Google UK has shifted its B2B marketing towards a more consumer advertising tone of voice in its new campaign promoting the value of search advertising for businesses.
The “Find what matters” campaign has been created by 72andSunny Amsterdam, the MDC agency that Google normally uses for consumer-facing ads in Europe. It is the first time Google has advertised search in a B2B campaign.
The internet giant’s B2B work last year celebrating 20 years of search was created by Poke (now Publicis.Poke), but Google specifically wanted its consumer ad agency to work on this B2B campaign.
Starting today, the campaign will run for two months on social including YouTube, display, search, out-of-home and print media. OMD UK and Essence are buying the media offline and online respectively.
The campaign seeks to promote to continuous value and ongoing relevance of search to customers. There is a hero video, that highlights how consumers use Google Search to find what really matters to them. The film was directed by Manson through Canada London.
Meanwhile, the press executions (below) are targeted at business verticals, such as a vase that is addressed at the insurance sector, or a suitcase designed for the travel sector.
Gemma Howley, search lead at Google UK, told Campaign that, as the world’s “first digital utility”, there is a real risk the world’s predominant internet search service could be taken for granted.
She explained: “It felt like the right time to reignite excitement and remind everyone that search has been around for a long time but it’s a fantastic channel for our advertisers. It’s not about mindless scrolling, it’s about reliable prediction and using answers that they’re looking for.”
The “consumery” feel of the campaign, Howley added, was deliberately chosen for a media buying audience that would be aware of Google’s consumer-facing ads within the last year, such as for the Pixel 3 phone launch.
“It’s about showcasing that magic of search through user moments. Marketers that we’re talking to are media buyers but also consumers; it’s playing on both sides of that. We’re hopefully reigniting their interest in a compelling way, they will have soon both the consumer materials earlier in the year and now this B2B campaign as well. It’s playful, really.”
The campaign is at the beginning of September to encourage digital media buyers to reconsider Google search in good time for the busy shopping season at the end of the year, including Black Friday, Christmas and Boxing Day/New Year’s Day.
Google denied that the campaign had anything to do with the €1.49bn (£1.28bn) fine it received from the European Commission in March over its “abusive practices” regarding how ads appears on search engines. As the dominant player in online search advertising intermediation in the European market, Google was able to negotiate exclusivity clauses in its deals with publishers.
“[The campaign] would have been planned before the fine,” a Google spokesman said.