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March 2, 2007

Google has started a new research piece called the "Study of Advertising across Traditional Media".

The survey lasts about 15 minutes and asks questions like:

Do you use the same advertising/marketing agency across all advertising channels?

What is the average cost per ad of running your ads in each of the following channels?

How does your company or client measure and evaluate the effectiveness of TV, Newspaper and Radio advertising?

The survey then asks a number of theoretical questions on specific Google products and asks for a general assessment of interest. They propose:

A service that would connect advertisers to traditional offline media outlets (ie: Newspapers, TV and radio stations) through Google's online automated process. Advertisers will be able to bid in auction and to make offers for specific media. This technology seeks to simplify the process of selecting, buying, scheduling, delivery and reporting of traditional offline advertising.

An online Creative Marketplace where advertisers can specify the type of ads they want created and then other agencies can bid on the project.

Online Ad-Creation Tools that lets you create and customize your ads yourself.

Overall, AdAge reports that Google is "laying the groundwork" for TV advertising, and has already appealed to the TBA (Television Bureau of Advertising) to build a platform that would "automate the archaic business of buying local airtime."

But if this survey indicates anything, it's that Google intends to build an advertising platform for all media channels. This would certainly follow Eric Schmidt's dream, to "walk up to you and give us, say, $10 million and we'll completely allocate it for you across different media and ad types.”

Though I expect nothing less from Google, at the same time, I wonder if there's room in traditional media markets for anything more.

"Google has done numerous print advertising tests with newspapers and magazines, has made a $100 million-plus acquisition of the dMarc Broadcasting radio technology firm and has invested in radio ad sales infrastructure and personnel, said ZD-Net analyst Donna Bogatin.

In the mean time, Google still remains unable to crack offline advertising. Why?

"Overall, Google’s difficulties in penetrating in the radio advertising industry fully illustrates why Google is not destined to dominate all of the world’s advertising, despite its big ambitions.

Google has created its own advertising market and it dominates it, to its $150 billion market cap advantage.

However, Google cannot readily enter legacy advertising markets offline and disrupt long-standing market dynamics by imposing its 'centric pricing schemes' added Bogatin.

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Source: SearchViews