Some speculation here and there that Google is revving up to start a major marketing push. This seemed more like wishful thinking to me – Ad Age (print only) was the source, and lord knows the advertising world would luuuuv to slurp up some of Google’s lucre via some splashy 30 second spots. But it seemed totally off base to me, so I lobbed a call into some folks I know over at Google, and they confirm, this report is off base. Yes, Google talks to agencies now and again, and yes they use them for relatively minor stuff like placing B2B stuff in support of AdSense and the like, but no, there is no major review for a branding campaign.
I mean, think about it. Google makes its hay with pure ROI advertising. Google, spending on brand advertising, in TV and print? Don’t make no sense.
John, point well made, as usual.
I’ll stick with my alternative perspective, however… it may be a year or three years… but I think it’s inevitable.
http://www.buzzhit.com/2004/11/different-perspective-on-googles-ad.html
Of course, the current chats could also be about their recently launched certification program, which many of us also wrote about.
They did a PBS sponsorship, which is basically advertising, albeit mellower.
Google regularly sponsors KQED (our local, SF Bay-area NPR station), as does Applied Signal Technology (whose largest customer is the NSA, I believe). Both seem to be trawling for engineers (but the sort of refined, cosmopolitan engineers who listen to “All Things Considered”).
nice comment. keep the work!
danny
marketingtops.com
Yes, I caught the Google stuff on KQED.
Looksmart had a rather funny PBS sponsorship on Mystery. It was *five years* long (1998-9 were heady years indeed), and lasted much longer than most of the company, or the execs who jumped on the opportunity. The end effect was similar to the beat-up Kozmo sign I saw in the Tenderloin a while ago: a grizzled sock-puppet of an advertising presence.
In fact, I saw a homeless guy with a Looksmart T-shirt on a while ago – honestly, I couldn’t make this up.