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flogs its services online
$1 million contest promoting tax prep software
By Jeremy Schlosberg
The banner ad’s
built-in huckster streak lures even the most unlikely candidates.
For years the very image of the earnest accounting
firm, H&R Block has recently been plastering the web with a banner
that tries to get people interested in Block's tax preparation software
through the hook of a contest with a million-dollar payoff.
"Enter a new tax bracket," says the ad, next to an
image of a $100 bill. Then the copy changes to "File your taxes
online and you could win $1,000,000."
For the week ending April 1, the Block ad was the No. 5
most-viewed banner on the web, according to new numbers from
Nielsen//NetRatings.
The banner is tied to Block’s Taxcut software product;
users who buy the product are automatically given an entry form in the $1
million giveaway.
Of course by law no purchase is actually required, so
theoretically someone may win the million bucks who did not file their
taxes online with Block at all.
Then again banner ads certainly don’t
have room for fine print.
The No. 1 banner for the week yet again was from Bonzi
Software, with its omnipresent imitation Windows error message.
The folks at Bonzi don’t waste a lot of impressions,
managing for the week to reach nearly 16 percent of the total web audience
while delivering a relatively modest 44 million impressions, according to
Nielsen//NetRatings.
By contrast, the second most-viewed banner of the week,
from ClassMates.com, reached 10 percent of the total web audience with
some 132.7 million impressions.
Then again, ClassMates.com is currently one of the web’s
biggest spenders—the No. 2 advertiser on the web for the week, in fact,
behind Microsoft.
The Block ad was a more modest effort, reaching seven percent of the web population with just 14.4 million impressions.
This was certainly not the only ad for H&R Block on
the web for the week, simply the most-viewed one, according to
Nielsen//NetRatings. As we are in the height of tax season, there are any
number of tax preparation ads floating around the web these days, both for
Block and for other companies.
The best place to see them is on the major search engines;
search for information on "taxes" and up pops a related banner ad
on the search results page.
As it turns out, H&R Block has most of this territory
covered—a search for "taxes" on Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista and
Google turns up an H&R Block ad at the top of the results page. Block
is also the sponsor of Yahoo’s entire tax center sub-site.
The same search on Lycos turns up an ad for OnMoney.com, a
financial planning and advisory site. Over on Excite you get an ad for
Quicken TurboTax.
|
Top 25 Properties |
|||
|
Property |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
Time |
|
1. AOL Time Warner |
38,680,036 |
51.16 |
0:17:00 |
|
2. Yahoo |
31,051,242 |
41.07 |
0:28:34 |
|
3. MSN |
27,040,241 |
35.76 |
0:24:47 |
|
4. Microsoft |
11,650,716 |
15.41 |
0:05:13 |
|
5. Terra Lycos |
10,635,202 |
14.07 |
0:09:06 |
|
6. Excite@Home |
9,235,933 |
12.21 |
0:15:34 |
|
7. eBay |
7,092,136 |
9.38 |
0:47:37 |
|
8. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,795,663 |
8.99 |
0:13:25 |
|
9. About |
6,030,847 |
7.98 |
0:08:50 |
|
10. eUniverse Network |
5,330,894 |
7.05 |
0:09:18 |
|
11. Amazon |
4,906,258 |
6.49 |
0:08:31 |
|
12. Napster Inc. |
4,899,556 |
6.48 |
0:07:09 |
|
13. CNET Networks |
4,542,294 |
6.01 |
0:07:06 |
|
14. Google |
4,202,151 |
5.56 |
0:06:41 |
|
15. NBC Internet |
4,191,304 |
5.54 |
0:07:08 |
|
16. Ask Jeeves |
3,792,123 |
5.02 |
0:05:48 |
|
17. GoTo.com |
3,473,447 |
4.59 |
0:02:27 |
|
18. iWon |
3,442,137 |
4.55 |
0:25:19 |
|
19. American Greetings |
3,306,096 |
4.37 |
0:08:55 |
|
20. EarthLink |
3,243,744 |
4.29 |
0:07:28 |
|
21. The Go2Net Network |
3,199,924 |
4.23 |
0:04:54 |
|
22. Gator.com |
3,096,363 |
4.10 |
0:06:44 |
|
23. AltaVista |
3,084,583 |
4.08 |
0:05:23 |
|
24. AT&T |
2,916,904 |
3.86 |
0:11:29 |
|
25. Weather Channel |
2,747,567 |
3.63 |
0:05:08 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
|||
|
Top 10 Advertisers |
||
|
Advertiser |
Impressions |
Reach % |
|
1. Microsoft |
634,667,832 |
41.13 |
|
2. ClassMates |
289,891,898 |
33.35 |
|
3. Yahoo |
285,368,102 |
24.11 |
|
4. Amazon |
250,651,571 |
41.06 |
|
5. eBay |
