Google, XM to Share Ad Inventory
As new technologies continue to break down the old barriers in the media business — we watch TV on our cell phones, as the saying goes, and make telephone calls through our cable company — there will be new mergers and deals between once-disparate companies as businesses look for new ways to expand their reach and customer base in a transformative media landscape.
Among the most creative and forward-looking companies is, of course, Google — and now they’re getting involved in the satellite radio business as a means of expanding their advertising reach:
Google and XM Satellite Radio today announced an agreement that hints at the future of not only radio, but also television advertising. Under the terms of the deal the two companies will help each others advertisers reach the other’s audience–including letting Google advertisers place targeted radio spots within XM channels.
Inventory on XM’s non-music channels will be available to Google’sadvertising base through dMarc’s media network (www.dmarc.net). As part of the deal, Google advertisers will be able to reach XM’s millions of subscribers nationwide and XM will have access to Google’s large and small advertisers to offer relevant, targeted messages to their subscribers.
The dMarc platform, acquired by Google in January 2006, simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns on terrestrial radio, and now on XM Satellite Radio. For XM, Google’s technology automatically schedules and inserts advertising across XM’s non-music commercial channels, helping to increase revenue with a wealth of new advertisers, while decreasing the costs previously associated with processing advertisements.
After months of trials, the new platform is now in full production for dMarc advertisers. Google AdWords’ customers will be able to place terrestrial and satellite radio spots when the dMarc platform is integrated into AdWords targeted for fourth quarter of this year.
Our industry observers tell us that Google is still working on ways to improve the CTR of radio ads, which remain stuck at a disappointing 0%.
