iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Contact
 |
|
Pontiac-Google Tie-In A Questionable Choice 
By: Doug Caverly 2006-08-21 Behold: a silver G6 sedan against a black backdrop. Lights swirl around the car, and its "4-Panel Panoramic Roof" is demonstrated.
The camera pans, some luminescent red gauges are displayed, and then, eventually, the Google search engine is shown, with the word "Pontiac" as the query. That was a real Pontiac commercial - you can view it here. The Google tie-in is a little strange, but beyond that, it could have some ramifications that Pontiac didn't consider. Rafe Needleman did think of these possibilities, however, and wrote about them in the CNET blog. "Isn't displaying, 'www.pontiac.com' enough?" Needleman asked. "Apparently not for Pontiac, and it's a decent strategy if you want your potential customer to see the universe of links related to your product." So far, so good. Then the problems start cropping up. "In this case," Needleman continued, "Googling Pontiac gets you a lot of links unrelated to the cars. On the first page of Google results, you get links to the city of Pontiac, the Pontiac Grille in Philadelphia, and Lyle Lovett's album, Pontiac. So I don't get the strategy." Advertising execs at Pontiac likely cringed at Needleman's next realization. "There's a big risk: a competitor could swoop in and buy out the Google ads that sit on top of the search result. Right now the top ad is indeed from Pontiac. But there's nothing, except money, to stop Ford, Honda, or another car company from outbidding Pontiac for the 'Pontiac' ad word," he stated. Needleman's points are good ones. It'll probably be a long time before anyone considers advertising with Google in this manner again. Tag: Pontiac, Google Add to  Del.icio.us |  Digg |  Yahoo! My Web |  Furl
Have a bookmark! - 
About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for SearchNewz, WebProNews, InternetFinancialNews, and SecurityProNews. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SearchNewz
is an iEntry, Inc. ® publication
©
$line) {
echo $line ;
}
?>
All Rights Reserved. Newsletter Archive - Privacy Policy - Legal - Sitemap - Contact Us - RSS Feeds - Newsletter Signup |
