Vizio’s TV App Superbowl Fumble
If you were one of the 106 million people who watched Superbowl XLIV, you may have caught the Vizio TV ad. You know the one…it showcased one of the coolest new technologies called TV Apps.
Google results for the Vizio TV Apps search.
Despite a terrific commercial, Vizio may have fumbled a prime opportunity to capture and convert their audience. The content was great. The message was on target. So what went wrong?
Well, they forgot both their (a) search engine marketing (SEM) campaign and (b) search engine optimization (SEO).
Like many people watching the Superbowl, I saw the commercial and wanted to know more. I didn’t catch the URL on the screen, but I trusted that if I put in “Vizio TV apps,” Google would link to their site.
Nope.
How about “Vizio apps”? No.
Um…”TV apps”? Nope.
Okay, they must be bidding on “Vizio” right? Big nope.
I’ve included a bunch of screen shots of Vizio’s Google search results on Flickr, so you can see who and what is coming up on the search engine results page (SERP) for Google. You can see tweets from people on Twitter who are interested in the Vizio commercial, but the Vizio web page appeared to be down.
Even a day after the Superbowl, there’s no SEM campaign from Vizio trying to capture the traffic and buzz generated by their commercial. And unlike other events, the Superbowl is legendary for people sharing and replaying ads. YouTube has collections of the best ads, which means people will be watching that ad long after it was aired.
In today’s always-on Internet culture, people trust Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Bing to take them to the right site. But that comes at a cost, since sites need to be properly optimized for search engines.
A well-designed SEM campaign needs to be developed and maintained, since your website may not always come up in natural search. Sure, you will come up for your own name, but you may not come up for your category. SEM helps you get your message in front of the right people at the right time. Like, for example, a few minutes after your commercial runs on the Superbowl.
Vizio did a great job of educating the Superbowl viewers about the concept of TV apps. It’s hard to say if they will be able to cement that lead without properly leveraging search traffic on Google.
What should have been a touchdown seems more like a fumble. And you have to wonder if someone else has already intercepted Vizio’s customers.
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