

Google TV Ads - timothychung
http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/easy.html

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anigbrowl
8-O Excuse the long comment, but...

I'm a producer on a scrappy little TV show (local, trying to expand). This is
startling, because I just finished work on a business plan today and our
business model is produce show, sell ad spots direct to likely candidates, and
buy airtime to increase reach.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this. I may be able to use it
(particularly to use the pricing estimates to reverse-engineer the viewership
revenue possibilities for TV show in the genre I'm producing, as well as to
identify which slots are most effective - Nielsen already produces such data,
but it costs a fortune), but it's also very tough on me as a producer because
I don't have a network deal of any kind; furthermore it makes me much more
dependent on a network owner while cutting me out of the loop completely as a
content creator, strongly reinforcing the position of the distributor (not
unlike how your iPhone app doesn't exist for commercial purposes if you're not
in the app store). I applaud Google for automating the ad-buying process, and
I presume that due to their sheer size they'll be able to secure very good
terms and make profits on relatively small margins. But our existing plan of
generating maybe $2m/yr in direct sponsorship sales 2 years from now is
probably in the toilet, because if I were an advertiser it would probably be
vastly simpler to just use this new tool and have a dashboard with analytics
and so forth than to do special deals with niche content providers (like us).

It's not going to disrupt the TV/advertising business overnight, of course,
but this is going to be the talk of the industry over the next 72 hours. I
have to say I feel like I just got sucker-punched. It doesn't help that my
boss is an old-school ad guy who finds Google docs mysterious.

(Strangely, the 'ad creation marketplace' (hook up with a producer/camera
team) goes to a dead link. Mini-fail, there.)

~~~
Keyframe
I would not worry if I were you. I am in a similar position as you. I think
this will not hold water on its own. Here is why. Web advertising is a whole
other kind of business as TV advertising. Lets start with TV Networks, their
ultimate god is Peoplemeter. Last year I was directing on a huge project and
each day we had Peoplemeter ratings posted so that we know what works what
does not and standings against competition (I worked on a reality show, sadly
and interestingly enough).

Peoplemeter ranks are used pretty much for everything from thereon in TV
business. Sales events that take place use it as a general method of taking a
stand towards ad agencies and big clients directly, but only as a stand (for
ad pricing). Sales in TV is based on personal relationships between sales
people and buyers (mostly ad agencies specialized in media buying). It is not
uncommon, in fact it is quite common to have only a handful of ad agencies buy
up in front, in bulk, ad space directly from TV Network or station and
regulate sales from thereon to other agencies which are further specialized in
ad placement/media buying/plans. Biggest agencies buy ad space, sell it to
smaller ones which sell it to clients. Clients, in general, buy commercial/s
from creative agencies and media space from other agencies (only smaller
clients/budgets buy from one agency - with a good reason).

So, we have TV networks/stations (I'm not talking about really smaller ones)
that always sell their space to media buying agencies which funnel their
capital to that space - they sell it further down the road to their buddies.
it is really hard to get into that game no matter what. It is a closed loop.
TV Networks often have special/premium content which they sell off directly -
this delegates to live shows, specials and large projects (Reality stepped
into this pretty much). However, this being a premium content at a premium
price, it is always at a special events sale only for that purpose - mostly to
primary sponsors of the show/special.

There are two side liners here, in this whole business. Small productions and
small stations/networks. They get the scraps of the table, if at all. They are
out of the loop. Small stations usually sell off their ad space to local
businesses and stuff like that - they have their own marketing departments
which sells off in a classic, direct marketing approach (cold calling, small
events etc.). Then there are smaller productions which can't get enough money
from small stations to budget their own productions.

What follows in this scenario is that usually small productions give their
content to stations "for free" in compensation for some of the ad space within
that content, and station itself ads on that ad space its own ad space. So you
have a show for example, independently produced, aired on the station with
embeded ads that production itself sold - and wrapped around that you have
station sold ads. This tend to work pretty well IF production is capable of
selling off ad space, which is rarely the case and usually ends up in one or
several "sponsors" of the show which pay for the production and profit margin.

Google could step in that second market if they play it right.

What amuses me though is this quote "And to get started, we'll help you create
your own TV commercial for free.". Well, I don't know what kind of
commercials? Maybe motion graphics/stock video/stationary holds, which you can
make on your own for dirt cheap or have it made for the same amount. I work on
commercials pretty much all the time (it is the most readily available type of
business for directors and video/graphics independents), and to make a
technically good commercial it takes A LOT of money, not because we are being
fancy and want a lot of it. It is because all of the industry is set up so
that it takes a lot of money - starting from renting the equipment, to people
to various layers of agencies etc.

