Ask.com gets new digital advertising agency

What did you make of Ask.com's "Information Revolution" ad campaign? It was put together and promoted by Fallon and Profero.

Ask.com has given the digital brief to Grand Union now. According to Kate Nettleton of Campaign (sub needed), Profero, who worked on the guerrilla campaign and had Ask.com's business for five years, politely declined to repitch for the work. It isn't uncommon for an agency to refuse to pitch but whenever it happens I certainly take notice.

I gather Hyper (which is the digital arm of Fallon), Agency Republic and Glue (sister agency to iProspect via Aegis parents) did take part in the pitch.

So what's the challenge that Grand Union now faces? It's Google. Search marketing is worth about £1.2 billion in the UK (with current exchange rates that's about a trillion billion* US dollars). Of course, the first step isn't to attract in search marketing agencies but to get users to the search engine. The search agencies will put money where the searchers are. Given that Ask.com (which is how Ask.co.uk is branded) still leans heavily on Google for revenue share on paid search adverts Grand Union will have to drive in the traffic while Ask.com decides on the best way to make money from it.


*Slight exaggeration.