I gotta be honest, I really thought that the folks at Google were starting to get their heads wrapped around this whole marketing thing. I’m sure that the company is currently trying to figure out its strategy surrounding the delayed release of the mid-range Pixel 4a and how they will spin the Pixel 5 whenever it arrives but the recently leaked information about the upcoming Nest speaker and the Android TV dongle really makes it feel like Google is on the cusp of announcing some exciting stuff. Just a couple of days ago, the Nest team tweeted a teaser that had most of us believing that Monday would bring the big unveil of the new Assistant speaker that the company basically confirmed last week in a very crafty fashion.
While there was some suspicion that today’s announcement could bring some new software features to Nest, it was the general consensus that it would revolve around the new speaker launch. Google recently revealed that the “presence detection” feature announced back in 2019 would be coming at some point this year and the cryptic tweet that featured Fred Armisen in a yoga-like pose has some expecting some sort of new meditation feature from the Nest team. These are all plausible expectations but the latest tweet from the Google Nest Twitter account points at something, well, less anticipatory.
Help has many faces, and they'll make a special appearance this Monday.👏 pic.twitter.com/S2sdx6ukJO
— Google Nest (@googlenest) July 12, 2020
Fred Armisen returned for round two and donned a variety of characters to show off a few features already available via Nest products and Assistant-enabled devices. The main takeaway from the tweet is that Google will be running “The Daily Special” which consists of a month full of daily deals. The products highlighted in the video include the Nest Hub Max, Yale Lock and Pixel phone. Presumably, this new promotion will offer up discounts on a wide range of products from Google but as of the publishing of this article, nothing has popped up on the Google Store.
This just in…
As I was about to publish this article, I checked back with the Google Store and was greeted by a fullscreen video embed of Mr. Armisten announcing what Nest teased over the weekend. The Google Store will be running a daily deal for the next month. Today’s deal? $20 off of a two-pack of Nest Mini speakers. Oddly enough, The Daily Special has completely replaced the “special offers” tab on the Google Store and it looks like a lot of the discounts that once lived there have gone by the wayside. Not sure what Google’s play is here but I suppose getting a big-name comedian on board will be a good way to move some hardware. Still, this would have been a great time to mount a campaign for some new products if you ask me. You can check out the new promo by heading over to the Google Store. This deal lasts until July 19th so you’ll have time to take advantage of each daily special.
