Think with Google

Top 10 YouTube Ads for April

2013-05-15T16:27:00.000+01:00

The Top 10 YouTube Ads for April have been published on MarketingWeek.co.uk.
This month's Leaderboard shows us how brands can engage a global audience from both sides of the atlantic.

The Evian Babies ad is a huge hit at number 1 on our leaderboards in the UK, France, Germany, Italy & Spain and has also ranked highly in the US. Carrying on the trend is the internationally successful Dove Sketches ad, which has captured the imagination of the UK audience and comes in at number 2.

Irn Bru ranks well for the second month in a row and is a great example of how a brand is building episodic content, delighting impassioned fans despite geographical borders. Similarly, KLM's ad takes advantage of YouTube's global reach to launch their worldwide competition.

Check out the full list here.

Introducing the new YouTube Ads Leaderboard: Great Ads People Choose

2013-04-09T18:07:00.000+01:00

What makes an ad great? Simple: when people “choose” to watch it. On YouTube, we see this more and more - fans are opting to view and share content they’re passionate about, be it a music video, a favorite show, or an ad.

In order to celebrate great ads that people love to watch, we are launching a monthly YouTube UK Ads Leaderboard to showcase the top 10 ads that most moved audiences and had the highest number of views through a winning combination of promotion (paid ads) and popularity (organic views).

The top ten ads leaderboard list for March is:

1. Fiat - The Fatherhood - Fiat 500L 12" Remix (Fiat UK)

2. IRN BRU - New Fella | New IRN-BRU advert 2013

3. Pepsi - Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: "Test Drive"

4. Adidas - adidas Originals | unite all Originals

5. Samsung - Introducing Samsung GALAXY S4

6. Save the Children UK - What Has Aid Ever Done For Anyone? Apart from...

7. Volvo - Volvo Commuter Hijack #2 - Cardiff

8. Foot Locker - adidas "Never Stop" with ClimaCool at Foot Locker

9. Volvo - Volvo Commuter Hijack #1 - London

10. O2 - Mother's Day Apps For Kids: O2 Guru TV App Lab

‘The clear trend this month is how big brand advertisers are using video to deliver unique original content made specifically for their YouTube fans - whether chart topping music videos such as Fiat’s The Fatherhood, app reviews like O2’s App Lab, or enlisting the help of Monty Python comedic geniuses for Save the Children. It’s no longer only about sticking your TV ad on the web and waiting for views, true success is thinking about how to entertain and interact with the online community to build a loyal audience of brand fans. A look through the Fiat’s comments demonstrates the connection that can be built through this sort of creative outreach and the value that represents for a brand.’

Kevin Mathers, Managing Director, YouTube UK

Stay tuned throughout the year as we recognize the new ads you love each month!

Posted by Ali Turhan, Industry Analyst - Agency Strategy

Introducing Gen C - The YouTube Generation

2013-04-08T17:50:00.001+01:00

Gen C is a powerful new force in consumer culture. It's a term we use to describe people who care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community. It's not an age group; it's an attitude and mindset defined by 8 key characteristics.

Gen C:

Is a state of mind - 80%* of Gen C is made up of millennials. YouTube's core (though by no means only) audience
Strives for expression - 67%* of Gen C uploads their own photos to social networks
Is a taste maker - 85%* of Gen C relies on peer approvals for buying decisions
Defines the social network - 88%* of Gen C has a social profile, with 65%* updating it daily
Uses YouTube as a habitat for entertainment - Gen C is 2X* more likely to be a YouTube viewer than the general population and 40%* more likely to be only a light TV viewer
Is constantly connected - 91%* of Gen C sleeps next to a smartphone
Connects on YouTube on all screens - 80%* of Gen C with a smartphone watch YouTube
Values relevance and originality - 39%* aren't opposed to ads when they are relevant.

*For further information click here.

Download Infographic below

Posted by Ali Turhan, Industry Analyst - Agency Strategy

How Fashion gets a makeover with Topshop’s full London Fashion Week experience on Google+

2013-03-20T14:26:00.001Z

There was a time when only editors of the world’s style bibles got the chance to sit on the front row of a fashion show, when the catwalk was the exclusive domain of top models, and when stylists and makeup artists were the only ones lucky enough to join in the backstage excitement of London Fashion Week.

But this February Topshop reinvented its fashion show and simultaneously democratised the thrill of London Fashion Week. How? By partnering with Google+ in a groundbreaking series of inventive online happenings. The programme not only grabbed headlines – a key goal of every brand’s fashion week involvement – but also stimulated deep engagement with the Topshop audience. The programme had four components – Be the Model, Be Part of the Team, Be the Front Row Fashionista and Be The Buyer.

