AdWeek: Pontiac & Google teaming up to deliver Search ROI metric?

[Elisabeth]

Just came across this random Adweek article, listed under Yahoo! Enterntainment, and found it very interesting:

"Marketers Google Themselves for ROI"

The most formal and high-profile effort so far has been by Pontiac, which in January took the unusual step of tagging its ads with a plea to "Google Pontiac," in part so it could measure the reach of the ads. Mark-Hans Richer, director of marketing for Pontiac, said since the ads ran, the auto brand's search requests are up about 50 percent higher than anyone in the industry.

Such a stat is significant, Richer said, because "Pontiac" and related search terms led to a higher percentage of leads than third-party sites. "We were thinking, 'How can we drive more of this kind of behavior?'" he said. Tagging Google at the end of the company's ads not only accomplished this, but also associated Pontiac with a cool brand, noted Richter.

Ok, who else when they read this, automatically assumes Pontiac paid Google a significant dollar amount for (temporary) use of their trademark in television ads? (i personally don't remember seeing any of these ads, which I am assuming are offline, to drive the online search)

Everyone knows how protective the SE is of its name being used as a verb.

And I can't just believe pontiac would be that stupid to use it without permission.

So what's the deal here? I know there's plenty of payments for 'product endorsement' in TV, movies, etc. - that's nothing new, but is this the really same thing?

Or by "google pontiac" did they mean that (pontiac/GM) just shoved their PPC listing in #1 to measure ROI?

(Granted, the Pontiac car site is organically #1 - but that could change too, unless hand manipulation applies - and it could in this 'official' site case.)

Good partnership/branding for google as well as pontiac?

Or did they make a critical mistake there, equating Google with "search"?

Discuss.

For some reason, I just don't see it as the same thing as Yahoo! teaming up with "The Apprentice" and manipulating that by hand.

Rest of article goes on to mention tools to measure search volume such as Yahoo Buzz (aka YSM keyword suggestion tool) and MSN AdCenter's corresponding tools.

[dannysullivan]

Google swears Pontiac didn't pay them to do this:

"We are happy that Pontiac has featured Google search in their television ad campaign. This is evidence that mainstream brand advertisers are increasingly realizing the close relationship between broadcast advertising and search usage."

The did get permission, and I have no doubt that Google's ad team suggested to the Pontiac team that doing this would be an interesting way to track branding, might get them some buzz. I didn't ask if perhaps Pontiac got a discount on their bids or guaranteed placement inline with results, rather than off to the side. I doubt the click price was downgraded. But I could totally see Google saying that they'd ensure premium placement for the Pontiac ads.

[Elisabeth]

Thanks Danny,

I completely missed that the first time around. apologies for the re-run.

Still, I am surprised that Google allowed it as a verb.

[andrewgoodman]

Google seems to be backing off the fight against Google as a verb, just because they would have to fight it in so many places. These references are now rampant on TV and radio (either on the news or in general chatter by announcers, hosts, etc.). When that starts happening, you would have to think they'd be unable to maintain the pace of challenging those uses...