Whole New World for Radio Ads: Google

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Whole New World for Radio Ads: Google

Michael Hedges - January 18, 2006

It could be good news for radio advertising. It could be great for commercial broadcasters. It could go nowhere. Or, it could be transformative. Google will now sell radio ads.

Google announced Tuesday (January 17) an agreement to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, supplier of an automated ad delivery system for radio. The advance payment was reported to be US$ 102 million with the rest, based on performance, as much as US$ 1.14 billion. Hold on to that phrase “based on performance.”

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Imagine, if you will, the local automobile dealer in a hurry to place an ad on a local radio station. Instead of phoning said local station, he goes to Google AdsWords, clicks on the station (or stations), picks a schedule and downloads the spot. Of course, the local automobile dealer can mix the ad buy with online media. Wait; maybe print, too. Google started selling ads in the Chicago Sun-Times recently.

Currently dMarc fills empty ad slots on more than 4,000 US radio stations with a totally automated system that even allows spot placement next to specific songs.

Could this go global? Why not? Want to reach all French hip-hop music listeners in the world? Click: French. Click: hip-hop. Click: all. Click: download spot. Voila!

Still struggling to find its way in digital broadcasting, radio will – once again – be forced to adapt. Broadcasters will likely love this idea. After firing all the DJs in the last decade, now they can fire all the sales people. What a business model!

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