Decide Whether Google Should Enter Airline In-Flight Entertainment Advertising
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Google has been offered the chance to sell ads inside airline in-flight entertainment, both on the screens built into seat backs and in the entertainment passengers watch on their own devices during the flight. Should Google take the opportunity?
Give a clear recommendation and the reasoning that leads to it.
```hint Prize first, then fit
Before arguing either way, roughly estimate how much ad time a year of flights could hold and compare it with the size of Google's existing ads business. Then ask what changes when the audience is strapped into a seat and often offline.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Who is offering the deal, a single airline or an entertainment-system provider serving many airlines, and how would revenue be split?
- Would Google sell ads into the airline's own entertainment content, run ads around Google content such as YouTube shown on board, or both?
- What is Google's goal here: new ad revenue, new premium inventory for its advertisers, or more use of Google services?
- Do the aircraft have internet access in flight? It affects targeting, measurement and how ads reach passengers' own devices.
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A clear goal and an explicit decision criterion, set before the analysis.
- The interests and concerns of each party: passengers, airlines, advertisers and Google.
- A sizing of the opportunity with labeled assumptions, compared with the scale of Google's business and the cost of entering.
- Strategic fit and risks, including the captive audience, measurement without clicks, privacy and consent on personal devices, children watching seat-back screens, and integration effort.
- A recommendation that considers options between a plain yes and no, with conditions and the metrics that would decide whether to expand or stop.
### Follow-up Questions
- The airline asks for a minimum revenue guarantee and exclusivity. How does that change your answer?
- How would you show advertisers that the ads worked when passengers cannot click and the plane may be offline?
- If a pilot succeeds on seat-back screens, what would you need to see before extending it to passengers' own devices?
Overview: A Google product strategy question on whether to sell advertising inside airline in-flight entertainment, on seat-back screens and on passengers' own devices. It tests framing a go or no-go decision, sizing an opportunity with stated assumptions, weighing passenger, airline and advertiser interests, and defining pilot criteria.