Arik Hesseldahl

Recent Posts by Arik Hesseldahl

Chatter.com's Super Bowl TV Ads Touch Off an Ad Skirmish on Google (Video)

If the forecasts for the size of the audience are correct, then some 107 111 million people saw the two ads for Chatter.com, the new social enterprise application from Salesforce.com

As you may remember, Salesforce bought “bookend” spots that ran immediately before and after the halftime show, and included Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas, who were the main musical act of the show itself. Salesforce claimed that the bookend buy on either side of the halftime show was a first, and that it was the first time that an advertiser involved the halftime show entertainment act in a Super Bowl ad.

While the general verdict on the ads themselves has yet to come down, there’s certainly been some grumbling from other social enterprise players, namely Yammer and Socialcast. Both have taken out text ads on Google against the word “chatter,” in some apparent hope of catching the eye of the millions who may have gone from seeing the ad on TV to googling the word “chatter” on their PCs. (I captured a screen-grab of their ads in the image at the right.) “Chatter Isn’t It” starts the ad for Yammer, while the one for Socialcast says “Superbowl Chattering?” Time will tell if they’re successful.

In the meantime, in case you missed them, here are the TV ads for Chatter.com. Judge for yourself if you think they’ll help Salesforce.com persuade companies to sign on to using it for collaboration.

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I’m a giant vat of creative juices.

— David Pogue on why he’s joining Yahoo