Three-year-old genetics startup 23andMe launched a surprisingly unscientific ad campaign this past weekend: it plastered its name across a giant white blimp that makes regular trips around the San Francisco Bay.
I’m sure I’m not the only tech observer who — watching from a local beach — rubbed her eyes at the site of the giant logo emblazoned across the 246-foot-long zeppelin. First, you don’t see a lot of giant airships flying around these days trying to move product. More, we’re talking about 23andMe, whose cofounder, Anne Wojcicki, is married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Both Brin and Google have also invested many millions of dollars in 23andMe. Does anyone else find it ironic that 23andMe is buying outdoor advertising?
Google became the 800-pound gorilla of advertising by serving up targeted ads. I asked 23andMe today how it planned to measure the effectiveness of its blimp ads and was told by a spokeswoman that because the zeppelin campaign has just launched, “There are no metrics yet to assess its success.” When I asked how much the company is spending offline versus online, she said that 23andMe is not “disclosing budget or advertising plans at this juncture.”
Judging by a few quick searches, 23andMe doesn’t seem to be spending much, if anything, on Google ads. The terms “DNA testing” and “DNA kits” — 23andMe is selling these kits to consumers for $399 a pop — turned up plenty from competitors like Navigenics but nothing for 23andMe (at least, not under Google’s sponsored-link program).
According to a recent regulatory filing, 23andMe, which raised $9 million in 2007, is in the process of trying to raise a $24.3 million Series B, with at least $2.6 million of its new round coming from Google. (Google invested $3.9 million in 23andMe’s Series A round.) The filing also states that Brin has loaned the startup $10 million. (TechCrunch reports that this money will be converted into Series B shares. If true, Google and Brin will own more than half of 23andMe’s new round.)
Incidentally, the blimp that 23andMe is using belongs to Airship Ventures, itself a startup that has raised $11 million from high-profile angels such as Esther Dyson. Up until recently, the two-year-old company had been charging passengers $495 for hour-long tours. In May, it also began hosting trips down the California coast (a round-trip ticket to LA costs $2,500), holding weddings, and inviting companies to use the blimp as a giant billboard. Pixar, for example, recently rented it to market its movie “Up.”
