Why Google’s Super Bowl Ad Mattered

We all know that Google makes a lot of money from ads, but it’s not very often that Google spends a lot of money on ads. The Web powerhouse has been chugging along for years on market dominance and word-of-mouth, but that changed on Sunday night.

During the third quarter of the Super Bowl, Google dove into the world’s biggest ad showcase. While the ad has had its critics (BNet rips it here), some sites ranked it as one of the best ads of the night (like Entertainment Weekly).

But whether or not you liked the aesthetics, approach or politics of Google’s ad, the bottom line was that the search giant got in front of the largest audience in television history to show what it thought was important.

Microsoft upped the ante when Bing launched, putting on an $80 million ad campaign in their attempt to pull casual users from Google . By comparison, Google spent only $5 million, according to the Guardian, on Sunday’s Super Bowl ad.

The ad mattered because of what it told the public about what mattered to Google and because of what it featured. One of those things was YouTube.  Google  featured the ad as part of a series of promotional  online videos for three months prior to game time, essentially crowdsourcing  the ad. Crowdsourcing was exactly the kind of stunt Google would pull that Microsoft would never do, preferring to rely on ad agency think.

The Super Bowl placement also signaled a significant change in tactics, as Danny Sullivan, Editor of SearchEngineLand, said, “This pretty much confirms that Google is absolutely feeling the pressure from Bing. The company has never, ever seriously advertised its core search offerings before in this manner.”

Or summed up succinctly by Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt’s tweet, “Hell has indeed frozen over.”

Instead of generic series of Google searches, this ad was a glimpse at features that casual users of the site might not know about.

• The ad stressed maps and business listings: This is a place where Google is making a big move, crafting what looks to be the world’s biggest business directory, with exterior maps (and rumored interior maps of stores), aggregated along with reviews.
• The ad stressed translation: One-click translation of foreign sites is another tool Google is attempting to leverage against a global audience it’s still looking to penetrate. Google is still looking at footholds in the emerging markets, so English-to-another language is as powerful, if not more so than another language-to-English.
• Finally, the ad stressed shortcuts. Google is emphasizing speed to search answers and tools that will be displayed on the top of search pages, so airline flight status and dictionary definitions are great examples of that.

Google is such a big part of everyone’s Web experience that it’s impressive to see them go from passive to active in their marketing. Doing it on such a large stage will have an impact and resonate with their users.

About Mike Koehler

Mike Koehler is the New Media Director for Schnake Turnbo Frank | PR, the largest and oldest public relations firm in Oklahoma. Mike consults with clients about the best use of tools on the Internet, Web strategy and social media policy. Mike blogs regularly at www.smirknewmedia.com and is working on his first book to be published in 2010. Mike lives in Oklahoma City with his wife and three kids.

You can find Mike on Twitter: @mkokc.

Website: http://www.smirknewmedia.com