153,734,617 |
23.42 |
|
6. Barnes and Noble |
151,972,955 |
26.31 |
|
7. ETrade |
146,524,319 |
13.14 |
|
8. Providian |
140,627,157 |
20.46 |
|
9. America Online |
120,300,049 |
20.6 |
|
10. CyberRebate |
104,588,884 |
19.02 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
||
|
Top 25 Domains |
|||
|
Domain |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
Time |
|
1. yahoo.com |
28,560,261 |
37.77 |
0:29:28 |
|
2. aol.com |
26,829,410 |
35.48 |
0:14:48 |
|
3. msn.com |
25,096,122 |
33.19 |
0:21:37 |
|
4. passport.com |
13,220,010 |
17.48 |
0:03:51 |
|
5. microsoft.com |
9,493,205 |
12.56 |
0:05:08 |
|
6. geocities.com |
7,363,912 |
9.74 |
0:05:49 |
|
7. ebay.com |
6,646,214 |
8.79 |
0:48:51 |
|
8. netscape.com |
6,574,573 |
8.70 |
0:11:17 |
|
9. go.com |
6,534,954 |
8.64 |
0:13:30 |
|
10. excite.com |
5,454,626 |
7.21 |
0:19:20 |
|
11. napster.com |
4,899,556 |
6.48 |
0:07:09 |
|
12. lycos.com |
4,617,833 |
6.11 |
0:12:31 |
|
13. amazon.com |
4,460,673 |
5.90 |
0:08:15 |
|
14. google.com |
4,202,151 |
5.56 |
0:06:41 |
|
15. nbci.com |
3,527,688 |
4.67 |
0:06:27 |
|
16. goto.com |
3,465,799 |
4.58 |
0:02:28 |
|
17. iwon.com |
3,442,137 |
4.55 |
0:25:19 |
|
18. gator.com |
3,051,248 |
4.04 |
0:06:35 |
|
19. bluemountain.com |
2,965,548 |
3.92 |
0:07:48 |
|
20. angelfire.com |
2,848,762 |
3.77 |
0:04:17 |
|
21. tripod.com |
2,820,572 |
3.73 |
0:03:58 |
|
22. earthlink.net |
2,803,424 |
3.71 |
0:07:35 |
|
23. compuserve.com |
2,751,351 |
3.64 |
0:20:12 |
|
24. weather.com |
2,747,567 |
3.63 |
0:05:08 |
|
25. bonzi.com |
2,699,438 |
3.57 |
0:02:51 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
|||
|
Top 25 Advertising Domains |
||
|
Domain |
Impressions |
Reach % |
|
1. yahoo.com |
1,540,000,000 |
32.31 |
|
2. msn.com |
910,382,481 |
30.37 |
|
3. ebay.com |
879,055,741 |
8.74 |
|
4. aol.com |
576,275,498 |
23.61 |
|
5. netscape.com |
245,910,898 |
8.57 |
|
6. lycos.com |
210,164,414 |
4.60 |
|
7. excite.com |
152,963,931 |
6.38 |
|
8. go.com |
122,135,649 |
5.79 |
|
9. iwon.com |
75,380,414 |
2.99 |
|
10. compuserve.com |
70,535,203 |
2.97 |
|
11. realtor.com |
63,144,536 |
0.97 |
|
12. mapquest.com |
57,609,315 |
2.69 |
|
13. passport.com |
53,497,507 |
12.24 |
|
14. monster.com |
52,308,581 |
1.79 |
|
15. webmillion.com |
51,651,439 |
0.15 |
|
16. infospace.com |
49,963,627 |
2.50 |
|
17. cnn.com |
46,556,942 |
2.49 |
|
18. prodigy.net |
45,236,233 |
1.88 |
|
19. juno.com |
45,070,606 |
1.77 |
|
20. digitalcity.com |
42,767,209 |
2.80 |
|
21. cnet.com |
40,986,875 |
2.34 |
|
22. nascar.com |
39,138,599 |
1.44 |
|
23. americangreetings.com |
38,713,506 |
3.32 |
|
24. ancestry.com |
38,626,089 |
0.99 |
|
25. pogo.com |
38,465,826 |
1.31 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
||
|
Top 10 Banners |
|||
|
Advertiser |
Impressions |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
|
1. Bonzi Software |
43,996,372 |
12,047,049 |
15.93 |
|
2. ClassMates |
132,707,920 |
7,508,398 |
9.93 |
|
3. Colonize |
26,401,655 |
5,938,776 |
7.85 |
|
4. Amazon |
13,652,005 |
5,626,710 |
7.44 |
|
5. Block Financial Corp. |
14,423,523 |
5,559,398 |
7.35 |
|
6. Consumer Counseling |
16,111,593 |
4,342,366 |
5.74 |
|
7. Barney Telecomm |
9,226,008 |
4,213,909 |
5.57 |
|
8. ETrade |
16,889,335 |
4,213,651 |
5.57 |
|
9. ETrade |
14,866,542 |
4,135,928 |
5.47 |
|
10. EasyRoommate |
33,968,015 |
4,090,614 |
5.41 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
|||
|
Average Usage |
|||
|
Values |
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Change |
|
Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
Number of Unique Sites Visited |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
Page Views per Week |
220 |
220 |
0 |
|
Page Views per Surfing Session |
35 |
35 |
0 |
|
Time Spent per Week |
3:14:27 |
3:13:54 |
0.28 |
|
Time Spent During Surfing Session |
0:31:08 |
0:31:16 |
-0.43 |
|
Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:53 |
0:00:54 |
-0.43 |
|
Average Click Rate for Top Banners |
0.29 |
0.26 |
11.54 |
|
Active Internet Universe |
75,611,688 |
73,923,664 |
2.28 |
|
Current Internet Universe Estimate |
166,254,512 |
166,697,725 |
-0.27 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
|||
April 6, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media. Staff writer Marty Beard contributed to the reporting of this story.
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