Merkle’s Digital Bowl Report Gave TurboTax Super bowl Commercial First Place

The marketing agency Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), that specialize in technology-enabled, data-driven performance, annually release their Digital Bowl Report. This is a report evaluating the digital marketing efforts of Super Bowl advertisers. In the year 2016, the TurboTax Super bowl Commercial took first place, while Avocados from Mexico took second. Factors taken into consideration include SEO, paid searches, email marketing, digital media, and social media.

The Digital Bowl report does quantitative comparisons on how companies use these factors to support their Super Bowl investments. TurboTax came second for social media, SEO and digital media this year, granting them first place. Their high SEO score was from their mobile optimized homepage, which placed them high in the rankings for “Super Bowl” and “Big Game” searches, and microdata that caused 4.7 star rating for TurboTax’s Federal Free Edition to appear in product search results. For social media, TurboTax’s concise and clear message scored high. TurboTax’s high rating for their digital media campaign included Super Bowl-related searches yielding companion banners, multiple versions of advertisement videos running preroll on YouTube ads, and tracking pixels that build retargeting lists.

The content analyzed included social media, SEO, digital media advertising, paid search marketing, and email marketing. The brands were judged on their rate of conversation, their engagement of users, and the content created through social media outlets. The more agile and creative brands were with their responses to users, and their real-time marketing campaigns, the higher brands scored. Mobile optimization, landing page optimization, and how easily landing pages were discovered constituted the SEO grading. Digital Media was ranked based on real-time advertisement purchases during the game, and brands use of teaser videos. The paid search score was calculated by looking at relevant keyword targeting, email outreach, ad copy, and relevant landing page experiences. The last score was totaled by looking at how effectively the different brands used direct lines to email marketing’s preexisting customers.

TurboTax Super bowl Commercial
Photo by Wonderlane

The winner of the Digital Bowl was the company that best utilized digital media to amplify their Super Bowl investment. The television air time is a huge advantage as an awareness opportunity, and a prestigious marketing chance. This year saw a huge change in the social media grading category as advertisers with clearest messages, and inclusive campaigns, won the social media category. Catch the TurboTax Super bowl Commercial this season and tell us what you think.