February 9th, 2007
What If Google Never Succeeds With Offline Advertising?
Discussions of Google’s offline media ambitions — to extend their wildly successful platform for online advertising to offline advertising — typically assume that Google’s success in the offline arena is just a matter of time. But the reality is that Google has nothing but a string of failures to show for itself, most notably in print, but apparently radio isn’t going so well either (via MediaPost):
CHAD AND RYAN STEELBERG, THE founders of an automated radio ad placement company purchased by Google in January 2006, have left the company.
The brothers resigned amid reports of growing tension between dMarc, the company they founded, and Google over differing approaches to radio ad sales. There was also said to be tension over the limited remuneration dMarc could expect under the performance-based terms of its original deal with Google.
The MediaPost article makes reference to “sluggish revenue” for Google’s radio ad program and a Valleywag report that only $200 million out of a potential $1.3 billion performance incentive from the dMarc acquisition deal will likely be earned by management and investors.
Could it be that Google’s high efficiency advertising engine is only succeeding in exposing the gross inefficiencies of traditional offline advertising to Google’s huge stable of ROI hungry online advertisers?
Can Google continue its torrid pace of growth if offline advertising turns out to be a brick wall?
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If I had $200 million in the hand vs. $1.3 billion in the bush…and the bush was selling radio air time, well, there are a few no-brainer decisions in life and this is one of them.
ad sales methods. Despite the Steelbergs’ departure, Google intends to continue their radio ad tests. Discussion: DMarc Founders No Longer at Google (PaidContent.org) dMarc Founders Quit Google; Could YouTube Guys Be Next? (Marketing Pilgrim) What if Google Never Succeeds with Offline Advertising? (Publishing 2.0)
Just one quibble, Scott — according to recent reports, Google’s newspaper program is actually going better than expected and is likely to be expanded.
Mathew, what’s the source, link, etc.?
dMarc Founders Leave Google, Complain About Kool-Aid TasteScott Karp / Publishing 2.0: What If Google Never Succeeds With Offline Advertising?
Sorry, Scott — I tried to create a link but somehow screwed it up (I’m not that bright). I wrote about it here: http://mathewingram.com/media/2006/12/28/googles-newspaper-ad-program-a-hit/
Google’s problem isn’t that its online success doesn’t translate to radio. It’s that Google isn’t exactly mimicking the success it had online in its radio efforts. Google’s technology is disruptive, so to be successful it needs to follow the business model of disruption. Start in the low-end market and then slowly work upward.