Ask.com’s New Simple U.S. Commercial

Matt Cutts, August 14th, 2007 at 3:15 pm ET:

I saw that commercial a few days ago. I thought it was interesting that Ask implied that Google just shows “10 blue links,” but the query that they chose was San Francisco. In fact, for that query on Google, I just got:
- websearch results
- a map of san francisco
- pictures of san francisco
- related queries
- news results for san francisco

So I’m not sure that the comparison was as accurate as it could have been. :)

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rustybrick, August 14th, 2007 at 4:16 pm ET:

Well, to be fair, they did not show the Google logo. :)

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RustyS, August 14th, 2007 at 4:54 pm ET:

That’s a lot stronger than their other ads to-date. Silence on a TV ad is actually very noticeable as it actually catches your attention. But the approach they were taking with the UK ads did nothing to really promote Ask itself. It was just another attempt at attention-getting edginess that falls flat and is forgotten once the next 30-second spot rolls up.

Ask’s greatest advantage is in its UI (not the results IMO) and this does a much better job of displaying that. A lot of people like Google’s barebones approach. Even with universal search pulling in other data it still looks circa 1998. But this clearly states what Ask is all about and tries to show its main point of differentiation.

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randfish, August 14th, 2007 at 8:17 pm ET:

Wow… that click noise they recorded is so incredibly satisfying. I wish my mouse sounds like that when I clicked - it’s like this heightened, on “e” type-of-sound.

As far as the rest of the ad goes, who knows? It might actually be successful.

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John Ellis, August 14th, 2007 at 10:28 pm ET:

When they compare themselves to Google, which we all know, that’s what they are doing, they are just reminding the consumer that Google is #1.

Although, this is much better then promoting their algorithm.

More marketing Advise for Ask.com: http://www.johnwellis.com/marketing-advice-for-askcom/

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Michael Shull, August 21st, 2007 at 2:14 pm ET:

I think this is a bold move on behalf of Ask; Lanzone seemed to find humor in Matt’s take on the commercial.

As for the issue of a mostly silent commercial, I disagree that silence draws attention. As someone who constanlty is multi-tasking, I find that silent commercials are nothing more than a wasted opportunity to grab my attention while my nose is in the laptop.

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