The New York Times is speculating [no longer speculation] that an announcement from Google at the Advertising Research Foundation meeting this week will unveil a new product called AdPlanner. Details are understandably sketchy, though the NYT quotes an anonymous source on the product as saying it will help Ad Agencies to find demographics that match an ads target audience.
Valleywag, though, makes the logical connection by envisioning a tool that could eliminate the need for Ad Agencies all together. If Google is successful and all the data that an Ad Agency needs is available through this tool, it could easily be rebranded for the direct market. This is certainly within SOA for Google; they use technology to eliminate redundancy and establish direct, dependent markets. Some of these efforts like AdSense, AdWords and GMail are clear winners. Others, like Google’s little know newspaper and radio ad placement drive, are mired in the mud.
My personal opinion is that Google will succeed in creating a very useful tool that will in no way replace the unique talents and skills of Ad Placement Agencies. This is going to raise the bar for Ad Agencies expectations on reporting and information within content networks which can only be a plus for the Ad Agency’s clients; business owners buying up online ad space.