IP Democracy: Google Pushes the Edge with New Ads

The New York Times’ Stuart Elliott has this piece today about a test campaign by Google and ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners which highlights the quantum leap that video advertising can make on the web. The campaign not only uses clickable video but also incorporates several Google products, including Google Earth and geo-locating of computers.

Here’s the description of the innovative campaign:

Visitors to a variety of Web sites in six cities around the country that are home to 22 Saturn dealerships will see what look like typical banner ads for Aura, a new Saturn midsize sedan. Clicking on an ad will produce a view of the earth that zooms in on the dealership nearest to the computer user.

The doors to the virtual dealership fly open, revealing the general manager, who introduces a brief commercial about Aura. After the spot ends, the general manager returns, standing next to an Aura and offering choices that include spinning the car 360 degrees, inspecting its engine, printing a map with directions to the dealership and visiting the Web sites of Saturn (saturn.com) or the dealer.

How cool is that? While traditional TV video ad spots are arguably highly effective on the Internet as it is, for the web to truly come into its own as an advertising medium that is different from, and better than, TV, companies have to take full advantage of the interactive capabilities that are the fundamental distinguishing characteristic of the Internet. Tying together Google Earth and geo-locating and video in an interesting bundle is just one example of the kind of boundary-pushing available to web advertisers.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on September 22, 2006 8:30 AM to IP Democracy