MEDIA BUYING DIRECT RESPONSE TELEVISION (DRTV) ARTICLE ..

 

The Expanding Influence of the Googlopoly

Published: 09/07
By: Peter Koeppel

 

An article titled Googlopoly in the July issue of MEDIA magazine explores Google's expanding media empire and how it might affect the ad industry. Google has gained a foothold in the TV, radio, newspaper and online ad businesses, and they now own the largest online video site. Here's how Google's media assets are allocated among the various mediums and how those assets were created over the last year:
 

• They purchased dMarc to establish a presence in the radio industry and also formed a relationship with Clear Channel to gain inventory on 675 radio stations.
  
  
• Their acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion establishes them as a leader in the user-generated video business.
  
  
• They formed a partnership with EchoStar (Dish satellite TV), which provides them with access to the ad serving and viewer research from Dish's 13 million+ TV households.
  
  
• They are partnering with major newspapers to offer print media to their advertisers.
  
  
• They are attempting to purchase DoubleClick, to help them dominant the online display advertising business.
  
  

Online Media Auction Platform
 
Many in the media business believe Google is trying to create a one stop, online media auction platform that will allow advertisers to buy, track and compare media performance across several advertising mediums. Many see this as a threat to the traditional agency business model; however others feel that savvy marketers will still want an independent marketing partner, who will help them navigate this technology and analyze and track results, in order to optimize media performance.
 
There is a certain value created with human relationships that agencies/media buyers provide that can not be recreated with an automated auction system. In addition, since Google will not be able to control the entire range of media inventory available, media buyers and agencies that can integrate Google's inventory with non-Google inventory will have a leg up on the competition.
 
More Accountability for Offline Advertising
 
Google has demonstrated their expertise at delivering online advertising where performance can be tracked, adjusted and measured. They are now trying to bring more accountability to offline advertising through their auction platform that incorporates targeting and tracking systems. Direct marketers and their media buying partners already have embraced the principles of direct response advertising that provide these types of measurements offline. If Google can help us to further improve performance, by delivering increased efficiency through better targeting and lower rates, I'm confident our industry will be among the first to adopt Google's new media offerings.
 
Disrupting the Media World
 
I believe that rather than taking over the media world, Google is going to disrupt it. Some in the traditional media business may view this as a threat, but I see this as a positive. Anyone that can bring more efficiency to the media buying and tracking process will only help improve results, which will ultimately benefit everyone involved in the marketing of products and services in today's more challenging media landscape.