January 25, 2008 | Friday
Google, Publicis, and the small matter of Performics
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in Marketing |News |Search Engines |Google
Much head scratching from all quarters this week as Google held a joint press conference at Publicis Groupe’s Paris HQ to announce that the search giant and advertising monolith (which owns Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas, ZenithOptimedia, Zed, Starcom and Fallon) have been carrying on a special “partnership” for the past year. No less senior a figure than Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on hand to disclose that “possibly hundreds” of Google employees could take placements within Publicis. Maurice Levy, chief exec of Publicis, said to reporters:
Google is not a short-term friend and a long-term enemy. It’s a real partner.
I’m sure he believes that. Show of hands: Does anyone else?
Levy continued:
The partnership with Google is not about creating one product. It is about creating a concept that will work across our whole company. We are sharing our information to help Google develop the right platforms and Google is sharing technology to help us develop the best services for our clients.
Ah, bless.
I suspect the reality will go something like this:
Publicis tells its thousands of clients that the group has exclusive expertise in whipping the competition with Google ad products. Google does nothing to disabuse Publicis of this belief, and indeed encourages it through efforts like the job swapping and the Paris press conference with Schmidt and Levy boasting of the “partnership”. Anything to sell more of its search and Google AdWords to those thousands of clients...Anything, that is, except giving Publicis any of that special knowledge.
Everyone knows that Google is not a company to give away a damn thing. Secrecy and hierarchical control are cornerstones of the company’s operations, and are often cited as its weakest cultural components. The traits do go hand in hand.
For example: A high-level contact shared with me that, until very recently, everyone hired by the company - including the security guards - had to be personally vetted by Larry and/or Sergey before they could be extended an offer to join.
Micromanagement like this is rife at Google. The hierarchy is full of people who have no authority to make any real decisions. It’s a culture where no one is empowered to disclose much of anything, just as they are not allowed to decide much of anything.
Then you have the PR events held by Google for hundreds of people...who are sworn to secrecy on everything they’ve heard or seen.
So forgive me if I sound cynical, but it’s hard to believe that Google is going to enlighten Publicis or any of its companies with valuable inside information.
More interesting is this remark made by CEO Schmidt at the Paris press conference:
Google will never become an advertising agency.
Well, he didn’t say that Google will never acquire an advertising agency. That is precisely what they did with the purchase of DoubleClick, which included Performics, DoubleClick’s search-focused division.
Smart money is on Performics being sold off or changed significantly, as Google’s credibility would suffer if it were to take money to help companies rank more highly on its own search engine.
Not that Google even acknowledged the inherent conflict of interest when the deal was announced. That would have been saying a bit too much.
Publicis, are you detecting a pattern here?
Comments
#1
Seems like Jackie is not alone in questioning how much of a partnership Google and Publicis have. Sir Martin Sorrell has attacked rival Maurice Levy at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, suggesting that Publicis Groupe’s partnership with Google lacked substance. Led to a bit of a catfight! See article:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/779438//
#2
I think it’s a little naive of Publicis. Because it removes the entrepreneurial element that clients require from agencies and search specialists.
Agencies should be challenging Search Engines’ practices, not accepting them into their working model. It is this dynamic attitude that has meant the UK leads other countries in terms of innovation in Search.
It’s good news for other agencies, though. They will have a point of difference to their clients from Publicis operating companies.
The fact that agencies do not have to use the ‘Google Model’, but can rely on the independent fervour that is created by an agency or specialist from having Google as a supplier rather than a ‘partner’, is what clients will appreciate and benefit from in terms of performance.