Google’s New Event Strategy is Great
This may sound weird to those who aren’t in the media/influencer/analyst/tech event scene, which is likely the vast majority of people reading this, but I want to talk about something that I found very interesting over the past two Made by Google Pixel events.
Google has a new strategy around this, where the news embargo and videos from tech creators come out a few hours before the actual event. The last year it was around 2 hours before, this year it’s 8 hours before. These events were also hosted by celebrities and influencers (who are also celebrities).
Normally, events are pretty simple: live stream with a keynote and the news comes out when it starts (Samsung) or as it’s going (Apple). Google did this up until last year as well! The reason I consider this important context is this is the standard launch, everyone does it like this. Every tech brand did it like this, even car brands and others like Taco Bell started to copy this format. Taco Bell example may be a bit off because it was more of a parody of it, but you get the point.
These events for tech brands tend to work well because the market already knows about the products. Samsung and Apple are the largest smartphone brands in terms of volume, together they ship around 40-45% of all smartphones, around half a billion phones annually. There is interest in these phones from demographics that don’t know or understand technology, you find normal people (think your parents, grandparents, friends, random person on the NYC subway) talking about the new iPhone and to a lesser extent Samsung Galaxy, but they are still aware of it.
Google is in a different boat, while they have been growing Pixel for 11 generations now, Pixel is still not a well known brand in the same way the others are. It is more in a way that those people are aware that Google makes phones and those phones are called Pixel, but not nothing about them. When someone will go to buy a phone, this makes choosing a Pixel uncomfortable vs. the reliable devices, Samsung and Apple. It becomes a familiarity thing.
Making these devices more familiar to the masses becomes extremely difficult. It’s a leap of faith to upgrade devices, let alone swap the brand you have been using for years, regardless of that experience being good or bad. A known bad experience is better than an unknown for a lot of people.
Now, the reason this preamble is included is pretty simple: because of the aforementioned market conditions, Google needs to build trust, they need to build familiarity, and they need to build recognition. There are many ways to try to do this, one way could be by becoming a fashion brand and start with high style designs and lifestyle, this is what Nothing is trying. Another could be going for the total extremes in their products to make the best of the best and market themselves, this is what a lot of Chinese OEMs try.
Google, on the other hand, is taking an approach I think I like a lot more. They are trying to appeal to consumers with public figures and celebrities that people know and trust, building products with and around their needs, and using them to grow awareness. The Steph Curry Fitbit Air and Pixel Watch 5 are perfect examples. If Steph Curry is helping make it, you can trust that it’s good. If Alex Cooper starts to talk about the Pixel 11 and it’s camera, you can trust that the camera is good. These events are now a showcase of the products and how the products are used, rather than a keynote trying to explain tech specs.
You can try to combine these into a single event and keynote, and it’s extremely difficult. Arguably a single fruit-company is the only one to do it well. Google decided to separate it, in the morning (10am today) Google released all of the specs, reviewers posted their hands-on videos, and media/influencers/press received their devices. This afternoon at 6pm, Trevor Noah hosts the Made by Google event. There is an 8-hour window where media, press, fans, enthusiasts can all be excited and enjoy the devices, like they otherwise would be.
This is an exciting launch, regardless of the initial coverage kinda calling it boring. I haven’t used the phones yet (I have no clue when I will get mine), but over the past few days I talked to a ton of people who used it at the early content capture. Every comment was about how the camera processing is really good to the point they consider this a multi-generational leap back to what the Pixel’s used to feel like around Pixel 4, the thing felt fast, didn’t overheat, and battery life was good. These are basically my complaints from Pixel 10 Pro XL. This initial coverage gives the enthusiasts (hello, that is me) time to be excited! I don’t need to see someone on stage for this to be true and exciting.
This afternoon, with actual live event, that’s time to get others excited and interested. I know about the Pixel series, do I need to see Steph Curry, Trevor Noah, Alex Cooper, and everyone else whose names I am not familiar with using the features I already know about? Absolutely not, but I will enjoy every second of it.
You know who needs to see that? My mother who is thinking about getting a Pixel 11 Pro to replace her aging Galaxy S24. My girlfriend who didn’t know Google made phones until I told her about this event. My neighbor who hasn’t looked at anything but an iPhone in years. We as tech enthusiasts and creators and fans of technology take for granted the knowledge and education we have about these devices from pure genuine interest. These are names they recognize, maybe people they follow or care about seeing. Maybe it’s just curiosity to see how what Google must be spending a fortune on.
Google needs to build that same genuine interest and trust to make Pixel a trusted choice over the known devices. I think this is a great way to do it. Some find it cheesy, but it’s not meant for them. That’s completely ok. If you’re reading this, it’s probably not meant for you either. Also ok. What is important is understanding why they make these choices. I could be totally wrong, but this is a strategy that I think is working exceptionally well for Google and makes the launches just far more interesting than looking at specs.
and just to acknowledge it, yes the specs are minor iterative upgrades but the reality is there really isn’t that much more to improve with current technology. Tensor G6 has new IP in the SoC to help power the new imaging pipeline, that imaging pipeline has a massive leap in image quality. The battery life is better thanks to the chip too, even without silicon carbon batteries. The display is brighter, the thing runs cooler, there are more intelligent Gemini features. The Pixel Watch 5 uses a new large sensor model architecture for health tracking that can detect insulin resistance trends and is far more accurate. I don’t care if it doesn’t look different, that’s huge! What else could you want or need? What else would make it better? I can’t think of anything that I’d want. The iterative upgrades look small on paper and might not be exciting but they create new experiences and solve pain points that existed before, and no longer exist. That is exciting. Smartphones are mature, the market is mature, how to market them, how to talk about them, how to get people interest in them is different in a mature market. Google did that well.