
Google's Parisian Love Superbowl Ad - spencerfry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU
======
albertsun
Great commercial, but the main message for me is that the Bing team has been
doing something right.

The quality of other search engines has caught up to the point where brand is
an important factor in the fight for search market share. Google's product is
no longer clearly better than the alternatives.

Notice how most of the rest of the commercials on are for things like snack
food, beer and cars where the image and consumer perception of the product are
more important than the product itself. Those companies products don't do
enough to differentiate themselves, so brand advertising has to do it.

This could be a sign that the search (really the information discovery) market
is maturing and that product innovation will slow down as the major players
focus all their attention on marketing and battling for market share. I hope
not. While Google Search is good, it's nowhere near good enough yet.

~~~
nzmsv
From pg's article (<http://www.paulgraham.com/bubble.html>):

 _...have you ever seen a Google ad? Something is going on here.

Admittedly, Google is an extreme case. It's very easy for people to switch to
a new search engine. It costs little effort and no money to try a new one, and
it's easy to see if the results are better. And so Google doesn't have to
advertise. In a business like theirs, being the best is enough._

Now we are seeing Google ads. So I guess Google is starting to get worried
about competition, and the ease of switching search engines.

~~~
timr
Maybe this is just what you do when you've got a lock on 95% of your market,
and you're massively profitable. Defensive maneuvers make more sense when
you're executing flawlessly on the offensive front, and you've got resources
to spare.

~~~
nostrademons
I'm inclined to take Eric Schmidt's blog post on this at face value, i.e.
Google had a YouTube video with an overwhelmingly positive response and $20B
cash in the bank, so they figured they might as well run it as a SuperBowl ad.

------
forsaken
Beautifully executed. The music was just right. Did a great job of showcasing
the features that they have added to search (especially translations and
flight status).

It was such a stark contrast the other ads, really shows how well Google knows
themselves. We find you information, and we make it incredibly simple.

~~~
physcab
The Batman one was awesome. Too bad I can't find it anywhere. It was
hilarious.

~~~
cylinder714
CBS has all of the ads at cbs.com.

------
lunchbox
In addition to building up the Google brand, this ad introduces many viewers
to uses of Google they weren't aware of (finding how-to's and advice, tracking
flights, translating phrases, etc). Remember, a large number of people still
don't realize you can use Google for more than simple keyword searches:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8hthy/anybody_els...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8hthy/anybody_else_find_yourself_somehow_pegged_as_a/)

~~~
neilk
Yes! I'm surprised that more people haven't commented on this.

I believe this is the main reason why they even considered running an ad. Most
of the examples are contrived to show off little-known but useful Google
features. Why else is she in Paris?

Otherwise, the ad is largely celebrating how Google has entered almost every
part of our lives. It doesn't really tell us anything we don't know, just
associates it with pure gushy sentiment. I guess that's the branding part.

------
msluyter
This ad caused more than one girl at our superbowl party to exclaim "OMG I'm
going to cry!" By that measure, I think it was quite effective.

------
jdietrich
I think this ad absolutely exemplifies why Google so utterly dominate almost
everything they turn their hand to. The ad is utterly simple, to the point
that there is practically nothing to subtract; This elegance of form reveals
the magic of the substance.

Compare to recent ads by Yahoo and Microsoft:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqbaZcX67L0>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl2OXiX5esE>

The ad by Yahoo is particularly poor, but they both make the same mistake -
lots going on, but very little content. They're dancing around the subject,
almost as if they're ashamed to talk about their product. Lots of glittering
generalities, but no specifics. The ads could be for any old crap. They are
the crudest of branding exercises - show vaguely positive images and slap your
name on them.

The Google ad takes a simple narrative and uses it to show you their product
and what it can do for you. They don't talk about wonder and joy and 'bringing
people together', they just get on with making it happen. Google say "This is
our product. We think it is magical and wonderful and profound. We credit you
with the intelligence to come to your own conclusions.".

Google know that their product is so powerful and elegant that it needs no
explaining. They understand the implications of their technology on a deep and
fundamental level. They can talk about search so beautifully as to make people
cry. That is as great a commercial advantage as I can possibly imagine.

~~~
neilk
Dude, did you see the Chrome ads? A lot of them were terrible.

You're right that this piece did achieve "Googliness" in an ad context. Maybe
they've found their message finally.

------
invisible
Does anyone know why the flight number changed from this ad and the REAL one
that aired during the superbowl (flight status of DL 8601 vs AA120)? It's also
strange that the date stayed the same but the time changed.

Perhaps it's because there are trivial results (see the "old" ad)? The old one
has results for atlas sound and acrylic adhesive.

I don't know why this point stood out to me - are there any other changes I
didn't notice? <http://www.hulu.com/adzone/watch#50032769>

~~~
treyp
yep, that definitely must be it.

if the reason they're advertising is to sell the brand, and it's a brand
competition with Bing who claims Google has sometimes irrelevant search
results, then of course they need the most relevant search results possible in
this ad

even though the focus was on the flight status up top, the search results for
sound parts are bad results. so i guess they switched it up in case anyone
noticed that.

interesting find!

------
n8agrin
A minor observation, but I appreciate how they show the user highlighting text
in one of their search results for truffles. Having done some usability work
and watched users work on their computers, highlighting what is being read is
such a common behavior, it's cool to see Google so in touch.

~~~
sketerpot
People really do that? I had no idea. Why do they highlight what's being read?
I'm confused and intrigued.

~~~
Micand
I do it to keep track of my position when I scroll a document.

