A new campaign from Google includes billboards in a handful of major cities, enticing IT professionals to make the switch to Google Apps.  It’s a direct marketing effort to target IT professionals, who can encourage team leaders to actually approve the switch, the budget and all other necessary changes that would involve switching to a Google application service.
We don’t see many mainstream ads from Google.

Actually, we don’t see many ads from Google at all.  The company has created a standard for web search that has remained unsurpassed, and this has enabled Google to get its foot in the door for nearly every other aspect of our web activity.  This has spilled over into our mobile lives, and beyond, given its initiatives for space travel, which spur research and development from independent groups.

So what of it?  Google tends to go the marketing route when it comes to its services that don’t get a lot of immediate recognition or are otherwise unbeknownst to the average target user.  We saw a similar marketing ploy for Google profile pages, which was a recently launched URL service for individuals that wanted to claim their Google stake and extend a search home page of sorts, redirecting other Google users to related websites containing information about yourself.

But Google does such mainstream marketing for products that have a certain amount of potential for Google’s long term plans, which seemingly include a great deal of overlap from its many services, combining their various aspects for consumer data, personal data and search data.  With the amount of research that has gone into the development of Google Apps, along with the Google Chrome browser project, Google is really looking to steal market share from Microsoft.
An interesting ploy, given Microsoft’s attempts to go after Google’s jugular, with the new Bing search service and its subsequent partnership with Yahoo.

Even while Microsoft still dominates the desktop with its software, the two companies are continuously trying to edge each other out of their respective markets. Aside from the fact that Google still needs to work on its web-based applications before they can fully replace the desktop software we’ve grown accustomed to, along with the fact that Microsoft Bing won’t be replacing Google actually or culturally anytime soon, what both companies are seeking is a shift in public mentality towards their products.  It’s the catalyzing necessity required to achieve the market-stealing potential that both Google and Microsoft require, and Google’s billboard campaigns reflect this.

Only time will tell how effective such ads will be, but given enough time, resources and dedication, Google can effectively take over some of Microsoft’s markets.  What will be interesting to witness is how much marketing magic affects such a switch.