Seat at the Table

There was a little kerfuffle after a Google ad sales executive, on a Google health blog, slammed the Michael Moore movie, Sicko.  The executive suggested Google as the place to get anti-Sicko messages out to the public.  Public relations executives should be thanking the executive, Lauren Turner, for two key reaons:

1) For public relatoins executives, this is a post we should put into program proposals.  Google ads are a great way to deliver public relations messages to targeted audiences (in this case, people interested in health care issues).  However, most of the ads sales are sales focused messages.   Here we have Google’s ad division reminding corporate communications departments that the Google ad network is a terrific online message distribution tool.  I believe it is, but don’t see enough media industry executives backing up that notion.  It’s good to see Google point out that PPC ads are not simply for measuring ad-sales click through rates.  Here’s what Lauren wrote:

Many of our clients face these issues; companies come to us hoping we can help them better manage their reputations through “Get the Facts” or issue management campaigns. Your brand or corporate site may already have these informational assets, but can users easily find them?

We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message. We help you connect your company’s assets while helping users find the information they seek.

2 Lauren gave us a perfect exmaple of why executives must pay attention to the corporate messages.  In this case, the advertising executive should know that their job is to advocate for Google as a way to deliver messages, not to advocate for the message itself.   The message Lauren posted would have been more effective if it was about the effectiveness of Google’s network for reaching a broad audience concerned with health care issues.  Instead, the message was Google is an effective network for companies interested in maintaining the status quo of the American health system (and possibly that Google has a strong anti-national healthcare stance).  As it seems Lauren found out, she has every right to provide her opinion on Sicko as an individual, but when speaking for the company, as anyone does when writing on a company blog, her job is, in fact, to communicate the corporate message (do no evil…so be careful around any movie that has a central message of providing healthcare for everyone).   It is what any public executive is hired to do. 

3. In general, this blog is a great example of using blogs for B2B marketing.  It’s a running dialogue on how companies in the health industry can most effectively use the Google ad network.  If I’m a health marketing executive, this is one I would watch.  Another good example is Google’s packaged goods blog at http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/) which most recently discusses the advantage of buying radio ads through Google  (I love it as I find Google’s ad buying portal very easy to use and would recommend it for clients needing to make local radio buys).

For those of you interested in reading more about what Lauren wrote, here are some links of interest:

http://searchengineland.com/070701-193852.php

http://www.thebloggingjournalist.com/2007/07/googles-lauren-.html

http://blog.insiderchatter.com/2007/07/02/why-google-health-is-sick-o-2-trillion-medical-target/

http://www.articlesnatch.com/blog/2007/07/02/google-health-ads-blog-backs-off-sicko/ 

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/google-takes-on-michael-moore/

Update:

Google’s marketing executive clarifies Google’s more populist friendly health message.