Dot-com commercials during Super Bowl XXXIV
Super Bowl XXXIV (played in January 2000) featured 14 advertisements from 14 different dot-com companies, each of which paid an average of $2.2 million per spot.[1][note 1] In addition, five companies that were founded before the dot-com bubble also ran tech-related ads, for a grand total of 22 different dot-com ads. These ads amounted to nearly 20 percent of the 61 spots available,[1] and $44 million in advertising.[2] In addition to ads which ran during the game, several companies also purchased pre-game ads, most of which are lesser known. All of the publicly held companies which advertised saw their stocks slump after the game as the dot-com bubble began to rapidly deflate.[1]
The sheer amount of dot-com-related ads was so unusual that Super Bowl XXXIV has been widely been referred to as the "Dot-Com Super Bowl",[3] and it is often used as a high-water mark for the dot-com bubble.[4][5][6] Of these companies, 6 are still active, 5 were bought by other companies, and the remaining 5 are defunct or of unknown status.
Effectiveness
Many websites saw short-term gains from the advertisements. LastMinuteTravel.com, for example, reported a surge of 300,000 hits per minute during its advertisement broadcast.[7] In many cases, though, this did not translate into long-term gains. OurBeginning.com's revenue jumped 350% in Q1 of 2000, but its $5 million in advertising costs were still ten times what its customers spent.[8] Short-term gains were not enough to recoup advertising losses, and Pets.com, Computer.com, and Epidemic.com, among many others, would fold before the end of the year.
Later references
Less than a year later, E*Trade ran an ad during Super Bowl XXXV mocking the glut of dot-com commercials during the previous game. The ad featured the chimpanzee from E*Trade's 2000 commercial wandering through a ghost town filled with the remains of fictional dot-com companies, including a direct reference to the already-defunct Pets.com sock puppet. During the game that year, only three dot-com companies ran advertisements.[2]
In-Game Ads
The following list details each company, the commercials they ran, and their ultimate fate.
| Company | Commercial Title(s) | Spot Length | Company Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AutoTrader.com[9] | "I Need a Car" | 0:30 | Active |
| Computer.com[5] | "Mike and Mike"[3] | 0:30 | Purchased by Office Depot in 2000[3] |
| e1040.com | "Charity" | 0:30 | Unknown; domain name redirects to |
| Epidemic.com[1] | "Bathroom" | 0:30 | Defunct in 2000 |
| E-Stamp.com | "Time Saving Tips" | 0:30 | Defunct; domain name redirects to Stamps.com |
| HotJobs.com[1] | "Negotiations" | 0:30 | Bought by Yahoo! in 2002, later purchased and liquidated by Monster.com in 2010 |
| LastMinuteTravel.com[7] | "Tornado" | 0:30 | Active |
| LifeMinders.com[1] | "The Worst Commercial" | 0:30 | Purchased by Cross Media Group in 2001[10] |
| Monster.com[1] | "The Road Less Travelled" | 0:30 | Active |
| OnMoney.com[11] | "Paper Monster" | 0:30 | Defunct in 2002 |
| Netpliance[1] | "Webhead" | 0:30 | Rebranded as TippingPoint in 2002, purchased by 3Com in 2005 |
| OurBeginning.com[8][12] | "Invites" | 0:30 | Purchased by an undisclosed company in 2002 |
| Pets.com[1] | "If You Leave Me Now" | 0:30 | Liquidated in 2000 |
| WebMD[1] | "Ali" | 0:30 | Active |
Companies founded before the bubble
In addition to the companies listed above, several tech companies that were founded before the dot-com boom also ran ads. As these are outside the strict definition of a dot-com company, since their founding significantly pre-dated the creation of a dot-com website, they have been listed separately.
| Company | Commercial Title(s) | Spot Length | Company Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Britannica | Active (online only; print edition ceased publication in 2010) | ||
| E*Trade[1] | "Wasted 2 Million", "Out the" Wazoo", "Basketball Prodigy" | 0:30 each | Active |
| Electronic Data Systems | "Cat herders" | Purchased by HP in 2008[13] | |
| Kforce | Active | ||
| MicroStrategy[1] | "Fraud", "Stock Alert" | 0:30 each | Active |
Pre-Game Ads
The following list details companies which ran ads prior to the actual game time.
| Company | Commercial Title(s) | Spot Length | Company Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer.com | "Untitled 1", "Untitled 2"[3] | 0:30 each | Purchased by Office Depot in 2000[3] |
| OurBeginning.com | "Untitled 1", "Untitled 2", "Untitled 3" | 0:30 each | Purchased by an undisclosed company in 2002 |
Notes
- ↑ Though Britannica.com, E*Trade, Electronic Data Systems, Kforce, and MicroStrategy are all companies that ran ads with a .com address, they have not been included in this list because the founding date of these companies exclude them from the strict definition of a dot-com company. Sources do not agree on the exact amount of dot-com advertisers who bought spots.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 Pender, Kathleen. "Dot-Com Super Bowl Advertisers Fumble / But Down Under, LifeMinders.com may win at Olympics", San Francisco Chronicle, 13 September 2000. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hyman, Mark, and Tom Lowry. "What's Missing from Super Bowl XXXV?", BloombergBusinessweek, 7 January 2001. Accessed February 28 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Shroeder, Charlie. "The Dot-Com Super Bowl", Weekend America, 2 February 2008. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ Bennet, Dashiell. 8 Dot-Coms That Spent Millions On Super Bowl Ads And No Longer Exist", Business Insider, 2 February 2011. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Basich, Zoran. "Super Bowl Lures HomeAway, 10 Years After Dot-Com Debacle", Wall Street Journal Blogs, 19 January 2010. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ Planes, Alex. "The Biggest Waste of Money in Super Bowl History", Motley Fool, 30 January 2013. Accessed February 28, 2014.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 ""Super Bowl's Last Minute and LastMinuteTravel.com's Last-Minute Commercial Are Big Winners", HospitalityNet, 31 January 2000. Accessed February 28, 2014.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "OurBeginning.com's marketing bomb", Venture Navigator, August 2007. Accessed February 28, 2014.
- ↑ Gelsi, Steve. "Tiny Dot-com Joins Super Bowl", CBS News, 24 January 2000. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ "LifeMinders Sold", Emailuniverse.com, 19 July 2001. Accessed February 28, 2014.
- ↑ White, Erin. "Start-Up OnMoney.com Bets It All On 30-Second Ad During Super Bowl", Wall Street Journal, 2 February 2000. Accessed February 28, 2014.
- ↑ Chartier, John. "Dot.coms ready Bowl game", CNN Money, 28 January 2000. Accessed February 26 2014.
- ↑ "HP to Acquire EDS for $13.9 Billion". HP News. Retrieved 13 February 2015.