Be The Model afforded a rare opportunity for fans to get a model’s-eye view of fashion week. Top models Cara Delevingne, Jourdan Dunn, Rosie Tapner and Ashleigh Good wore HD micro cameras – “model cams” – so online viewers could see and feel what models experience as they stride down the runway. And at Topshop’s Oxford Street flagship fans could enter a special Google+ booth and try on their favourite outfits. From the booth, an animated picture was instantly uploaded to the Topshop’s Be the Model Google+ event page.

Be Part of the Team included an exclusive hangout on air behind the scenes at Topshop’s headquarters with a host of fashion insiders, such as Kate Phelan (Topshop Creative Director), Emma Farrow (Topshop Head of Design), Hannah Murray (international make-up artist) and Beth Fenton (show stylist). Two lucky Topshop fans were allowed to post questions just before the start of the show.

Be the Front Row Fashionista featured a red carpet hangout on air on the day of the show and allowed viewers to get a unique perspective from the front row. After the arrival of leading celebrities like Kate Bosworth, One Direction star Louis Tomlinson and Pixie Geldolf, the hotly anticipated show was streamed on Topshop.com, in Topshop’s Oxford Circus store and on all of Google’s platforms through a special customised YouTube gadget.

Be The Buyer saw the launch of a hangout app that enabled users to pick and choose their favourite items to share with friends on Google+. Topshop chose the best fashion collection from among these and awarded one stylish winner a free shopping spree. The app was promoted on Topshop’s homepage through a leaderboard that dynamically ranked the most popular of all the shared items.

The programme delivered fantastic results:

4 million views across all platforms

2.5 million views from YouTube

G+ posts viewed over 400,000 times, a +400% increase

Comments increased by 340% per day

Reshares increased by 275% per day

+1s increased by over 400% per day

7,500 live views of red carpet hangout

600 animated photos posted from in-store booth

Average 11-minute engagement with hangout app, 52% reshares

300,000 new G+ followers in two weeks

2 million views from TrueView ads
400+ press mentions (inc. Guardian, Vogue, CNN video, FastCompany, Vogue IT & FR)

To learn more about the future of fashion, read the full case study here.

Post by Natalia Cano, Product Marketing Manager, Google+

A look back at a merry multi-screen Christmas season!

2013-02-20T09:00:00.000Z

Suppose that we could have hopped onto a flying sleigh for a quick trip around the world during Christmas. What would we have seen from up high? The twinkling lights of millions of multi-screen homes. This was a multi-screen Christmas season. People shopped online at all times, from everywhere, on all kinds of devices.

Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US and the busiest online shopping day of the year, provided people with limitless opportunities to shop and save while being constantly connected. Thanksgiving may not be a European holiday and Cyber Monday may not be a well used term on the streets of Paris, Madrid and Milan, but our research proves that Europeans are just as likely to begin their shopping sprees in the week after Thanksgiving as their American counterparts. What's even more interesting - in Europe - is that shoppers were getting a head start with their mobile devices the Sunday before Cyber Monday.

We looked at several popular Christmas present search queries across the US and Europe, and discovered a surge of mobile queries on Sunday 25th November. In the United Kingdom, for example, mobile queries for electronics surged 103% YoY on the 25th when people were using their phones while out shopping. The following day, people turned to their PCs and tablets to take advantage of Cyber Monday deals while at work and we saw PC and Tablet (where we see similar search behaviour) queries grow by 105% YoY for top electronic gifts.

These same multi-screen trends carried us into 2013 as people researched how to shed those extra Christmas pounds and get healthier in the new year. On New Year's Eve, people did their research on smartphones while shopping for last minute outfits or getting their hair done. In the United Kingdom, mobile search queries rose 288% YoY on New Year’s Eve for gyms, cleanses and diets. And on New Year's Day, as people sat on their sofas at home recuperating, search queries on PCs and tablets rose 128% YoY for gyms, cleanses and diets.

Advertising implications for businesses
So we know that today's shoppers are constantly connected. We know they move seamlessly between many screens, in the moment, without second thoughts. And on all screens, they search. Now that we know that, what do we do?

One good answer is to think about context. All these new search patterns have created a world of new context-based marketing opportunities. When you know the time of day, a shopper's general location and the kind of device that they’re using, you can guess quite a lot about what they may be looking for and where they are in the buying cycle.

