Google Does TV Ads, To Push Chrome Browser In Commercials

May 8, 2009 at 3:33pm ET by Danny Sullivan

It used to be common wisdom that Google never did consumer marketing. That’s changed over the past few years, with Google doing everything from billboards to radio ads to bus “wraps” to push particular Google products. Now it boldly goes into that final frontier, TV ads in the United States.

It’s a first for Google. The company has never directly advertised one of its products on television in the US, though they have been mentioned in conjunction with ads from Google partners, such as T-Mobile pushing its “G1 with Google” Android phone.

Now, Google’s using TV to promote its Chrome browser, as it has announced on its official Google Blog. The company won’t tell me how much it’s spending but stressed the amount is very small. Ads are being placed through Google’s own Google TV Ads network. That system allows advertisers to purchase remnant ad space on a variety of television networks.

Even a small buy might be reassuring to some of the traditional content owners who view Google as somehow sucking the advertising life out of their businesses. Google, which makes virtually all of its money off advertising still hardly seems to spend at all on traditional ads. A television buy might be taken as a sign by some that the Big G is looking to put back into the advertising ecosystem out of its own pocket.

Below is the ad that will be running — which, sorry to say, is pretty terrible to me. I mean, it’s cute — but if you don’t know Google Chrome is a browser, a replacement for Interent Explorer, I doubt most people will get that from this commercial.

For more, see related discussion on Techmeme.

Postscript: Adrian Palacios noted on Twitter that Google also has a large video ad now on the home page of the New York Times pushing Twitter:

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

See more articles by Danny Sullivan >

Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:

See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Features: Analysis, Google: Chrome, Google: Marketing, Google: TV, Top News sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!

FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!