Instead of writing a nondescript and easily forgotten bit of news about Google’s latest release – Think Insights – I decided to write two versions to announce the new tool, and let you, the audience, choose which one you prefer.
So go on ahead, read both versions of the news below, and then vote for your favourite in the poll:
Version A
Google’s Think Initiative Expands
After launching its Think Quarterly magazine – a, ehh, quarterly online magazine that’s more or less a padded marketing brochure about how awesome and cool and trendy Google is – and Think Voices – dozens of soundbite-sized videos where business and political leaders say things that are meant to sound profoundly insightful – Google has now expanded its Think initiative with Think Insights.
Contrary to the rather vacuous Think Quarterly and Think Voices, Think Insights appears to have some actual substance. Positioned as an ‘information and resource hub for marketers’ Think Insights is an interactive website full of all kinds of data on consumer behaviour, industry trends, and marketing research. All presented with slick diagrams, nice videos, and short bits of explanatory text (mostly bulletpoints).
While the actual contents of Think Insights is pretty solid, based on academic research in to (online) markets and industries, the rather over-polished presentation makes it easy to mock as a pretty-looking tool for marketing executives and decision-makers who can’t be bothered reading more than a handful of bulletpoints.
Think Insights is full of pretty infographics and videos with a minimum of text, unless you take the effort to click through to the actual research. A few well-aimed clicks take you beyond the shallow layer of prettifying varnish that Google has smeared liberally all over the website and allow you to read the actual research the shiny graphics are based on.
Maybe it’s my own prejudices showing here, fond as I am of substance over style while Think Insights seems to prefer the exact opposite. Like I said there’s some really good data to be found in there, but the over-stylised presentation of this data – which comes across as an effort to cater to the stereotype of the shallow, time-challenged marketing and business leaders – makes it hard to take it all very seriously.
On top of that Google has, very cleverly, integrated some of its other tools and platforms, most notably its Ad Planner system. Never one to let an opportunity pass, Google seems to hope Think Insights will lead to marketers increasing their spend on Google’s own advertising platforms.
Nonetheless it’ll be another bookmark for me to occasionally revisit and, perhaps, to borrow some pictures from for the odd lecture or presentation.
Version B
Google’s Think Initiative Expands
After launching its Think Quarterly magazine – a, ehh, quarterly online magazine aimed at providing insights in to Google’s product development and technological initiatives – and Think Voices – dozens of short videos of interviews with business and political leaders where they talk about the nature of current and future business and technology – Google has now expanded its Think initiative with Think Insights.
Think Insights is positioned as an ‘information and resource hub for marketers’, providing a wealth of data on consumer behaviour, industry trends, and marketing research.
But instead of a collection of dull academic papers, Think Insights has taken this data and made it much more accessible and easily understandable in the form of interactive infographics, videos, and summarised bulletpoints. It also ties in with some of Google’s other tools and platforms, such as its Ad Planner and Insights for Search.
As such it’s bound to become a valuable resource for marketers and decision-makers, as it allows for easy access to market and industry data on a wide range of relevant topics. I for one will be bookmarking it for regular return visits, and the data it provides will doubtlessly feed in to the (online) marketing strategies we develop for our clients.
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