Need help? Upgrade to enhanced campaigns in AdWords to make your cross-device advertising smarter, more powerful and more measurable. Enhanced campaigns can help:

1. Manage your bids across devices, locations and time.

2. Show the right ad creative, sitelink, app or extension based on user context and what the device can handle.

3. Track conversions like calls. And soon, you will be able to track digital downloads, in-store purchases and other cross-device conversions.

Get the context right on the next day of note, say Mother’s Day or Easter. To learn more about AdWords enhanced campaigns click here.

Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Product Marketing Manager - Mobile Ads

Source: Google Internal Data. Growth based on YoY data.
*Top electronic gifts defined as smartphones, tablets, ereaders, mp3 players.

Gumtree extend the reach of TV ads

2013-02-14T17:21:00.000Z

Gumtree a network of online classifieds and community websites, wanted to extend the reach of their TV advertising on YouTube using TrueView ads. To achieve this, Gumtree harnessed the power of Google data to get the right ads in front of the right searchers.

Using TrueView ads Gumtree achieved a 26% view rate (45% above the benchmark), whilst maintaining a low cost per view at 2p (75% below the benchmark). Gumtree were also able to attract new visitors to their website with 59% of visitors from YouTube new to Gumtree.

Sam Diamond, Head of Brand and Communications at Gumtree highlighted the importance of YouTube in their media strategy by saying 'We found TrueView easy to use, and an effective way of extending the reach of our TV advertising. We gained lots of interesting insight from our trial, and will now always consider YouTube as part of our media strategy'.

You can find the full Gumtree YouTube channel here.

For further details on YouTube TrueView ads click here or watch the short video below.

Posted by Ali Turhan, Industry Analyst - Agency Strategy

Ocado and LateRooms.com share their experiences of using Google+

2012-10-09T13:40:00.000+01:00

In previous posts we have highlighted the creative ways that Ocado and LateRooms.com are using Google+. We'd like to share with you two videos from them on why Google+ is working for their brands.

LateRooms.com, a hotel aggregator matching customers around the planet with suitable hotel rooms, is using hangouts to discuss top destinations, providing travel tips to their customers and have experienced a 9%CTR uplift in search as a result of social extensions. See what they have to say...

Internet grocery retailer Ocado has done a series of hangouts with Great British Chefs who cooked for customers and these hangouts were promoted via True View ads on YouTube, which resulted in 167k engaged views. The Ocado YouTube channel views went from 50k to 230k in the space of a week thanks to the hangout, without including the people who live-streamed the event (which numbered to about 60 individuals at any given time). Ocado is also using social extensions and experiencing a 30% CTR uplift in Search as a result.

Posted by +Natalia Cano

Media Planning Toolkit

2012-09-25T15:00:00.000+01:00

Planning can be tough. Ever changing media consumption, elusive audiences & time constraints can make it difficult to know your audience, how to target them and measure the impact... And yet careful media planning is key to successful campaigns.

Google planning tools can enable better decisions and more agile planning, with real-time data, insights across digital platforms.

Today, we are launching the Media Planning Toolkit to bring all these planning resources in one place.

Make it your go-to destination to find quality insights and ideas, optimize your media plan and measure the results.

Happy planning.

Posted by Romain Perrier, Agency Marketing

Ocado case study: Google+ features take the cake

2012-09-19T11:39:00.008+01:00

With its inherently digital focus, internet grocery retailer Ocado has established itself as an early adopter of new technologies, so it comes as no surprise that the company embraced Google+ as soon as it could – and has already started reaping some tasty benefits.

The opportunity for Google+ to contribute to improved search rankings was a convincing reason to launch the brand’s Google+ page. By adopting social extensions, Ocado ads became instantly more compelling, and click-through rates increased by 30%.

Hangouts are a clever way that Ocado has brought food-centric content to life. The company capitalised on its existing Great British Chefs initiative and used Google+ to produce a live event where the chefs cooked for customers. Ocado promoted the hangouts via True View ads on YouTube, which resulted in 167k engaged views. The Ocado YouTube channel views went from 50k to 230k in the space of a week thanks to the hangout, without including the people who live-streamed the event (which numbered about 60 individuals at any given time).

The experience has led Ocado to consider further possibilities for moving images. They are keen not to use text-based feeds as what they really want is to get people excited about food, and images are a great way of differentiating. In addition to hangouts and images, Ocado has embraced the Google+ badge which appears on the check-out page with the aim of making the shopping experience social through gifting and sharing.

In future, Ocado has plans for more hangouts on the Google+ page, as well as ideas for more video and channel-specific content. The intention is to deliver the sights and sounds – if not the tastes and aromas – of Ocado products straight to users’ screens.

Find out more about Ocado’s recipe for success by reading the full case study here.

