Friday, December 08, 2006

Marketing 2.0 is real-time: Google after the $20 billion US radio advertising


It's now effective, last Thursday Google began limited test of radio advertising. The system resulting from Google's earlier acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting (Jan 2006), extends the AdWord platform with the ability for advertisers to create and manage radio advertising campaigns as an additional channel to their web campaigns. Sounds like integrated marketing made easy.

Google covers 800+ radio stations in the US targeting 5,000+, 87% US territory coverage, 19 of the top 25 markets and reports 300 Million impressions weekly.

It operates in 4 steps - read more in Donna Bogatin's blog from ZDNet:

"Step 1) Station inventory management system and studio log.
Step 2) Google links electronically with stations to search for inventory that fits advertiser criteria.
Step 3) Inventory is paired with advertiser requests.
Step 4) Google delivers automated order to radio station and reserves inventory."

Check out AdWords Help Center for some more.

My immediate reaction is to relate to integrated marketing of course, thinking that over time we'll have a choice of web based platform to pilot our integrated marketing campaign in real-time.

When you combine this idea with local search marketing, GPS rapid growth and mobile phone as marketing devices, we're getting closer to 1:1 marketing for the masses - remember Minority Report's changing billboards ads?

And finally, it looks like real-time advertising campaign measurement and adaptation is making its way beyond web advertising to encompass radio and I'm pretty sure TV in a short while.

Marketing 2.0 is all about integrated and measured marketing with the ability for a brand to react real-time to its audience behaviors. No longer can we have weekly or monthly meetings with our media planning agencies to figure out what to do next. Marketing 2.0 is real-time.