Google steps up its offline media agency proposals

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 12-Feb-08

Google plans to develop tools to help agencies measure offline media, with the search behemoth meeting UK agencies to step up the effort.

Google has already made high-profile forays in offline media. Last year,
it moved into TV advertising in the US by striking a deal to sell ads
for Dish TV, one of the country's two satellite pay-TV providers.

The company's engineers are set to arrive at UK media agencies this

week, as part of a drive by the search giant to improve agency
relations.

Technical staff will collaborate with agencies and work to build tools
to improve the effectiveness of planning and buying in the online space.
The wider aim is to use Google's online expertise to better track the
effectiveness of other media.

Mark Howe, Google UK's country sales director for agencies, said:
"Agencies aren't using online as much as they can because their systems
aren't up to it. We want to use engineering in Europe to build tools for
agencies."

He added: "Our aim is to plan across all media more effectively. If we
can build tools to link information from Donovan Data Systems and plug
into other systems to measure the effectiveness of online, then that is
the Holy Grail. It won't happen this year, but that is the Holy
Grail."

Some agencies believe that, if Google's offline techniques become
widespread, media buyers will increasingly demand more quantifiable data
for offline as well as online campaigns.

- Google is keen to reaffirm its commitment to working with agencies in
the UK, having announced last year that it will end its Best Practice
Funding scheme at the start of 2009.