Posted by +Natalia Cano

Creative Sandbox Gallery. Now open for play.

2012-09-18T08:55:00.000+01:00

At Google, we're amazed by how the ad industry is using the digital canvas to bring brands and ideas to life. Whether it’s enticing viewers with video, evoking a smile with a mobile phone, or re-configuring the typical ‘test drive.' When digital advertising works, it can not only be informative, but emotional and dazzling. That’s why we've created a space where everyone can see this great work, talk about it, and roll around in it like a big happy dog.

Yesterday we launched the Creative Sandbox gallery. It’s a crowdsourced collection of global campaigns that push the boundaries of creativity and technology from across digital platforms -- a place to flash your brilliance, spark new digital ideas, inspire and be inspired. We're asking the creators to share a little detail on how they made the magic happen and the tools they used to do it, exposing us all to new ideas and new ways to improve our own work.

As with any sandbox, looking and playing are required. Vote to push your favorite projects to the top. Tell other creators what you admire. And if you've done something amazing lately, send it in. We'd all love to see it.

Jump in. Explore. And play.

www.creativesandbox.com

Posted by Justin Joy, Agency Marketing Manager

How Google+ is being used by Fashion Brands

2012-09-10T14:57:00.000+01:00

For anyone with a passion for fashion, the most exciting time of the year is here: Fashion Week. While the runway shows in New York, London, Milan or Paris are still filled mostly with fashion buyers, bloggers and celebrities, with YouTube and Google+, everyone can get a front row seat right from their desktop, mobile phone or tablet.

From New York, more than 30 fashion shows are being streamed on YouTube Live from the Runway channel, sponsored by Maybelline, giving you front row access from your living room.
very.co.uk hosted a hangout on air with Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton who presented her Winter Collection with fans. Only 6 people were given the chance to chat with Fearne and ask her questions about her new Collection but there were prizes for everyone: free tickets to join her exclusive London Fashion Week show this Thursday.

Paris Vogue Fashion’s Night Out: +VogueParis posted “Live-GIFs” of the event on their +Page, where notable guests, models and VIPs had their images turned into GIFs, ready to be shared across the web. Their 3hour YouTube live broadcast, is now available on the Vogue Paris YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Vogueparisfr or on www.vogue.fr.

There are without any doubt an increasing number of EMEA brands Gucci, Burberry, H&M, Hugo Boss with over 1 million followers on Google+ and others such as Versace or Armani who continue to grow on the platform. These brands are all using the photo / image capabilities of G+ to showcase all their latest designs and collections.

We saw this earlier in February with H&M’s David Beckham underwear collection, and now again in August with H&M’s (#BeckhamforHM) behind the scene photo shoot, and continue to see more and more examples of how fashion and retail brands are embracing Google+ to engage with their followers.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ B2B Marketing

Online Engagement and FMCG Spend in the UK

2012-09-05T13:12:00.000+01:00

Are you an advertiser or agency interested in the UK FMCG sector? Are you looking for more information on ROPO (research online purchase offline) behaviour? Then check out this study that looks at ROPO behaviour in the UK FMCG sector focusing on FMCG searchers and those who have visited a grocery retail online site. The study combines single source data for online behaviors and offline purchases in those categories.

Key Findings:

In 2011, 64% of UK internet users spent significant time researching brands before making a major purchase (vs. 50% in 2008).
47% of main shoppers visit grocery retailer websites and 72% search for FMCG related terms. Two thirds of main shoppers search for Food & Drink related terms, half search for Beauty information.
Main shoppers who Search & Visit spend +13% more in-store than those who do neither.
Main shoppers who search for FMCG information online are younger, more affluent and have larger households.

You can access ppt and pdf versions of the study on the Think Insights site here. Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

Global Business Map - International Market Insights

2012-08-22T08:38:00.006+01:00

Are you an Agency or Advertiser managing international business? Are you after market insights from specific countries? Then take a look at the new Global Business Map on Think Insights.

The Global Business Map provides a country profile for 48 countries on 6 different continents. The country profiles give an overview of fundamental country facts and specific market insights. We have collected those metrics most relevant for uncovering market potential and to help you recognise business opportunities. For instance, did you know that Brazil is one of the top ﬁve countries worldwide for mobile Internet usage, whilst in Israel users spend on average 11.1 hours on social sites, more than double the global average?

This guide also provides an introduction to products and tools available at Google, which can help you get acquainted with the different ways to reach out and connect with your target markets.

