Tonight, I spotted a Google Ad for Wellington City here in New Zealand—telling us that we could reach the official site via www.wellington.govt.nz. This is as futile as telling a Californian that (s)he could get to the state site by visiting www.ca.gov. Or telling George W. Bush that his offi­cial site is www.whitehouse.gov.
   The site itself does not strictly tie into the city’s branding, as far as I can tell, which included expen­diture on licensing a font family, a German design called Fago, for an outrageous sum. I smell something rotten, and have since filed a complaint—but regardless, it shows that you shouldn’t just throw money at adver­tising, especially for a site that has little connec­tion to the rest of the city’s marketing. Unless the City replies and tells me that Google is now giving away ad space.
   Sometimes, not advertising is a more sensible promo­tional idea if it looks like you could offend those whom you are promoting. It’s the old lesson about ensuring that your internal and external audiences are on the same page. posted by Jack Yan, 9:44 AM  permalink