------
zck
I was surprised the ad didn't end with the person clicking on "I'm feeling
lucky".

~~~
Confusion
I think that is because of reproducibility. People are bound to repeat the
searches in the ad and they will usually turn up sufficiently similar results
to make them think "it works". On the other hand, "I'm feeling lucky" is much
less likely to yield the same result.

------
cgranade
Cheesy, but cute, and not nearly so misogynistic as what seems to be the norm
this year.

------
rms
The rest of the ad campaign: <http://www.youtube.com/searchstories>

------
dboyd
Eric Schmidt has posted to the Official Google Blog regarding the Ad...

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-and-super-
bowl.h...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-and-super-bowl.html)

------
tjoozeylabs
Probably the least expensive super bowl ad too, fyi

~~~
tjoozeylabs
screencasts <3

------
nroach
Am I the only one that finds this ad kind of scary? 58 comments so far and not
one mentions privacy. Google can tell a lot about a person from their search
history, and this ad illustrates the point well.

~~~
neilk
Shut up geek, can't you see this imaginary couple _is in love?_

I think you touch on another unstated reason for this ad. You could see it in
the Youtube comments... people were saying things like "yeah, Google will take
over the world, but when they do I will be cheering it on... they're awesome".

People are clearly struggling with this increasing unease they have about
Google and online services while embracing them more and more every day. This
ad helps them get in touch with their positive feelings. Which is not exactly
a lie, but it serves Google's interests.

------
johnnybgoode
I am not a fan of Google at all, and even I must admit the ad was pretty good.
I'm interested in what's behind this reversal, though. I read that Larry and
Sergey had previously vetoed any kind of Super Bowl advertising. I think
albertsun and others here are right -- Bing is now a serious competitor.

------
tsally
Just noticed that the version posted on Hulu has a flight from Delta Airlines
come up in search. The one posted here has a flight from American Airlines.
Seems that Google put some effort into remaining airline neutral.

~~~
invisible
It's way more likely that the results that came up for the AA flight were not
exactly what was requested (although 100% what I'd want to see if I was
searching for one of the other items on the page).

------
mynameishere
Posted for no reason whatsoever. The greatest marriage-related ad ever:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97X9huy7pHQ>

------
axl
I'm wondering what made them go with this oversimplified ad rather than one of
their other glorified ones such as this one:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC8ogWwZxwQ>

~~~
truebosko
Probably because the ad you linked is ... a lot more confusing than the other
one. It's very fast-paced and shows a lot of various products, which to the
average person watching the SuperBowl might be a bit much. The ad they aired
showed not only how simple Google is, but also how powerful it is. I think it
was a great mix.

------
w1ntermute
Copy with HTML5 version (for those of us living in the future):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et_BFRbgoSs>

------
psawaya
I'm surprised they advertised search, and not, say, the Nexus One or any of
their newer products. Still, definitely one of the best commercials I've seen.

~~~
acangiano
Search is where they make their dough.

~~~
psawaya
Yep, but at this point, Google is literally synonymous with search. Android,
however is still much less recognizable than the iPhone. Then again, marketing
to that many people is something of a science, and I admit to not
understanding it well.

~~~
patio11
Google may be synonymous with search. However, huge portions of the population
have not integrated search into their lives as tightly as you and I have
(Google says I've done 19k searches and averaged about 550 a month last year
-- I rather doubt my typical customer has). Evangelizing search to the rest of
the population makes Google serious amounts of money -- that is one reason
they've been dumping a lot into advertising search as a desired behavior this
year (in Japan at least).

Both the US and Japan are rich countries with ubiquitous net access and mature
Internet markets, right? What do you think was the growth in the number of
searches last year for each country? Pick a percentage.

Here's the real numbers: <http://bit.ly/aFdenY> (I used bit.ly only because
the URL gives away the surprise.)

I don't think we're anywhere near Peak Search, either. (For example, I'm
seeing YOY growth in the 50% region on some very popular queries for non-
techie customers like, e.g., [halloween bingo cards].)

~~~
rglullis
One thing to consider: Google has a market share of 38% in Japan vs 72% in the
U.S. [http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2010/02/Plan...](http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2010/02/Planet-Google.jpg)

------
naqeeb
If Google does a Super Bowl ad next year, what about using AdSense in the
commercial? This way they can offset the cost by providing an ad within an ad.

------
jolie
This was the one ad I saw tonight where I _didn't_ feel like I'd been given
the brown acid by a bunch of desperate ad agency creatives.

Nice one, Google.

------
waterlesscloud
Seemed like a first draft ad to me. Seriously, that was an afternoon of work.

~~~
angusgr
How would you improve this ad with more time? It seemed fairly well polished,
for a simple premise.

------
patrickgzill
Do you as an English-only speaker, really want to marry and have kids with a
French-only speaking woman when you don't even know how to say "you are cute"
in French?

So the premise seems a little dumb.

~~~
jonny_noog
When I first met the German woman who is now my wife, she could barely speak a
coherent English sentence, but we managed. Two weeks later we were a couple, a
year later we were married. That was 7 years ago this month.

I still don't know how to say "You are cute" in German.

~~~
autarch
Sheesh, try google!

([http://www.google.com/search?q=translate+you+are+cute+into+g...](http://www.google.com/search?q=translate+you+are+cute+into+german&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t))

~~~
nostrademons
There's also Translated Search:

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=clir:1&...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=clir:1&q=you+are+cute)

~~~
jonny_noog
Thanks guys, I'm aware of my options. :P

I wonder if there's been a noticeable spike in search terms related to that
ad, e.g. people searching for how to say "you are cute" in French.

~~~
nostrademons
Not noticeable enough to show up on Trends:

<http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X>

Though everything else related to the Superbowl has managed to show up. People
continue to be enamored of The Who, and the Call Barney Stinson guy seems to
have gotten his money's worth.