Each country page contains the following data:

Basic Facts: official country name, capital, area, top-level domain, official or most spoken language, local currency, age distribution and GDP in terms of purchasing power parity and rank. GDP in each country has been expressed in US Dollars.
Demographics: Population (total, growth and country rank), a breakdown of the age distribution according to gender and age group, median age.
Internet statistics: The Internet penetration of the population, the total number of broadband and fixed Internet subscriptions, as found by the International Telecommunications Union.
Google Contact: The email address that you can use to get in touch with our local representatives. They will be happy to give you more insight into the statistics you can find in the pages here and connect your ideas with the appropriate Google products.

We hope this information helps you unlock new opportunities.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

The Mobile Playbook UK

2012-08-14T11:35:00.008+01:00

The question is no longer “Why should I invest in mobile?” - we’ve all read statistics about the tremendous adoption of mobile and tablet devices - but “How should I invest in mobile?”

A new addition to thinkwithgoogle.co.uk is the The Mobile Playbook:UK - a guide to winning with mobile. So if you need answers to crucial questions such as:

How does mobile change our value proposition?
How does mobile impact our digital destinations?
Is our organisation adapting to mobile?
How should marketing adapt to mobile?
How can we connect with our tablet audience?

Then check out The Mobile Playbook...

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

Think Quarterly, The Play Issue

2012-07-19T14:16:00.003+01:00

New technology is turning the world into a playground, and play into the new business battleground.

Vast entertainment libraries can be accessed at the touch of a button. Video games are moving from teenage bedrooms to corporate boardrooms. Every lunch queue or quiet moment is an opportunity to create, collaborate or compete online with friends and strangers.

And in just a few days the greatest Games of all are coming to London, with 11,500 athletes taking part in a global celebration of sport.

At Google, we know that play is a serious business. It’s why we launched our new online entertainment service, Google Play, and it’s why this issue of Think Quarterly is dedicated to play in all its forms.

We speak with the world’s most playful brands, including the reconstruction of LEGO, the colorful evolution of Crayola and the free-roaming future of Disney. Our Country Director of Brazil, Fabio Coehlo gives readers a tour of marketing’s newest and most fun-filled frontier. We were granted exclusive access to the digital teams delivering the Olympics on both sides of the Atlantic; surfaced the latest research from our UX team on social gaming; and learned the secret to making YouTube videos that go viral.

I hope you have fun reading the issue and follow our Think with Google Plus page.

Posted by Rich Pleeth, Think Quarterly Editor

With over 940,000 followers, H&M captivates Google+ users with exclusive content

2012-06-12T09:14:00.004+01:00

When H&M produces hot new collections, the Swedish fashion retailer knows just how to get the word out. With around 2,500 stores spread across 44 markets, not only does the company engage in traditional forms of marketing, but also integrates its social media with other communication activities. An early adopter of Google+, today H&M has more fans on the platform than any other retail brand – over 940,000 followers.

Unique, exclusive content wins followers
Instead of replicating the experience of shopping in the store or on the website, their page supplies a steady stream of interactive content tailored specifically to the Google+ audience. H&M publishes unique coverage, including a captivating range of exclusive collection previews, contests and behind the scenes footage, such as a Vogue editor preparing for an H&M photo shoot. Their most popular posts are the ones for their top collections with Beckham, Versace and Marni.

Using ripples to understand trendsetting
H&M has a very high rate of shared posts. Their team can “View Ripples” to see who has shared content and what has been said. In this way, the ripples feature lets H&M see how posts spread across Google+, who’s sharing and resharing the content and whose opinions matter. The feature can be used to identify influencers and see how communities form around content. The larger the circles in ripples, the larger the reach they might have.

Social extensions to integrate their social strategy into search
Another feature H&M uses are social extensions in its AdWords advertising. Social extensions help the company obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page, effectively increasing their number of followers by doing so. On average H&M has achieved a 22% CTR uplift on all their AdWords campaigns thanks to implementing social extensions.

It’s all adding up...

All of this has contributed in great levels of engagement from fans with the following results so far:

Average number of +1’s per post: 72
Average number of reshares per post: 11
Average number of comments per post: 22

To learn more about H&M’s inspirational example, read the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses

38% of Eurovision searches happened on mobile devices during the grand final

2012-06-06T14:50:00.005+01:00

If you were watching the exceptional vocal achievements of the contestants like 100 million Europeans on Saturday 26th, it is likely that you had a smartphone or a tablet device in your hand at the same time.

From our recent Our Mobile Planet research, we know that consumers actively use their smartphones when multi-tasking with other media and more than 50% of Europeans do this while watching the TV. We therefore wanted to understand how Eurovision viewers were using their mobile devices during the finals by analyzing Google search results.

