advertisers was littered with dot.com commercials. But not, it appears, this year. As of this morning, the only Internet advertisers stepping up to pay the $80,000-a-second price have been E-Trade Group, Hotjobs.com and Monster.com. A year ago, 16 different Internet advertisers showed their wares during the game.
In January 1997, Autobytel, com became the first of the Internet companies to buy time during the game, and it repeated its spot the following year. By 1999, Hotjobs.com and Monster.com had joined the sponsorship roll and Victoria's Secret held its web site fashion show. Then came last year, when such as AutoTrader.com, Brittanica.com, Computer.com, DowJones.com, Kforce.com, LifeMinders.com, MicroStrategy.com, OnMoney.com and others filled the commercial airwaves with ads like Kurt Warner filled the air with footballs. “A lot of them bet the bank,” said Clark Wood, vp for marketing at AutoTrader.com (Atlanta), “spending 70, 80, 100 percent of their total marketing budget in one day.”
Picking through the deluge became difficult for the viewer. “There were some spots you liked,” said Ted Sann, co-ceo and chief creative officer at the New York office of the BBDO worldwide advertising agency, “and then you said, 'What was that?'”
One reason for the increasing caution of the dot.commers might be found in a new survey released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. According to the survey, the Internet might be getting used more for socialization and communication than for shopping. The survey reported that more people used the Internet this past holiday season to send e-mail greetings, exchange information and make holiday plans than they did buying gifts. Only 24 percent of the nearly 3500 consumers surveyed actually bought gifts online (while 45 percent said they looked for gifts online and 32 percent said they used the web to locate merchandise and compare prices of goods they eventually bought in stores). About 22 percent said they had shopped online during the holidays last year but did not do so this year.
Or, as John Schwartz of The New York Times said, “If you're an Internet merchant, last year was a good time to sell your shirt on the Internet. This year was a good time to lose your shirt.”