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Google gets old school with first TV ad
11 May 2009 | 18.59 Europe/London
Google's first television advert hit the small screen in the United States as the company tries to make its web browser, Chrome, more mainstream. It marks a significant departure for the search giant, which until now has avoided shelling out on traditional advertising - its website boasting Google's become "one of the world's best known brands almost entirely through word of mouth."
The ad, which was originally developed in-house by Google Japan, debuted on YouTube; putting it on the idiot box gave the Californian firm a chance to show off its Google TV Ads business. While advertising on the Internet is a major money spinner for the search giant, The Guardian's reporting that most advertisers and TV chiefs think the Ads off-shoot is "an interesting but niche experiment." Putting the Chrome commercial on the television lets Google promote Chrome and its TV Ads at the same time - albeit to different audiences.
Google's a late starter in the browser wars, last year entering what was already a saturated marketplace. According to stats from Net Applications, Chrome's currently in forth place with just 1.4 per cent of the market share - way behind Apple's Safari (8 per cent), Firefox (22%) and Internet Explorer (66%). While more people have adopted Chrome since Google put made it available to download straight from its iconic homepage, the firm didn't develop its own browser just to settle for the wooden spoon.
Although Google says it's "excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome" the advert itself doesn't help distinguish the browser much from the alternatives. The commercial gives the average web surfer no reason to replace the browser that came with their computer, be it Internet Explorer or Safari - and more advanced users are given no reason to abandon the third-party browsers, like Firefox, that they already know and love. Google may have broken from Firefox but the open source browser's users as yet have no reason to do the same.
Putting the Chrome advert on mainstream US TV ultimately suggests that Google's aiming for a mainstream audience with the product. If it successful it could, instead of cannibalising on users of other third-party browsers, follow in Firefox's footsteps and further erode Internet Explorer's market share. However, it could just be that Chrome isn't doing so well because there's no real demand for it - which would make it the Windows Vista of the browser world. Advertise that.
The ad, which was originally developed in-house by Google Japan, debuted on YouTube; putting it on the idiot box gave the Californian firm a chance to show off its Google TV Ads business. While advertising on the Internet is a major money spinner for the search giant, The Guardian's reporting that most advertisers and TV chiefs think the Ads off-shoot is "an interesting but niche experiment." Putting the Chrome commercial on the television lets Google promote Chrome and its TV Ads at the same time - albeit to different audiences.
Google's a late starter in the browser wars, last year entering what was already a saturated marketplace. According to stats from Net Applications, Chrome's currently in forth place with just 1.4 per cent of the market share - way behind Apple's Safari (8 per cent), Firefox (22%) and Internet Explorer (66%). While more people have adopted Chrome since Google put made it available to download straight from its iconic homepage, the firm didn't develop its own browser just to settle for the wooden spoon.
Although Google says it's "excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome" the advert itself doesn't help distinguish the browser much from the alternatives. The commercial gives the average web surfer no reason to replace the browser that came with their computer, be it Internet Explorer or Safari - and more advanced users are given no reason to abandon the third-party browsers, like Firefox, that they already know and love. Google may have broken from Firefox but the open source browser's users as yet have no reason to do the same.
Putting the Chrome advert on mainstream US TV ultimately suggests that Google's aiming for a mainstream audience with the product. If it successful it could, instead of cannibalising on users of other third-party browsers, follow in Firefox's footsteps and further erode Internet Explorer's market share. However, it could just be that Chrome isn't doing so well because there's no real demand for it - which would make it the Windows Vista of the browser world. Advertise that.