Pack away those tired cookie crumbling metaphors until 2025, as Google has once again delayed the death of the third-party tracking cookie in its Chrome browser. This is the third reprieve Google has given cookies since it first promised to phase them out in 2020. The next year, it pushed the date back to 2023,…
Are today’s technology titans the new monopolies? Do the filthy rich executives say one thing and do another? Or are Silicon Valley and its satellite cities (like Austin) geek utopias where abundance is the rule? When evaluating the titan’s there are many angles to take from the customer’s perspective, privacy invasion being foremost among them. […]
Redirection is the new black. According to Patrick Berlinquette, founder of the search engine marketing consulting firm Berlin SEM, Google conducted an experiment in meant to confront online radicalization. While the intent was benign, the methods of this digital madness are available to all. With redirection, marketers swerve your monetizable desperation. But we can also […]
The post Redirection Is The New Black appeared first on Adpulp.
The Googs wants to do no harm. But monopolies, by definition, do harm. And when it comes to delivering news to your digital doorstep, the Mountain View-based technology company has no equal. Last year, Google made $4.7 billion from its news products. The journalists who create that content deserve a cut of that $4.7 billion, […]
The post Thanks to Their Newsopoly, Google Is Minting Money appeared first on Adpulp.
Google-owned YouTube is a wasteland, but like all wastelands, when you brush aside the layers of dirt and debris, you’re in the position to discover a gem or two. The video that follows may not meet gem status, but it is a find worth noting here. Tara Walpert Levy is VP of Agency and Brand […]
The post Just Google It: 7 Questions Every CMO Wants To Know appeared first on Adpulp.
Legendary musician and music producer T Bone Burnett came to SXSW 2019 to slay digital demons. I highly recommend that you make some time to watch his keynote and/or read the text of his speech. It may shake you awake. There is so much to digest in Burnett’s speech that no recap is going to […]
The post Data Predators and Surveillance Capitalists Get “T Boned” at SouthBy appeared first on Adpulp.
Careful where and what you click. Every keystroke you make is evidence. If you’re not comfortable with being spied on every time you open a window, I highly suggest you spend some time with this brilliant article by John Naughton in The Guardian. I would say that it is an eye-opening exploration of our lost privacy, […]
The post Thanks To “Surveillance Capitalism,” The Googleplex Knows What You’ll Buy Next appeared first on Adpulp.
Fake news is such an innocent term. The fact that it masks what it really is—propaganda—seems to get lost in the equation. Nevertheless, what does “fake news” actually look like? It looks like this: Sadly, fake news, a.k.a. propaganda is not innocent, nor does it exist in a bubble. According to Bloomberg, Russian meddling is […]
The post We Have A Big Fat Platform Problem appeared first on Adpulp.
“What is that?” says a boy at the beginning of Droga5’s new spot introducing Google’s smartphone, Pixel. The ubiquitous Google search bar fills the center of the screen as two boys stare down at something … presumably some strange species of insect, plant or fungi. “Man, I don’t know,” says the other boy, and then offers the only possible way out of this conundrum: “ask Google.”
From there the spot takes off in many different directions, exploring how people have turned to the search engine for a variety of needs over the years. Over the course of the ad, the search bar gradually morphs into the shape of the Pixel, concluding with the tagline, “Life by you. Phone by Google.”
“It has enabled people to get answers to any question, converse with faraway friends and find their way to remote locations—or just their way home,” a Droga5 spokesperson told Adweek. “It’s been the focal point of many great adventures, as well as daily life. And now, the company that organized the world’s information is turning its attention to the most important device in your life: your phone. For the first time ever, all the power and possibilities of Google are now in the palm of your hand.”
That about sums up approach of the spot. There’s little in the way of showing what exactly sets the Pixel apart, what features make it different or make it superior to the competition, perhaps things that will be addressed in subsequent efforts. Instead it relies on hyping the company itself and the idea of bringing its unique features to the smartphone market. Don’t you trust Google? Millions of people do.
The global campaign launched with the broadcast spot yesterday and will roll out throughout the markets where the Pixel will initially be available: the United States, Canada, U.K., Australia, Germany and India.
For the layperson, internet routers are generally ugly and boring. They either work and are ignored, or they don’t and are infuriating.
But Google is having some fun promoting its OnHub, taking it on the road to a nudist colony, an Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest, a senior center’s bingo night, and a dolphin tank—all to show off how good it looks, and the tricks it can perform.
Search for “CEO” on Google Images, and you’ll find only a handful of the first 100 results include female faces. Of those, one is a stock photo and another is … CEO Barbie.
A 2015 study by CNNMoney found that 14.2 percent of leadership positions in the S&P 500 are held by women, and according to nonprofit Catalyst, only 4 percent of top companies are currently led by female chief executives.