Top 10 mobile Eurovision countries - share of Google search queries related to Eurovision

Looking at related search queries from all 42 Eurovision countries on the day of and day before the finals of the Song Contest, we saw an increase in the share of smartphone and tablet searches by nearly 50% from Eurovision 2011. Consumers in a handful of European countries were particularly savvy, actively using their mobile devices to learn more about the mind-blowing performances they saw on screen. More than 54% of Eurovision fans in Denmark searched from mobile devices, along with more than 40% in both Switzerland and Norway. Additionally, Denmark and Norway had the highest share of Eurovision searches conducted on tablets with 11% of Norway’s and 14% of Denmark’s Eurovision queries occurring on tablets.

Tablets and smartphones come out when the show starts - please note this does not show absolute search volume

Looking at a timeline of searches for Eurovision (normalized based on total search queries for each device type), shows us that these mobile and tablet searches were largely complementary to desktop searches. At the primetime of the Eurovision finals, on the evening of May 26th, we observed that people were switching to their smartphones and tablets with more than 38% of queries coming from mobile devices. This is similar to previous search data showing that tablets come out as the sun goes down. The large screen and compact form factor of tablets favour usage in front of the TV and from previous studies we know that the top browsing location is on the couch.

So, how can advertisers take advantage of all these multi-tasking mobile consumers? Make sure that you are on their screen with Google Mobile Ads so that you can get in front of them at the right time with the right ad formats. This way, if a customer sees your TV commercial and then picks up their phone to find more information, you may show up at the top of the results.

You can easily show your ads only when your customers are on their couch looking for information thanks to custom scheduling in AdWords. Or, you can configure your account to bid more aggressively at the times of the day that correspond with your television advertisements.

And don’t forget to add a mobile specific call-to-action such as a clickable phone number for potential customers holding a phone in their hand. You should also ensure that the site your users see on their smartphones is mobile optimized for the best user experience. With all that done you can sit back, relax and watch the stunning performance of Loreen from Sweden who finally won the Eurovision Song Contest.

Posted by Frank Albert Coates, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile & Social ads EMEA

LateRooms.com personalises their brand through Google+

2012-05-30T14:18:00.008+01:00

LateRooms.com aims to be a truly global brand, matching customers around the planet with suitable hotel rooms. They measure their Google+ success through engagement – numbers of fans, interactions with users, how many times people share content and mention their brand.

Google+ matches LateRooms.com’s social media objectives
When the team launched a Google+ page, they quickly saw that – unlike some of the other social networking channels they use – followers were from all over the world, not just one or two isolated geographical regions. But instant worldwide scope wasn’t the only quick win; Google+ also provided a host of tools that help maintain the brand’s personal feel.

Hangouts and photos allow LateRooms.com to engage at a personal level with fans
The LateRooms.com +page features pictures of the members of the team, who also sign posts and messages by name. They’re using hangouts too, a feature unique to Google+ that offers high-quality video chat. By organising a hangout with renowned adventure expert Ray Mears, they effectively brought to life the idea LateRooms.com is not only a worldwide contender, but also one that you can also interact with on a one-to-one level.

Ripples help LateRooms.com identify brand influencers
Ripples are another distinctive component of Google+ and these help LateRooms.com identify brand influencers by showing how posts spread across the platform. LateRooms.com is approaching 600,000 followers on Google+, has had one post that has been shared over 2,500 times and another that’s been shared 2,000 times – and counting. Both of these garnered approximately 500 comments, the maximum allowed.

Next up: focusing on social extensions and circles
LateRooms.com focus areas include the use of circles, another feature unique to Google+, and expanding their use of social extensions. This feature is helping LateRooms.com obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page. They’re benefiting from a 9% CTR uplift so far and have decided to enable social extensions on all their Adwords campaigns.

To learn how to replicate LateRooms.com’s success, read the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses

How Google+ has helped Cadbury connect with over 1.2 million people

2012-05-22T08:56:00.009+01:00

Cadbury has become the European brand with the largest number of followers on Google+, currently at 1.2 million. Their Google+ success is having a strong impact on their overall marketing strategy, especially by improving the performance of their Search campaigns. The question is how exactly did they do this...?

Their first step was to create a Google+ page. As featured in a previous blog post, Cadbury used hangouts to interact in real time with Olympic athletes and chocolate experts, and to participate in creating the chocolate replica Google+ page. By promoting their hangouts, Cadbury grew their Google+ follower base by 150,000 people.

