Intelligent Speculator

A few days ago, Eric Schmidt, the Google CEO had hinted on his Twitter page that “Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said “Hell has indeed frozen over.“). Why? Because Google is not a company known for spending money on advertising, very far from it. It has been known as the ultimate example of viral marketing. Build a product good enough and users will promote the brand by themselves. And that is indeed what happened. Over the years, Google went from zero to the ultimate leader on the internet without even spending a hundredth of what other companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask.com spent on their marketing campaigns. There were a few ads done by Google but mostly for products it runs or to find the best job candidates.

So seeing yesterday’s ad, one that cost $2.5 million to air during the third quarter of the Super Bowl was a shocker to almost everyone in the industry. First off, you can see the ad here:

Clever no doubt. Who could possibly tell a love story with such details in a 50 second span without even pronouncing a word. Google, that’s who. And the ad was generally seen as very positive by viewers at the time and even since then on sites such as Google’s own Youtube. But to me, the real question is why now? Why does Google feel like it now needs to spend money on marketing when it has done so well without it in years past? In his post, Mr. Schmidt defended the decision by saying that it had been incredibly popular in Youtube’s Google Search stories segment. But still, why now? Does Google really need more branding? Is it worried about Microsoft spending so much money on its own search engine Bing???

I’m uncertain but as Google clearly has lost some momentum in the past few months, it is possible that is simply trying to reinforce its very strong brand. In just a few seconds, it helps users remember what they love about Google and how it can help them in every phase of their life. I personally think it was money well spent and probably more about getting some positive attention rather than reacting to anything that has happened in the past few months (Bing, Nexus One, etc).  And if it is true that Google might come out with the top rated ad in this Super Bowl, then that once more shows off the genius behind the company as it was competing with many companies such as Budweiser, who run several ads every year.