Google Goggles, the mobile app that lets you search the Web by simply taking a picture with your smartphone, is announcing a marketing experiment today that merges offline marketing with the mobile Web.
Today on its blog, Google announced that it is working with Buick, Disney, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines “to extend some of their ofline marketing to the mobile Web.”
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The result of these partnerships are “Googles-enabled” print ads, movie pasters and other media, all of which trigger the ability for users to click directly through to a destination as provided by that company.
“Everyday, people are ‘Goggling’ all sorts of things, including ads,” says Shailesh Nalawadi, Product Manager at Google, in Google’s introductory video. “This caught our attention. What if marketers could connect the consumer’s offline experience to an immersive, digital experience on their mobile device?”
The question is, how long until all of the real world is virtually for sale? How much will it cost for brand to buy a piece of the Manhattan skyline? Or a particular piece of artwork? Nevermind stadiums named after razors and cell phones, visual search will suddenly be dominated by advertising too!
We know, sarcasm does not show well in print, so here it is plainly – we are not overly excited about the commercialization of visual search in this way. Where will the boundary lie?
If, however, this remains an accenting of print and other advertising media, then we’re all for it. It sounds like a great idea to be able to snap a picture of a movie poster and immediately be taken to a video preview.
Take a look at Google’s video introducing its “marketing experiment” below:
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