Ask Jeeves Launches National Television Advertising Campaign

Ask Jeeves Launches National Television Advertising Campaign

First TV Ads in Four Years Represent Next Phase in Building Brand Awareness

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Ask Jeeves(R), Inc., a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, announced today that it will debut six television advertisements to promote its flagship search site, Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com). This campaign marks Ask Jeeves' return to television after a hiatus of more than four years, and the ads represent the next step in the Company's marketing efforts for the popular consumer search engine, which also include online, out-of-home, and print advertising.

"We believe the Ask Jeeves television advertisements will increase brand awareness, drive users to the site, and positively impact consumers' impressions of the brand," said Greg Ott, Ask Jeeves vice president of marketing. "Over the past three years we have significantly improved the Ask Jeeves search experience with better relevancy, direct answers to search queries, local search results and personalization. So our marketing campaign emphasizes that Ask Jeeves is great for all kinds of Web search."

The advertisements were created by TBWA\Chiat\Day San Francisco, Ask Jeeves' agency of record since 2003. The 15-second spots will appear in rotation on national cable, primetime, and syndicated television, and feature the tag-line: "Ask Jeeves. And get what you're searching for". In each commercial someone is seeking information from an "expert", but on a topic s/he is not an authority on and therefore cannot answer. The spots conclude with the suggestion to search Ask Jeeves, as it is a more authoritative source than these so-called experts. Ask Jeeves is a more authoritative search engine because it uses its own proprietary technology to look at more than just the popularity of a site. This gets users to results they can trust from a Web search.

"What some people don't realize is that Ask Jeeves has everything that the other search engines have and quite a bit more," said Joe Kayser, creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day San Francisco. "They have amazing technology and the ability to find information on the web no matter how you search for it. So our job was actually very simple -- get people re-engaged with the Ask Jeeves brand. Once people experience the site, we know they'll be converted."

Ask Jeeves Inc. began a strategic and targeted marketing campaign to build brand awareness in 2003, with online, out-of home and print advertising. These effective campaigns laid the foundation for the current television advertising, which is expected to reach a broader audience. Prior to 2003, Ask Jeeves invested in building a stronger, more scaleable search engine that could compete against industry competitors. This focus paid off. A recent report by Keynote Systems* found that Ask Jeeves has seen a significant jump in its customer experience rankings, and suggests that Ask Jeeves is closing the technology gap it once faced with Google and other competitors. The goal of the television advertising is to narrow the brand gap.

"We know Ask Jeeves is a great product and that people love the unique search experience it offers," continued Ott. "We feel that now is the time to take that message of relevance, ease-of-use and differentiation to a wider audience."

* Keynote Systems report released January 13, 2005
http://www.keynote.com/news_events/releases_2005/05jan13.html

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.


Ask Jeeves, Inc. provides consumers and advertisers with information retrieval products across a diverse portfolio of Web sites, portals and desktop search applications. Ask Jeeves' search and search-based portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com and Ask.co.uk); Ask Jeeves Japan (Ask.jp, a joint venture); Ask Jeeves for Kids (AJKids.com); Bloglines (Bloglines.com); Excite (excite.com); iWon (iwon.com); My Search (mysearch.com); My Way (myway.com); My Web Search (mywebsearch.com) and Teoma (teoma.com). Ask Jeeves also owns the search technology Teoma, proprietary natural language processing technology, as well as portal and ad serving technologies. In addition to powering several of the Ask Jeeves brands, the Company syndicates its technologies to help companies increase revenue through powerful search. Ask Jeeves' advertising division, AJinteractive, provides advertisers with targeted tools to reach a broad base of valuable customers. Ask Jeeves, Inc. is headquartered in Oakland, California, with offices throughout the United States, as well as in London, England and Dublin, Ireland. For more information, visit http://www.ask.com/ or call 510-985-7400.


Source: Ask Jeeves, Inc.

CONTACT: Colby Zintl, Ask Jeeves Corporate Communications,
+1-510-985-7640, or czintl@askjeeves.com; or Darcy Cobb of Dotted Line
Communications, +1-310-472-8600, or darcy@dottedlinecomm.com, for
Ask Jeeves, Inc.

Web site: http://www.ask.com/


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