Brand advertising: Google gets it

Google updated the internet advertising market with Adwords ("revolutionized" sounds so big). Some players were quick to follow, others follow at their own pace and bring valuable innovations along the way. Now Google shows that it can also learn a lesson from the market, when it wants.

As we all know, a text advertisement is a very effective and efficient way to talk to someone who is looking for something. The problem is that people are generally not looking on the internet for a shampoo bottle with some new fructose derivate to combat Extremely Thin and Dry-Looking Hair. So, L'Oreal, where do your ad dollars go?

Typically, a FMCG's first steps on the internet would be on a portal like Yahoo! or MSN, where there is ample opportunity to talk visually with the consumer. This choice makes sense for these advertisers, because a visual representation is of course the way how the consumer expects to be seduced to grant their precious attention to ads about these so-called "Low-Involvement" goods. The point is of course that the FMCG companies have a large product portfolio to support and thus a big advertising budget to allocate.

Now Google seems to have cracked the code to these ad revenues. (pun intended) This weekend Google launched their first cobranded advertising campaign with Sony Pictures, to promote the May launch of the Da Vinci Code. It is a great contest with an exciting daily game that should be very effective for onsite activity. Obviously it is a great branding exercise, since it is impossible to solve all the games without having checked the entire site during the 24 days of the game. Unless you are particularly well informed, of course.


In any case, this is great first step. Of course you have to install the Da Vinci Code widget on your personalized HP before the campaign really kicks in, so it is not yet a solution for our shampoo bottle. But at the very least it shows that with widgets you can do great branding, so what about a widget for daily coupons, which may feature... a shampoo bottle. Hey, I can sell that!

Which reminds me, for a live demo version of the eBay Wheel (think Member Acquisition and Activation rising to UNSEEN levels, and, a 10% eBay.be member participation rate (take that, Da Vinci Code)), click here to turn the Wheel yourself!

(Demo version)