Google is not happy with owning search, entering the print and radio market and owning the free analytics market. They are now pursuing the TV advertising market as well. If the beta continues to go well, it will likely only be a matter of time until advertisers will be able to buy a national TV buy through a Google managed interface. This will allow stations that struggle to sell remnant run-of-the-mill inventory through a “virtual” sales force called Google.
I am sure that some media sales reps are going to have a hard time with this if I can avoid them completely and buy media through the same interface I look at so often through the day. Actually, it will be kind of nice to avoid some of the reps. Google will also have producers available to create spots for the buy. It will be interesting to see how Google tries to make TV buys through them trackable like the 2-D barcode on their print campaigns. If they can figure it out, I am all for one central reporting repository of data. The likes of Omniture might need to get in high gear with offline advertising, rather than continuing to work with their Genesis partners. After all, Google Analytics is free and if it can track offline as well as online- big kudos!
One step at a time, Google is slowly achieving their goal of becoming the ad agency operating system and not only owning the $20 billion online marketing world, but the $500 billion advertising world.
Tags: Google, media buying, Omniture, TV Media, web analytics
