If you are looking for an example of how some CMOs still believe a 30-second ad can solve all their problems, head over to this video at the 3-Minute Ad Age site for an interview with Ask.com’s new CEO, Jim Safka.

In this interview, we are reminded that Ask.com just went through a very poor advertising campaign last year. Last year, Ask.com spent $100 million on a TV campaign that “accomplished little.” Its share of search during the campaign is flat to down (2.7% in August 2008). So the CEO is out, ad agency Crispin+Porter is gone, and Safka is charged with turning the ship around.

Safka pledges that this year’s advertising approach is “completely different.” His goal is to “inject some emotion” into the brand in order to make gains on Google, which he says “is more like a utility.” Upon further research I discovered that in March 2008 Ask.com said it would abandon its traditional chase after Google and focus on providing a better overall experience for “married women looking for help managing their lives.” I couldn’t imagine more of a layup for a shift to Marketing with Meaning.

While it sounds promising, don’t get your hopes up. Safka’s solution is a traditional 30-second advertising campaign. And, frankly, it’s very weird. Below is a screen shot that pretty much sums it up – another typical boutique agency ad that gets your attention because of its oddity, yet does little to get you racing for the laptop. I certainly see nothing that is close to the hearts of women who need help managing their lives.

Ask.com has yet again missed an opportunity to think differently as a challenger brand.  Historically, the idea of creating emotional advertising to differentiate your brand has worked well. But to build an emotional connection with consumers today, you have to use your products, services, and marketing to improve their lives. You can’t just talk emotion; you have to act it. And by combining these touchpoints to meet their higher-level emotional needs, you can save the $100 million media expense.

Google is the search engine leader with a 70% share, and it is the most valuable brand in the world according to Millward-Brown’s annual report. Did I mention that Google does zero television advertising? A great experience powers the brand, but it is now reaching into the world of emotional connections through programs such as its Google “10 to the 100th” program, which will provide $10 million for world-changing ideas submitted by its users.

I love that Ask.com says it is aiming to focus on helping women manage their lives. Specific targeting like this can help the company create meaningful marketing ideas. Here are just a few ideas:

• Create a social network for women to ask and answer each other’s questions about managing their lives.
• Building on its unique strategy of answering questions, employ life guides that can answer questions from a chat box.
• Mine data from users to present solutions for some of the most common issues women are dealing with around the world. This content could become a television program, magazine, and email newsletter.

Those are just a few examples of how Ask.com could embrace this new target and think differently about how to challenge Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. I applaud Ask.com’s decision to try something new, but a new creative brief and different 30-second ad isn’t close to different enough, especially when people are happy with Google and Ask.com’s experience is nothing better. If Ask.com wants to hold onto or grow its 3% share of search, it is better off focusing on a niche, and providing meaningful experiences that, in turn, will forge an emotional bond and deliver loyalty beyond reason.

UPDATE: It’s official, the ads are out and are drawing puzzlement.