October 10, 2009 by James Oliver
Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, has spoken to reporters at a New York press conference about his belief that the advertising industry has ‘bottomed out’ and that there are signs of recovery in the US and European markets. Schmidt’s bullish mood reflects Google’s overall policy of ceaseless expansion which has continued with very little concession to the brutal recession that has hit companies, and in particular advertising companies, hard over the last few months.
In a way though, Google’s attitude is not surprising, search engine and online marketing has not been affected in quite the same way as other forms. In fact, some might claim that the industry has even benefitted from the downturn, as marketing budgets are tightened and companies look towards more cost effective ways of marketing, like PPC.
It’s a point that would seem to hold water given recent news items about the growth of online marketing. Last week it was revealed that UK spending on all forms of online advertising had overtaken the spend on TV advertising for the first time ever and, though it may not be exactly a fair comparison, the news seems to have marked a sea change in traditional marketing logic.
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