Well, NBC reported on the eve of Sunday’s Super Bowl that it has sold the last two of the 69 advertising spots for the game, pushing total ad revenue for the event to a record $206 million. (Yes, a “record”)

The network said its total of $261 million in ad revenue for all of Super Bowl day also is a record (yes, you read it correctly: another record). The ads have sold for between $2.4 million and $3 million per 30-second slot this year.

Thirty-two advertisers in all showcased their products during Super Bowl coverage. And you can watch all the Super Bowl Spots here.

But wait! The intelligentsia of the Advertising world isn’t satisfied: “Things are even worse than we thought” writes Ad Age’s Bob Garfield.

Why (we, response marketers obsessed with business results and not “creative”) ask?

Here is why:

“Not because it’s pitiful that the down-and-out Ed McMahon and MC Hammer should humiliate themselves before 100 million appalled eyewitnesses. Not because in the Dustbowl Super Bowl poor NBC is reduced to accepting a schlocky direct-response spot thinly disguised as a winking spoof of schlocky direct-response spots. Not even because the economy is so bad that we’re panicked into trading our jewelry and bridgework for 17¢ on the dollar of gold value”

No, no, no.

According to Garfield, “The truly scary thing is that this skeazy exercise from Euro RSCG Edge and Arnold Worldwide will generate, by far, the biggest ROI of the Super Bowl. With the financial structures of advertising in a state of collapse, if creativity is so beside-the-point, then what is the point?”

What is the point of Advertising?! Good question, I am glad he asked.

This morning, Google launched TV Ads, the latest in their expansion into offline media.

More than ever, it is important for marketers to integrate analytics and conversion optimization reporting from multiple channels. This is just another reason why I’m so excited about the new phone call tracking service, TrackYourCalls, that is about to open for private beta.

Track your calls in Analytics and Google Website Optimizer

This service gives you the ability to track phone call responses across all your ads and conversion optimization web page variations. That’s nothing new, but what it will do that no other service has before is bring rich inbound phone call data directly into your Google Analytics and/or Google Website Optimizer account.

Optimize your pages for online and offline responses

So, your analytics and conversion optimization reports will now show you when your prospects called, from which ads or page variations, and for how long. Those calls can be sliced and diced with all your other website stats in Analytics and, in Google Website Optimizer, you can count online AND offline responses for each of your page variations (using A/B or Multivariate testing).

If you rely on online and offline response channels, now you can be confident that your winning page designs won’t be cannibalizing phone call responses in favour of online responses.

You can sign up at TrackYourCalls.com to be notified when the private beta is released.

This week eMarketer released their findings about Kids Juggling Media, which shows that they’re going online while watching television, often to visit websites they see on TV and discuss with their friends. And it’s not just the kids that are involved in this. The trend over the past few years has been to replace desktop computers with laptops, which are more likely to be used while the TV’s on.

Passive TV becomes Interactive

The media will be inclined to put a negative spin on this, but this can only be good for smart marketers. TV, which has always been a passive media vehicle, is now becoming part of an interactive experience. Ad agencies have seen terrible conversion rates in the past when driving from TV to online and many have written it off as a waste of time. “TV viewers just don’t remember urls by the time they get to the computer” they’ll say. But the viewer is not only visiting your website after seeing your ad, they’re telling their friends about it in real-time. We’re starting to see some good examples of marketers using this interactivity for their benefit.

We’ve seen incredible landing page conversion rates driving from TV to web for our clients. And we continue to optimize the conversion rates on these TV landing page experiences and learn which layout, design and content for each market segment will optimize its performance.

Through our landing page testing, we’ve learning that some conversion factors need to be presented visually and other through headlines and copy. One learning is how important it is to provide visual reference of the source media. Landing pages that show visuals of the product tend to underperform those with visuals of the actors or graphics in the TV ads. We’ve also learned when and how much to emphasize free offer contests in visuals, headlines and copy. Using these best practices and, more importantly, testing how they apply in your situation, will multiply your success at driving results from TV.

But, let me warn you, this isn’t a job for your ad agency. Ad agencies can be great at coming up with brand campaign ideas, keeping consistency with brand standards, and finding media efficiency, but they often fall down when an advertising strategy calls for embracing complexity or disciplined marketing optimization.

To optimize your marketing for maximum response, you need a niche agency to complement your ad agency’s “big idea” skills. You need a partner with a proven, statistically significant, process for marketing optimization.

Note: You can download free conversion optimization resources here or contact us for information on how to get more Actions from your marketing efforts.