They also used circles to segment their followers according to their chocolate preferences and unveiled a brand-new product launch, the Dairy Milk Bubbly Bar, which has achieved a strong impact with sales already over £8M.

However, where they are seeing tremendous results is in their search campaigns. Since they started using social extensions, which links Cadbury’s Google+ page to its AdWords campaigns, they have achieved a 17% uplift in CTR across all their AdWords campaigns. Now when you search for “Cadbury” and see the relevant ad, recommendations from your friends are displayed directly with it, making the ad much more relevant to you. By clicking on the social extension, you directly land on Cadbury’s Google+ page and can start following all the great content they are posting.

And since Cadbury installed the Google+ badge on its homepage, it’s now easier than ever for fans to follow the brand; Cadbury gains 10,000 new followers on average per day and have had an increase of 7.5% in traffic from Google URLs.

To continue benefiting from their Google+ success, Cadbury are looking to include a Google+ social stream that will pull in their most recent updates into a re-launch of their homepage, which will be happening soon. Stay tuned to the Cadbury Google+ Page to learn how Cadbury continue to innovate to make their Google+ experience a success...!

Find out more about Cadbury’s http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsuccess with Google+ by reading the full case study here.

Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ For Businesses

Think Insights expands to cover 21 countries across EMEA

2012-05-21T13:09:00.006+01:00

Back in November 2011, we told you about Think Insights, our information and resource hub for marketers. Well, we’re pleased to announce that it’s expanding. The Think Insights research library now contains studies and white papers from 21 different countries, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America.

We’ve also added some new videos and tools, including:

Insights MENA and Insights Africa tools, which allow you to explore the media habits of consumers in the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Two new videos on the consumer journey. One focusing on research online, purchase offline (ROPO) and the other looking at attribution.

To see more about how the newly expanded Think Insights website can help you - check out our video. And follow Think on Google+.

Posted by Claire Martin, Marketing Team

Cadbury UK engage their followers using Google+ Hangouts on Air

2012-05-10T09:47:00.005+01:00

Last year we introduced Hangouts On Air to a limited number of broadcasters, enabling them to go live with friends and fans, for all the world to see. Since then, this small community has grown the feature in lots of creative ways. This week we launched Hangouts on Air to Google+ users worldwide. So if you or your client have something to say you can now go live in front of a global audience!

Cadbury, one of the biggest names in chocolate, was an early adopter of Google+. After becoming one of the most successful brands on the platform, they expanded their reach with Google+ Hangouts on Air. From carving their Google+ Page out of chocolate and challenging an Olympian, to hanging out with their chocolate taste testers - watch the video below to see how Cadbury uses Hangouts on Air to engage their followers.

What does Cadbury do to achieve success?

Maintains a very strong Google+ page, including frequent, creative, engaging Hangouts on Air.
Encourages participation in Hangouts by members of Cadbury’s loyal Google+ Circles.
Directly connects followers across the globe with Cadbury products, promotions, and personalities via Hangouts.

Download the full case study here and discover Cadbury’s tips for success.

Businesses can use Google+ Hangouts on Air in many ways – launching products, making announcements, conducting focus groups, connecting with personalities and much more. Hangouts on Air lets you broadcast, whenever you want, to followers, colleagues, or the whole world. Once you’ve finished your Hangout, Google will upload the full-length recording to your YouTube account.

Download the Hangouts on Air technical guide here and sing to the world!

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

How Mashable is growing with Google+

2012-05-02T10:24:00.004+01:00

Mashable is an independent news site devoted to digital culture and technology and was one of the first publishers to join Google+. Since joining, Mashable has been building their audience on the platform, growing Google+ into one of their top 10 sources of referral traffic. See video below with Mashable’s Community Manager, Meghan Peters.

Mashable has used their Google+ page to expand their audience and deliver content in new ways. For example, Mashable has been using Hangouts, a live multi-person video chat tool, to meet their audience face to face, creating deeper interactions.

Hangouts has also connected Mashable employees with each other. With their headquarters in New York City and editors scattered across the U.S. and Europe, Mashable now uses Hangouts as a virtual meeting tool. The screenshare feature even helps Meghan train remote staff who can follow along with her presentations.

Mashable has learned by doing, and that all started by creating a Google+ page. Megan’s Top Tips:

Be active: Meghan credits Mashable’s success in part to its strong and persistent presence on Google+.
Add Google+ plugins: When Mashable added the Google+ badge to their homepage, they increased their Google+ page audience by 38 percent.
Co-create: Another key to keeping Mashable’s fans engaged is its innovative approach to audience interaction and brand co-creation. A contest run via Mashable’s site to design their Google+ page sparked a wave of enthusiasm.

