Why shell out big bucks for a Super Bowl commercial when one highly effective streaker can create much the same effect for much cheaper? 
  Last week the usual bump in traffic to web sites of Super Bowl advertisers was accompanied by a big uptick for the gambling site GoldenPalace.com. 
   Golden Palace did not purchase time on the big game.
  Instead it sponsored notorious streaker Mark Francis Roberts, a British man who has bared it all at numerous soccer, rugby and other events worldwide, to do a nearly naked dash just before the third quarter began. 
   Clad only in a G-string, Roberts sported a Henna tattoo that etched "GoldenPalace.com" on his back and chest. 
   Though the full incident didn't make it onto TV, it inspired surfers nonetheless. Traffic to GoldenPalace.com surged 380 percent during the 15-minute window after the incident, from 9 to 9:15 p.m., according to comScore Networks' Media Metrix. 
   That's on par with traffic spikes to many Super Bowl advertisers' sites last Sunday. The top 10 advertising gainers averaged a 324 percent increase over their average traffic for the previous four Sundays. 
   CBS, which missed the opportunity to censor Janet Jackson's breast just moments before, switched the cameras off the streaker as Super Bowl security and New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham brought him down. 
   But observant fans realized something had happened and quickly got on the net to see what the disturbance was -- in fact, many apparently were there already trying to figure out if that really was Jackson's breast that had been bared.
   On Monday Jackson accounted for three of the top search phrases on the net, according to comScore.
  She generated 50 percent of the total search volume among the top 200 searched-for phrases.
   Her web site also saw a phenomenal jump in traffic, becoming the most popular music site in Hitwise's tracking despite ranking only in the top 200 the previous week. 
   Jackson's stunt may have driven online communication during the game, too. About one-third of respondents to a comScore survey said they used the internet during the Super Bowl or the pre- or postgame shows. 
   Forty-one percent of those respondents said they used chat, instant messaging or email applications. Twenty-three percent went to sports information sites and 21 percent visited advertiser sites.

February 10, 2004© 2004 Media Life

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