Mazda Pulls Web Voodoo

Using television to drive traffic to your web site like GM did to promote their new Pontiac Solstice roadster is a heads up play because you have unlimited space to dialog with your customers. This dialog takes the form of text, audio, graphics and video to convince your prospect to take action.

General Motors directed their television audience to “Google” Pontiac. This is a departure from just pointing the audience to a URL.

This program was working flawlessly until Mazda counterattacked by buying the words “Pontiac” and “Pontiac Solstice” as search-engine terms in its advertising efforts around the launch of the redesigned Mazda MX-5 Miata sports car. So in addition to providing Pontiac ads, a Google search for Pontiac also provides ads that compare Mazda to the all-new Pontiac Solstice.

Google allowed Mazda to purchase its competitor’s brand name because Mazda’s site included information about the Pontiac in the form of a chart showing statistics about MX-5 vs. Solstice.

In a USA Today article, GM marketing director Mark-Hans Richer said, “We find it flattering that they’d like to take the market-share leader for the last 18 years and compare it to a newcomer. We think it’s a wonderful comparison.”

Horsepower Marketing Observations

TV-to-Web Advertising - This strategy has matured where firms are not only pointing to URLs on television but suggesting to viewers to discover information for themselves by googling it.

A Google search delivers a long list of Pontiac-centric resources including the Pontiac corporate website, high performance sites and the Kelly Blue Book section on Pontiacs. GM is basically handing over the keys to the information and allowing enthusiasts to discover information on their own.

This is a harbinger of things to come where we will see more TV-to-Google campaigns as well as increased Google search activity.