Take my advice: As you watch this video, don't think of it as a commercial. Enjoy it as a what it is: 3:32 minutes of amazing content, footage, and a heartwarming story of two friends.
Feeling misty-eyed, or a lump in your throat? You're not alone. Thousands of people watching this video are ending up in tears - just look at the YouTube content.
What makes this video so effective? What makes Google's story so much more effective than the hundreds of efforts before it? Take for example, Apple's 2013 campaign for Facetime. It seems to have all the right components: relatable people of all cultures, heartwarming music, cute children, dogs, and stories.
What went wrong? Why do you feel like exiting the video at 0:22? Apple's commercial doesn't draw you in, there are no main characters, no plot, no reason to keep watching. Basically - Apple doesn't tell you a whole story.
Consider P&G Swiffer's "old couple" commercial. Like Google's Reunion, it is 3:18 minutes. But like Apple's Facetime, you will probably want to leave within the first seconds.
This commercial may make you chuckle, especially if you watch the shorter version. But I doubt you will watch the entire three minutes. You might think it's cute, and remember it for about a year. But the video makes some key mistakes; while there are main characters, there is no plot, no conflict, no resolution. Again, no reason to keep watching. P&G's product placement is also not as a integrated and subtle as Google - in Google's ad, you saw the characters use Google for location services, word definitions, business listings, airline flight status, and a weather forecast - and I bet that you didn't even notice at least two of those product placements.
Is this the future of commercials? Perhaps. It is certainly great for Google's brand... A giant international corporation that computes algorithms, collects data and information suddenly has a human face and story. But if you're going to go the Google route for advertising, make sure you do it right.
While I agree that the Google ad is very emotional and may help build their brand as they would like to build it; I think the Apple ad is also very effective. One potential criticism of the Google ad may be that upon reflection, while I remember the story because of the deep emotional chord it strikes, the link to the Google brand is a weak link. While the Apple ad may not tell as deep an emotional story, it did seem to provide a stronger link to the Apple brand changing the world and promoting facetime use (by teaching people all the ways they could be using it).
ReplyDeletePerhaps they each had slightly different objectives.