Google’s catch of Andy Berndt, co-president of Ogilvy & Mather’s New York office, is more than another executive hire by the Web’s search advertising leader. The move is stoking greater concern within Madison Avenue’s industry of traditional advertising agencies, who fear Google may eventually compete with the creative services they offer clients in building ad campaigns.
So far, Google has won over advertisers with a better technology for buying paid search listings online and is looking for new growth from serving up more sophisticated graphic display and video ads. But where exactly will it, or advertisers for that matter, draw a line between “technological innovation” in placing and delivering ads and “creativity”?
The company said Berndt will join later this year as managing director of the Google Creative Lab, which works with other creative agencies to develop advertising using Google ad services. Trade magazine Advertising Age cast a skeptical eye on whether Google’s unit simply puts a new name to the same old ad agency business:
“The new global unit isn’t being called an agency, but any unit offering creative consultation and account services could be considered one. Interestingly, Google had been trying to lure more creative talent to the company over the past year, according to ad industry executives familiar with the search giant.”
Keep an eye on:
- Apple has made plans to nearly double its fourth quarter production of iPhones to 2.7 million from the 1.54 million originally targeted, based on a projected resurgence in iPhone demand. (TheStreet)
Apple also named Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile to sell iPhone in Germany. (Reuters) - Time Warner will “look hard” in the next 12 to 18 months at possibly selling off its AOL dial-up Internet access business after doing the same in Europe, although CEO Richard Parsons says breaking off the unit would be difficult as it continues to contribute to traffic at AOL.com. (Reuters)
- Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger said he was disappointed by some studios’ recent decision to back the HD DVD high-definition technology format and accused them of taking “easy money” for their decision. Disney backs Sony’s Blu-ray, which had appeared to be pulling ahead of Toshiba’s HD DVD in the format war before Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG signed exclusivity deals in August to distribute next-generation films on HD DVD for the next 18 months. (Reuters)
- News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch on Tuesday sketched out early plans for Dow Jones & Co Inc, saying he leaned toward making the online Wall Street Journal free but had not yet made a decision. (Reuters)
- Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. still sees a future for digital rights management and physical product in the music industry, he raised the possibility of selling DRM-free music, in what appeared to be a softening of his previous outright opposition. Bronfman has been the most vocal of the major record company executives in his stance against dropping DRM. (Reuters) (Billboard)
(Photo: Reuters File)
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