(Image By: Ad Council)

03/07/08

In its quest to dominate the world of advertising as we know it, just what will Google do?  How about hire the longtime head of giant Interpublic Group to juice up its its ad dashboard strategy for buying media? And note that dashboard is not just for online media. A Google exec announced yesterday at the AAAA media conference what had been a top-secret strategy for the above, and also that he’d hired David Bell, 63, now chairman emeritus of Interpublic. According to this Mediapost story, Mr. Bell had “ripped” Google’s strategy at a recent meeting with Eric Schmidt—right in front of The Man Himself! So, a Google ad exec who reports to Schmidt hires him to straighten them out (perhaps at his boss’ suggestion?)

Bell is no rookie. Essentially retired, I think we can assume he didn’t need a job: his last reported total compensation (when he was chairman/CEO) was $$3,289,403. The man has lived and breathed advertising his entire career, rising up from the lowly rank of account executive at a small but influential agency in Minneapolis. (I know because I worked there, my first job out of college. I recall he managed the General Mills Wheaties account—and it appears he definitely learned how to eat his.) Here’s David Bell’s bio.

The other significant part of the story, which Mediapost’s editor Joe Mandese points out, is that several startups working on dashboard tools for buying ad media should now be very, very worried.

But back to David Bell. Think about this people. Google, a relative newcomer to the long-standing advertising industry, hires the head—and figurehead—of one of the top three ad holding companies?  Are you kidding me?!  This certainly marks a memorable turning point in the disruption of an industry.

If it doesn’t point out, again, the power of the Internet, I don’t know what does. So, uh, please—take this thing seriously… :-)

UPDATE 3/12/08: And for more on this topic, read Google’s Latest Olive Branch To Agencies.