Wildly Appropriate

"Google Pontiac" Campaign Brilliance

Jan 25, 11:12 AM

I just read Max Kalehoff's Op-Ed on the new "Google Pontiac" TV campaign (subscribers only) and am trying not to get too jazzed too soon but wow - a television spot with footage of the google.com homepage and the tagline "Don't Take Our Word For It - Google Pontiac And Discover For Yourself" ... it's brilliant! And as Kalehof points out, it's also a huge validation moment for customer generated media (CGM):

Considering a recent Intelliseek/Forrester study showing that recommendations from consumers and brand Web sites are the two most trusted forms of advertising, this sort of strategy can make a lot of sense....Google Pontiac is an interesting case study, but it's also a huge deal because it categorically validates the increasing power and influence of consumer-generated media (or CGM) and the inextricable relationship with search and otherwise traditional advertising.

This campaign also hella-reinforces the authority and credibility of Google. More from Kalehoff's article:

...GM's campaign implies tremendous authority and trust in the Google brand. It's almost as if Google is moving into the territory of J.D. Power & Associates as the ubiquitous barometer of customer satisfaction, so often plugged into automotive advertising. GM sales and marketing chief Mark LaNeve said in a recent Business Week article by David Kiley: "We're touting Google, frankly, because it stands for credibility and consumer empowerment, and we like the association."

So, Google wins... GM wins... and the nascent SERM industry wins too:

There also are risks associated with heavily promoting a window into a vast, largely uncontrolled pool of commentary and other content. Such an affirmation to search and CGM necessitates even greater efforts to closely monitor and foster the communities and buzz that created the desired search-friendly content in the first place.

If you're really daring customers to Google your product or brand you'd better be OK with what they find. And if what's found on that results page includes unhappy customer stories and hate-blogs and usenet rants... Who you gonna call?

You can watch a DVR'd  handheld-videocam  non-broadcast quality video recording of the Google Pontiac ad by visiting the Local Internet Marketing blog.

After you've seen the footage, stay on the site and check out the followup story on Mazda buying PPC ads for the keyword "Pontiac" and thereby cashing-in on Pontiac's media buy. Again, fascinating stuff goin on here...

Note: Mint tells me I'm getting some spelling-challenged Google visitors due to my original misspelling of Mr. Kalefhoff's name as "Kalehof," so I'm going to keep the misspelling tucked away down here at the bottom of the entry and see if the traffic keeps coming.