The days when Google would come into your office or invite you to theirs and hand out free chochkes has seemed to be long gone. Yeah, they still occassionally will give out their freebies, I received a couple of shirts and what not from them at my last agency, but things have progressively become different with them over the years.
Google once was a company that acted similarly to how Microsoft acts today - almost overly helpful. Microsoft is trying very hard to bring in customers by listening to their clients, providing any help they can and also treating them to freebies, meals and other perks that have become almost expected in advertising. While all the extra effort won’t make me shift 50% of a budget over to Microsoft, it does help get myself, and I’m sure other advertisers, to test or work on their Microsoft campaigns more than they may otherwise have done. Yahoo has tended to be more in the middle of the two, not overbearing, but there when you need them. It should also be noted that personally, I usually prefer to get help from the engines when I need it rather than having them be overly “proactive” since many of their ideas aren’t always feasible or preferable to the overall campaign strategy. However, there are many advertisers who like the constant interaction and support that some AM’s provide.
It’s also not just the freebies that have gone down hill - it’s also the attitude. Simply put, Google has gotten pretty full of themselves over the years. I had a client of mine come in for an office visit so we coordinated with the big 3 engines to present to the client during part of the day. There were a couple of big differences I noticed between the 3. First was appearance. Two Microsoft reps came in looking fairly business casual, we had 2-3 Yahoo reps come in, also business casual and then we had Google, who walked in with 5-6 people looking like high powered attorneys ready to take over the entire meeting. While professionalism is good, it just felt like the Google group, as a whole, had this aura of superiority to them compared to Yahoo and Microsoft. The second, and more important difference was within their presentations. We specifically told each engine what types of topics they should speak about and more importantly, which topics they shouldn’t present. Basically, our client didn’t like to be “sold to”, so we made it clear to each engine to leave any sales pitch out of the presentation. Yahoo and Microsoft played by the rules, but Google still took their time to pretty much focus on their “new” or “upcoming” products that in their eyes, would be a great test for the account. Overall, none of us or the client were pleased.
Now, it seems as though Google might be starting to shift their ways back to how they once were. Marketing Pilgrim, Andy Beal, has pointed out an article from the NY Times covering how Google is starting to come into the offices of different ad agencies to help build the relationship between each of them.
Over the previous year or two, it has seemed as though Google was getting away from what made them such a great company to work with and only focused on their biggest clients - making changes that made it more difficult for the smaller advertisers. While this article is mainly about large agencies (who manage those big clients), it shows another step Google is taking to get back into the good graces of advertisers. I’m thinking it may have to do in part with their bottom line, but if they start treating all their advertisers better, then the “why” shouldn’t matter as much as long as they don’t regress.
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