"It was brave of Google’s founders to resist this kind of advertising in the early days of the company. But now Google clearly believes that to connect with the masses on Chrome, it makes sense to hew to more traditional means of promotion. And the positive reaction “Dear Sophie” has garnered is an indication that this was the right choice."
Interesting analysis of Google's Dear Sophie commercial. I didn't know Google had a resistance to TV commercials internally. My friend Meredith is one of the people who runs Chrome and was involved in the ad. When it aired I congratulated her because it's so well done.
In my work at Lighthouse, I've learned that startups can use TV very effectively to drive adoption. If you watch cable tv, on any given night you'll see a commercial for one of the three companies I work with that advertise heavily. It really works.
Knowing this, I was very happy to see Google's ad because almost every day I answer a tech support issue on Ben's Friends Patient Networks related to an out of date Microsoft Internet Browser. Unless you're in this line of work, you have no idea how many people still use an outdated version of Explorer that slows down sites or even makes them unusable. Selfishly, I hope this ad drives serious adoption because it's going to make my life a lot simpler.
