Google-icious

Google Knows That I Go To School Somehwere Near There.

I remember the good ol’ days when search engines were all the rage, just getting their feet off of the ground. I used to use Altavista (that was my favorite, for some unexplainable reason), Yahoo, even Ask Jeeves (I know, I know, I was young and naïve) every once in a while. But something happened in my adolescence in regards to my internet searches, something that crept up on me without my conscious recognition: I started to use Google for all of my internet searches. It was a gradual transition, and I left all of my internet-scouring friends, specifically Jeeves, behind. Google offered something that was much more than an Internet search engine; it was a lifestyle. I could just hop on to Google, type in something like my brother’s band’s name, and would know that all of the returned searches would be wonderful and diverse. The links were plentiful and spot-on. Google gave it all to me and accordingly won my heart, as well as gained the knowledge of what I searched for (but we’ll just keep that between Google and me).

But then everyone began to trust Google, and the California-based company started to make some money as advertisers flocked to them. Google became a multi-billion dollar corporation in just a few years, all because people like me were having the search engine look all over the internet for any topic. Then, Google began to spread into areas other than its remarkable search engine, snatching up popular blog site Blogger, mapping out the world with Google Maps, and staving out a whole lot of other internet go-to sites, making almost all of its money on advertising. So it’s with my pleasure to bring to you a discussion (rant?) on their latest joint venture into the world of radio, and my thoughts on it. Ready? Let’s do it.

Just for a little background information, last Friday, Google acquired Double-Click in a $3.1 billion deal. That’s a lot of dough for a company you’ve probably never heard of, but it’s a big deal, considering that companies like Microsoft and AT&T were vying for it. I hadn’t heard of it either, but apparently, the deal was meant to “combine DoubleClick's expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google's advertising platform and publisher monetization services” (thanks, LeClaire). In other words, Google wanted the best help in managing online advertisements, so they purchased a company that would help them do it. But as of today, Google will be venturing into offline ads in its freshly-announced agreement with Clear Channel. In the agreement, Google will basically act as a mediator in getting companies’ advertisements onto one of Clear Channel’s 675 radio stations (they have 1,200, just for the record). Google plans to specifically focus on companies that only advertise on the internet, and get those ads on one of CC’s stations in a 30-second slot.

The deal was struck as a “multiyear” agreement, whatever that means, and was settled for an undisclosed amount of money. Google will account for 5% of all of the ads on Clear Channel stations, and will even get the coveted morning time slots for which some companies would cut off limbs. This will all be done through Google Audio Ads, which will be an easy-to-use online interface where typically online advertisers will get these special slots. Google Audio Ads is based on the technology that the company purchased last year from dMarc Broadcasting for $1 billion. Basically, Google will get a cut of the deals that are made between advertisers and Clear Channel. From my understanding, they will act as radio real estate brokers, selling time slots that are “put on the market” by Clear Channel. The ads will be placed on stations that fit into their target demographic and location, making everyone in the situation a winner.

Maybe I’m just biased for Google to succeed, and am completely blind to the fact that Google is an evil corporation (I know those of you who believe that are putting on your “rant” hats). But I’m team Google in this regard, for the fact that Clear Channel needed this type of deal to save their company from dying. If you didn’t know, Clear Channel was feared to be losing a ton of money, and was trying to get rid of its stations by individually selling them off. With this deal in place, they can have more advertising come from new companies that had not been previously able to advertise on their stations. Clear Channel may be an evil corporation, for the fact that it has such a high stake in the radio industry, but it’s a business that provides free entertainment to the masses, and you can’t argue with that. Sure, the radio industry may be different without Clear Channel, but if they weren’t around, then another company would be in its place, doing much more evil deeds.

Also, Google could make way for less ad time on the radio. Since the ads will be 30-seconds long, there may be less time taken to play the same amount of ads. Sure, they could easily pull a fast one and fill up the same amount of commercial time with more short ads, but that may seem unlikely. That’s one of the reasons that Clear Channel was failing in the first place: people were getting tired of having to listen to tons and tons of commercials, flipping the channels whenever they came on. As a result, advertisers were pulling their ads from the stations, as they were a waste of money, and Clear Channel was suffering on the profit front. By reaching a previously unreachable demographic in terms of companies on the internet who did not advertise on terrestrial radio, Clear Channel may get more money and manage to keep themselves afloat.

The only people that may be against this deal are the people who believe that there is enough advertising on the radio already, and are P.O.’d that stations that seem to play more ads than music will have even more ads. I am definitely against this factor, but if it’s going to help terrestrial radio stay afloat in a changing industry, then I’m all for it. I’m not one who likes to see dramatic changes, and I surely don’t want to be forced into purchasing an internet radio receiver or a satellite radio subscription (I pray that day never comes), so if having terrestrial available whenever I feel like listening to it, I don’t mind putting up with more advertisements. That’s what the tuning dial is meant for, right? Once they start popping up on your favorite station, it’s time to go channel surfing.

So will this deal have a negative effect on the industry? Probably not. In fact, it will help it. Terrestrial radio has significantly gone down in terms of excellence over the past 20 years, as the quality of music has gotten worse, payola has increased, independent artists are increasingly ignored, among many other negative factors. But plenty of people still listen to the radio, especially the younger generation that is stuck with a music video-less MTV and the working class that doesn’t have iPods or CD players, simply relying on their free radio for entertainment. If shorter ads are put on the radio by Google, there may be more money coming in for the failing Clear Channel, more profit for Google for being the middleman, more income for the advertiser for putting their ad on a station through Google, and possibly a less significant amount of time where ads are being played on stations. Does everyone win? Most likely not. But at least Google may help breathe life into a dying form of entertainment, and you can’t hate them for that.