Twenty five years after Mac rattled the advertising and technology industries with its 1984 spot during SuperBowl XVIII, 2009 may mark a new turning point. This could be the year that advertisers finally perfect the integration of their multi-million dollar Super Bowl spots with extensions online.  

 

As the recession rages and ad budgets struggle, Super Bowl advertisers are "intensifying efforts to amplify the force" of their commercials, reports the NY Times.

 

Sure, the art of marrying Super Bowl ads and the web was already perfected by Mitsubishi in 2004 (you should really go see what happens if you haven't already). But as of last year, Super Bowl advertisers as a whole still didn't get it. Remember, just six percent of ads last year displayed calls-to-the-web (I just made that term up), and just seven percent of advertisers bought alternative search terms related to their ads (see full report here). 

 

According to the New York Times report, GE is using their Super Bowl airtime as "the springboard for an elaborate campaign -- in print and online as well as on TV." We'll have to wait a couple weeks to see how that turns out. But E*Trade's commercial will be part of a campaign that launches Friday (and like it or not, that creepy talking baby is back). And Miller already has a mini-site up in support of their unprecedented one-second Super Bowl spots.

 

Also pushing the format envelope this year is SoBe and Dreamworks who are running 3D ads.