New Google+ ad: A love story in circles

Fresh on the heels of a Thanksgiving commercial that bored audiences, Google has released another Google+ television commercial. But have they hit the mark this time or is it another miss?

The ad encompasses everything that is Google, it’s simple, slick, and presents the social network’s features in a somewhat humorous manner.

The previous ad was built on nostalgia and people’s need to connect and share with the right people. This new ad looks at the evolution of social connections using the social networks circle feature.

The ad, which is called Circles Love Story, plays out in the form of a love story between two Google+ users, Kyle and Lisa. Kyle has Lisa in his “Love of My Life” Circle from the beginning while Lisa puts Kyle in her own aptly-named “Creepers” Circle. As the ad progresses it becomes apparent that Lisa and Kyle’s relationship changes, which is shown by Lisa’s placing of Kyle in different circles, and eventually moving him to “Keepers”.

The sweetness in the ad cannot be denied and the move from stalker/creeper to a keeper displays a growing connection without the wordy explanation that the Thanksgving ad possessed. The circles speak for themselves.

But as sweet as it is, there are some key underlying issues here. The ad demonstrates the incredible amount of work required to maintain and grow the dynamics of interpersonal relationships using Google+. On Facebook this dynamic is quite different, you move from ‘friend’ to ‘in a relationship’ in two small steps. It feels like too much work on Google+.

As technology news blog, TechCrunch, explains quite well:

While Circles themselves may be a selling point for Google+ (at least in Google’s mind, if not yours), the Circle Management demonstrated so aptly by Lisa in this video is actually a drawback to the whole labour-intensive system. Which is why this Google+ ad is so weird. Why show this off?

At any given moment in time, Lisa knew Kyle was into her, but her social network did not. That’s not a feature to brag about, that’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

So it would seem Google+ still hasn’t got it quite right.