Google Urges Marketers To Go Back To Basics

Matthew Brittin, director of Google UK, yesterday said that marketers should go “back to basics”, adding that they need to put more emphasis on what their brand stands for.

Speaking at IAB Engage 2007, Brittin said that “the majority of brand owners have not yet worked out the rules and do not yet know how to engage their audiences in the rapidly changing web 2.0 world”.

He identified devices, storage, production and access as four drivers of change in the online marketplace, with “cloud computing” the new way the four will converge.

With the current proliferation of platforms and the willingness of consumers to engage with a variety of devices, Brittin said that it is important that marketers focus a lot of time on cross-media campaigns.

However, he noted that there are organisational issues which sometimes make it hard for marketers to run integrated campaigns across platforms such as TV, press, and search.

Brittin also argued that advertisers need to respond to the needs of consumers, utilising the functionality of web 2.0 to assess their needs and carry out an effective response.

He said that although in some cases following the pattern of listening, engaging and responding to the consumer might not make a lot of money, it will most likely have a halo effect.

Of course, the rapid pace of change is something that marketers are learning to live with, and Britten said that the current changing world of advertising is a bit like a rollercoaster ride, with the time it takes sites to get to 100 million users getting shorter and shorter and therefore impacting on the marketplace.

He added that the important thing for brands is to keep “trying stuff and learning from it”.

Google: 020 7031 3000 www.google.co.uk/