Google I/O 2012, held last month in San Francisco, was a veritable smorgasbord of innovation – from Chrome’s iOS debut to the unveiling of the Nexus 7, from the launch of Google+ Events to our most ambitious product demo yet, our annual developers’ conference wowed its 5,500 attendees with over 130 technical sessions, 20 code labs, and 155 Sandbox partners. This year, we were also pleased to introduce I/O Live, which brought each day’s events and announcements directly to our agency partners via live streaming, along with exclusive online content such as backstage interviews, product demos, some easter egg surprises, and a live blog on +Creative Sandbox with Christian Haas, Executive Director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

AdWeek’s Tim Peterson recently sat down with Torrence Boone, Managing Director of Agency Business Development – Americas, to understand how a developers’ conference can hold as much significance for agencies as it does for tech enthusiasts. Long a passionate advocate of integrating digital platforms into the agency landscape, Torrence explains:

On agencies, digital, and Google platforms:
We believe that we’re creating this amazing toolkit, or palette, for agencies to do really fantastic things. And we have also seen agencies become a lot more technologically oriented, and they are investing in technology-driven approaches to the way that they’re developing campaigns.

On collaborating with agency partners:
We absolutely spend a lot of time with agencies in soliciting their input and perspective on existing products and on our product road map…They bring fantastic insights at scale because they’re working across various industries and they’re confronting different marketing problems on a day-to-day basis, so we actively solicit their perspective. Their feedback is a powerful source for us in driving the innovation engine that we have going at Google.

On the introduction of I/O Live:
The time felt ripe…to really elevate the new things that we’re introducing because, again, they enable this amazing opportunity to create new experiences and highlight for them that it’s not just about developers; that Google, even though fundamentally we’re a technology company, our desire is to allow agencies in partnership with their clients to create beautiful, seamless, immersive experiences that connect brands to consumers. Particularly given the nature of the announcements this year, it felt particularly important to amp up the visibility of the conference with our agency partners and get them in the mindset of thinking of Google I/O as a way for them to stay on the cutting edge and make sure they’re constantly pushing the envelope with what they’re doing for their clients.

Check out the full interview to learn more about how agencies are leveraging Google platforms, and what we’re doing to help take that innovation to the next level!

Posted by Kelly Duane, Americas Agency Team

There are a number of companies involved in developing ways to measure how people consume media—like TV and radio ratings, web traffic analysis and newspaper and magazine circulation figures. They all share the same goal: figuring out what content is popular (and what’s not). Many of these companies use panel-based research, enlisting a group of volunteers who report on their media consumption.

One of the current focuses of this type of research is to understand how people are consuming media across multiple screens, and how measurement can best reflect this new era, where a user watches her favorite TV show while surfing the web and watching a video on her cell phone. We think this is an important area of research and are currently partnering with industry players across a number of research projects around the world, all with the goal of helping content providers and advertisers deliver compelling experiences across these different screens.

In the U.S., these projects include the Screenwise Panels, as well as a partnership with NBC to look at how people interact with Olympics content across TV, the web and mobile devices. These panels are voluntary to join, participants can leave at any time and we are transparent in terms of what information is collected and how it’s used.

Once our research is complete, we plan to share both our methodology and our findings. We believe that an improved understanding of how media work together and better measurement that connects online, offline and mobile media will benefit the industry as a whole, and we look forward to working with our partners on these efforts.

Posted by Nick Arini, Product Manager

We use research, analysis and insights—from inside and outside Google—to inform our decision-making and our products. We've spoken to a lot of our partners about how to help them access the same insights and conversations that inform our strategies, and today we're announcing a thought experiment for our clients called Think Quarterly. It’s intended to be a snapshot of what Google and other industry leaders are thinking about and inspired by today.

The first edition focuses on the broad concept of “innovation” and provides some perspectives on how it's possible to simultaneously lead and change the direction of an industry. We’ve included content from Macy’s CMO Peter Sachse on the future of mobile retail marketing, Ogilvy & Mather’s Russell Davies on the “Internet of Things,” and our very own Amit Singhal on how science fiction is becoming a reality in search.

Our aim with Think Quarterly is to regularly tap our homegrown visionaries, as well as heads of industry, innovators and experts from around the world, to lend their insights and analyses to our partners who are seeking to navigate the ever-changing digital world. We hope you enjoy (and +1) it at ThinkWithGoogle.com/quarterly.

