NET FIRMS GAMBLE FUTURE ON SUPER BOWL TV ADS.

Byline: Stuart Elliott The New York Times

If Beethoven were commissioned to rewrite his Fifth Symphony for Super Bowl XXXIV, he would undoubtedly begin this way: ``Dot, dot, dot, com. Dot, dot, dot, com.''

The mad scramble by Internet companies to increase recognition of their brand names by advertising in traditional media outlets will accelerate on Super Sunday, typically the biggest day of the year for Madison Avenue. Dot-coms are paying record prices, an estimated average of more than $2 million for each 30-second commercial during the game, which is at least 25 percent higher than the 1999 rate, to elbow their way into the ranks of mainstay products such as automobiles, beers, credit cards and soft drinks.

``There's going to be a major-league shakeout,'' Gene DeWitt, president and chief executive at DeWitt Media in New York, said about the Net companies.

``They all seem to have decided it's live or die, spending gobs of money,'' said DeWitt, whose company buys commercial time and ad space for advertisers. ``There's a kind of desperation to it.''

For the first time, a dot-com, the ETrade Group, will even sponsor the halftime show, until now the province of purveyors of prosaic products like lunch meat.

``The dot-coms need to generate awareness and attention, to introduce themselves to the public, to get noticed by Wall Street,'' said Joe Mandese, editor of The Myers Report, a media industry newsletter. ``What better way to do that than the ultimate advertising event?''

To be sure, exposure gained during the game on Jan. 30 is an expensive gamble that might not prove to be worth the price. If the performance of their pitches is deemed sufficiently weak, what was intended as a shrewd business move could backfire badly. Not only might those dot-coms not be back for Super Bowl XXXV, they might not be in business by then either.

Of about 30 companies buying commercial time during the game, which will be broadcast by ABC, a dozen or so will be dot-coms. That is four times as many as last year. In fact, that is more than have appeared during all previous Super Bowls combined.

The estimated 125 million American viewers of Super Bowl XXXIV will see commercials for companies like Angeltips.com, Computer.com, Kforce.com, Ourbeginning.com, Pets.com and Screaming Media, all seeking to draw traffic to their Web sites or sell various online goods and services.

``The Super Bowl is the one time of the year when the viewers look forward to the commercials,'' said Jon Mandel, co-managing director at Mediacom in New York, the media services arm of Grey Advertising.

``It's a one-of-a-kind event,'' he added, ``reaching everybody: men, women, children, pets. If you're trying to stand out, it's the place to be.''

Grey is creating a Super Bowl commercial for Kforce.com, a job search Web site owned by Romac International that is formally known as the Knowledge Force Network.

``It's a very intense, hyperconcentrated atmosphere for these companies, some of which you've heard of and some of which are coming in cold,'' said Ted Sann, co-chief executive and chief creative officer at BBDO New York, part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, which will create Super Bowl work for the Charles Schwab online brokerage division as well as advertisers without dots like Federal Express, PepsiCo and Visa.

``There's a potential for confusion because the dot-com category will be so cluttered, so they're going to have to differentiate themselves on the spot,'' he added. ``If they don't have an execution that's incredibly good, absolutely riveting, they'll just be throwing the money away.''

And it's a lot of money. The estimated average of more than $2 million for each 30 seconds of commercial time compares with the estimated average of $1.6 million charged by the News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting unit for each 30-second spot during the Super Bowl last year.

``If ABC could add a fifth quarter, they'd do it,'' DeWitt said.

Because of the demand from dot-coms, as well as the overall strength of the advertising market, commercial time during the game is almost sold out more than two months before kickoff, and advertisers are paying up to $3 million for each of the few commercial slots left.

``The dot-coms recognize they need that quick and effective reach to drive people to their sites,'' said Marv Goldsmith, president for sales and marketing at the ABC Television Network in New York, part of the ABC unit of The Walt Disney Co. ``And several are coming in on a competitive basis, reacting to each other.''

For instance, besides the Kforce job search Web site, which is a newcomer to the Super Bowl, two other job-search sites are buying spots - Hotjobs.com and Monster.com, part of TMP Worldwide. Both are returning from last year.

``It's obvious why we're back: The Super Bowl really worked for us,'' said Dean Harris, senior vice president for marketing at Hotjobs.com in New York. ``It drew traffic to our site and grew our business.''

But this year will be tougher. ``Last year, people hadn't been asked to remember as many dot-com brands,'' said Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen Advertising in Wenham, Mass., Monster.com's agency that is part of the Lowe Group unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies. ``Now it won't be as easy as putting a name up on the screen with a dot-com after it.''

``You're going to have to give people a real reason why, make them take a course of action,'' said Boches, whose agency is also creating a spot for Oxygen Media, a Web site and cable TV network aimed at women. ``That puts more pressure on the advertising.''