Google tests bulk mag ad buys
Google is testing a new system whereby online advertisers would bid for on-page national ad space in a range of major consumer magazines. Reported in MediaPost. Should ad reps stop buying any green bananas...?
posted by D. B. Scott at
1:20 pm
3 Comments:
Green bananas? I don't get it. Explain. Please.
A saying often used by the elderly: not buying fruit that takes time to ripen, when you may not be around to enjoy it. I intended (perhaps too obscurely) to say that this Google initiative may quickly endanger the very existence of ad reps.
Advertising has largely been a commodity business of buying GRPS as cheaply as possible. Yet magazine reps focus on differentiation based on editorial content and quality. To further de-commoditize the medium, value-added promotional concepts and the dreaded advertorial entered the quiver.
But frankly, most magazine advertising is still bought on a commodity basis although buyers first think in categories (we sell bras so let's buy "women's magazines", we sell computer servers so let's buy "business magazines", we sell kitchen sinks so let's buy "homes magazines"). Then they might think in regions (Toronto is a priority market so let's buy "Toronto magazines"). But at the end of the day, it's still efficient GRPs.
So what then is the role of the rep? Is she still necessary?
If any medium is an over-ripe banana for technological media buying, it's radio which is truly a commodity product and one with perishable inventory well-suited to electronic purchasing much like airline tickets.
But magazines aren't far behind and as I said in my recent blog posting at Rep Life, "It's not quite time to pack it in but the current system of selling print ads, virtually unchanged in over 100 years, is due for a technological overhaul and it's on the way."
So I guess if the green banana commodities are a bit cheaper than the nice yellow organic ones, the answer is maybe.
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