Thoughts On Media 360: “It Is Dangerous To Think Of Google As A Medium”

So said Phil Georgiadis, managing partner of Walker Media at the Media Week Media 360 conference in Wales last week. Georgiadis’ point was that this led to advertisers diverting some of the money assigned to marketing their brands into search and away from traditional brand building media.

The PR that Google has overtaken Channel 4 is an “irrelevant red herring. It is very dangerous for our industry, and leads to less money going into marketing brands; we are not collectively addressing this.”

Neil Hurman, strategic development director, OMD, took the opposite view. “It is incredibly dangerous not to think of search in the same pot,” he said. Unsurprisingly, Hurman got support from Mark Howe, managing director UK, Google. “There is an opportunity to increase the size of clients’ budgets in pure marketing and that going through a sales channel. I support more money going into TV, it’s good for search.”

The final word went to Hurman with a note of caution to beware Google as a competitor.