Search engine Ask.com is launching an advertising campaign that aims to pull of the impossible – introduce the word “algorithm” into common parlance.
Ask.com’s most recent campaign involved placing mysterious guerrilla-style messages on the London Underground that called for a revolt against Google’s ‘monopoly’ on the search sector.
Now the company has enlisted a new agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, that intends to make users aware of the powerful computer code that lays behind its search functionality.
Marketing vice president Greg Ott acknowledged “algorithm” is “a strange, funny, and, for most people, wholly unfamiliar term”, but the campaign will seek not to scare people.
“We’ve been working with [CPB] to create a campaign that champions “The Algorithm” and how it brings good search to life – from plain old “ten blue links” to popular, algorithm-driven features such as Smart Answers and Zoom related search,” Ott wrote.
“No, the campaign won’t go into detail about how an algorithm actually works. We don’t want to make people’s heads explode. We just want them to know there’s something in there – think Intel Inside, Verizon’s Network, Dodge’s Hemi.”
Meanwhile, competitor Yahoo! is unveiling its new branding campaign, which focuses on the proposition “Be a better…” and focuses on Yahoo!’s oneSearch and Answers offerings.