We love television commercials. When a good one comes on, we rewind the TiVo and go back to watch it (honestly we do), simply because we think good commercials are worth seeing.
The creative approach is worth taking a look at (and often is better than what we're watching). Sometimes, the creativity is good, but the execution of the television/online integration doesn't go so well. Take Ask.com, for example.
Wait - let's start at the beginning. The point of the situational marketing (the idea, not this site), is to understand your target market and communicate with them the way that best fits them. Based on age, demographics, earnings, ethinicity - whatever your marketing people dig up - if you can understand how they want to be marketed to, you can improve your efficiency by giving them what they want.
Know your audience. It's pretty simple.
So when Ask.com ran commercials on television, I was initially impressed. I liked what I saw. Apparently, a lot of people did, because Yahoo and Google jumped into blended results real fast. But I still liked the commercial, and so added Ask to my search list.
But it seems Ask, while creative in advertising, missed a big part of the integration. David Erickson of e-strategy.com liked the commercial. He liked it so much he followed the instructions.
I've been watching your most recent television ads that show off your blended search results by demonstrating a search for "eagles of death metal" and felt compelled to write a blog post about the commercial.
First, of course, I had to try out your demonstration search. So I typed "eagles" and out popped some search suggestions from the search box but as I continued to type and my search filled out to "eagles 0f"..., you no longer had any suggestions for me:
David wasn't amused, and you have to figure that if he typed in eagles of death metal, so did a lot of other people, all of whom were disappointed. And then add people like me, who liked your commercial, but after reading e-strategy, are rather less than impressed with your follow-through.
Granted, we should be blaming the agency rather than Ask.com, but integration is something all companies should get, but search engine companies, if they don't get it, aren't going to be around.
The internet is a magnifier. It amplifies your message, and let's your public take your ads and spread them far and wide. Or it could have been.
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