How far can the goodwill of a traveling Google cafeteria and swag go toward helping the search giant win friends and influence people in the advertising industry? Perhaps not far enough.
To expand from its core business of search advertising to a wider array of advertising products, Google has had to change its model of eschewing the middle man — agencies. To smooth they way Google is engaged in something of a charm offensive, the New York Times reports, but it doesn't look like agencies are being won over in droves.
The traveling Google team, billed Campus@, shills the company’s wares, from video to display advertising, at various advertising agencies. The far-from buttoned-down emissaries — the uniform is logo t-shirts and flip-flops — come bearing gelato and free iPod prizes along with their message.
How's it going? One agency executive related the opportunity to “working with a world-class director or production company,” but others are more concerned about Google’s potential to gut their industry.
Peter S. Fader, a marketing professor of at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Shool, tells the New York Times:
The spread of Googlephobia through the ad world may not be irrational — it’s just not clear that the agencies can do anything about it.
Google now wants to use agencies as an intermediary to court large advertisers and help grow their share of the online advertising pie. But the search giant is still avoiding agencies by working directly with many advertisers, and many of its products — like the recently launched AdPlanner tool — eliminate the need for much agency work. This fact is not lost on agency executives.
Photo: Flickr/ccaviness
