Fascinating talk from Lorraine Twohill, Marketing Director EMEA Google, UK. Claiming that Google was much like a start-up in its attitude, she said that the company had a philosophy of letting ‘one thousand flowers bloom’ – in other words running with new and creative ideas. She explained how Google employees were encouraged to spend 20 per cent of their time on their own projects which may or may not make it into ‘Google’s Top 100′.
Already there are 1 billion users on the web. The next big challenge for Google is getting the next 1 billion. “One important factor,” said Twohill, “is lower storage costs and easier access.” Much of the future internet growth, she reckons, will come from mobile phones and cheap computer initiatives such as MIT’s $100 computer. Twohill also claimed there was a pent-up demand for self expression as demonstrated by YouTube which currently receives 65,000 uploads every day.
Nor is this demand restricted to the consumer environment. “The internet is the new creative playground for big companies too,” says Twohill. She pointed to the success of some, but not all, of Ford Ka’s viral ads which were seeded on YouTube (one of the ads featuring a cat was pulled because it was considered distasteful.) “The ads gave Ford much more credibility among the audience they are trying to target – young male and female office workers.”
