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First they start popping up your Facebook news feed. Then they start appearing in your address book. Soon enough, your online social network looks like it’s been taken over by aliens. It hasn’t, it’s been taken over by Google’s latest viral branding effort: Androidify.

Androidify is an app for Google’s Android mobile operating system created by Larva Labs in collaboration with Google. It lets users create custom versions of the green Android robot and turn it into themselves, their friends, their moms or whoever.

Since its release less than two weeks ago, Androidify has become a raging success. It shot up to the top 10 list two days after it was released and has more than 1 million downloads and 3000 user reviews.

But what is the impact of Androidify’s success on the Android brand itself? Will it increase Android’s exposure and its hip-factor, or is it simply the result of a well executed app associated with an already popular brand?

Back in 2004 (phew!) Douglas B. Holt, author of “How Brands Become Icons”, wrote an article titled “The problem with viral branding,” arguing that viral marketing was too faddish and short-lived to build a strong, long-lasting brand.

However long the Androidify alien invasion into Facebook news feeds around the world will last, Google’s return on investment on the app must be pretty high. It’s earning the Android brand at least as much exposure as any expensive ad-campaign would.

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