SiliconBeat

Over the weekend at home, my wife received just about the last thing I ever expected to get from Google: A coupon in the mail. I’ve posted photos of it above. The envelope also contained a helpful brochure explaining how Google AdWords works. Pictures of that are also above.

We were both surprised and amused. Google using snail mail to send me a discount? Huh?

Here’s a couple thoughts on why I find this so odd. And I’ve submitted questions about the offer to the Google press office and will include any response I get here. The coupon offers $100 discount for Google AdWords. The page to redeem the coupon is here.

The coupon was actually sent to my wife who formerly was a documentary filmmaker. Back in the late 1990s, she made a film called “The Golf War.” She used to have a site for the film at www.golfwar.org, which is how I suppose Google got her name and home address.

The film examined how a small village was trying to fight efforts by the government of the Philippines to seize its land and build a golf course. Oddly enough, the offer is not addressed to my wife, but rather, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, otherwise known as the former president of the Philippines.

The coupon site says the offer is non-tranferable, so if you see President Estrada, let him know we have a coupon for him.

Now, it’s not that I don’t think coupons are valuable, or a good way to reach potential customers. Heaven knows, newspapers have used them for decades and in tough times, people find them even more useful. But Google using coupons? Or anything in print for that matter? It seems to go against all the efficiencies that Google boosters point to when they marvel at the elegance of its business model. Why is the company of the future using the methods of an industry (newspapers) that everyone keeps telling us is dying?

Here’s the other thing that jumped out at me: The offer expires Sept. 30. After that, the value drops to $75 and then runs out Nov. 75. Why is that significant? Well, Google seems to be in a big hurry for me to use this. And Sept. 30 just happens to be the end of the current fiscal quarter. So does that mean Google is having a tougher quarter than expected? I’ve asked the Google press folks to respond to that question.

In the meantime, if you got one of the Google coupons, or know someone who did, post in the comments below and let me know whether you plan to use it. And whether you think it’s odd or not that Google is using coupons.

UPDATE: Monday afternoon, I received an email with the following statement from a Google spokesperson:

“We have many efforts in place to reach out to entrepreneurs and business owners who haven’t yet discovered that online advertising can be a powerful, measurable and cost-effective way to find potential customers. From time to time over the past few years, we’ve offered promotional coupons to new AdWords advertisers through various means, including via email, U.S. mail, industry events and more.“