As I was mindlessly browsing through dozens of pointless Youtube videos, one of the ads caught my eye: it was a superbowl ad for Google. Not known much for its TV media presence, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, decided to put one up for US $5mil during the Superbowl. Here it is:
In short, it is about a “long-distance love story told through keywords.”At first, the idea seems simple (not to mention extremely cheesy!): a Google homepage is shown as someone types in a bunch of random search queries that later connect to reveal a story… Yet it is also contagiously effective in grabbing the viewers’ attention. By using a simple format throughout the ad, it also brilliantly reflects the simplistic layout Google has been known for in its plain-style homepage.
On the Marketing side of things…
In contrast to most other ads we see nowadays that merely spew information to satisfy the consumers’ cognitive component, this one puts more emphasis on the creativity and originality in advertising; it relies very much on the affective as well as behavioral components in advertising. The affective part is felt through the slow unraveling of the story, appealing to consumers who like to follow a sequence of events to piece together a story; whereas the behavioral component is evident as the whole ad is based on someone performing the act of using the search engine.
Not only is this ad effective though, it also displays a degree of truth – referring to the impact that Google has on each one of our lives (assuming you use Google as your primary search engine) – from finding the location of a place, to translations, to instructional advice, we all turn to Google to solve each one of life’s small problems.