Ask.com Returns To TV With Spot Emphasizing Q&A

Ask.com has a long history in TV advertising; some of it has been entertaining and some of it controversial. But the IAC-owned search engine was on a TV hiatus of sorts during the past couple of years. Now, according to AdWeek, the company is running new TV ads in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The ads reportedly focus on Ask’s more recent positioning as a Q&A engine:

The 15-second commercials emphasize the company’s new focus on fact-based answers to questions posed in everyday language, showing people asking things like “Where can I watch TV online for free?” and “Does speed dating really work?”

Q&A is a relatively hot area these days, though most of the products in the market face various challenges, such as quality (Yahoo Answers), mainstream appeal and scalability (Quora) or utility (Opinionaided). And Facebook Questions hasn’t developed into the “killer app” I originally thought it would.

Ask’s current market share, according to comScore, is 3 percent. It seems to have stabilized in recent months after a period of decline.

We were unable to find the particular spot discussed in the AdWeek article. So here are several of Ask’s previous TV campaigns for your viewing pleasure.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Ux2cQaS5Y[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJsj7P-Za0[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA2IGWFIF24[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yasBpCHHm2E[/youtube]

Postscript: Here’s the commercial referenced in the AdWeek story (courtesy of Ask):

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrQLIa2eMhc[/youtube]

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