~~~
anigbrowl
_Google could step in that second market if they play it right._

I would love to be able to upload complete episodes to YT and sell ads against
that - our show is local but of general interest (cooking, basically). I'm
looking at just breaking it into chunks and creating our own YT channel but
the exec isn't terribly web-savvy so I'm probably going to do it on my own
time and keep my mouth shut until we have >10k views.

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nopinsight
One of Google's grand strategy is trying to be the ultimate middleman in
advertising, whatever channel it is. I wouldn't be surprised if Google print
ads come out. (However, Google just folded its radio operation, anyone knows
why specifically?
[http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...](http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=140691))

From a brief look, it does seem to be a lot more convenient for advertisers. I
bet many small and medium-sized businesses would start advertising on TV more
because of this service.

Does this spell doom for ad agencies? I'd love to hear informed opinion on
this. Is there a different implication between ad agencies that target small-
and medium-sized business and Fortune 100 corporations?

~~~
inerte
I don't think so. What happens today is this: Let's say you have a business
and want to advertise on TV. You approach an advertising agency, who usually
deals with the whole chain. They'll write a script, hire the production
company, and they'll contact the TV to know when to display the ad and how
much it costs.

What Google will do is just the third part. We'll probably see Google TV Ads
being used by ad agencies to manage their clients TV schedules.

Large companies advertising on the internet already hire an ad agency to deal
with their AdWords campaigns, because they'll write the ad text/create the
image/flash, and they have the market research, and they probably designed the
landing page anyway.

Ad agencies love Google AdWords, they'll probably love TV Ads too. It's a tool
to better manage TV ads scheduling...

Edit: Let's say you're a small business and want to advertise on TV. You still
need to actually make the ad, and while this is doable with friends, a cam and
a notebook, it's much easier to just hire a production company. Check the
technical requirements for Google TV Ads, it's full of tech lingo. After
recording the ad, you could take the video and manage the scheduling using
AdWords, though.

~~~
nopinsight
Google helps you do the first and second part too:

 _Ad Creation Marketplace_
<http://services.google.com/marketplace/overview/index.html>

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anigbrowl
On a more general note, this has significant long-term cultural implications,
which I'm surprised nobody is discussing. At relatively small cost, one could
(say) place commercials at a particular time slot in a major metro for viral
effect. As a silly example, imagine 750k people in NY are watching the evening
when they get a 30 second message along the lines of 'the cake is a lie'.

Less amusing examples crop up in Gibson's _Neuromancer_ (disinformation in an
ersatz news format being used to cause a riot) and Vinge's _Rainbow's End_
(subliminal information used to activate a preprogrammed behavior; see also
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii>

What's interesting to me is that the current commercial message pipeline has a
degree of editorial oversight, albeit a weak one; automating the process
subverts that to a degree (although they'll check for basic FCC compliance),
which opens the possibility for both greater creativity and for abuse. I
expect this will first manifest in the form of political speech, which isn't
subject to normal commercial considerations and which attracts more funding
than arty experimental stuff.

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ajju
Google or Microsoft to acquire BlackArrow.tv in 5, 4, 3... [if this takes off]

Edit: Disclaimer - no relationship with Blackarrow whatsoever, just an
interested observer

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bemmu
Anyone able to take a look inside? All I get is "Thank you for your interest
in Google TV Ads. This account is not eligible to create TV campaigns".

~~~
anigbrowl
More as I get it - I think I have a case to apply (see other comment on this
thread)

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grinich
I'm just waiting for Google to do billboards.

~~~
catch23
Advertisers can soon target their ads based on types of cars & ages of
drivers.

For the most part, billboards are old tech that needs innovation. I would be
surprised if Google added something as basic as time slicing for billboard
ads... that way even smaller companies could afford a visible spot on the
road.

Whoever links up old advertising with new advertising will make a boatload of
cash.

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lut4rp
I don't get this... Aren't TV ads controlled by the channel they're shown on?
How is Google going to profit here?

~~~
falsestprophet
Google is acting as a broker, very much like with Adsense for Content.
Websites "control the ads," but Google gets a cut when a Google brokered ad is
run.

