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Search marketing in the new media era.

July 25, 2003

Ask Jeeves is to drop its friendly British butler...

Searching Google Where's Jeeves?
Allison Fass, 08.11.03

When you're only the fifth-biggest search service and have a reputation for bad searches, whom do you blame? The butler, of course. The Emeryville, Calif.-based Ask Jeeves is canning its once-ubiquitous pinstriped Brit butler from advertising after four years.

The company spent $90 million in marketing the little guy during the boom years, but he didn't clean up. Ask Jeeves holds only a 3% share of the search market, behind Google, Yahoo, America Online and MSN.

President Steven Berkowitz says that dropping the butler will signal consumers that the search engine has changed--its technology has been upgraded. Notwithstanding, the butler logo will remain on the site.

Replacing the butler in ads will be a theme that claims Ask Jeeves is "an easier, more intuitive search." The company will be spending an estimated $3 million marketing the idea this year. Forbes.com: Searching Google Where's Jeeves?

Is this a conspiracy against us Brits? My (American) wife wants me to become a US Citizen anyway, maybe I should follow Ask Jeeve's lead ;-)

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

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