Marketing Yourself: Taking Heart from Google’s Super Bowl Ad

I saw Google’s Super Bowl Ad last night. And I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but those simple, typewritten (and sometimes misspelled) searches — telling the story of a nameless, faceless guy moving to Paris, falling in love with a French girl, then settling down and starting a family — evoked a few nanoseconds of real feeling in me.

Call me a sap, but I appreciate the way they humanized the power of Google’s search product. And I can relate to Google’s desire to connect with real human experiences and emotions — because it’s something I try to do in my copywriting work. Whether I’m writing about IT services, a drug treatment center, commercial construction, you name it… I want my words to reach through the screen and connect with people in a convincing, real way. Business is about people connecting with each other, no matter how corporate or stuffy your marketing materials may sound.

The memory of that ad (probably my favorite this year) led me to Martin Peers’ Wall Street Journal article, “Google, Market Thyself.” Peers calls Google’s effort on national TV a “signal” that the rapidly diversifying company is “learning to market itself” after previously relying on word of mouth.

I don’t know about you, but I take heart from the possibility that a mighty giant like Google might actually be “learning” to do something, engaging in a bit of trial-and-error, just like the rest of us. After all, isn’t marketing ourselves one of our biggest challenges? As the game changes — or as your company evolves — you shift and rewrite your plans accordingly.

I suppose it’s just nice to know that our struggles can run so parallel, no matter the size of your business.

What marketing challenges have you encountered recently in your own business? How have you dealt with those challenges? And what, by the way, did YOU think about Google’s Super Bowl ad?

Photo courtesy Aussiegall on Flikr.