Google Testing TV Ads in California
Michael Arrington
29 comments »
The WSJ is reporting (behind paywall) that Google is conducting a small scale test of television advertisements in the Northern California town of Concord (east of San Francsicso), and there are additional rumors that Google is close to signing a deal with Dish Network, a satellite television provider, to supply advertising to its television subscribers.
The article also notes that the total size of the television advertising market in the U.S. is $54 billion annually, which is much larger than Google’s current $20 billion/year playground, online advertising.
There is no information on how much Google is planning on assisting advertisers in creating the ads. Their audio advertising product, also still in testing, contains basic creation tools and access to voice professionals.
Spotrunner, an online startup that assists advertisers with ad creation and buying, has gained a lot of momentum in the last year. Rumors are always circulating that Google or someone else will acquire the company. These tests do nothing to suggest an acquisition is more or less likely - only that Google is definitely looking at the space. Spotrunner has raised $60 million in financing.
How do you do pay-per-click with a TV? People who advertise using Google are used to certain metrics that TV doesn’t offer.
Unless they acquire/invest on a company that is already doing a great job in that area and keep it that way, I don’t see Google leveraging its power on the net to the world of TV ads.
Is anybody else worried about Uncle G taking over everything??
Google’s adwords has made it so easy for anyone to advertise on intenet. Google can leverage that repuatation and do something very similar in TV space; of course, there will be differences in two models, but I think Google can parallel some of the basic concepts in TV space as well. I bid for a keyword/location and Google adwords picks a location/channel to show my ad (video). I pay by the number of TVs/people who tuned in to that channel at that time?
Oobie, can you say Google has taken over anything other than search and pay-per-click ads on the net? If you had the reach Google has, wouldn’t you think you’d make a #1 (or 2 or 3) out of everything you launched - or at least a thing or two? Cause they haven’t… yet.
Completely agree with RBA. 5 years from now, google will make a great case study in B-schools… about how a great high-flying company fell on its face for doing too much too quick and spreading itself so thing that it couldn’t ultimately battle with Microsoft, Yahoo, EBay and broadcast nework channels at the same time. Goodluck Google… i like you but you are suicidal
It will be interesting how Google will adapt their ADWORDS program to specific Television DMA’s. It will only make sense on a full IP TV bakbone.
Even with Spotrunner’s “easy” to use platform it still takes a solid week to setup a television campaign in their select DMAs
Google can sit on there backsides for the next 2 years, cause people are lazy and Google is all they need to know to surf.
OK Google is a great company , but what we fail to see is how it is slowly turning into the next Microsoft. It is going to leave little room for startups to grow. Whether they like it or not they are being monopolistic.
We do not need a world in which google acquires all startups or becomes the place to go for all business tools. We simply need google to aggregate and distribute data.
The fact that google is acquiring non stop is a sign that they are totalling shifting gears and becoming more of a Corporation. Innovation rarely comes from the big guys. And corporation will ultimately have the interest of shareholders before that of its clients. Sooner or later.
Spotrunner? Why do you think they have great momentum? I’ve been hearing exactly the opposite. In fact, I’ve been hearing that they’re feverishly working on product #2 because #1 isn’t going very well.
This is in my neighborhood, I will have to keep an eye on the commercials to see if I can see any “Google Runner” ads. I myself would like easy access to the local TV market. Spot runner is on the right track but the initial buy in is pretty high for a small company just trying to test the TV ad waters…
Google, is well managed. It isn’t over managed (like yahoo) or exploiting people (like Ebay). And doesn’t overcharge for software that is worse than Open source (microsoft)
- but yet we still like to hate it. I guess we like to hate #1, the big dog is an easy target.
- Rbowles
As Mike pointed out, we’re talking about a $54 billion dollar market, and one that is really not well served by today’s average Joe targeted advertising…I wouldn’t bet against the Googles and Amazons of this world leveraging their 100s of terabytes and growing of user data to help deliver much better targeted ads to any medium, including TV. It will take some time of course, but no time like the present to get started…
I don’t think media companies have much interest in letting Google (or any tech company) take over non-Internet advertising channels. If they do this, what happens 5 years down the road when they rely on Google to make money. Large media needs to figure out targeted TV ads, otherwise they are in big trouble. I write about this here: http://themediaage.com/?p=15 .
Google’s “radio ads” test didn’t work out too well either. Google likes to drive costs way down,… While advertisers like that, publishers don’t. In the end, it boils down to what the publishers want, and it’s not Google.
This is a good and natural move for Google. With TV, radio and print ads, they are building their safety net. Online advertising will be their bread and butter for the next few years but if and when the next online bust happens, at least Google can say, hey we have other models. It’s happening to a small extent with Microsoft as people aren’t exactly embracing Vista the way they thought and government agencies are staying away from Vista, Office and IE 7. Their search engine/online advertising is a joke so it’s a damn good thing they have $50 billion in the bank. That’s their safety net if ever they need it and this will be Google’s.
spot runner is an awesome company
Guys’ I’d recommend watching “The Smartest Guys In the Room.”
No… its not about Google. But yes, it chronicles how a company’s diversification efforts got so out of whack it brought the company down… not to mention some fraud behind the scenes too. LOL.
Seems the radio and print ad tests haven’t been the failure people thought they were.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/ar....._id=115495
If all goes according to plan, internet advertising may be the smallest source of revenue for Google.
Guess the print and radio test runs weren’t the failure that Robert Dewey and others think they were.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/ar....._id=115495
Google is diversifying, they can’t be just about search and online advertising. Microsoft couldn’t be just about Windows and Office. Large corporations need multiple sources of revenue. Google won’t fall on their face, they will dominate not by forcing it on everyone but by being the best choice out there.
I don’t know about this, I saw this story of http://www.Cavenger.com this morning, and as I told them, this is B.S.
Microsoft got the timing right with an OS and suck at everything else.
Google got the timing right with search and suck at everything else.
This won’t work, Google will not succeed at any kind of advertising other than adwords and that has it’s own problems.
It’s like some unwritten law. Once you got lucky in the right time and space everything else you touch, you taint, because you’ve made it big and now don’t need to make it big.
The system is built, it’s a cash cow and all the passion that built that has left the building.
its true, they are going to be pushing out TV, Radio, and Mobile Ads to their adwords marketplace soon. this could mean huge $$’s and put pressure on typical media buying agents
Google isn’t trying to take over the off-line advertising market through broadcast media.
Google understands that in 5-10 years time an increasing proportion of the existing broadcast audience will be consuming ‘TV’ content online.
The transition of the traditional broadcast advertising market will follow suite, to the point where re-sale of advertisements over online channels will command a far higher premium than its broadcast counter part.
This transition will move along predictable evolutionary steps:
1) Click through on re-formatted content e.g. same advert just replayed online
2) Re-purposed, dedicated online advertisements e.g. the difference between an magazine advertisement and a banner ad today
3) Interactive advertisements
4) In-content, context specific advertisements e.g. click on Justin Timberlake during a music clip to get retail outlets selling his clothes in your location.
“The article also notes that the total size of the television advertising market in the U.S. is $54 billion annually, which is much larger than Google’s current $20 billion/year playground, online advertising.”
Really? When did the online advertising market get to be almost 50% of the size of the TV advertising market? At what rate are the sizes of these two markets converging? This seems like a bigger story than Google dabbling in some test marketing.
TechYob
You’ve hit it on the head….well put!
i would like add my site to your testing list,need real traffic