April 24, 2007 | Tuesday
Google, DoubleClick, WPP - and the rest
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in Marketing |News |PPC |Quotations |Search Engines |Google |SEO
On Friday, WPP chief exec Martin Sorrell made headlines by saying:
Google is a short-term friend and a long-term enemy and probably the shorter term just got a little bit shorter and the longer term got a bit closer as a result of the DoubleClick acquisition.
Let’s look at the evidence on this one and ask the questions worth pondering - and debating. Settle in with a coffee for this one.
1) As noted by my co-blogger, Latitude’s Director of Search Jon Myers, last week, Google now appears to have a glaring conflict of interest in terms of search engine marketing. The DoubleClick purchase included search marketing company Performics, which offers paid search, search engine optimisation, and data feed marketing. So, as Jon points out, Google now owns an SEO company, too. How, precisely, is Google going to resolve this one?
2) The amount of data Google will have inherited from DoubleClick, as I made light of when the deal was announced, is really no laughing matter. One really has to wonder whether Google will stick with its “Don’t be evil” credo and use this data only to do good. (Perhaps Larry, Sergey, and Eric would say it depends on whether a lesser evil can be considered ‘good,’ or indeed what your definition of ‘evil’ is. Clintonian interpretation of fairly simple language could come into play here.) As Sorrell put it:
It raises issues as to whether we are happy to let Google have our clients’ data and our own data, which Google could use for its own purposes in contextual and targeted advertising.
Already, three public interest groups in the US have filed a joint complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking the FTC not only to halt the acquisition, but also asking the FTC to order DoubleClick to “sweep out” its data storehouse. That probably went down like a lead Zeppelin in Mountain View.
3) Finally, is Sorrell’s statement on Friday tantamount to a declaration of war on Google? He did make a point of detailing exactly how much WPP Group now spends with Google ($200 million, or £100 million, up from $150 million last year). Just how bothered will Google be if WPP Group slashes its spend?
As for Sorrell’s declaration that “Google is a short-term friend and a long-term enemy,” that one will probably always be up for debate. For Sorrell - and perhaps others who are suspicious of what the result of the DoubleClick deal will be - that friendship is looking increasingly in peril.
Comments
#1
Just one thought regarding your third point.
“3) Finally, is Sorrell’s statement on Friday tantamount to a declaration of war on Google? He did make a point of detailing exactly how much WPP Group now spends with Google ($200 million, or £100 million, up from $150 million last year). Just how bothered will Google be if WPP Group slashes its spend?”
I would suggest it would be very much a case of ‘cutting of your nose to spite your face’ if WPP were to review its current spend on Google. At present Google is the preferred search engine of many B2C customers and such action by WPP (albeit hypothetical) would no doubt hurt them more than Google. At the end of the day, clients will move agency should the cost-pers not be acceptable