Now Showing at a Cinema Near You… GOOGLE?
The Googleplex Offices are renowned for the whiteboards that line the office walls. This is where the Google employees get to express themselves and write up ideas and thoughts – a kind of creative thinking outlet for the whole office!
One of the ideas which came up on the boards recently was the screening of Google advertisements on cinema movie screens, sponsoring the film costs thus enabling the public to view movies for free.
The idea sounds interesting, but is it practical?
A key component in marketing is targeting the ad to the right market. With Google covering such a broad spectrum of information used by consumers from all walks of life, so this aspect may be do-able.
Keeping track of the effectiveness of advertisements screened during movies is a lot more difficult than tracking online ads. This is why only certain sectors utilise big screen ads, which are also harder to track than billboards, radio and television when it comes to effectiveness. This hesitance to break into big screen advertising could carry through into movie-screened Google ads.
Bearing in mind that in many countries product and service advertising already make up a good 30 minutes of pre-main feature ads, along with trailers, it doesn’t seem as if Google has anything different to offer in this field.
I feel that Google are right in wanting to branch out and not keep all their ‘eggs in one basket’ when it comes to advertising.
However big-screen advertising is not a new or fresh idea and already has certain limitations over and above the ones discussed in this article.
I don’t feel that what is being suggested meets the requirements of a new line of advertising.
Back to the whiteboard, guys!