Google Debuts the Pixel Phone With Multi-Market Campaign From Droga5

Today at its press event in San Francisco, Google announced its massive move into hardware with the debut of the Daydream VR headset, its own voice-responsive assistant Bluetooth speaker, a WiFi router and perhaps most notable, the much-anticipated Pixel phone.

Last month, the company teased the latter in a simple film that transformed its search bar into a shape that suggested the new phone, and today, it debuted a full introductory spot showcasing the smartphone's new features, as well as another, more story-driven film that sets the tone for a larger campaign to roll out, via Droga5.

The intro ad, for the most part, follows the conventions of device pimping, employing slick close-up shots of the Pixel itself, but it intersperses those with simple copy that jabs slyly at the approach and decisions of its competitor, Apple.

"Need a new phone?" it asks. "Like new new? Like doesn't have a version number new?"

Among the "new new" features include a 7-hour capacity battery that charges in 15 minutes, what Google bills as the "highest rated smartphone camera ever," unlimited storage for photos and video and -- a 3.5 mm headphone jack that is "satisfyingly not new" ( a big pause, and V.O. "ahem," for effect here).

Another film, titled "Life by You, Phone by Google," is just the beginning of what will be a multinational push via Droga5 across seven major markets: the U.S., the U.K., India, Canada, Germany, India and Australia. It integrates the brand's iconic search bar into curious life moments, whether it's a pair of boys coming across a startling discovery, a family peering down on its newborn or a guy skateboarding along a city street.

The campaign also features what the agency is billing as the first-ever Snapchat brand takeover for a full 24 hours, during which it will debut 20 custom films across the platform's Discover feature. Like the teaser video, each film begins with the search bar, which then expands to reveal more quirky scenes, like a guy's tremendous mohawk, a little kid's perfect golf shot or a bear, hula-hooping.

Viewers can follow the campaign across social channels via the hashtag #MadebyGoogle.

With the search bar, "we tapped into Google's most iconic visual asset," the agency said in a statement. "To represent the brand's official evolution into hardware, we transition from the search bar to the phone shape in all of the campaign's major executions, evolving from something people know and love about Google to something new they will love about Google."