This is how Google Maps acquires users after losing Apple’s pre-installation channel!

Just as it is difficult for Internet users in mainland China to use Google, Google Maps is also very unfamiliar to Chinese users. However, as domestic map applications such as Baidu Maps are "going overseas" and developing internationally, Google Maps is bound to become their "number one rival" in the near future.

As for future competitors, domestic map products still need to think ahead about how to snatch food from this opponent whose number of users has exceeded 1 billion. As for tool- type applications, this article will analyze Google Maps' "strong alliance" native advertising method for acquiring users, which is also of reference value.

Back then, Google Maps also took market share from iOS users who pre-installed Apple Maps in this way. Prior to iOS 6, iPhone and iPad came pre-installed with Google Maps. The reciprocal agreement between the two parties is that when an iPhone user opens the Maps app, Apple will send the phone's location information to Google, and Google will then return map images and other data. It is through such cooperation, as well as bundling applications in the Android system of factory mobile phones, that Google Maps was able to reach 1 billion monthly active users as early as 2012. But the cooperation between the two parties gradually dissipated after Apple launched its own map application in September 2012. Google Maps lost tens of millions of users in the North American market within one month.

Monthly active users of Facebook and Google Maps in 2012. It can be seen that the number of Google Maps users dropped sharply in September

What’s even worse is that surveys and studies have shown that many iOS users actually mistake the Apple Maps they often use for Google Maps! Google Maps suffered a big loss.

Comparison between Google Maps (left) and Apple Maps in 2012

As we all know, Google Maps and a large number of Google applications are pre-installed by bundling with the Android system to attract new users. Without the important pre-installation channel of iPhone, how can Google Maps make up for its lost ground? Of course, Google can naturally cross-promote Google Maps through other Google apps that iOS users are currently using, but for those iOS users who don’t usually use Google apps, how can they be reached with a natural advertising experience?

In 2013, the concept of “native advertising” began to become popular in the global media industry. This type of advertising presents brand information through “harmonious” content, does not disrupt the user experience, and provides users with valuable information, thereby achieving the effect of users naturally accepting the advertising information.

Native advertising is both advertising and non-advertising. It walks the line between advertising and non-advertising, and is more like an organic fusion of the two. It is considered by the industry to be the general trend of future content marketing and carries the future of mobile advertising . The reason why native advertising is given such a halo is because of three characteristics of native advertising:

• Value of content: Native advertising provides audiences with valuable and meaningful content, rather than simply advertising information. Instead, this information can provide users with information that satisfies their lifestyle.
• Originality of content: The implantation and presentation of content should not destroy the harmony of the page itself, rather than being presented abruptly to grab consumers’ attention and destroy the harmony of the picture.
• User initiative: Users enjoy reading, sharing and participating. Rather than simply "stop at me" advertising, it is an interactive sharing-based communication where every user can become a diffusion point.

At this time, an encyclopedia knowledge quiz game called QuizUp was also released on iOS in November of the same year. It quickly climbed to the top of the App Store free list within a week, with more than 1.7 million registered users. By the beginning of 2014, the number of users had exceeded 10 million, and it was known as "the fastest growing iPhone game in history." This game is very simple. Players can choose their favorite questions (multiple-choice questions) from hundreds of categories in different fields, and compete with strangers or friends to see who can get more correct answers. Players can also contribute questions themselves, or post spam messages on the game platform regarding a certain field.

Taking advantage of the popularity of native advertising and the habit of American Apple users who love playing games, the idea of ​​using native advertising in games to promote apps seems perfect. As it turns out, this "cross-border cooperation" has brought a win-win situation for Google Maps and QuizUp.

Google Maps and QuizUp have partnered to launch a question category called "Earth from Above" on QuizUp, introducing 1,000 questions for players to compete in real time. The questions require players to identify cities, geographical features, historical sites, popular landmarks, etc. in the world. The only clue for each question is a satellite bird's-eye view photo from Google Maps. After the question is over, players will see a prompt to download Google Maps.

Question for the picture above: The Portage Glacier, where you can take a boat tour, is located in which of the following regions? Options: Alaska, Siberia, Norway, Nunavut (Canada)
The depth of cooperation achieved in this native advertising project is the first time that Google has collaborated with any other app. Perhaps it’s because the players on the QuizUp platform are very consistent with the target users of Google Maps this time: iOS mobile users aged 20 to 40, 73% of whom play online games at least once a month. Google Maps has fully demonstrated Google's strength in mapping, and the quality of the application itself has been recognized by many users.

So in the first two weeks of the event alone, Google Maps reaped a lot of rewards: more than 950,000 QuizUp players participated; each game lasted 6-7 minutes, equivalent to more than 62,000 hours of brand exposure; 2.9% of players who participated in the "Bird's Eye View of the Earth" game downloaded the Google Maps app, which means more than 27,000 users downloaded it...

Through this collaboration, QuizUp players will gradually deepen their understanding of Google Maps' imagery and functionality as they immerse themselves in the "Earth from a Bird's Eye" game. Google Maps has also effectively achieved the goal of increasing Google Maps brand exposure, brand interaction, and app downloads and installations by allowing players to continuously experience the strength and quality of the product from multiple angles.

By cooperating with Google Maps, the QuizUp game allowed 950,000 users to play 2.5 million games in two weeks and achieved a conversion rate of nearly 3%. This is not the first time that QuizUp has partnered with brands to launch questions about their brands to earn native advertising revenue and exposure. They have previously collaborated with the "Twilight" brand, Coca-Cola, Disney, etc., not only proving the value of their own commercial monetization through various forms, but also allowing fans of these brands to be attracted by QuizUp content and become QuizUp users, which is a two-birds-with-one-stone approach. The same goes for the products and brands they work with, such as Google Maps in this case.

If you want to know more about how QuizUp became an overnight success in the bloody AppStore game market and escaped the fate of being "killed by fire", click [From the development trajectory of QuizUp, how did popular products escape the fate of being killed by fire? 】Directly.

In fact, one of the major brand tonality that Google pursues when promoting its products is "natural". Whether it’s the geography quiz in collaboration with QuizUp in this article, which naturally and cleverly integrates the features and functions of Google Maps, or the cross-border cooperation with the previously popular Disney film "Zootopia" that has been popular all over the world. As a product placement, Google is promoting another product under its umbrella: Google Photo.

Zoogle Photo (the Zootopia version of Google Photo) is the main character in the movie

In order to achieve a "natural" effect without losing brand characteristics, Google and Disney jointly produced a TV commercial. By using some materials from the movie, it explains that Zoogle Photo can help you edit photos and protect privacy anytime and anywhere. The spokespersons for the product are the movie's protagonists, the fox Nick and the rabbit Judy. Such a product is Zoogle Photo in the animal world, and naturally Google Photo in other worlds (such as the human world).

This clever and natural way of product placement also provides a fresh lesson to colleagues in the field of brand placement and product promotion.

For native advertising, the beautiful prospect is that native advertising is like an insect with camouflage, whose true identity is not easily discovered in the environment, and can become a new consumer experience - that is, it cuts into consumers' usual usage habits and becomes consumers' original experience without barriers. It is for this reason that native advertising appears very attractive. However, no matter how beautiful native advertising looks, there are still a few thorns under the rose. It is undoubtedly unrealistic to expect it to become the next new promotional method that is invincible. The reason is that, as the case discussed in this article, how to make native advertising play its advantages in actual use is far more important than simply emphasizing the role of native advertising.

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This article was written by @AISSUER and published by (APP Top Promotion). Reprinting this article requires the consent of Top Promotion , and please attach the link to this article!