Softer ice cream that scoops more easily
On a July day in Chicago, Google employees swarmed a conference room at the advertising agency Leo Burnett, carrying in couches and beanbag chairs to create a lounge. They gave away candy and showed off Google’s advertising technology. Throughout the day, they emphasized a single message: Google is a friend to ad agencies.
No, really.
Advertisers are grappling with the idea of Google, which spent many of its early years avoiding — and infuriating — advertising agencies, now shifting to embrace them.
During the last year, Google has built a 40-person group that is charged with courting agencies, trying to persuade them that their clients should buy ads on Google sites and use the search engine’s tools. The Google team — like any ad team — is visiting agencies to show off the company’s products, like video ads on YouTube and display ads from DoubleClick. Its representatives are even making regular visits to ad agencies, soliciting suggestions and fielding questions. (…)
Peter S. Fader, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, sees the Google approach as part of a master plan to get its corporate hooks into more of the agencies’ business.
“If Google were to just set up a shingle and say ‘Google ad agency,’ the traditional agencies will find a way to keep them out of clients’ offices,” Professor Fader said. Instead, he said, “they’re almost like a virus, going to work their way into specific agencies and replace the DNA of those agencies with a more analytic orientation while trying to maintain some of the client relationships.” (…)
When Google visits agencies, it typically brings in a gelato cart or a coffee bar. It has even built a replica of Google’s office kitchens. It offers free food and prizes of iPod Touches.
