Google Ramps Up Madison Avenue Charm Offensive; Agency Reaction Remains Mixed
This story was written by David Kaplan.
At best, Google's (NSDQ: GOOG) attempts to woo agencies and convince account teams that the search giant's ad moves will not undercut them are getting mixed reviews, a NYT piece suggests. Of course, in some cases, almost nothing will soothe the ire of those like WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, who has only marginally softened his view of Google in recent monthsthat is, if you consider calling Google a "froe" instead of a "frenemy" is a sign of endearment.
-- The ad carnival comes to town: Over the course of a year, Google has formed a 40-person contingent charged with working some diplomatic magic with the agencies. The team's goal is to coax agencies into getting their clients to purchase search ads, YouTube video spots, DoubleClick display ads and other Google products. And so, Google has dispatched the team in the form of a traveling agency show called Campus@, where Google demonstrates new products like its recently released Ad Planner. The presentations resemble the TV network upfronts of past years, with free food and prizes.
-- A Trojan Horse: Peter Fader, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, tells NYT that he finds Google's charm offensive particularly disingenuous. "If Google were to just set up a shingle and say 'Google ad agency,' the traditional agencies will find a way to keep them out of clients' offices," he says. Fader compares Google's products to a Trojan Horse, as a way to get inside agencies and strike its own deals with clients. As he has before, Penry Price, Google's VP for North American ad sales, not only denies that is the case, but wonders how Google "would be able to actually provide a better customer experience to an individual client than an agency can today. There's no way we could actually line up behind one customer and offer the services and information that an agency can today."
-- Agencies: Yeah, right: I don't want to get into parsing his sentences, but Price is quoted twice using the word "today" in speaking about Google's ad capabilities. Agencies aren't worried about Google too much "today"however, "tomorrow" is a different story. While Google's hundreds of ad sales staffers primarily concentrate on the small advertisers that agencies wouldn't bother with, large marketers do get the company's personal touch. And so, many agencies tend to agree with Fader's assessment of what's going on. But at this point, agencies feel they need Google to help them compete against their peers as they struggle to move from a traditional ad universe to an online one. At least publicly, though, the Campus@ event has elicited some positive feelings at some agencies. Ashley Vinson, an executive at Omnicom Group creative shop DDB: "You can see them as a threat, and we don't at all It's like working with a world-class director or production company."
By David Kaplan