Google follows the money

Google learned where the money is in Advertising industry. So they are also getting into media planning, and are buying bulk offline advertisement. The test started with Sept. 6 issue of PC magazine.
There is a huge profit opportunity in this business for Google. They have the scale and the right connections for getting into this business. They also have half of the business know-how necessary for this business. The selling of offline advertisement is not an entirely new business for Google, but buying offline advertisement is going to be a new challenge and will require a different business line and mind.
When you focus on US the job might be easier, but when you look at the increasing international revenue, there are a lot of scale and culture issues involved in this.
So the big chunk of challenge will be on Nikesh Arora and his team of European Managers. Of course the Far East market, especially with stronger competitors like Baidu, will have its own challenges. Sheryl Sandberg, Sukhinder Cassidy and Norio Murakami have also challenges waiting for them.
My only concern is if Google can put the necessary focus and commitment to this test. With a lot of new services, and building a global organization on the agenda, it must be hard for Google to put quality manager’s time and focus on this issue.
I think this was a great idea and hope the test will be successful.
Good luck Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and the rest of the team. I am glad a company like Google is entering in such a margin rich sector. I believe it will be both good for quality content providers and also for offline advertisement buyers (not to mention the end users).