Ask.com Returns to TV, Cautiously

Limited market rollout and in-house production are hallmarks of low-key campaign

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After an extended hiatus, Ask.com is returning to TV advertising.

Online companies have a mixed history with traditional ads. Google famously resisted TV for years, but others have launched high-profile campaigns, like Go Daddy’s “Go Daddy Girl” commercials. Ask, which is now owned by IAC, spent several years firmly in the pro-TV camp, even becoming the “official search engine” of Nascar and running spots alongside Nascar races.

However, those efforts didn’t seem to stop Ask’s slide from relevance (comScore currently estimates that it has only 3 percent of the search marketplace), and the company hasn’t run any TV ads for about two years.

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