Google and Media Channels: Google+ and the Football Demographic

November 27, 2011

I am not a TV type. My knowledge of Google+ is shallow. I watched the commercial using a link in the TechCrunch story “Google+ Gets A Thanksgiving Day TV Ad: “Sharing, But Like Real Life”. I could not watch the entire commercial because the phone rang, and I have the old fashioned type of attention deficit disorder. I do meaningful work first; I don’t watch stuff designed and delivered via boob tube marketing.

I have pieced together some thoughts, however.

First, as I recall Google is trying to create YouTube with “real” channels, which the “real” consultants explain thoroughly. These poobahs are probably more expert in couch surfing, the vast wasteland, and quips from Dancing with the Stars than I. The notion of advertising a Google service on a medium which Google is trying to supplant strikes me as interesting. I was tempted to use the word schizophrenic, but as a dinosaur type goose, I find psych-babble only slightly more confusing than TV advertisements. “How many people will watch the Thomson Reuters’ channel on YouTube?” I wonder.

Second, forget the cost of the time and the production. The notion of using a football game to pitch a social networking service is interesting. I thought the very core, the essence, the guts of social interaction was the viral function. My understanding, which as I have frequently noted, is flawed suggests to me that people fuel the take off of the hot social service. You know the “network effect,” the old n^n+1 network of fax machines argument. The signal flash in my braid suggested this question, “If Google+ is a social network, then it should be supported by itself.” Obviously an exogenous action was needed to jump start the viral effect. The issue for me is that TV ads may not trigger a viral effect. Unlike CNet’s “Google Takes on Facebook with Long Google+ TV Ad”, I did not think of this observation:

This Google+ thing, when it launched, seemed just a trifle more brainy. Now along comes this long disquisition that makes it seem, well, even brainier. Or at least, to the normal human being, not noticeably different from Facebook. Or, well, what is it?

Third, what online service has successfully advertised its way into my behavior patterns? GoDaddy? No, I remember the elephant killing thing, not the service. The grocery service. No, what grocery service? The pet thing? No, no, I buy dog food at the local pet store which does not advertise anywhere. The company has a sign, but it is next to the doc in a box, so I don’t pay much attention to ads.

What’s the “net net” as one of the financial experts for whom I used to do work used to say? My take on the net net is:

Something has gone off the rails with Google+ usage when one advertisers on a holiday to football fans in the midst of some type of holiday function. At the Arnold’s this boils down to baking, booze, and bedlam. Embracing Google+ instead of giblets was not on the menu. For you, who knows?
Google+ and its ability to self generate buzz is not doing the job against the arch enemy Facebook. Is the phrase “wave of failure” appropriate? I don’t think “buzz” will do the job. Google is a heck of a marketer, but is the challenge of boosting Google+ outside the capacity of Google’s own, formidable capabilities. Is there a place for old media in Google’s new world?
Given the fact that Google is using old media (television) to promote a new media (social networking), has Google realized that it is just out of step with what is happening in the market. Why couldn’t YouTube or one of the other Google micro targeting services inject specific information about Google+ directly into the online experience of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of Google users? The thought that the reality is different from the perception of Google’s potency is interesting. Perhaps Google+ is a true consumer product just like contact lenses equipped with Terminator style displays?

Google is definitely a different company from the search oriented start up 13 years ago. I now say “hello” to the new Google which is its Google+ service, consumerization, and old media supporter.

Stephen E Arnold, November 27, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.