Ga-Ga Over Google

One of the biggest challenges confronting Internet retailers when it comes to setting a cross-channel marketing strategy is how to break through the clutter. In an era when most consumers have become numb to viewing web addresses as part of any offline ad campaign, retailers are feeling hard pressed to create television campaigns that generate a buzz about their brand and drive consumers to their web sites.

At the same time, asking a consumer to remember a web address, unless it is highly intuitive, is likely to lead to mistakes when entering the address. Sadly, unless consumers get the address right in less than three tries, they are likely to abandon their effort to locate the retailer’s site. The hope then for the retailer is if the consumer performs a search on the company name.

Huge buzz

In a stroke of ingenuity, automaker Pontiac has seized on a new way to marry search and television advertising to drive consumers to its web site. Instead of telling consumers to go to Pontiac.com in its television commercials, the automaker is urging consumers: “Google Pontiac.” The ad closes with an image of the Google screen and the word “Pontiac” being typed into the search box.

Not surprisingly, the ad has generated a tremendous buzz in advertising and marketing circles, as well as among consumers, for its innovativeness and clever leverage of the Google brand. By linking its brand to Google, Pontiac not only gains credibility with consumers ages 25 to 35 that see Google as a hip, stylish and authoritative brand, it gives consumers outside that demographic a surefire way to remember where to find Pontiac on the web.

“This is a creative twist on the concept of ‘Don’t take our word for it, go ask the expert,’” says Julie Cottineau, executive director, consumer branding for Interbrand, a brand consulting agency. “This ad breaks through.”

Cottineau, who acknowledges she does not remember many television ads from automakers, says that what makes the Pontiac ad memorable is that Google is a beloved search engine used by consumers surfing the web for information. That includes consumers in the market for an automobile. Since the suggestion to “Google Pontiac” plays into consumer behavior to search in advance of shopping online, Pontiac is assured of automatically raising its natural search placement on Google, even though the automaker has paid for the premier placement. The advantage from the rise in natural search is that consumers can click to related Pontiac sites.

Tapping into behavior

“Most people don’t know how a company gets to the top of a Google search—what they see instead is a high ranking that says there is a community of people looking to the Pontiac brand to aid them in their search for a new car,” she adds. “Consumers not only get a listing for the official Pontiac site, but links to related sites that can provide a richer source of information about Pontiac.”

The apparent success of the Pontiac commercial in creating word of mouth marketing is certain to have Internet retailers asking what they can learn from Pontiac’s strategy, and whether leveraging the Google brand in a similar fashion will result in incremental sales for them.

First the positives. One of the key advantages of urging viewers to “Google Pontiac” is that it taps into current consumer behavior when it comes to online shopping. “Consumers no longer navigate to find information about a brand or a product, they search, even offline,” says Fredrick Marckini, CEO of search engine marketing company iProspect. “There are more devices becoming available that allow people to search. Look at TiVo or GPS navigation in autos, they are search tools that people are embracing.”

Tapping into consumers’ natural inclination to search creates a dynamic call to action that fits seamlessly with the purpose of directing consumers to a web site. Television, radio and display print advertising are brand and image building tools. Their purpose is to create a recognition factor among consumers which the advertiser follows up with more detailed advertising in other mediums. These channels can include online, direct mail, telemarketing, advertorials, and in-store brochures that build upon the brand recognition by delivering detailed information about the specific products under the brand umbrella.

Drilling

“The key to successful cross-channel marketing is that it takes consumers somewhere they can drill down to learn more about the product and make a purchasing decision,” says Larry Chiagouris, senior partner for BrandMarketingServices Ltd., a New York-based marketing firm and an associate professor of marketing at New York’s Pace University.

In the case of Pontiac, consumers are guided via Google to the automaker’s official web site. Once there, consumers can, among other things, view the entire Pontiac line, virtually build a car, get price quotes, and locate a dealer.

Consumers wishing to drill down within Google’s search results can also be linked to sites offering discussion groups about Pontiac and web sites for Pontiac enthusiasts. Access to such information can be valuable to consumers when making the decision to purchase an automobile, since the buying process tends to be lengthy and can last weeks and even months for some consumers.

“The appeal of television advertising is declining and advertisers are taking a closer look at ways to generate secondary exposure through brand-building ads,” says Sanjay Dhar, professor of marketing at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. “Large advertisers like Procter & Gamble are reallocating huge portions of their ad budgets to campaigns that generate secondary exposure.”

The appeal to a retailer for pursuing this type of strategy is that it associates itself with a ritual brand that enhances the value of its own brand. “Pontiac is not a top of mind car brand,” says Cottineau. “Associating itself with a ritual brand such as Google makes Pontiac look as though it has something going for it when it comes to consumer lifestyles. It is a way to successfully connect with the target audience.”

First in line

In Pontiac’s case, the primary target is most likely young professionals with the earning power and disposable income to purchase an automobile.

