This week, Google announced the Canadian launch of Think Insights, a platform from which agencies and digital marketers can glean the latest insights in the digital mediascape.

Based on the American platform, which launched in 2011, the hub will host Canada-specific case studies of campaigns, as well as consumer research and data, and tools that advertisers can leverage to help plan their digital campaigns.

The Think Insights’ “Our Mobile World” report will provide a look at statistics around consumer behaviour across mobile devices, while its “Search Trends” tool will allow advertisers and agencies to browse consumer behaviour research and search trends across different brand categories, like beauty.

Think Insights will also serve as a forum and a digital creative gallery, featuring frequent commentary from industry insiders on issues and challenges in the digital mediascape, and play host to the Canadian YouTube Ads Leaderboard.

Sophie Chesters, country marketing manager, Google Canada, tells MiC that Google has been sharing similar content at Google Think events and industry conferences for the past few years, and adds that building a permanent hub for the content to live and evolve was the natural next step for Google.

She says that Think Insights was a good fit for Canada because there was a clear demand from the industry for case studies and research tailored specifically to the Canadian marketplace.

This move, Chesters says, will help to offset the constant flood of US-centric data and trends into the marketplace and help Canadian advertisers and agencies plan digital campaigns with information that better reflects Canadian consumers.

She adds, of course, that the hope for Google is that Think Insights will drive an increasing number of advertisers and agencies to invest more heavily in digital.