Using Google Earth for Interactive Advertising
In one of the most innovative uses of Google Earth for online advertisng, Saturn is looking to roll out a nationwide version of an online ad for its new Aura sedan built on Google Earth technology this spring. To view the advertisement, web users would not be required to download the mapping software; they can just sit back and watch as the screen zooms all the way down from space into the nearest Saturn dealership - located by their IP address - where a salesman offers them a test-drive.
A beta version of the ad, targeted at just six U.S. cities, received millions of click-throughs, according to Gokul Rajaram, product management director for Google AdSense. (View this 3-d ad here.)
It also resulted in more than 1,000 requests for a test-drive - which prompted Saturn’s ad agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, to start inventing campaigns for its other clients using Google Earth. “Every retail chain will eventually do this,” says Jeff Goodby, co-founder of the San Francisco-based agency.
“Consumers who are using this are much more engaged with it than with a contextual ad they see while surfing the Internet,” says Henry Hall, senior product manager for Virtual Earth 3D. “This is the wave of the ad future.” Given Madison Avenue’s crisis about engaging a younger, more tech-savvy audience, that wave can’t come fast enough.
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Filed under: Digital culture, Ideas & Innovations, Trends