The official Super Bowl Web site, "SuperBowl.com," is
produced by the NFL and Starwave, supported by Fox and
sponsored exclusively by IBM. The site, at http://www.
superbowl.com, is looking to build on the eight million hits
it received on Super Bowl Sunday last year. NFL Enterprises
VP/Programming & New Media Development Ann Kirschner told
THE DAILY that part of the improvement of the site is "a
more in-depth production crew which numbers three dozen
people from the NFL, Fox, Starwave and IBM" (THE DAILY).
FLYING SOLO: After selling sponsorships to nine
companies last year for between $100-200,000, the NFL sold
sole sponsorship to IBM this year, which AD AGE's Jeff
Jensen notes "could be worth as much as $1 million" (AD AGE,
1/20). Kirschner: "We decided to deliver a focused message
this year servicing the interest of a creative sponsor. We
think it's kind of classy." Starwave VP/Advertising &
Marketing Rich LeFurgy called the deal the "largest single
sponsorship of its kind on the Internet to date."
FOX WATCH: Calling it "a great promotional device and
a chance to communicate with consumers," Fox Sports Exec
VP/Marketing Tracy Dolgin told THE DAILY the network plans a
fan poll conducted on the site with the topic to be
announced during Fox's pre-game show and results updated at
halftime and announced during the postgame show. Dolgin:
"The game draws its own ratings. This allows us to promote
the entire day, it gives us the opportunity to influence
programming before and after the game" (THE DAILY).
THE CONTENDERS: The Patriots' home site, at http://
www.patriots.com, has been drawing as many as 90,000 hits
per hour over the past week. NEC Servers Dir of Marketing
Joseph Wei, who handles the site, told THE DAILY that the
Patriots recently purchased a server upgrade from NEC and
can "easily handle" as many as 150,000 hits per hour. The
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Packers site, Packer Plus
OnLine, at http://www.onwis.com/packer/, received nearly 5
million hits last week alone. Journal Sentinel Senior
Editor/Electronic Services Dan Patrinos said that the site
will provide play-by-play coverage of the game, as well as
audio reports from local radio station WTMJ (THE DAILY).
