HotBot's TV Campaign Expands into Three New Markets

Wired Digital in San Francisco, the newest member of the Lycos Network has expanded its HotBot ‘search smarter’ television branding campaign into three new markets: Boston, Chicago and Washington.

The campaign, created in partnership with San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, initially rolled-out in October in four test markets–New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin, TX. The campaign will continue to air during high-profile event television programming in prime time, sports, and news in all seven markets through December.

The expansion marks the second phase of a year-long, multi-million dollar, consumer brand-building campaign for the search site.

“The positive response we’ve received from viewers in our test markets confirm what we saw in our extensive focus-group research: Consumers want a search engine focused on search excellence that gets them to relevant information faster,” said Mary Murphy, senior vice president of marketing at Wired Digital. “Our spots are clearly resonating with that consumer need and showing viewers there really is a difference among search sites. . . ”

The TV commercials center around HotBot’s ability to understand users’ questions and deliver highly relevant search results quickly.