Google running bannerads for AdWords

It´s not a common sight to see Google advertising for their services. They did a television ad during Superbowl just recently, they´ve done a few advertisements for Chrome, and they do also ”buy” AdWords-ads for their own services. But this is the first time we see Google doing banner campaigns on other sites than their own here in Norway. I guess some´ll find it amusing that they´re using banner ads to promote AdWords (the banner vs. search advertising-discussion…). But it seems that this is one of the activities in their ongoing Update Norway-campaign targeted towards Norwegian small and medium sized enterprises.

Here you can see the ad on one of the Norwegian online newspapers:

In the ad itself, they say:

"89% searches on the Internet for products and servcies before they shop. How visible is your company on Google?" In yellow: "Voucher 300 NOK inclusive!"

The ads are really well targeted, showing up on articles about Google´s efforts in China. So they´ve obviously done a good job there, but you wouldn´t expect anything else from Google, would you?

The landing page lets you register for AdWords, and gives you a voucher of 300 NOK worth.

Is this a counterattack against Bing´s marketing offensive in some markets (they just did TV advertising in UK)? Or is it just Google being more aggressive pushing AdWords? Anyway, it surely is a new Google we see here. What´s your take on this?