Google, who hardly ever advertises, launched its ‘Gone Google’ advertising campaign in August across six countries. The campaign utilises billboards (specifically on major US high ways) that show different messages about Google Apps on a daily basis for a month.

“It is the first and very highly visible integrated ad campaign that we have run,” says Dave Armstrong, the Head of Marketing for Google Enterprise for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The target of the advertising campaign is – you’ve guessed it – Microsoft Office. Kicking up the rivalry a gear, Google is creating awareness through this campaign of the number of companies that are using Google Apps on a daily basis.

Google promises no more ‘mailbox is full’ error messages or the constant need to back up data, if you switch to Google Apps your day-to-day business activities will be simplified by shared documents, calendars and email.

Google Apps comprises Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Docs and Google Earth and in an attempt to create a viral effect for the campaign Google urged current apps users to tweet their ‘Gone Google’ story with the #gonegoogle hash tag. Judging by the number of #gonegoogle tweets it seems as if there are thousands of loyal Google Apps users out there. Google also created a GoogleAtWork Twitter account as well as a website specifically for this campaign.

According to Google about 3 000 organisations are signing up on a daily basis to try out Google Apps. In June Google reported 1.75 million Google Apps business users and with the latest stats revealing that the number has grown to 2 million – it seems as if the campaign has worked!