Google Expands “Going Google” Enterprise Ad Campaign

Google has decided to extend and pick up the pace of its “Going Google” (Apps and enterprise products) traditional media campaign. The ads were first launched in August in four cities with billboards. Now Google says the campaign will be expanded globally to “the U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore” and appear “in train stations such as Paddington, La Défense and Shinagawa, and at airports in Singapore, Toronto, Dallas and beyond . . .”

Here’s a promotional video (“campaign preview”):

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP2oWfDMvqc[/youtube]

The campaign seeks to establish the credibility of Google’s enterprise offerings by naming companies that have adopted them, that have “Gone Google.” And, yes, it’s about stealing customers from Microsoft’s more traditional software products. But that’s obvious.

What’s more interesting to me is that Google is now much less inhibited about doing traditional media advertising, which it has done for Maps, Transit, the LBC, Chrome, Book Search (court-ordered) and AdWords/AdSense. There’s also a ton of advertising going on for Android phones, of course, although that’s being paid for by Google’s partners: T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, HTC, Motorola and others. Every ad for Android is indirectly an ad for Google.

Now that Google acknowledges traditional media spending and promotion are often important to build awareness, we’re likely to see the company do more of this sort of thing in the future. In my mind, it marks a significant change in Google’s attitude toward media and advertising. It’s also consistent with the “maturation” of the company.