Google broke with tradition and posted an advertisement for their Nexus 7 on the home page, on August 28th. The generally spartan home page featured an artistic representation of the Nexus 7, underneath the famous Google name and search bar.
If you lived outside America, you probably wouldn't have seen the advert, as it was geotargeting a specific audience via Google.com.
The text read ‘The playground is open. The new $199 tablet from Google.' with an active link. The ad is expected to have targeted many millions of users, even running on a single day.
Surprisingly they placed the advert at the end of August, when the Nexus 7 was launched in July. Analysts are suggesting that Google are ramping up their advertising after the high profile victory for Apple against one of their primary partners – Samsung.
Many say that the Apple victory is actually a win against Google, and their Android operating system. Roger Kay, Endpoint Technologies analyst said on Forbes “Apple’s vehemence in this case, its unwillingness to license its intellectual property to Samsung on reasonable terms, is really aimed at Google. Apple’s crucifixion of Samsung is just a head piked on a stake at the edge of Google’s territory.”
There is also the possibility that Google are highlighting the tablet, in advance of the upcoming Apple ‘Mini iPad'.
Kitguru says: Nexus 7 advertising has been ramped up a notch. Will Google report strong sales on the new device later this year?