The 2010 Jay Chiat Awards for Strategic Excellence Winners

Campaign for New Brand—Bronze
JWT, New York
"Breaking the Google Habit: Time to Stop Searching and Start Deciding"

We have a confession to make—something we have to get off our chest before we begin this tale. You see, though loyal to Bing from the outset of this project, every now and then we found ourselves searching the Web using Google. You heard us right. We essentially used Google to help make our Bing ads. We tried our hardest not to. But every now and then, without even thinking about it, we would slip up and find ourselves back on that oh-so-familiar white background.

We quickly realized that the choice to use Google for a Web search (there are alternatives after all) was about as conscious a decision as that of whether to brush our teeth in the morning. Google use had become so habitual and subconscious a behavior that people simply used it on autopilot.

If even we unconsciously reverted to Google, how on earth were we going to persuade those with no prior affiliation to Bing to break their Google habit?

As we limbered up and prepared to step into the ring with Google, we probably could have
been forgiven if we had admitted to feeling a little intimidated by the challenge we faced.

Google was the undefeated heavyweight champion of search, dwarfing Microsoft's 8% market
share and Yahoo's 20% with a whopping 65%. Indeed, so dominant and synonymous with search had they become, that they had long since entered the dictionary as the verb to refer to the activity itself.

What's more, while people normally root for the underdog, despite Google's size, people described the brand as "fun" and "approachable."

It gets worse. People seemed to be overwhelmingly happy with Google's performance, 96% of
them reporting that they were very or somewhat satisfied.

We had ourselves a marketing challenge.

And we weren’t about to throw in the towel.

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