Google To Buy Radio Advertising Firm

M3rk1n_Muffl3y writes "According to the BBC Google is buying US radio advertising firm dMarc Broadcasting for an upfront payment of $102m (£58m), rising to a possible $1.14bn by 2009. Interestingly it comes soon after Robert X. Cringely's prediction that Google will soon expand into targetted TV adverts. It looks we are finally beginning to see Google's transition to mainstream media."

Comments

Magazine Adverts were a No-Go

[TubeSteak]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50 /b3963130.htm

Google tried getting into the glossy advertising business and didn't do so well.

Google Inc. (GOOG ) this fall purchased about a dozen pages of ad space from niche publications such as PC Magazine and Budget Living. Google then divvied up the space and sold it in small pieces, often four to seven per page, to its network of several hundred thousand advertisers -- most of whom can't afford pricey magazine ads on their own. Now Google says the trial program, dubbed Google Publication Ads, is taking off, with hundreds of publications inquiring about it. The company is expanding the trial from four publications to scores of them, likely to include both niche and general interest titles.

However, a closer look at Google's foray into magazine ads suggests it could be in for a tough slog. Sure, plenty of publishers are clamoring to snare ad dollars from Google. But a BusinessWeek analysis of Google's pilot, including interviews with 10 advertisers and two publishers, indicates that advertisers haven't warmed to the program so far. Only one of 10 advertisers interviewed by BusinessWeek said their print ad performed well enough to recoup the money it cost. And eight of the 10 were unhappy enough with the results that they say they're unlikely to do further print advertising with Google.

Magazines are more than willing to sell advert space to Google, but if you RTFA I linked, few of the advertisers are finding it to be worth their money.

I suspect it is a matter of finding the right format before this takes off. Maybe Google needs to group complementary products together, or simply put fewer small ads per page.

Good fit for Google

[rueger]

Actually dMarc is actually a good fit for Google. What dMarc's RevenueSuite does for commercial broadcasters is offer an automated way to fill unsold inventory. At the end of the day the Sales office at a radio station will close the ad logs, and the RevenueSuite software will schedule their client's ads into any unsold spaces in the logs.

There's no work for the station staff, and everyone makes a few extra bucks.

That's really not dissimilar to what Adsense does.