While Google is a company built on advertising, for the most part it has stayed out of advertising itself on the dominant medium: television. Yes, there have been those short ads for Chrome and a few for Android that it has been involved with. And Google is even said to have considered an ad during the Olympics, but that was killed at the last second, apparently. But now, it looks like Google may be ready to advertise itself on the biggest stage possible: the Super Bowl.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has just posted this very intriguing tweet:
Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said “Hell has indeed frozen over.”)
It’s hard to know exactly what he’s saying there, but it would seem to suggest that Google will have an ad that will run during the third quarter of tomorrow’s game. If that is indeed the case, who knows what product it will be for — but the “hell has frozen over” comment is interesting. Could Google be running an ad to promote Google.com itself to counter Microsoft’s Bing ads? We’ll all be watching.
Below watch one of Google’s Chrome television ads.
Update: After some internal discussion, we think it could be a Nexus One ad (which Google said during its launch event that it wasn’t likely to do outside of the web). Some commenters seem to be agreeing as well.
Update 2: John Battelle believes the ad will be about Google “search stories” and singles out this “Parisian Love” ad below.
I wouldn’t be surprised actually. Maybe it’ll just be a quick message stating, “Go Saints!”
Easiest way to counter a Bing ad is to do nothing and let it speak for itself.
I agree. Bing was horrible. I tried it but didn’t like it. Google still has this game.
Whenever I hear about bing, the thoughts of its creepy jing-a-ling contest lingers in my mind,
that makes don’t want to use it.
I get what’s being said, but it sucks the Super Bowl is being/can be called bigger than the Olympics.
That sounds like something someone says until they’ve actually watched the Olympics…
Based on media measurments in North America, the Super Bowl is bigger than the Olympics.
More people watch the superbowl at one time than are watching the olympics at one time. Same reason why The Super Bowl is bigger than the TdF, etc. The count doesn’t include 1 million on day x+5 million on day y, it’s a one time thing.
A funny St Louis Roofing Commercial has gotten quite a bit of recognition for it’s originality.
http://www.johnbealroofing.com/roofing_st_louis/John_Beal_Super_Bowl.html
reminds me of smartguy, when he hacked the superbowl ads to promote his dads plumbing business.
Hum, I think that they won’t show only a “simple” ad for themselves, I suppose they start a kind of “Google Ads for TV”. Otherwise the hell wouldn’t freeze over.
“Google may be ready to advertise itself on the biggest stage possible: the Super Bowl”.
How is the Super Bowl bigger than the Olympics?
the superbowl is one night, notoriously known for commercials. 51% of people (according to Nielsen) watch the superbowl solely for the ads. I sure do
The Olympics is what, 2 weeks? There isn’t really a single event to advertise on that is watched by the same volume of superbowl viewers…
i really don’t think 51% of people watch the superbowl, maybe 51% of americans, but you’re not the whole “people” you ignorant douche
Learn reading comprehension. He’s saying: Of the people who watch the Superbowl, 51% do so for the commercials.
14 minutes from tweet to tweet. Eric’s tweet at ≈5:12 (http://twitter.com/ericschmidt/status/8738388895) and TC’s at ≈5:26 (https://twitter.com/techCrunch)
Also, nice job MG on getting the screenshot within one 1 minute of the tweet.
they don’t call me “machine gun” for nothing
ahHA! the truth comes out. i always thought it was Mardi Gras
Woops, meant to link to the specific TC tweet: https://twitter.com/TechCrunch/status/8738827281
My guess would be an ad for Chrome. That browser has been making some real headway recently.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Google to advertise the Nexus One?
Nope, it would make sense for the default carrier though. Google’s not going to advertise the nexus one, the carriers always do that. Thats the same as Samsung advertising their phone which they don’t.
I’ll bet…Nexus One. Everyone knows about google.com, not everyone knows about their new phone.
30 second cut of the Nexus One Story videos?
It’ll be fore Nexus One.
Hopefully it is not as bad as that crappy Chrome ad. When that ad came out you wouldnt have had any idea that Chrome was a browser.
That’s the way Google does things. Keep things minimal and make people say “wtf was that all about?” until it catches on and becomes big. Sort of like when Google came out in 1998 with a page that had nothing but it’s logo. People said it’ll never fly because Yahoo at at the time had everything you needed on it’s front page, and look what came out of that.
Maybe he’s just excited about EA’s Dante’s Inferno ad?
Exactly.
The ad will most likely be for the Nexus One in case anyone was wondering.
We are all still wondering, so thanks for that inside info.
Advertising Google.com would be a waste of money as everyone already knows about it and it isn’t losing any marketshare. An advertisement for Nexus One is the logical choice if you go by what needs some advertising help. But I think a Chrome advertisement is more likely just because that’s Google’s signature product of the moment.
copying Apple again Google?
1. Chrome (OS) ad? or
2. Nexus One ad? or
3. New product ad?
why would google spend money advertising chrome? it is a free product and basically is just a way to increase google searches, which is not something they are desperate for. I am sure this advertising is something to do with their smart phone strategy. They are the underdogs in this market compared to Nokia, LG, Apple, etc.
Nexus One seems to be a good bet. Like everyone has said we all know about Google but not the Nexus One.
I have to agree that they will use the super-bowl for their new phone and not a website that is not losing any market share what-so-ever to Bing. MS is fighting a losing battle because Google is more than just a search engine.
i hope its something world changing. would be a let down after the hell has indeed frozen over bit.
although im pretty sure globally that the super bowl comes in a long way behind the world cup final.
Champions League final tops Super Bowl for TV market
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8490351.stm
I’d rather see their reaction if someone ELSE bought a superbowl ad that looked like it was Google, but actually pointed you to a web page selling something else — say, Bing!
You know, the say way Google lets you buy ad words that are the names of competitors products and then use that ad to link to your own product pages?
Probably about Nexus One…maybe Nexus One coming to AT&T.
Does Eric know if he makes his tweets shorter we can retweet em?
bet its their new tablet that actually allows flash, native peripheral support and seemless integration with chrome
I would laugh my ass off if it was a Google tablet product announcement. That would be so genius.
It’s the Paris one.
Google needs to promote the Nexus One, not it’s search engine. Everyone’s aware of how to “google” something.
With the videos they’ve been releasing the last two days on the making of the Nexus One, it would seem likely.
I think it’s in reference to this, lol: http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/02/ea-dantes-inferno-super-bowl-ad-.html