I was watching "That 70s Show" last night (yes, Rand, I was only pretending to watch the Seahawks game) when something caught my eye in a Pontiac commercial. I usually ignore TV ads unless they're during the Superbowl, as they more often than not serve to annoy me, but suddenly, in the middle of a Pontiac ad, was the Google search page and the announcer was crooning,
"Don't take our word for it, Google "Pontiac" to find out!"
Uh, what? Oookay...Pontiac is using Google to promote their website, I got that much. But why? At the end of the commercial, after the Google promotion announcement, there's the Pontiac website at the bottom of the screen. (You can find a version of the Pontiac ad linked in a related article at the Local Zing Blog, also credited with the photo above.)
From a Business Week article on Google's search for the advertising edge:
Says GM sales and marketing chief Mark LaNeve: "We're touting Google, frankly, because it stands for credibility and consumer empowerment, and we like the association." Recalls (Tim) Armstrong [Google's national sales chief]: "I remember one guy in Detroit who cut us off, saying we didn't understand advertising." Now it's the advertisers that are busy trying to understand Google.
I guess the command to "google it" is a better call to action than simply listing the site. So I googled Pontiac to see what came up. Pontiac's site is, indeed, number one. The first time I Googled it on our network, their Adwords ad was right there at the top of the screen, too. But I haven't seen it since so I guess they might have blocked our IPs after one impression to preserve their CTR.
Funny enough, after the Pontiac homepage, I didn't see the scores of positive review sites and affiliated sites I assumed Pontiac would have SEO'd into the top-10. Instead, there are listings for the city government of Pontiac, Michigan (unsurprising), the Pontiac Silverdome, a restaurant called the Pontiac Grille (way to link, guys!), several Pontiac clubs, and a truly SEO-rrific (/sarcasm) site, Camp Pontiac. They're really giving Google a free promotion just for that? There's so much potential here! And why aren't local dealerships cashing on Pontiac's huge investment in search?
I think it might be a challenge. Anyone want to rank for the term "Pontiac"?
whoop here it is:
https://www.ymarketing.com/blog/2007/06/mazda-trumps-pontiac.html
for anyone who is interested :).
Please note that this was an Infuse Creative search engine marketing campaign.
Hey SEOmoz'ers,
I have a follow up to this story. If anyone is interested, please lemme know and I'll drop y'all a link.
Thx!
-Ryan
Please note that this was an Infuse Creative search engine marketing campaign.
Such a smashing text just about Google Pontiac. This is manageable to detect the writing service ,which will do the persuasive essay writing and custom written essays. In fact, I could buy essays for sale.
You can buy a new car for a used car price if you don't mind buying Saturn. The discontinued car brand, not the planet – obviously. General Motors axed both Pontiac AND Saturn and has pulled a fast one on dealers, turning over ownership to them, which doesn't make a lot of sense, because dealerships can now classify them as "used" or rather, have to, for cars that have only been driven on test drives at most. Dealers will get up to $7,000 to put the cars in rental or service fleets – essentially paying them to take the cars, but why not just sell them at a deep discount? Last time I checked, GM needed a serious short term loan or two to stay open. So car lovers what are you waiting for?? This could be a good chance for you to collect differet kinds of car in an affordable price.
Thanks for this post.
Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer! I will bookmark your blog and have my children check up here often. Thumbs up!
They might be trying out what Mike Grehan recently suggested about taking advantage of search engines incorporating end user data into their relevancy algorithms. His suggestion was an advertising campaign telling users to search for your company and brand name in the search engines by providing them with a link.
We will probably see a lot more of this now. By the way, I am also opposed to people using Google as a verb. I hate it.
Hi there,
In the interest of SEO I was wondering if you would mind linking to my original article instead of directly to the video, or at least properly attribute the video:
https://localzing.com/blog/local-advertising/gm-says-google-pontiac/
Great comments by the way,
Karl Long
A textbook example of why you should let affiliates bid UNDER you for your prime keywords.
It looks like Mazda is also capitalizing on Pontiac's ad campaign. They are the top two GoogleAd's right now.
It's possible Pontiac wanted to show the culture of their brand (the clubs, events, etc.) instead of the reviews.
And I think Pontiac may have hit their budget with Adwords because I have not seen their ad at all. Or maybe they got outbid? Behold the power of TV advertising!
Gladstein - why is Google opposed to their brand as verb? It's great for name recognition and I don't think they're anywhere close to losing their trademark due to common use... yet!
Anyway, great find Kat! (I was wathcing That 70's Show too but ignored the commercials...)
Here's a link to the C&D letter G's lawyer sent to the owner of WordSpy, which listed the verb "Google".
Basically, they're competing with other SEs, and while they're number 1, they don't (or didn't) want the term to become so generic that anyone would "Google at Yahoo".
Even though they do... ;)
That's odd. If they're showing Google's logo, they'd have to have permission, or this is copyright infringement. But if they have G's permission, they should know that Google is opposed to their corporate name being used as a verb.