To help change Google’s own male-dominated portrayal of CEOs, three aspiring agency professionals working their way through BBH’s internship program, The Barn, want to change that fact with the help of some strategic SEO magic.
Fashion futurists, rejoice! Google and Levi’s first smart garment has arrived, and it’s a jean jacket that connects to your smartphone.
The tech giant’s Project Jacquard, focused on developing touch-sensitive fabrics, has been publicly working with the storied denim brand for a year now. The concept video for their launch product, Levi’s Commuter x Jacquard, slated for beta this fall and to hit shelves more widely in 2017, promises variations on largely familiar functions.
Google France has built an escape room to seamlessly unite online and offline worlds.
Created by We Are Social, Première Pièce will open at an undisclosed location in the heart of Paris. The campaign builds on the escape room trend, in which you and a bunch of friends pay to get locked in a room for an hour or two, left to solve puzzles and work in collaboration to find a way out. Last month, the Toronto Film Festival built an escape room that lives on Instagram. (Google’s is a physical room, but uses virtual tools as a central conceit.)
In 1990, a group of disabled people pulled themselves up the steps at the U.S. Capitol building to advocate for the Americans With Disabilites Act, protesting delays in an event that became known as the Capitol Crawl.
Now, a new outdoor ad campaign from Google and 72andSunny marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark legislation by featuring painted portraits of key figures in the disability rights movement on the steps of major cultural buildings in Washington, D.C.
Posted from July 24-27, the billboards featured a range of notable activists—like Claudia Gordon, the first deaf female African American attorney in U.S. history, and Ed Roberts, a leader in the drive for the ADA as well as the movement more broadly—at buildings like Gallaudet University and the National Portrait Gallery, respectively. They also celebrated legislators like former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.
A quote accompanied each portrait. “This vital legislation will open the door to full participation by people with disabilities in our neighborhoods, workplaces, our economy, and our American Dream,” reads Harkin’s, posted on steps in the Newseum.
The steps leading up to the Carnegie Library also feature a quote—sans portrait—from President George H.W. Bush, who signed the ADA into law.
72andSunny hired artist Darren Booth to illustrate the campaign. An accompanying website features more in-depth tellings of each figure’s role in the movement, including, in most cases, video interviews with the subjects themselves. It also ties more directly back into the brand’s products, with a Google Map offering a “tour” of the locations that hosted the portraits.
Here are all the paintings and their locations:
Claudia Gordon at Gallaudet University
Tom Harkin at the Newseum
Patrick Kennedy at Woodrow Wilson Plaza
Justin Dart Jr. at Woodrow Wilson Plaza
Tia Nelis at the National Museum of American History
Kathy Martinez at the National Museum of American History
Ed Roberts at the National Portrait Gallery
Judy Heumann at the National Portrait Gallery
Tatyana McFadden at the National Portrait Gallery
CREDITS
Client: Google
Agency: 72andSunny
Artwork: Darren Booth
Red Robin is apparently going all-in with its cross-promotion efforts for Terminator: Genisys, which hits theaters July 1 and marks Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s return to the franchise that made his career.
Not only has Red Robin unveiled its monstrous Genisys Burger this month, but the chain has also enlisted the services of Vitro, its creative agency since 2013, and a team of Google engineers who in turn have given the display ad as we know it a Terminator-styled makeover.
The above demo clip featuring Red Robin pitchwoman “Melanie” hints at the fact that “Terminator Vision” initially looks like your average display ad unit until you go to this dedicated site, enter the unique URL provided into your mobile browser (no app necessary) and eventually unlock a rich media system developed by Google engineers.
It was admittedly a bit shaky on first try, and Melanie’s nonstop chatter can be grating, but Terminator Vision cleverly picks up on the latter as you see the world through the T-800’s eyes.
The machines, in this case, have become self-aware–but even more importantly, they’ve alleviated the usual banner ad boredom…for a moment, at least.
Transgender issues have been front-page news all summer, though brands have clearly had a hard time knowing what their role should be in the conversation. But now Google—one of the world’s most powerfully visible corporate LGBT advocates—is out with a new spot for Pride Month that tells the deeply poignant story of a transgender man and the small business that helped him during his transition.
The first half of the spot below focuses on Jake, who was born female but identified as male from a young age. The second half introduces City Gym in Kansas City, Mo., which has given Jake a place where he can feel comfortable getting to know his changing body and find support for him and his friends. (Another gym’s tagline, “No judgments,” would be much more apt at this place.)
