Some of you may remember this video I posted from Google Japan, which they used to premier Chrome, their web browser. Now, Google Japan has released a video in response to the uproar that happened nearly 9 months after they debuted its Google Maps with Street View service. The people of Japan were upset that the height of the Street View camera allowed a clear view over the fence of residential homes and for the Japanese who are intensely private, this was a huge problem. Google Japan agreed to re-shoot all of Street View data it had captured and would lower the height of the Street View car’s camera pole .
In a typical Google Japan way, the cute stop motion video shows the steps they have taken to protect everyone’s privacy such as blurring the private data on car license plates, people’s faces and private information on mailboxes.
This weekend Google premiered their TV Ad campaign for Chrome, their new web browser . I personally love the spot and find it playful and clever. However, I wonder, would someone who doesn’t know that they have a choice of browsers actually know what Chrome is? Does this make the ad any more or less effective? I think the ad certainly continues to spread Goggle’s brand awareness, but may miss the mark for its intended audience.
Here is what Google posted yesterday on their blog about the launch:
Google Chrome ads on TV
A couple of months ago, the Google Japan team produced a fun video to demonstrate how clean and simple our Google Chrome user interface is. After releasing this video on the web, we got lots of positive feedback and thoughtful comments. In order to keep that conversation going, we invited some of our creative friends to make a collection of short films celebrating our browser. We released Chrome Shorts last week on our YouTube channel.
At the same time, we talked to our Google TV Ads team to see how we could show the video that our Japan team developed to a wider audience in a measurable way. Using some of the results from our placement-targeted ads on the Google Content Network, we designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns.
So today, we’re pleased to announce that we’re using Google TV Ads to run our Chrome ad on various television networks starting this weekend. We’re excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome.
About
Tara is an experienced branding and marketing strategist with a passion for building and positioning brands through storytelling, creative thinking and innovation.
