Monday, February 09, 2009

What CareerBuilder got for its Super Bowl bucks

One measure of a TV commercial's effectiveness is the degree to which it drove consumers to the brand's website last Sunday. How did Gannett-controlled jobs site CareerBuilder do? It ranked No. 23 of 26 commercials, says Seeking Alpha. (No. 1: Dennys; No. 26: eTrade.)

13 comments:

  1. That is really awful. At least monster didn't do any better.

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  2. Doesn't surprise me one bit. That ad just wasn't relevant right now. Also, I noticed ageist overtones in that ad, and I just can't understand why anyone would want to downplay workforce harmony and diversity that way.modol

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  3. Overall, the spot sucked. But, I did like the scene with the guy drinking gold from a glass.

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  4. If I'm reading that chart right, it didn't just drive fewer people to its site than the other ads did, it actually drove people AWAY from the website.

    They should have hired Ed McMahon and MC Hammer.

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  5. I thought the ad was creepy, and I had a bad reaction to it. I gave it a pass because of artistic license. Happy to see others seem to share my views.

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  6. Hey, dummy!

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  7. I agree the ad was very annoying and made me consider not using the site in the future. Who needs to repeat the same thing that many times? People litterally groaned when they saw that commercial and fast forwarded the DVR. That company just doesn't get it.

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  8. For God's sake Jim do some reporting.

    Denny's was No 1 because everyone was checking to see where the nearest Denny's is, so they could get their FREE BREAKFAST two days after the game.

    ETRADE, with the absolute best ads, was last because NO ONE IS INVESTING NOW!

    And you call yourself a Business Reporter.

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  9. 2:59, what the hell is your point? Jim's post was about Careerbuilder's failure to build an audience from the Super Bowl ad. In fact, Careerbuilder lost viewers. But I count 18 of 26 Web sites that increased traffic.

    Clearly, Careerbuilder's ad was a failure. And Careerbuilder wasn't successful at driving traffic, like Denny's or the 17 other Web sites. The traffic increase at these sites wasn't about free meals. Rather, the Careerbuilder failure was a miscalculation and a misunderstanding of market dynamics. Gannett believed that a goofy ad, and a goofy ad alone, would drive traffic.

    Instead, we see the same lesson that Gannett doesn't seem to learn with any of its products. Readers demand substance. But Gannett thinks that shallow gimmicks lead to loyalty and readers. Wrong again.

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  10. I'm not surprised, considering that the other bottom dwellers were fairly well-known dot.coms and the top web biz went to advertisers offering deals or other specials on the web.
    Most people have careerbuilder already linked. Unless they were offering 100 great jobs people could "win" they weren't going to get a sudden spike.

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  11. 5:19, are you a corporate apologist? Why no explanation for Careerbuilder actually losing traffic after the ad?

    A fool would say that fewer people are looking for jobs.

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  12. Boy, that ad sucked big monkey chunks. How stupid.

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  13. Look, I hated the ad too and hated the money spent on it, but this is a ridiculous 'study' for the purposes of CareerBuilder. People aren't going to watch the Super Bowl and then JUMP ONTO A JOB WEBSITE SUNDAY NIGHT. Come on.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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