It’s a wonderfully made spot. The story is skillfully and evocatively told, and never feels exploitative. The inclusion of YouTube videos in which Jake shows his transition are particularly resonant in describing his journey (and yes, Google’s ongoing behind-the-scenes role in it).
It’s also unapologetic about the business tie-in—the spot promotes the Google My Business tools for small businesses—which is a good thing, as it doesn’t feign disinterested altruism and presents a very tangible case for supporting LGBT-friendly businesses.
Google has done meaningful work in this space for years. Once again, it’s leading by example.
Visual effects studio The Mill and Hollywood director Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious 3-6) have collaborated on the latest film in Google’s Spotlight Stories—a series of immersive movies made uniquely for mobile. This one is groundbreaking because it combines live action and computer graphics in a 360-environment—and it required a completely new kind of camera rig that The Mill invented to give Lin the 360-degree live-action shots he needed.
The film, titled HELP, features aliens in a cityscape. But the narrative unfolds differently for every user, as you watch it on your mobile device—and move the device around to see different parts of the scene around you. (In this way, it approximates virtual reality.) The film is available for free with the new Google Spotlight Stories app via Google Play (and will be soon be on iOS via the App Store).
You can see a linear version of part of the film here:
brightcove.createExperiences();
As you can see in the behind-the-scenes video below, The Mill developed a proprietary software solution called Mill Stitch that takes images from multiple cameras and “stitches” the output into a continuous 360-degree view. This helped the director and cinematographer see the entire world they were filming as it happened. The Mill then combined the live action with the vast CG environments in postproduction.
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) unit is behind the Spotlight Stories program. (Yes, the group’s tagline really is “We like epic shit.”) “Collaborating with Google’s ATAP team of experts and with such an acclaimed live-action director as Justin Lin allowed The Mill to flex its creative and technical muscles to solve new and complex challenges,” says The Mill CEO Robin Shenfield.
“It’s been, to say the least, a colossal learning experience and given us very valuable insight into the technical and creative challenges involved with new immersive and VR filmmaking. It’s a perfect fit for us to be at the epicenter of a new format and pioneering a new way of telling stories.”
brightcove.createExperiences();
People have been looking for the Loch Ness Monster for centuries, but now Google has brought some high-tech dragon-hunting software to the search.
The company, with help from London agency adam&eveDDB, has brought underwater Street View to the famous Scottish loch, having introduced it last year to the Great Barrier Reef. You can now jump right into Loch Ness in Google Maps, and peer down into the murky depths.
You won’t see quite as much as you do at Great Barrier Reef. But it’s a charming conceit, and one that Google is running with—even going so far as putting a Loch Ness doodle on the Google U.K. homepage. Meanwhile, adam&eve made the video below to go with the project.
“A huge part of Google’s mission is to help make mysterious places more accessible to everyone, and there’s no more emotive, exciting example of that than revealing what’s beneath the waters of Loch Ness,” says Alex Hesz, director of digital at adam&eveDDB.
“This is a place of enduring mystery and profound beauty, and we were lucky enough to accompany Google’s underwater capture team on a truly extraordinary task. We think that the campaign really captures the scale of that undertaking, the beauty of the place, and the reasons why Loch Ness has retained such a sense of mystery and intrigue for so many, for so long. The fact that everyone can now explore it for themselves is hugely exciting.”
CREDITS
Client: Google
Project: Explore Loch Ness with Google Maps
Brief: Google gives access to explore hidden places
Creative agency: adam&eveDDB/Google Creative Lab
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Director: Ben Tollett, Richard Brim
Creative Director/s: Paul Knott, Tim Vance and Google Creative Lab
Planner: Will Grundy
Account Management: Alex Hesz and Sam Brown
TV Producer: Ben Sharpe and Jordan Cross
Production company: Sonny
Director: Nick Rutter
Editor: Gary Forrester
Edit House: Marshall Street Editors
Soundtrack name and composer: “The Search” by Brendan Woithe
Post-production: The Mill
Audio post-production: Clang @ Marshall Street
Google Japan wanted to draw attention to a little Android app called Androidify, which makes tiny android avatars. So, it synchronized 300 Android devices, each with their own little avatar, to create a tiny android avatar chorus.
The digital choir was installed in the Omotesando Hills shopping center in Tokyo, where the little creatures flail their arms in time to the preprogramed music for the amusement of shoppers. Anyone brave enough can actually step up and attempt to “conduct” the tiny, tinny choir through a gesture-sensing program.
If you don’t want to travel there, you can enjoy the online videos of the choir performing.
Apparently the stunt is more than cool. It also has some relevance to the brand message of “Be together. Not the same,” since each little avatar is unique. Isn’t it nice when fun things actually support your brand message instead of getting shot down by the brand police?
Nice job, Google Japan.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
