When a major TV event refers viewers online, the sponsors of that event need to be prepared. Find out how "Idol Gives Back" advertisers fared with their integrated efforts.

American Idol's 2008 "Idol Gives Back" program on Fox drew an audience that was 34 percent smaller than last year's event. While final results will be released in May, current reports reveal that $60 million has been raised to date. This marks a 21 percent drop from last year's $76 million and leaves the "American Idol" producers short of their $100 million goal.

With less people watching the show and more people watching their wallets, it is increasingly important for Idol advertisers to make the most of their ad dollars. During the show, viewers were urged to donate via phone or web. With such a heavy call to go online, integration of online efforts with offline television sponsorships was extremely important, especially considering that the participation of major brands in "Idol Gives Back" was unlike most traditional advertising efforts. Taking part in "Idol Gives Back" was about community involvement and public relations, and executing an integrated and coordinated advertising strategy across various channels was the key to maximizing positive brand exposure.

The advertising partners of this year's show included ExxonMobil, Ford, Coca-Cola, AT&T, iTunes, Allstate and M•A•C AIDS Fund. This analysis evaluates how four of these major advertisers tried to get the most out of their dollars during this charitable event.

"'Idol Gives Back' demonstrates the vital need for marketers to integrate online and offline initiatives to effectively reach consumers, while also optimizing branding opportunities," says SendTec CEO Paul Soltoff. "The sponsors who prevailed were the ones that maintained high visibility through implementing multichannel marketing strategies."

Ford -- missed branding opportunities
Ford runs several commercials during each episode of "American Idol" over the course of the season. During "Idol Gives Back," Ford featured prominent display advertising throughout americanidol.com and paid search ads in search results for keywords like "drive on," which was the television spot catch phrase. However, Ford did not incorporate any messaging that referenced "American Idol" or "Idol Gives Back" in its paid search ad copy or landing pages the night of "Idol Gives Back."

Missing the chance to capitalize on this marketing opportunity, the company's participation in "Idol Gives Back" was not carried through to any other online initiatives. While this approach provided consistency with Ford's everyday advertising campaign, it did not capitalize on the opportunity to further build on brand perception.

Coca-Cola -- failed for disconnected efforts
Coca-Cola is also a significant "American Idol" sponsor, whose first television ad promoted its contribution to college scholarships for promising students and featured a unique website: Coca-Cola.com/JoinUs. Attempting to connect its online home to its television spots, this website contained links to the commercial and additional information about it, but no reference to "American Idol" or "Idol Gives Back" was made. As a result, Coca-Cola appeared completely disconnected in its multi-channel efforts.

iTunes -- could have done more
iTunes is the exclusive provider of "American Idol" performance downloads and a portion of each "Idol Gives Back" performance download is being donated to charitable causes. While parent company Apple aired Mac versus PC commercials during the broadcast, the iTunes sponsorship was solely promoted by repeat references from Ryan Seacrest directing viewers to download the night's performances from iTunes.

Surprisingly, iTunes had no presence in search results for Idol downloads or American Idol performance and no display ads on americanidol.com. The only connection iTunes had to "American Idol" was the homepage of its website, which featured a picture of the top 12 contestants and links to performance downloads, but no mention was made of "Idol Gives Back."

ExxonMobil -- a passing grade for follow through
ExxonMobil did not run commercials during "Idol Gives Back;" instead, the company ran a sponsored segment within the show about preventing malaria in Angola through the Malaria No More organization, which received $9 million of the $76 million raised during the "Idol Gives Back" 2007 program.

Many of the Idol contestants were wearing t-shirts promoting different charities, and immediately following the ExxonMobil segment, Jason Castro received some camera time wearing a Malaria No More t-shirt. Search results on Google for malaria no more yielded both a paid and an organic listing for malarianomore.com. The paid listing reiterated the message heard in the show: "Every 30 Seconds a Child Dies of Malaria. Please Help Today."

Further integrating its campaign, the ExxonMobil logo on americanidol.com linked visitors to the corporate page within exxonmobil.com, which contained information about the "American Idol" partnership and other charitable sponsorships, like sendmyteacher.com, maximizing exposure for all of the corporation's community goodwill participation. In addition, Ryan Seacrest mentioned ExxonMobil several times, which positioned the brand as one of the leading companies involved in this charitable cause.

Conclusion
All of these brands attempted integrated strategies on some level. Of the nationally run commercials, 59 percent featured a visible website address. However, all major brand advertisers were off-tune by not bidding on the show-related keywords such as American Idol, Idol Gives Back or donate now.

Implementing impressive SEM tactics, One.org was the only advertiser that appeared in sponsored listings for "American Idol"-related searches, and "ABC News" heavily promoted on these keywords as well. ABC did this in an effort to promote the broadcast of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture," which aired immediately following "Idol Gives Back."

All things totaled, ExxonMobil was this year's winner by executing a multi-faceted campaign reaching the audience through various channels that each integrated its messaging.

Janel Landis is senior director of search development and strategy at SendTec, Inc.