Google officially uploads excellent ‘Here to help’ commercial [Video]

To kick off Made by Google 2018 last October, the company aired a great video that showed its various services helping users. Appropriately  set to “Help!” by The Beatles, a slightly updated version was just uploaded to YouTube and is likely one of Google’s best ads to date.

“Here to help” — as its titled today — aired right after Google’s pre-event teaser featuring various YouTubers commenting on all the Google hardware leaks and before Rick Osterloh came on stage. Interestingly, the official Made by Google 2018 video of the event appears to have cut the original clip from the replay. This could possibly be due to music rights.

Whatever the reason, it is now available in two versions on Google’s primary YouTube account. The main video is 1:01 in duration and an extended one at 1:28. Since October, some of the UIs have been tweaked and refreshed to better match the current Material Theme design language.

Learn something new, explore the world around you, get more done, and be in the moment for the moments that matter most, all with a little help from Google. See all the ways our products can help at https://g.co/helpful

It starts with the four animated Assistant dots in the Google colors and jumps to a card noting flight status. Google Photos is heavily demoed including smart suggestions to rotate a video and sharing that recognizes who is in an image.

https://youtu.be/UfVpoI5ksag

Google Assistant of course gets central billing and is frequently used to set reminders, while several YouTube and Search queries also appear. Meanwhile, the latter’s built-in Crisis Response Map and tools are shown in the context of wildfires.

Maps is another major product in the video, with an option to search by wheelchair accessibility, seeing whether a location is busy, navigation routing, and Street View.

Translate, which received its own Super Bowl ad in February, gets a mention, along with Cardboard VR. Other products include Chromebooks in education and Google Lens to cheekily recognize a Beatles album in vinyl. Other products include Google Takeout to export data, Do Not Disturb, and Calendar.

The grab bag of different features in this video does a good job of noting how expansive Google’s products are in day-to-day life. There are no major sporting events or award shows coming up, but this would have been a good ad to air during one. Meanwhile, it’s not clear if the Google “Here to help” ad will play outside of online advertising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7_RtEr8cq0&feature=youtu.be