Cross-Posted from the Official Google Blog by Susan Wojcicki, Senior Vice President of Advertising

[Note: this has been cross-posted from the Google Mobile Ads Blog]

We’re always looking for new mobile insights to help advertisers better understand the mobile environment, build their brands and grow their businesses on this platform. Today, we’re announcing that we’re teaming up with Digitas, an integrated brand agency, to deliver original mobile marketing insights and usage research. The initiative will combine original Google and Digitas search and marketing data to forecast trends, inform investment strategies, and drive the creation of mobile optimized websites. Below is the the first of many outputs from this collaboration -- specific insights from Mother’s Day 2011.

Mother’s Day is the second largest U.S. consumer spending holiday¹. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the mobile device has become a trusted shopping companion for many users and this Mother’s Day consumers once again turned to mobile to help them find the perfect gift for mom. Google analyzed both mobile and desktop search behavior in the days leading up to Mother’s Day and here’s some initial findings:

• On Mother's Day 2011 (May 9th), 33% of Google search queries on the term “flowers” came from mobile devices.
• Mobile search queries for "flowers" both on Mother’s Day 2011 and in the week leading up to the holiday increased by over 100% compared with the same periods last year.
• In the week prior to Mother’s Day desktop searches for “flowers” increased from Monday to Friday, then declined on the weekend, while mobile queries steadily increased all week and maxed out on the weekend. While this is in line with general mobile/desktop usage trends, on the weekend of Mother’s Day, the increase in mobile searches on “flowers” was much higher that usual, as last minute shoppers scrambled to find a bouquet for mom.
• Google searches on “mother’s day gifts” were relatively consistent across mobile and desktop suggesting that perhaps flowers were the last minute purchase of choice for many Mother’s Day shoppers.

Relative to last year, Mother’s day shoppers looking for flowers relied more heavily on mobile.

Mobile technology is clearly changing the way businesses engage their consumers. In response to Mother’s Day activity, Rich Lesperance, Heads of Online Marketing at Walgreens, commented: “Mobile is critical to our long-term goals of reaching customers and building relationships. Our shoppers are busy and on-the-go, and mobile is the gateway to provide them information, access and service when they need it. This is especially true for last minute shopping around important holidays like Mother’s Day.”

Over the course of the year, our collaboration with Digitas will look at a range of mobile trends to better understand how the advancement of mobile technology and smartphone adoption impacts consumer behavior. We look forward to sharing them with you.

¹National Retail Federation survey, April 2010

Posted by: Torrence Boone, Managing Director, Google Agency Business Development

Last week, John Nicoletti, Head of Agency Development at Google, shared his thoughts on the emergence of digital marketing channels and the role SEMs can play in guiding marketers to success in developing and measuring multi-channel online campaigns. In particular, he honed in on how SEMs could be the next generation of Man Men:

• SEMs' mature knowledge of exploring, optimizing and integrating search ads position them as handy GPS devices for navigating the rapidly expanding digital superhighway
• The performance-based DNA of SEMs can help marketers truly capture the opportunity of mobile, understand display measurement strategies and technologies, and promote and measure the power of video and social advertising

Visit AdAge for the complete story.

Posted by Agency Blog Team

Remarketing on the Google Display Network: Optimizing & Maximizing your Current Strategies
Tuesday, February 15th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
The Google Remarketing Team invites you to our next optimization webinar: Optimizing & Maximizing your Current Strategies. Building on the strategies discussed during our Remarketing Optimization and Advanced Strategies webinar, this session will expand into 'maximization'--how to ensure you're reaching as many people as possible and taking full advantage of your web traffic.

Features of the webinar will include:

• Maximization: Ensure you're reaching all of the users on your lists.
• Optimization: Learn how to ensure you are getting the most effective ROI from your campaigns.
• Case Studies/List Strategies: Hear how others in your industry are achieving great results from remarketing.

Click here to register. As a refresher or if you missed the Advanced Strategies webinar, you can view it here.

Connecting with US Hispanics Online
Wednesday, February 16th at 10am PST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Google is pleased to present "Connecting with US Hispanics Online," which will explore how marketers can reach US Hispanics online in culturally relevant ways. You'll gain insights to help you plan search, social, video and mobile marketing programs to directly connect with this vibrant demographic. The webinar will include:

• Highlights from Google's new primary research report: The 4 Truths about US Hispanics & Digital
• Specific strategies you can implement immediate to target the US Hispanic audience online

Click here to register.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Our friends over at the Small Business Blog asked the AdWords Team Managers to provide tips and tricks for online advertising within particular industries. Over the next few weeks, they’ll feature these guest posts, beginning with advertising within the Financial Services industry. Payton Dobbs, the Financial Services Team Manager, shared his thoughts on the importance of industry expertise, brand management, online customer engagement and consumer-driven strategies for the Financial Services Industry.

