Google TV
I attended an AAF-Raleigh Durham event last week featuring Google TV with speaker Dan Gertsacov, Team Manager with Google TV Ads. The presentation was on the insights from Google's introduction into the TV industry via Google TV Ads. Earlier this year Google introduced a TV buying platform, similar to Google Adwords. They have created a space that virtually anyone with web access and a credit card can play in. Google has built a ‘self-serve platform’ to allow advertisers to bid on specific cable shows, rather than buy on the basis of time slots and demographics. This allows for a different kind of targeting at lower costs. They can even outsource creative, should you need it.
This bidding system may be uncharted territory for traditional buyers, but for online buyers it’s common knowledge. The idea of this ‘easy as 1-2-3’ technology can be threatening to a traditional media buyer who takes a lot of pride in the process of doing a precise buy from start to finish. After listening through the presentation however, I realized that this is just another tool to make us do our jobs better. Yes - a client could log in and create their campaign and have it running the next day, though I wouldn’t recommend it. Defined parameters and thorough strategy remain a crucial component to any buy, before you go bidding on spots and dots.
I think it’s funny how this way of buying media is easily adaptable to how online buyers purchase space. Traditional buying is very archaic, and when you stop to think about it, it’s quite ridiculous. It’s a routine process of requesting information, hours of data entry, and sending information back and forth via email or fax. Yes, reps still fax avails to buyers! In my 5 or 6 years of buying, almost nothing has changed in the overall process in which we buy TV. How we buy media in general, well that’s a different story.
So is Google TV going to transform the way in which we buy media? Time will only tell. I will remain open to change if it allows me to do my job more efficient, targeted and smarter. A future of buying with no data entry? Bring it on!
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.
Leave a Comment