Google scores most effective TV ad with Dear Sophie
tideart.com
tideart.com
Surprisingly?
I'm all for watching hot chicks bounce around in skimpy outfits, but that can't be the beginning and ending of a conversation about a brand or a service (unless that brand is in the T&A industry). GoDaddy's ads basically communicate "We're sketchy and lowbrow." And, typically speaking, I want neither of those things in a domain registry service.
Conversely, what Google does really well is demonstrate its product -- and the benefits of that product -- in a very simple, human, touching way with big emotional impact. Google is getting you to understand and love its brand at the same time. The ads are really well done.
Exactly!
The popularity of such extremely sketchy registrars is disturbing, of course most registrars are more or less sketchy, but there almost seems to be correlation between popularity and sketchiness in this field, and I can't figure out why.
Domains are a commodity; people want them cheap. Expensive things signal high status—so, conversely, low-status things signal cheapness.
The account "dear.sophie.lee" has been deleted for
violation of the Google Names policy. The Names Policy
requires that you use your actual, legal name. Nicknames,
titles, etc. are not permitted.
We emailed you following a review of your profile and gave
you a 4 day window of time to edit the name of this
account. Since you did not, we have deleted it.
We understand that our new Google-wide policy may not be
for everyone. We'd be sad to see you go. Please consider
creating a new account with a real name and starting over
fresh.
Thanks for using google servicesThe problem with Sophie Lee is that she is too young and if you create a GMail account with her real age it will be immediately locked out due to COPPA regulations. This isn't really Google's fault though -- but did make the Dear Sophie ad a little confusing due to this legal restriction. Presumably you have to sign up using your own age since it is an account managed by you. When your child turns 13 you can transfer the account to them.
GMail users are not subject to any Real Name policies. Nice straw-man, though. It probably eluded most.
Google seems to be presenting itself as a life-long data repository. But they have basically no customer support, no means of data recovery, etc. If they want to advertise themselves as a family scrapbook, I expect them to be as reliable as one.
The only motivation I can see for the people who are downvoting you is that they work for Google and the cognitive dissonance is annoying.
Account lockouts due to TOS violations are often cases in which Google's hands are tied legally.
Very few things are life-long, so backup early and backup often. Google is the only cloud hosted service provider I feel comfortable using because I can easily sync my data with my backup server.
I can't imagine why that wasn't included as part of the ad. ;)
Thus far, I don't know of any other digital media that's claiming to exist long enough for your child to grow up. Entire companies could crumble during that period.
Google's the last place you want to put a digital time capsule to your child. You'd want it in several places, none of which ought be encumbered by the policies a company like Google needs to keep its operations running. But they wouldn't want to mention that in an ad.
Any better for you?
Facebook? They've let users download their data for some time now. (go to https://www.facebook.com/settings then "Download your data")
This looks like this: https://skitch.com/timothee/g8c7r/download-your-information
For all the critics that Facebook gets, it's also good to note that they have customer service. (and pretty good for my little experience)
I'm pretty sure Sophie isn't reading the emails as they come in.
Correct, which is why he writes in the end I have been writing you since you were born.....Until then...
Brilliantly done.
In a sea of shitty advertising where companies recycle bad ideas and rely on special effects or catchy jingles to sell, you end up with an arms race between competitors telling you why to chose them over the alternatives. They completely forget to say why you should want the product at all. It just ends up leaving people suspicious of advertising in general.
This ad was really effective because it didn't hype the technology. They thought about what is important to people and found a way to show their products as enriching that experience.
It is rare to find ads this good, but they are the kind that will stay in their minds for years to come.
I am at the age where I look forward to having children. I want to establish some stability before I do it and so it is still a few years off. Despite this, I find myself thinking on a daily basis what values and skills I want to teach my kids. I am making lists of books, films, projects, etc. that I will introduce to them at the appropriate age. After seeing this ad, I went ahead and registered a few accounts with names that my wife and I talk about every once in a while.
I bet many other people at the same stage of life as me are doing the same.
Kudos to google.
http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/10755504272/intimacy-and-perf...
What's interesting here is that Google seems to understand what technology means to people a lot better than Facebook does.
(Oh right, everyone)
I'm probably weird and I'm not sure I can explain it rationally, but if my parents had done something like this I'm not sure I'd be too amused.
Maybe it is just too cheesy for my taste.
(And obviously I don't mean just the act of going and publishing it in an ad, I'm assuming the whole illustration of the idea is fabricated.)
What if one of your parents passed away while you were young? Wouldn't it be nice to have some concept of interacting with them as an adult? What if a house fire or flood destroyed the home videos and photo albums of your youth?
Actually one of my parents did pass away while I was relatively young, but my family history is 'unconventional' to say the least, that might be why I'm weird and seem to have a different reaction from other people, or it might be something else completely, I don't know, was just expressing my feeling about it.
> Wouldn't it be nice to have some concept of interacting with them as an adult?
Maybe, but it is much more complicated than that.
> What if a house fire or flood destroyed the home videos and photo albums of your youth?
I do not keep any such things, again I guess I'm weird, but I'm at least somewhat happy about thins being this way.
And yes, I do realize that keeping such thing just gives me the option to look at it or not, still it feels creepy to me.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=1...
EDIT: Uhh, I'm getting downvotes. I assume it's because I called Google a spam company? Well then, let me clarify: I don't like any company or industry that lives off of advertising. Advertising is intrusive, it's noisy, it finances or subsidizes mostly crap (turn on a TV if you don't believe me), and it promotes profoundly bad ideas and values (keyword: consumerism) in the intellectually and psychologically weakest members of society. There's the rant, now you can downvote all you want. Doesn't change a thing. Until Google makes something that people are actually willing to pay their hard-earned cash for, they are in the same category as spammers.