Google cashes in on cricket

Brand owners now have a new way to leverage cricket fever, thanks to Google India, which has launched an initiative called the Google Googly Cricket Package. The package aims at reinforcing brands that are associated with cricket and also at engaging consumers with these brands.

As per this initiative, Google is developing a large proprietary keyword library related to cricketers, cricket, cricket scores, etc. The keyword search on the website will find ads associated with the cricketer searched for in its sponsored links section. These ads could be in the form of text, animation or images.

For instance, when a consumer searches for ‘Sachin’ on the search engine, all the brands that Sachin Tendulkar endorses (Boost, Airtel, etc.) will appear in the sponsored links column on Google.

This offer is available on Google India and around 500 other websites, which include those under the Google network and many other sports sites. The advertiser or brand owner will get the chance to choose the website it wants its ad featured on from the list of 500 websites.

Google has a dedicated team of copywriters or ‘creative maximisers’, working on combinations of probable keywords to create its comprehensive keyword library.

If this initiative is successful, Google may start a similar project for Bollywood related searches, too.

Why did it start with cricket? The answer is obvious. “Cricket is definitely a popular game. Plus, the ongoing cricket matches made it our first choice. During such times, cricket related clicks jump up,” says Ashish Kashyap, country head, Google India.

Google’s extensive research unveils how the search for each cricketer is influenced by his popularity and performance in a time period. As Kashyap reveals, the search for Dhoni increased substantially with his recent popularity.

Google is also in the process of initialising an offer proposal to its consumers. Under the proposal, it will present unique offers to a consumer on the basis of the search made and the keywords typed. A number of permutations and combinations will be involved to figure out what offer will be presented and to whom. Though, of course, as they say, ‘Conditions apply!’

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