Now I have truly seen it all. Last week Google announced that they would be renaming the Google Ad Planner (their tool for making media buys on targeted sites) the DoubleClick Ad Planner. So why am I making a big deal about what seems to be a very trivial name change?
Google Dropped Its Own Brand Name
Google loves to hear it’s own name. Froogle sounded funny, so they renamed it Google Product Search (despite the longer name.) Gmail in the UK? Nope, it’s Google Mail (partially because they lost a lawsuit too.) They even have their own cell phone now, the Google Nexus One. They love putting their name on everything, so when they take their name off of something, it makes me wonder.
Possible Explanations
- The tool isn’t doing well and they don’t want a failure to tarnish the Google name.
- DoubleClick raised a stink and wanted some love. Maybe the purchase isn’t going as smoothly as we thought?
- Google’s brand doesn’t carry much weight in the display industry (and DoubleClick does). Hard to believe, but entirely possible.
All of these are a little out there, so what do you think? Why did Google drop their branding from Ad Planner?
About Robert
I think it’s most likely #3, but notice that Google didn’t take their name off of it (“by Google” is right there in tastefully muted gray), they just decided (for once) to not cram it down our throats. Preempting brand saturation backlash?
Hard to think that Google could achieve brand saturation, but you may be onto something.
Hey Robert,
I’m the Product Manager @ Google for Ad Planner and we rebranded the product along the lines you’re thinking with #3. Though not because Google’s brand doesn’t carry much weight, but because DoubleClick is our brand for our display advertising technology platform. Ad Planner is part of that effort, so it made more sense to align ourselves with the DoubleClick brand than the Google brand. Over time we’re working to better integrate all the tools used for display advertising, so Ad Planner and the rest of DoubleClick’s advertiser ad serving tools will be coming closer together. From a branding perspective we wanted it to reflect changes that are coming to the product.
Thanks,
-Wayne
@Wayne, thanks for giving us the scoop on your plans. Ad Planner is a great tool and the DoubleClick brand is obviously well respected in the space. I’ll keep my eyes on things and look forward to the coming changes.