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Other ritual brands retailers can associate with that will provide their own brand a lift with young professionals include the NBA and iPod. BMW and Mercedes Benz have already run successful promotions in which customers buying a new vehicle received an iPod, according to Cottineau.

Travelocity capitalized on an association with Netflix in which consumers received a free Netflix subscription for booking a vacation in addition to recommendations for music and movies related to their destination. “It’s about engaging people in a way that speaks to their lifestyle,” adds Cottineau.

Leveraging the Google brand is not the first time Pontiac has tried to associated itself with a ritual brand online. The automaker did a tie-in during the spring of 2005 with the television show “The Apprentice” when it introduced the Solstice, a 2-seat roadster scheduled to arrive in showrooms later that year. Participants on “The Apprentice” were asked to create a marketing brochure for the new automobile.

Viewers wanting to immediately learn more about the new car were directed to a customized landing page where they were offered a certificate that they could take to a Pontiac dealer the day after the episode aired to purchase one of the first 1,000 Solstices off the assembly line. The vehicles were to come with a special insignia identifying them as limited editions.

The certificates were grabbed up in 41 minutes, according to Pontiac. By the time dealers could begin taking orders the following day, 212,000 people had visited the Solstice landing page. Of that group, 20,000 had signed up for a certificate to take to a dealer to order one of the first 1,000 Solstice models. Coincidentally, Pontiac planned to produce 20,000 Solstices during the first year.

Dovetailing

The Solstice promotion dovetailed with a similar campaign linked to the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in which the star gave away 276 G6 sedans to the audience. As with the Solstice/Apprentice promotion, Pontiac directed people to a landing page for the G6. About 250,000 unique visitors came to the page the day of the show, up from a daily average of about 30,000.

“Good cross channel marketers realize that driving people online delivers a richer, more interactive marketing experience,” says Peter Kim, senior analyst for Forrester Research. “The online marketing experience provides the ability to communicate with the consumer one-on-one about the brand. There is likely to be more of this kind of cross-channel integration.”

Despite Pontiac’s adeptness in other cross-channel marketing campaigns, its “Google Pontiac” campaign falls down in several areas, analysts note. Most noticeably lacking in this case is an interactive prompt once consumers land on Pontiac.com. “There needs to be some kind of mechanism to capture information about the customer so it can be used to communicate with them to build a relationship that brings them back to your site,” explains Keith Wardell, president and CEO of marketing company Exmplar Inc. “Pontiac has built nothing on the back end of the promotion to track dealer traffic or sales generated by the campaign. All they can measure is how often Pontiac is entered on Google. That’s not necessarily enough to justify the cost of broadcast media.”

One possibility for creating a measurable interaction with the customer on the back end is to leverage the Build an Auto feature. The feature is popular with customers who are set on the type of vehicle they want and the features in it without having to start the process at the dealership. Allowing the customer to build the car, and following up with an e-mail brochure detailing the finished product and showing local dealers that have it in stock can be a powerful interactive relationship building tool, according to marketing experts. Toyota.com has used a similar approach.

Creative thinking

“Multi-channel retailers need to think creatively to find ways to engage the audience,” says Lisa Wehr, CEO of search marketing company Oneupweb. “Too many retailers rely on tested marketing methods and forget to experiment. In Pontiac’s case, they did not create a perfect flow-through between marketing channels.”

The other major risk with Pontiac’s strategy is that competitors can purchase keywords to position themselves higher up in the search results when shoppers Google Pontiac. Mazda, which produces the Miata, a competitor to the Solstice, reportedly has been buying paid search results against Pontiac. Google allows advertisers to buy a competitor’s keyword if the advertiser does not include that word in the creative, according to search engine marketing experts.

“There is a small, but measurable risk to marketers who encourage search as part of an ad,” says Kevin Lee, chairman and co-founder of Did-It Search Marketing. “Regardless of whether an advertiser includes a call to action in their general offline advertising, there is a large interaction effect between advertising and searches for the advertiser’s brand in all the search engines.”

Retailers hoping to emulate Pontiac’s strategy must be cognizant that the association with Google has a limited shelf life. Once other advertisers follow suit, the uniqueness of the approach will fade and eventually be tuned out by consumers. “Others are certain to follow, but for the Pontiac, the big question is whether this campaign will still be there in 60 days and if they have refined it into a complete multi-channel marketing package,” adds Wardell.

Despite the shortcomings of the Pontiac campaign, the automaker clearly succeeded in creating a marketing buzz as well as leveraging the power of broadcast advertising to direct consumers to the web where they can further their education about the brand.

Whether the strategy actually drives a significant boost in sales remains to be seen, as it is unlikely Pontiac will release information about the program if it falls short of expectations. Nevertheless, there are plenty of lessons for multi-channel retailers to take away from the Googlization of Pontiac.

Peter Lucas is a freelance business writer based in Highland Park, Ill.