AdScape: A Google Massive game?
Google is doing its darndest to get out of its 1% “rut”!
Earlier this month I asked “Will Google diversification pay off in 2007?,” underscoring that Google’s diversification efforts have had no material impact on Google revenues, ever.
Google is in fact solely (99%) dependent on “online search and associated advertising services” for its livelihood. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is determined to change that.
Radio advertising, print advertising, television advertising…and now, in one fell (small) acquisition swoop, Google targets in-game advertising with the purchase of AdScape Media:
What is AdScape?
A small in-game advertising company offering dynamic delivery of advertising with plot and storyline integration, making its solutions a truly interactive marketing platform. Adscape supports sophisticated demographic and geographic targeting and also provides a robust reporting interface for marketers.
What will be the mission of AdScape going forward? It will be a Googley one:
Coming up with some interesting new ways to introduce non-intrusive and targeted advertising in order to make gaming accessible and affordable for all, Bernie Stolar, “Dean of Games” suggests.
Yes, Google’s next step in its never ending mission to foster democracy by organizing the world’s information, is to make all the world’s games accessibly advertising supported.
Does Google have a shot?
In “Can Google crack $74 billion TV ad market?” I discuss Google’s difficulties in penetrating into radio advertising to illustrate why Google is not destined to dominate all the world’s advertising, despite its grandiose ambitions.
What about in-game advertising? “We have been in discussions with many in the game development community and hope to partner with both large and small game publishing companies," Google offers, as fellow ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley reports.
Undoubtedly, just as Google has been in (many) discussions with the radio industry community, hoping to strike lucrative partnerships.
More than a year after Google’s acquisition of its touted radio advertising platform, dMarc Broadcasting, however, Google has not sufficiently “partnered” to support launch of a Google Audio Ads radio advertising product into the marketplace.
Nevertheless, is now in-game advertising competitor Microsoft Massive worried?
Just this week, Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, acknowledged the threats he worried about most were new business models, such as advertising-based media sites:
If somebody came to you and said you have a new competitor that has no price and has no cost structure, you might stay up a night or two on that one, he said while visiting his alma matter, Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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