Who Says the [Google] Surge isn't working?

A little side-note gleaned in my reporting on Scott Murphy’s New York Congressional campaign employing the rarely-used “Google Surge” or “Network Blast” tactic:

Eric Frenchman — the man behind the McCain camp’s now award-winning online advertising strategy – says he came up with the term “Google Surge,” after employing the carpet-bombing style display ad tactic for Bobby Jindal’s congressional campaign in 2007, and for McCain’s camp when targeting Ohio and Florida voters. The tactic may now gather steam after its use by the California Proposition 8 campaigns like Murphy’s have employed it. The tactic, described in my story about the Murphy camp, essentially involves bombarding users in a defined geographic area (like NY’s 20th congressional district) in a brief period of time with ads from one advertiser.

Google doesn’t seem to like the “surge” term, so they call it “The Network Blast.” I suppose “surge” has too much of a military connotation, particularly in relation to the troop surge in Iraq. But I’m not to sure the “blast” term is appropriate either, considering how it’s often associated with e-mail campaigns.

Look for a story Monday on another innovative use of the Google surge in conjunction with another award-winning campaign from the ’08 election.