Will Google TV Help Marketing?
What we know about Google TV is only a small piece of the pie, but it’s safe to say Google’s next technology innovation will reach millions of people who already use Google Search, Docs, Gmail, Google Earth, and more Web technologies every day. The leading search engine and marketing company is not new to the Web, but they are new to TV. What Google has done for searches and ad campaigns may portend to Web TV.
What we know about Google TV and how it will operate comes from the May 20 announcement of the new feature. Many have more questions than answers. What is it? And more to the point, how will it effect marketing on the web?
What Google TV Is
The tagline on many Web articles shows comparisons to YouTube, marrying web surfing with TV browsing. However, Google TV will have much more capital and weight to start out with than YouTube did upon starting. With it’s marketplace already set, the technology will combine other networks such as Netflix and YouTube to create one content stream. In other words, Google won’t be reinventing TV online; it will be building upon it.
How Google TV Will Work
Google will support Adobe Flash 10.1, and will use the Android 2.1 to allow you to directly connect your TV or blu-ray player to the channel. In Google’s own word, TV will bring “the Web to your TV and your TV to the Web.”
How Much Will It Cost
There are unfortunately little details as of yet as to how much it will cost to use Google TV. Some are giving estimates, but Google has not given the press any solid facts yet.
How It will Effect Marketing
Google will be featuring advertising through its channels, making it just another platform for companies to reach buyers in a different way. Ads might also run within Android apps. Since few TV providers have jumped on board with Google TV as of yet, we’ll have to wait and see just how many consumers will have access. Still, Google is king when it comes to Web based marketing, and Google TV may be a must for certain consumer marketing campaigns.
What This Means to your Company
There is a lot of buzz on Google TV, and it’s likely the launch will be heavily marketed. If you already use Google’s AdWords programs for marketing, TV could add new niches to Web marketing and branding. If you don’t use Google yet for marketing, TV may very well be the best way to start.
In the end, there are more questions than answers right now when it comes to Google TV and how it will affect marketing strategies. What cable networks will take it on, how much it will cost, how large the audience will be, and how Google will use other tools to market it — we’ll have to wait and see.
Like other Google platforms, one thing this will likely do well is provide incredible reporting for advertisers. This should be good for advertisers, but bad for other forms of TV since the bar will be raised on tracking in ways that traditional media services may not like.
A forthright answer would be “Yes”, this effort by Google too would work as a marketing tool simply because of the kind of daily traffic that it engages from worldwide browsers. I would say that we should not be expecting an easy or discounted pricing by Google even for businesses wanting to advertise during the initial stages too since no one really expects Google to falter in one of its core niches, i.e. online marketing. This could be a bigger ad revenue source for Google than AdWords.
I would be one to say that Google TV will probably have an effect on the world as a whole, but I do not think that it will change marketing. We have seen in the past internet ready TV’s even TV’s in refrigerators with internet access. none of them took hold or did anything though. TV will remain an entertainment device, that advertisers will push through their products with.