Mashable has set a great example by building a strong audience on Google+ through its use of in-depth posts, interactive Hangouts, and creative promotions, including the Google+ badge and +1 button.

Follow Mashable on Google+ and download the full case study here.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

YouTube adds 9-12% incremental reach to TV campaign

2012-04-18T10:05:00.005+01:00

Check out the benefits that YouTube brought to this cross media campaign from Unilever's Axe (Lynx in the Netherlands). Axe wanted to bring to life the big idea of ‘Heaven on Earth’. To do this they placed three ‘angels’ in a villa for viewers online to follow 24 hrs a day. The target audience was 12-29 yr old males, who proved to be heavy consumers of online media and in particular YouTube. Axe created a YouTube channel where visitors could interact with the angels. The more they interacted and shared via their social platforms the more credits they earned. This ultimately led to a winner who got to spend one night with the angels in the villa. YouTube added 9-12% incremental reach to TV, 40% increase in search volumes for the brand, as well as significant increases in awareness, consideration and preference.

Posted by Rosie Rankin, Agency Team

Think Quarterly, The Creativity Issue

2012-04-16T10:18:00.003+01:00

What does creativity look like in a digital context? What does it mean for your business, your campaigns, and your customers? This issue of Google’s Think Quarterly explores these fundamental questions and more -- a must read for digital marketers!

As the internet comes of age, technology is catching up with our wildest imaginations. We can realize ideas that simply weren’t possible merely five years ago. And you don’t need to be a technologist or have “Creative” in your title to utilize technology in new ways; millions of people around the world are making, remixing, and sharing every day.

Case in point: There are over 800 exabytes of digital information in the world -- words, videos, photos, music. To put that in context, a volume of the complete works of Shakespeare is about five megabytes. It would take one billion book-filled pickup trucks to make just one exabyte. This is our creative output -- the sheer volume is equally inspiring and overwhelming.
Where to begin? The Creativity issue of Think Quarterly, launching today, documents this far-reaching transformation, cutting through the noise to focus on what it all means.

In “The Curious Case of Creativity,” Google VP of Global Marketing Lorraine Twohill sees creativity through an engineer’s eyes as a way to solve problems, big and small. Interviews with the founders of two award-winning global agencies, Sir John Hegarty of BBH and Ajaz Ahmed of AKQA, discuss what creativity means in a digital context and how you can encourage it, even at a big company.

We also explore how the web is inspiring entirely new forms of creativity, like YouTube remixes, 3D models, data art and infographics, that are reshaping how we see the world.

Take some time to check it out and let us know what you think on +Think With Google.

Posted by Rich Pleeth, Think Quarterly Editor

GetMo: Helping UK businesses Get Mobile

2012-03-14T11:33:00.004Z

Do you know what your website looks like on a mobile phone? Just because you can see your site on a smartphone doesn't mean that it’s mobile-friendly. So, what is a mobile-friendly site? It’s a website designed specifically for mobile users and mobile devices. It’s fast to load and easy to use—no scrolling or zooming required.

The mobile opportunity is growing. Recent research [Ipsos study] suggests that smartphone ownership is quickly on the rise in the UK, jumping from 30% in Jan-Feb 2011 to 45% in Sept-Oct 2011. And those smartphone owners use their devices to search for information. Google mobile searches grew 400% in the last two years. Yet many British businesses still do not have a mobile website.

As 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing from their phone and 40% of consumers would go to a competitor’s site, businesses need to get mobile in order not to miss out on customers who specifically search for their products or services.

The most important thing you can do to grow your business using the mobile web is to create a mobile-friendly website. So today we’re launching an initiative called GetMo that provides tools, information and resources to help UK businesses “Get Mobile”

So, are you ready to GetMo? Visit howtogetmo.com where you’ll find the resources you need to learn about what makes a good mobile site and how to start building one.

Here’s what you’ll find at howtogetmo.com:

See what your customers see. Enter a website address into the GetMoMeter and see what your site looks like on a mobile phone. The GetMoMeter will analyse your site and give you customised recommendations on how to make your site more mobile-friendly. You can even download a free customised report on how to better serve your customers mobile experience!
Learn about why mobile matters: Great infographics and the latest data will help you learn more about mobile trends and why mobile-friendly sites really matter.
Get inspired by great examples: Look at the mobile sites of UK businesses who are doing it well and learn how to make your site better with our ten mobile site best practices.
Find a mobile site builder who can help: Check out our list of mobile site developers who can help you build your mobile website.

Posted by Rich Pleeth, Product Marketing Manager