Consolidating Online Media Buying

Advertisers can now target ads to run in newspapers and specific markets by using Web based buying systems such as Google, according to a News.com article. When radio and television stations have unsold inventory, they can sell the remainder online at the last minute. They can sell at a local level, which would be impossible otherwise. It's about consolidation, a one-stop site instead of calling every station. Other benefits of this method include: decreased prices, and allowing smaller companies opportunities they would not normally gain.

Google is leading the pack and has plans for a test involving more than 100 advertisers and more than 60 newspapers. Its automated advertising system for radio, Google Audio Ads, now works with 700 stations in 20 metro markets. This system is efficient, cost-effective, and flexible, since Google allows advertisers to shift ad campaigns around easily between markets and different sections of the newspapers.

This is the way of the future, and it is only a matter of time before all media buying is done in this fashion. Smaller companies can now compete with larger ones due to a level playing field. Corporations also need to understand, which Google has mastered, the ubiquitous business mantra of "change or die." If companies want to survive they need to realize that marketing is not static, but dynamic and fluid in nature.