Usually when we talk about Google and personnel, it’s to report that the company has hired yet another big name, and it’s more than likely a major defection from a rival company.
Today, however, the proverbial shoe is on Google’s other foot.
Valleywag broke the story earlier today that the founders of dMarc Broadcasting would be leaving their positions at Google, reportedly citing disagreements with the search giant’s automated sales tactics and disappointment in their respective compensation packages.
Here’s the information passed along via a Valleywag tipster:
Google has not wanted to roll-out human sales folks to pitch, explain and train the automated radio buying tools to advertisers and radio buyers, believing instead that the self-service tools will sell themselves and the buyers will just come.
Google’s ‘product is king’ philosophy is that sales people just pick up check and service customers, they are not really needed to generate the business, products do that. This has significantly suppressed the sales that the dMarc folks had expected to be able to generate.
Lack of this demand creation is one of the reasons that Google has not been able to be aggressive yet in acquiring radio inventory (without orders, it is all “risk” buying). Word is that the dMarc folks will be lucky to pick up $150-200m of the earn-out potential). The CBS deal, if it happens soon, might change things, but the dMarc folks are not feeling very loved.
Google purchased dMarc last year as part of its effort to break into the realm of radio advertising. So far, the venture has been met with average results and not much fanfare, probably another reason why the Founders decided to call it quits.
Steve Bryant at Google Watch elaborates a little further as to why Google has thus far been relatively unsuccessful in penetrating the radio advertising market:
[A] simple understanding of human nature–not to mention familiarity with Google’s hubris–leads me to suspect that the radio industry doesn’t appreciate Google’s ham-handed approach to its market. And while I believe Google’s methodical, algo-based approach to ad sales is likely to be more efficient than other methods, I have no doubt the search giant could benefit from a human touch.
Hmm, perhaps AdSense isn’t the answer to everyone’s marketing needs after all.
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