Google Chrome: Dear Sophie

This is the 2nd TVC in the "The Web Is What You Make of it" campaign for Google Chrome. You can read about the first part here

The first commercial focused on providing a business solution, but for this one, Google goes for the jugular. The “Awwww” factor. Take a look for yourself and after watching this if you don’t go “AWWWW”, then you have some serious emotional issues.

With the above mentioned ad, Google aims to tug at your heart strings and is largely successful. The formula remains the same, more or less like the last one. So what works this time?

• They use great story telling to get the audience emotionally invested. In the part where she gets sick, they emphasize on the words, hospital, really bad fever, helpless. Any parent can instantly connect to that helplessness they feel when their child is sick.
• It’s based on a true story, but they used professional actors for the photos and videos shown in the commercial. To emphasize on its authenticity they used the unpolished spontaneity of home videos and snapshots

Showcasing Google as a Multifaceted Tool

• They successfully portrayed Google not as a product but a tool to connect. What do you make of Google? A letter, a picture, a video, a memory. The web is what you make of it, just replace web with Google
• They  put a lot of emphasis on other Google services, this time its gmail,youtube,  google maps apart from chrome

“We try to get rid of everything but the user and the tools and let you feel what is happening there, without a lot of commentary from Google itself,” Mr. Berndt, Google’s creative Director said.

It was brave of Google 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.

‍