Leigh Terry
Managing Partner
OMD Australia
3/22/10
How is Google is perceived in your region?
Google in Australia is dominant, even more so than in many other markets of the world, with estimates that for every $ invested in pay-per-click search they take c.90c. They are the category.
Whereas, a few years ago, you had to tell clients what [or] who google were and why they should be using them. Now they moved from relative obscurity (9-10 yrs ago) and now appear to have this almost exalted status whereby if someone from google says it, “It must be true, because Google said it.”
This scale irks competitors (Yahoo and MSN) and, whereas “dominance” in a category generally scares people, their dominance has been achieved through widespread consumer usage not restrictions or limiting choice unlike some other hardware and software manufacturers one could mention. Changes in their algorithm are the things that “scare” people the most as it can be perceived to make or break businesses.
In comparison to [my] European experience of working with them, they are very collaborative in Australia, invest a lot of time and effort in agency relationships as well as client specific education.
Also, as Google diversifies into [a] wider space through their display network (into the performance display media space) as well as online video with YouTube, it will be interesting to see their footprint over the coming 2-3 years and whether their ambitions to not just be synonymous with search, but take a good percentage of display online advertising budgets too will transpire.
With the advent of IPTV (analogue switch off in Australia is due to take place 31 Dec 2013) they are looking like moving further into video portal rather than simply video search engine. [For example, see] the recent deal to stream Indian Premier League Cricket, which can only be the first of many such deals to come.
As well as last week’s rumours of Google TV…
