BIG John Small
http://www.GreatRadioAds.com

-Mike
Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com

Its called ‘research’ folks.

It takes a lot more than copywriting and voiceover to create a radio ad that works great.

It isn’t about sounding pretty. It’s about getting results. Isn’t that the point of accountable advertising?

Voices.com has a great domain, solid tech, and from the looks of it a fairly large user base.

Also, let’s all keep our pants on until Google releases whatever it is they are doing in this space.

I wish David & Voices.com lots of luck.

How many airline tickets would we buy from Priceline…once we realized that we were paying more than what the airlines themselves were charging for the same exact flights?

Let’s ask ourselves: Once advertisers have become comfortable with using radio–thanks to Google’s easing of the path to its implementation via this new platform–how long will they continue to pay more for these radio ads than they would be paying if they placed the ads themselves?

Unlike an ad system like paid search; which due to its complex structure (among other barrier-to-entry factors) obviously can not be replicated by individual advertisers; placing radio ads is not that difficult. Especially once you’ve done it a few times.

The bottom-line question then is this: How long will companies pay a 25-100% or more premium (due to auction competition) over radio stations’ everyday ad rates for the sake of having Google be their middleman–even with them supplying the talent and writing the ad (which two services radio stations already provide for free)?

Fact is, companies like Voices, Bid4Spots (which is a much more attractive approach for advertisers than Google’s platform), and the 100’s of other value providers within this marketplace have little to worry from Google’s new offering.

Any advertisers spending more than $500/month on radio spots–as will be the case with the Google print program–will never embrace such a system.

I think there are really two technologies/offerings at play here 1) the audio ad targeting system and 2) matching advertiser demand to voice talent. The first was in fact acquired thru dMarc, but as far as I can tell, the second piece was not part of the dMarc stack, and given the internet traffic, it could certainly indicate some ‘imitation’ was happening.

The reality is that there’s not much Voices.com can do about this. Just like the small ISV’s who were put out of business by Microsoft, this fate will befall many Internet companies at the hands of Google. Sure, Google could have integrated with Voices, or even created an open API to plug into any contractor marketplace, but in that case it’s more difficult to ensure a simple seamless user experience. Yes, I realize this is similar to the argument MSFT used as it added ‘features’ to Windows, and killed off the small ISV; however, no one can argue that it’s easier to ensure a better user experience if you own the whole process.

Besides, Google is developing is a two sided market, creating the demand with the audio ad service and linking that demand up with the talent to create the ads. Voices.com only provides one part of this; is it Google’s fault for wanting to keep both sides of this market, especially if generating the demand for these services is a bigger problem than creating a clearing house to match up talent with said demand (does anyone even know how many contractor marketplaces are there on the web today).

I’m looking forward to Google making these audio ads available for any publisher of a podcast; do you honestly think they purchased this ad platform just for radio? When was the last time a radio asked you for your age, gender or zip code?

“An online trading system for conducting an advertiser initiated auction for the placement of an advertisement in a media, such as printed publications, billboards, radio, television, videos, network portals, web pages, and the like.” The provisional was filed in 2001.

The inventor looks to have a related business - a bit of research and leg work would likely pay off.

http://www.patentmonkey.com/PM.....85732.aspx

Truth is, we’ve been working harder than ever to build value for our stakeholders and establish our foothold in this market. Simply put, Google’s move has only turned up the heat a few notches.

Yes, we’re protective of our IP and will continue to do more to ensure that our business remains rock solid.

From our point-of-view, we believe that the awareness that Google will bring to the industry will be a win for our company.