Launched with much hoopla, the Google web browser Chrome did generate some initial hype with its sleek design, private browsing mode and fast browsing speeds. Google claimed 10 million Chrome users in December 2008 when it came out of the ‘Beta’ tag, but over time, it has fallen back in the browser race bit by bit. Now, Google has really rolled up its sleeves to increase the market share of Chrome more than any other Google product in the past. Let’s have a look at Chrome’s past marketing campaigns.
The importance of Chrome for Google
- Each Google Chrome install equals another user to use Google as default search engine.
- Google has realized that not all of its products will go organically and as faster as its search engine did. The cut throat browser wars has forced Google to diverge from its successful organic growth strategy.
Why has it fallen behind?
- Mac version is still not available.
- There is a lack of extension platform unlike most of its competitors.
The above two shortcomings are expected to be changed in the upcoming Google developer conference scheduled for May 27th. Now, if we move on to the campaigning being done by Google for Chrome; it looks as if Google has declared open fire on every front.
Campaigns for Google Chrome
- An ad in Gmail appeared with the title ‘Get faster Gmail’ which prompted the user to the Chrome download page! It was only for IE users.
- It also ran a campaign via ‘Short Film about Browsers‘ at its You Tube channel last week.
- Google also indulged in paid advertisements on a third party site for the first time in its history. The first ads were spotted on LinkedIn which were being tracked by Google.
- Starting this weekend, Google is going to introduce a promotional campaign on TV.
The TV advert was created by the Google Japan team to show how clean and simple the Chrome interface is. The viral was received with some very positive feedback and now Google has designed a TV ads campaign to spread awareness about the browser. The message of the advert is very abstract and it simply says “Install Google Chrome” at the end. you can watch the TV ad below.
But maybe they should have at least added that it’s a browser for the non tech-savvy people? What do you think? Would it make you switch browsers?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHZFsJKlsuA
You can download Chrome from here.
Yeah, that’s a rather cryptic TV advert.
fyi, example of Google’s online advertising from the current “Chrome Shorts” campaign:
Google Chrome “Chrome Shorts” 728×90
(and, Google has paid for online advertising on third-party sites many times before. My archive of online ads has examples going back to early 2007 for Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Checkout, etc.)
Ok, So now Googl eis jumping on the bandwagon to ‘educate’ viewers.
Personally, I do not feel Chrome is a very useful browser. I mean, it did create some ripples in the beginning, but that primarily because of the fact that it was from Google. If Google.com ka homepage advertises you,w hat else do you expect?
In fact, if you care, the latest version of IE – IE8 is quite robust. And something. On my machine, it opens faster than Firefox. And the one feature that totally in love with is the recover crashed tab feature.
And they even launched a viral for the same. Here is the link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFTUqK-cOuE
We did an eye tracking study this week on the new Google Chrome tv ad. We eye tracked 30 internet users while they viewed the ad and the results were very good. Engagement with the brand was better than any we have previously tested at Think Eyetracking. You can see more about this on our blog: http://thinkeyetracking.com/Blog/?p=158
-Lizzie