Google Ads Going "Offline"

November 08, 2006

Posted in Web Industry.

Google is testing a new system that could be HUGE. It’s buying ad space in newspapers and on radio stations and selling the space to its customers. Like AdWords, which lets you buy ad space on other websites, advertisers will be able to bid on (and buy) ad space through their online system.

AdWords lets you reach the right consumers really easily. I haven’t spent much time dealing with ad buys, but when I’ve worked with agencies it’s clear that these things aren’t always easy to get. The information is expensive, complicated, and often inaccurate. The level of accountability varies based on media outlet, agency, media type, etc.

Google will provide some much-needed consistency and clarity to this industry. Newspapers and radio stations are struggling to keep up with technologies that are making them increasingly irrelevant. Google is taking advantage of this and throwing them a bone. It’s also opening a door for these industries to step up and play ball in a New Media* world.

Google eyeing radio play
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/11/08/google.radio.reut/index.html

Google to broker print ads in newspapers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061106/media_nm/media_google_newspapers_dc

* It’s not New Media anymore. The web has been a player for over a decade. There are over a billion web users. Any industry treating web like an afterthought is might as well pack up and go home.

1 Comment

  1. roni — November 24, 2006

    Sounds to me like Google knows there is a world out there and they know it isn’t irrelevant how long radio and newspapers have been around. They’ve brought radio to the internet, but they can’t take the internet to the driving experience. The most they’ve accomplished in that market is satellite radio and Onstar. There is in fact a world out there, the internet is not it. The internet just enhances it. Without newspapers, where would I cut out a Sunday comic from? Read the Wednesdays supermarket ads? Do a Jumble? These things are not “fun” on the internet. Who wants to do boring stuff like that on the internet? Those boring things are only fun in real life, boring physical touch it life. The internet is for obscure news from around the world, animated cartoons not found anywhere else (Foamy), and “fun” things you can’t do offline. Don’t underestimate history.