Over the past few years, online activity has surged during the Super Bowl, offering marketers insight into this lucrative audience.

The buzz on this year’s Super Bowl advertisements has already reached a fever pitch, and many of the marquee brands have once again tossed their hats into the ring. The pressure to achieve results from pricey ad buys has never been higher with a 30-second spot estimated to cost $2.5 million during this year’s big game. This presents a challenge to advertisers to exercise their creative might, and to marketers to strategize effectively in targeting the right consumers.

Advertisers and marketers increasingly are integrating the internet into their campaigns to maximize the impact of their investments. Over the past few years online activity has surged during the Super Bowl, and the emergence of this channel holds the potential to offer unprecedented insight into the audiences advertisers and marketers target.

While the Super Bowl is watched heavily across almost all demographics, the online behavior of the core audience -- fans of the National Football League -- provides some interesting insights on which brands might benefit the most from their ad buys.

• In December 2005, visitors to the NFL Internet Group sites were, quite predictably, heavy sports fans in general. They were 162 percent more likely than the average internet user to visit Sports sites, and 128 percent more likely to visit Retail / Sports / Outdoor sites.
  
  
• Consumers who visited NFL Internet Group sites also frequent sites that are often complementary to the Sports category. They are 93 percent more likely to visit Ticket sites and 72 percent more likely to visit Online Gambling sites.
  
  
• These consumers also frequent media categories in which sports factor prominently, garnering more relative visitation to Radio sites (67 percent more likely than average internet users) and Gaming Information sites (64 percent more likely).
  
  
• Beyond the realm of Sports, visitors to NFL Internet Group sites also showed a propensity to visit sites in the Politics (87 percent more likely than average), Humor (77 percent), Entertainment / News (72 percent), and Automotive / Manufacturer (64 percent) categories.

Although NFL fans in general are frequent visitors of other categories online that support sports-related content, the fans for 2006’s respective Super Bowl teams -- The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks -- exhibit decidedly unique online activity.

• The online behavior of those who visited Seahawks.com was indicative of heavy travelers. In December 2005, they were significantly more likely than average to visit Car Rental sites (221 percent), Hotel/Resort sites (163 percent), Travel / Information (142 percent) and Airlines (122 percent).
  
  
• Those who visited Steelers.com exhibited a more varied profile of online activity. They were more likely than average to visit Tax sites (208 percent), Sports sites (262 percent), and Retail / Sports / Outdoor sites (257 percent).

*Composition Index represents the proportion of the given group within a specific site audience, compared to the proportion of that group in the total online population.
A composition index of 100 represents parity.

About comScore Networks
comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than two million consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its patent-pending technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestlé, Bank of America, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, GlaxoSmithKline and Orbitz.