Google Unveils New Dashboard To Advertising Agencies

Google�s North American president of advertising/commerce, Tim Armstrong, gave a keynote address March 7 at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Media Conference in Orlando. It was noted that annual advertising in the U.S. is $198 billion, and $479 billion worldwide.

In his address, Armstrong unveiled Google�s �top secret strategy� for helping agencies transform the way they plan, buy and manage, media...not just online, but across all their media options. He showed a new �dashboard� approach developed for managing buys.

�It basically takes a mix of different media types and puts them together,� he explained, adding that the system, which is still being developed, was part of a suite of new tools Google is building to make the lives of media buyers easier.

He said the new dashboard would enable buyers to manage mixes of off-line media like TV, radio and print campaigns, with their online display and search advertising, and to harness their data streams to show how one platform influences traffic to the others.

Google has recently begun striking alliances directly with agencies, such as its much publicized hook-up with Publicis, which Armstrong said was all about building tools to help the ad agencies scale.