Commentary

Media Supplier Of The Year: Google

Google

The Agency That Isn't

When the editors of media first began contemplating candidates for this year's Media Agency of the Year honors, all the usual suspects came up - and for all the usually good reasons. But that's another story that you can read elsewhere in this publication. This story is about a not-so-usual candidate that we considered, tried to rationalize and ultimately discarded as our Media Agency of the Year, an act that led us to create a brand new category: Media Supplier of the Year. The winner should come as no surprise: Google.

It should be no surprise if you've been following the criteria Media uses to make its selections: strategic vision, innovation and industry leadership. Using those criteria and considering the fact that Google provides many of the same functions as media agencies - research, consumer insights, media buying, trafficking and post-buy analyses - Google initially seemed like a compelling choice, and one that would certainly get the attention of Madison Avenue.

Google has been one of the greatest change agents in the way media is planned, bought, sold and accounted for. Google's impact to date has been mainly in the online world, but over the past few years, it has begun to expand that vision into traditional media.

Of course, Google doesn't call itself a media agency, even if it has been hiring traditional agency planners, buyers and market analysts at an alarmingly unprecedented clip. It maintains it is simply a supplier striving to enable a better marketplace structure for its customers - agencies and advertisers alike. And for that, we select Google as our Media Supplier of the Year.

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