Focus Scores Big

Focus on the Family says its Web site is being overwhelmed by visitors, brought to the site by the group's Super Bowl ad. The site's traffic ballooned to 40 times its normal volume after the ad aired - with 50,000 unique visitors and 500,000 hits. USA Today's Ad Meter, a real-time consumer testing of the ads as they air, gave low marks to the spot featuring quarterback Tim Tebow. The controversy over the ad was possibly more important to Focus than the ad itself. Software marketing company Alterian SM2 says Focus on the Family got more social media attention than any company between December first and Super Bowl Sunday. More than Google, Anheuser-Busch and Doritos. Since the ad aired, the organization has had 5,000 new subscribers to its magazine Thriving Family.