Maurice Levy

CEOs Eric Schmidt and Maurice Levy met in January for informal discussions of a very vague nature.  One thing that came of their get-together was the unusual decision to embed executives in each other’s companies, though, and now it’s hard not to wonder if they didn’t talk about acquisitions, as well.

"Performics will . . . bring widely-recognized talent and capabilities that can be embedded into the client teams inside Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia," Levy acknowledged in a statement this afternoon.

Unfortunately, he failed get into the details of any preexisting relationships, and didn’t mention what sort of price tag was associated with Performics’s talent and capabilities, either.

Ah, well.  This development at least eliminates a conflict of interest within Google, and doesn’t seem to conclude the company’s dealings with Publicis.  Schmidt stated, "We look forward to working with Performics as a partner."

As noted previously, Publicis and Google put out the word that their top execs had met for a chat. Whatever the topic might have been did not receive a mention initially.

An AdAge report said the two men agreed to embed executives from each other’s companies in their respective businesses. The report cited Levy’s remark about the exchange: “For a few months or a year, people from Publicis Groupe [companies] will be working at Google, and people from Google will be working at some of our companies,” he said.

Other initiatives like new platforms and tools should emerge from the cross-collaborative effort. If it plays out as planned, the program would be a “triple win” for Google, Publicis, and their clients.

We admit to being intrigued by the cross-embedding concept. Imagine if they took it to extremes. Publicis creative types being grilled by Googlers on obscure programming challenges. Google engineers having to pitch some of Publicis’ more eccentric clients on ad campaigns.

The exchange isn’t going to be that extreme, or entertaining. Publicis does not appear concerned, at least publicly, that Google will destroy its business. WPP leader Martin Sorrell has been much more negative in voicing his opinions about Google, especially its proposed DoubleClick acquisition.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/google-publicis-swapping-executives-2008-01/feed 1 http://www.webpronews.com/google-publicis-announce-partnership-2008-01 http://www.webpronews.com/google-publicis-announce-partnership-2008-01#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:36:36 +0000 Doug Caverly http://www.webpronews.com/?p=43591 There are times when technology news can make you feel dumb; a sort of "slow down, I've never heard any of those terms before" feeling comes up.  But in this instance, we're placing the blame for any confusion on Google and Publicis; the two companies put out a short, vague press release, and seem to have scattered all relevant information to the winds.

There are times when technology news can make you feel dumb; a sort of "slow down, I’ve never heard any of those terms before" feeling comes up.  But in this instance, we’re placing the blame for any confusion on Google and Publicis; the two companies put out a short, vague press release, and seem to have scattered all relevant information to the winds.

First, the contents of that release: "Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, held informal meetings at Publicis Groupe’s Paris headquarters today.  Eric Schmidt and Maurice Lvy also used the occasion to talk with the press about ongoing collaboration between Google and Publicis Groupe.  This collaboration, underway for over one year, is based on a shared vision of how new technologies can be used to improve advertising."

There you go – three sentences, not counting the company info.  Brevity is important, but this may not be the best way to go about announcing longstanding corporate relationships.

Now, as for those scattered details . . . there are indeed bits from several corners of the world.  The International Herald Tribune is based in Paris, and for it, Victoria Shannon reports on Eric Schmidt’s apparent interest in "open source advertising."  Publicis and Google will, it seems, pursue related digital advertising goals.

They may even do so in close physical proximity to one another.  Amanda Andrews of the UK-based Times Online writes that Google might place hundreds of its employees in Publicis offices.

Finally, a report from New York’s own Dow Jones states that Google and Publicis will meet several more times over the next few weeks.  With any luck, they’ll feel like sharing a little information as those meetings take place.

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Publicis, an advertising corporation with 251 offices in 81 countries, is well-connected in this arena; its chairman and CEO, Maurice Lévy, is presumably well-informed.  So when he said, “Far too many people are building plans based on advertising, and they may well be disappointed because there is not enough money for everyone,” there’s reason to listen up.

According to Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Lévy continued, “It’s exactly the same situation as we saw at the end of the 1990s, when everyone thought that because he had a website he’d get the valuation.  Now everyone building a Web 2.0 operation believes he will receive the advertising.”

All of this isn’t to say that people who depend on Internet advertising is doomed – a number of companies did survive the bursting of the first bubble.  Still, from Lévy’s perspective, things don’t look very positive.

Meanwhile, Google’s stock is down about $80 from its opening price on Thursday.

That was very much the case yesterday when I presented on blogs (and RSS and podcasts) as communication tools at the 2nd Dutch Business Blog Meeting (“Tweede Nederlandse Businessblogmeeting” in Dutch) held at the offices of Publicis in Amstelveen, just south of Amsterdam.

Nearly 50 people were there to hear presentations by Stephan Fellinger on blogs and marketing; Ton Zijlstra on blogs and knowledge management; and me on the communication topic.

Organized by Marco Derksen, who runs MarketingFacts.nl – one of the most prominent business blogs in this country – I judge the event as a great success in addressing topical themes relating to new media and setting them in the context of what’s happening in The Netherlands.

And there is a great deal happening here. For instance, Stephan announced the public launch of Blogo.nl, a blog network with a range of niche blogs that address different consumer interests. A broadly similar concept to Weblogs Inc and Gawker Media in the US. Blogo launched with 10 blogs, with at least 5 more planned in the coming weeks.

By the way, don’t confuse Blogo.nl with Blogo.it, an Italian blog portal. No connection, Stephan says.

At yesterday’s event, it was great to see many of the other Dutch business bloggers I’ve got to know in recent months including Frank Meeuwsen, Elmine Wijnia, Hans Mestrum, Frank Janssen, Guido van Nispen (a great photographer!) and Krijn Schuurman.

Best quote in the meeting, from Ton (who, you’ll recall, presented on knowledge management): “There is no such thing as knowledge management.”

Anyway, thanks and much kudos to Marco for organizing such a terrific event. Lots of posts (mostly in Dutch) about the event via Technorati. And check out Frank’s videos.

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.