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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."
My only thought is they are trying to diversify and bring some new experienced talent into their business. Since they are ad driven, this will probably lend itself to pushing into differnet markets. i don't really see where it is going, but i imagine they have other plans for this acquisiton other than radio broadcasting...
Only thing i can think of is voice ads in podcasts...
It looks like google opened op gtalk to the other public jabber networks. It's possible to talk server-to-server now!
afaik the Bitlbee team got the heads up.Actually, you make a very valid point (maybe without realizing it).
The radio ad-sales people are some of the best I've ever met -- in every market I've been in. Is Google buying up this aggressive sales company in order to accumulate the best sales minds and personalities to use to sell AdWords and other tools to advertisers?
If you can't hire them away, buy their bosses out.
It gains the general mistrust and status of any other huge corporation. I love google, it's my gateway to the internet. I've always joked that Google==Research when doing assignments. I find it exciting and I really am happy for those involved in the immense success of Google, but on the other hand I can't help thinking that maybe it's getting too big now.
is my guess to the main reason, besides diversification of their services as to why they are doing this. podcasting is going to be here for awhile, it won't remain ad-free for very long. so they are getting into the market...
Look for Google to make acquisitions in many different sdvertising mediums, so they can offer "one stop shopping" for their advertisers.
Also a good point to note, is that with the advent of Satellite radio with no commercials, who's going to put up with radio for that much longer. If you listen to the radio more than 1 hour per day, it's probably worth it. At $15 per month, it comes out to $0.50 per day. I think that most people would gladly eat that cost for the thought of radio without commercials. I don't listen to the radio, but the reasons I stopped is because there was too many commercials, songs were repeated too much, and DJs were just as bad as the commercials. I think that Satellite radio has cleared up every reason why I don't listen to radio, and I am thinking of getting one. I wonder when the same will happen with TV. How much a month would you pay for advertisement free TV?
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I agree. The best ad-sellers come from radio.
I disagree with the idea that radio is dead. Talk radio in the Boston Metro area is stronger than ever, and there are two stations in particular that get a decent penny for ad minutes (AM 1060, news and traffic, and AM 850, sports talk.)
Although, local radio stations are all running their own ads taking a not-so-subtle jab at satellite radio...
The real "meat" of Google Ads is the auction system. By auctioning off airtime, they'll maximize revenues on off-peak hours and cut out highly paid salespeople.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
In the course of my job I've spoken to quite a few small/medium business owners (all of whom had some online presence) in the last year or so and in the course of conversation quite have few have said that the biggest danger they see to their businesses is not the shop up the road, or even another website, it's Google.
Google has defacto a stranglehold on the internet. Not just advertising, but as by far the largest search engine it also controls the flow of traffic. They also have a history of taking punitive (some would say childish) action against sites (eg CNet) for no reason other than they felt like it. A scary situation when there is no legal recourse and your business relies on web traffic.
Google buying up offline ad businesses is a BAD thing. They sold their "do no evil" spiel to a huge swathe of geeks based on them having no ads for the first two years of their existence and a "kooky" image; now they have advertising coming out of their ears and a squadron of lawyers, but the same people still believe them.
They are scarier than Microsoft as MS has no ambitions outside PCs and Consoles (plus they give a shitload of money away to charity). Google wants to rule the world, pure and simple. They might well cause the first proper regulation of the internet in a few years, when everybody uses it for everything; no government can allow one company to have that much power.
Chicagoland radio is horrible, and getting worse. Thankfully, I only have to work in that area, I commute from a good distance away where there are a handful of decent, small, locally owned radio stations worth listening to. I can understand why you'd pull your advertising from the Chicagoland market... People like me would NEVER hear it.
Google is probably buying this corp for their contacts and expertise in advertising outside of the "virtual" arena. Makes a bit of sense, really. Why start from the ground and build up, when you can afford to buy someone/some company already established in the industry?
What will Google do with this new talent/resouce? Couldn't even begin to speculate. Maybe sell beagles on the black market, or something.
It does make sense if you think about the fact that Google is probably accruing much better statistics about what people actually want (via Google Local searches) without having to rely on guestimations and shaky demographic statistics.
When Sam's Autobody opens in South San Francisco and wants to advertise, here's how the scenarios would play out:
Traditional radio logic:
Google radio logic: