Google+ launches Wallace and Gromit push
Google is taking on Microsoft’s Skype by launching an online campaign featuring Wallace and Gromit to encourage users to take advantage of its Google+ Hangouts video tool to connect with loved ones over Christmas, rather than use rival services.
Wallace and Gromit appear alongside a number of other Aadrman Animation characters – including Shaun the Sheep and Ginger from Chicken Run – in a TV ad and YouTube video demonstrating how Google+ Hangouts work. It carries the strapline “Get your family together, wherever they are”.
Additionally Hangouts users over the Christmas period will also be able to create a personalised Wallace and Gromit video invitation to send to their friends and family via the new dedicated familyhangouts.withgoogle.com website.
Once in the Hangout, users can use a “Holiday Effects” app to “wear” items such as a Santa hat, reindeer antlers or Wallace’s tank top.
The campaign and site were created by rehabstudio, Adam + Eve DDB and Aardman Studios.
Christian Cussen, EMEA head of marketing for Google+, says: “We are thrilled to see Wallace and Gromit use a Google+ Hangout to join the rest of the Aardman family for the very first time. We want to enable families and friends everywhere to easily connect over the holidays. For those who can’t make it home this year, they can still spend the holidays together through Google+ Hangouts.”
Google+’s main video conferencing rival is Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft last year. In October this year Skype reached a record 45 million concurrent online users.
This month, Google+ claimed to have more than 500 million members, with 235 million of those monthly active users across Google and 135 million active in the Google+ stream.