Major tech companies have this habit of forcing products on its users.
Facebook is one good example, where the company literally forced everyone to download Messenger a few years ago. Good for the social networking giant, the decision has proved to be a shrewd one as the app commands a user base of more than 1 billion people.
With the launch of Google Allo and Duo back in 2016, Google essentially did what Facebook did a couple years before, coercing people to ditch Google Hangouts in favor of Allo and Duo. The company even went ahead and replaced Hangouts as one of the default Android apps, but so far, Google Allo has only managed 10 million Play Store downloads compared to Hangouts’ 1 billion downloads.
In bid to try and convince more people to start embracing Google Allo, the search giant has embarked on a new advertising campaign that brings you some food, as long as you download Allo on your phone. There’s a food truck doing rounds giving out grilled cheese sandwiches to anyone who downloads the app. You’ll know the food truck is all about Allo thanks to the wrap that shows off the app’s abilities with the Google Assistant.
Despite the lack of popularity, Google Allo has been getting new features, with one of the latest targeting group chats. It’s now possible to have admins in group chats and in this marketing campaign, Google is also reminding Allo users about this group feature. Apparently, when you start a conversation with at least three friends, you get a free beanie hat.
Free Grilled Cheese at Pike #OnAllo #GoogleAllo #Ad https://t.co/duAwkDfxEM pic.twitter.com/P29I1clhFM
— Clayton Lesniak (@clatonlesniak) November 11, 2017
As noted, this is not the first time we’ve seen Google aggressively marketing Allo. Last month, the company was busy marketing the app at university campuses across the country, again with a heavy emphasis on the group chat feature. Whether the latest campaign covers the entire country or is specific to certain cities remains unknown.