Google Search is the new Kodak Moment
I just read T/S’er Kashmir Hill’s post Super Bowl upset: Google puts on the best ad. In it she says:
Getting the millions of people watching the Superbowl to feel all warm and fuzzy toward the company “that does no evil” may have been one of most strategic plays of the evening.
She’s right on all accounts, but the words that jumped out at me are “warm and fuzzy.” There aren’t many products people feel warm and fuzzy about these days. Apple causes gotta-have-it Mac attacks, and the iPad certainly led to obsessive reporting and was cleverly and very publicly punk’d by Jason Calacanis. But warm and fuzzy? Not so much. In fact, I can’t think of a product that has elicited such emotional ties since Kodak. Take a look at this Kodak commercial from the 1960s. If you make it to the end without sobbing you’ll hear “One little girl. One precious childhood saved for years to come, in pictures. You can do it too. All it takes is a camera, Kodak film, and thoughtfulness.” Yes, that’s right: Thoughtfulness.
In this commercial from 1985, you’ll hear Barbra Streisand singing ‘Memories” while the hypnotic voiceover urges “When the moment means more, trust it to Kodak video tape.”
George Eastman was an entrepreneur by his mid-twenties, way back in 1880. He had a simple goal for the Eastman Kodak company: “to make the camera as convenient as the pencil.”
Eastman’s faith in the importance of advertising, both to the company and to the public, was unbounded. The very first Kodak products were advertised in leading papers and periodicals of the day — with ads written by Eastman himself.
Eastman coined the slogan, “you press the button, we do the rest,” when he introduced the Kodak camera in 1888 and within a year, it became a well-known phrase.
via History of Kodak
Like Google, Kodak was used as a verb. While Google’s verb-alization came organically, Kodak included it in the advertising headline “Kodak as you go.” That phrase didn’t stick, but “Kodak Moment” did. It’s a phrase still used today even though Kodak no longer plays a central role in our lives or our memories. In fact, I suspect some people use “Kodak Moment” without really knowing where it originated. Kodak created an emotional connection with its customers, and fed that through its advertising campaigns. As Kodak struggles to find its place in an increasingly digital world, Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hayzlett is trying a new approach.
Mr. Hayzlett has abandoned the warm-and-fuzzy branding ads once typical of Kodak. Well-known slogans have included “You push the button — we do the rest” and “Share moments, share life.” Instead, he favors more product-specific ads. “We have to have ads that drive sales,” he says.
As part of Mr. Hayzlett’s effort to give Kodak a hipper image, the company was featured last year in the reality-TV show “The Celebrity Apprentice,” and recently signed on for another season.
The implication here is that “warm and fuzzy” cannot be hip. Last night, Google blasted that theory to bits. Google beautifully and simply told the story of boy meets girl, with Google Search helping them every step of the way toward happily ever after. Google created an emotional connection that only further cements its place in our lives and now, gently, in our hearts. That Google commercial? A Kodak moment, for sure.
