On Sunday Super Bowl XLIV became the most watched US TV program in history, finally unseating the “M*A*S*H” finale, the previous record holder for nearly three decades. While normally there is good reason to be skeptical about ad viewership, the Super Bowl provides a rare exception for the ads to also have a major role during the program. Many of the previous advertisers returned again this year such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Go Daddy, Doritos, CareerBuilder, Monster.com, E*Trade and others along with some new advertisers like Google, Kia and Qualcomm’s Flo TV.
Most (but not all) advertisers include a URL within their commercials to encourage visits to their websites. Not surprisingly, the official website for the NFL was the most visited among the Super Bowl advertisers on Sunday as fans looked for content around the big game. CareerBuilder, Disney and Go Daddy followed in terms of overall visits to the custom category of Super Bowl advertisers. However, the website for Qualcomm’s Flo TV experienced the highest lift in traffic on Sunday and increased 407% when compared to the previous day. Two advertisers that benefited from a call to action to visit their websites were Go Daddy and Denny’s. The domain registration service Go Daddy, infamous for racy ads during the Super Bowl, ranked 4th with a lift in traffic of 95% on Sunday from the invitation to visit their website for an extended and uncensored version of the ad. The lure of a free breakfast was also popular for Denny’s with a 51% increase in traffic on Sunday.


The websites are also popular the day after the Super Bowl when people discuss all of the ads. Visits to E*Trade increased 222% on Monday when compared to Sunday with their continued series of talking baby commercials. The websites of Hyundai and Michelob Ultra followed with lifts of 200%.


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