Google Kicks Off Ad Push for Latest Nexus Smartphone
Google’s next-generation smartphone, the Nexus S, is finally here, and to get the word out to holiday shoppers, the tech titan is unveiling a new online-marketing campaign and in-store push at Best Buy.
Google today posted full specs for the phone on a YouTube channel, dedicated to Nexus S, the successor to the questionably successful Nexus One launched one year ago. That handset was manufactured by HTC, while the Nexus S is a Samsung phone that comes with a new Android operating system, code-named “Gingerbread.” The idea behind the new device is that it’s unadulterated Google, free of the apps and features loaded by third-parties and carriers.
As for its carriers, the Nexus S will be available through T-Mobile.
The branding of the phone and the marketing campaign to promote it, dubbed “Pure Google,” was done by California-based Muhtayzik-Hoffer. The shop is a recent addition to Google’s growing roster of mostly small creative boutique agencies. The creative work launches today with a short film aimed at Google fan boys and mobile geeks, filmed in Brooklyn with the help of 1stAveMachine — the same production company that helped bring Google’s first Super Bowl spot to life.
The film shows demos of the Nexus S’ navigation, translation, picture-taking and voice-activated capabilities, as well as Google Street View and the recently released Google sky map application. One thing it doesn’t show? The phone’s tap-and-pay capability. Last month at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the phone comes equipped with chips that enable users to use their phones instead of credit cards.
That feature could be promoted in future videos down the road. The “Pure Google” campaign after today is expected to unfurl into a set of digital banners and point-of-sale work that will appear at Best Buy, which Google tapped as its retail partner to help launch the phones amidst the holiday shopping blitz.
