In the midst of the massively-reported Chrome launch yesterday, Tim Armstrong, Google’s president of Advertising & Commerce, North America, took some time to pontificate on the state of search ads, the rise of display advertising, and — most importantly — whether Google is a frenemy or froe to ad agencies.
At the Citi Investment Research Technology Conference in New York Armstrong was asked point blank if Google needs agencies. He took the opportunity to discount some of the Googlephobia that agencies feel toward the company, and gave a subtle reminder that Google takes care of agencies that cooperate:
“I’ve been at Google for eight years and the first phone call I made when I was at Google was to an agency. The people who complain about Google being a frenemy or a froe are typically people who came to the market late. There’s a group of agencies who took full advantage of search and grew with it. Those companies aren’t calling us frenemies or froes. They’re basically calling us partners.”
But Armstrong did try to dispel fears of Google removing the need for agencies in the future, saying that “we get a lot of our money through agencies and my guess is that that will go up over time.”
Armstrong also had some choice thoughts on other aspects of the company's advertising solutions, including:
- The prospects for YouTube ("Six months ago, we were uncertain what YouTube would be able to achieve. We’re more confident now.”)
- Cross-selling ("GM doesn't think about selling more cars via TV. They think about selling cars."), and
- The upside of DVR for television advertising ("I think it's beneficial for all digital platforms if creatives and broadcasters adapt to the changes brought by the DVR, particularly in terms of targeting. It will also have a macro-benefit for TV networks, as they put more shows on the internet.").
Photo: Flickr/meggerss
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