Visit the Small Business Blog to read more.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

It’s no secret that today’s consumer is online more than ever before! In 2010, we conducted over 60 research studies with the help of partners such as Compete & OTX to better understand how consumers are utilizing the web--and to help you reach them! From all of this research, we learned some pretty cool facts. For example, did you know Google provides the most dating site search referrals1? Or that 25% of new vehicle buyers utilize the mobile web during their research process2? Neither did we. Watch this video to see some of the coolest (in our minds!) insights gleaned in 2010!



Sources: ¹Google & Compete Personals Study 2010. ²Google & Compete Automotive Buy Flow Study 2010.

Posted by Lauren Dale, Marketing Manager, Large Advertisers

Late last year we announced the launch of the Agency Help Center, a new section of the AdWords Help Center designed to provide you with easy access to answers for your most common questions, as well as useful resources to help you strategically manage your businesses.

We're pleased to share that the Agency Help Center is now available in 44 languages covering all major geographic regions, including Spanish (for Latin America and Spain), Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Turkish, Greek and Czech.

To see a complete list of languages, use the drop-down tab at the bottom of the page:


We hope this site continues to offer you the support you need for account management, product adoption, media planning, and identifying best-in-class examples.

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

[Cross-posted from the Google Retail Blog]

Do you know “The Smart Shopper"? The Smart Shopper is constantly connected and always mobile. The Smart Shopper values on-line information, researches on-line then shops in-store, and uses a smartphone while shopping.

You can see the smart shopper in action by watching the first two videos in our Smart Shopper series.

The Smart Shopper: Constantly Connected
An exclusive look into consumers’ research and purchase process.



The Smart Shopper: Always Mobile

A clear snapshot of how smartphones are changing the way consumers research and shop.



Use these Smart Shopper insights to help formulate your 2011 marketing plan. Engage the smart shopper by creating compelling video and display ads, developing a cohesive mobile strategy, and using an integrated multi-channel marketing campaign.

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team

Our friends on the German Agency Team just launched Google Business Map, a new resource on business opportunities in 21 emerging markets.

Google Business Map provides details on each country's advertising market, Google search data and useful info bites to help you understand the unique panorama of emerging markets around the globe, spanning from the Atlantic Coast through Central and Eastern Europe around the Mediterranean Sea down to South Africa and, naturally, to China as one of the fastest growing economies worldwide. In addition, it offers unique contacts with local people who are pleased to help you explore and encounter these new and exciting places.


All of these countries have in common fast growing markets, rising middle classes, an ambitious younger generation, a high level of literacy and technology penetration and, last but not least, a “can do spirit” that characterizes every striving business person all over the world.

For more information, see the complete announcement on the Google Barometer Blog, or download Google Business Map here.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

As agencies, you face the unique challenges of mastering the suite of Google media solutions and account management tasks across many accounts. Knowing that you often have questions specific to managing multiple client accounts at scale, we've created an Agency Help Center to provide you with easy access to answers for your most common questions, as well as useful resources to help you strategically manage your businesses.


We also know that many different sites exist that offer support to agencies for account management, product adoption, media planning, and identifying best-in-class examples. To make life a little easier, we've added links to the Agency Help Center for the most frequently used resources -- including Google AgencyLand, the Agency Toolkit and the Google AdWords Certification Program -- so that you only need to go one place to find everything you need.


To date, the Agency Help Center is available for the US and UK. Over the course of Q4'2010, we'll be localizing this resource across multiple languages, as well as continuing to incorporate new agency-centric resources into the site.

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

Close your eyes. Envision a US boomer. What comes to mind? How old is he/she? Are you having trouble envisioning what a boomer looks like? Now think about the last advertisement you may have seen targeted to a boomer. Having trouble thinking of one?

Boomers are defined as adults aged 46-64. 1 in 3 US adults is a boomer. When asked "how old do you feel?", at least 1 in 5 boomers responded that they feel at least 10 years younger than their age. 30% of them say they feel at least 5-9 years younger. More than 74% of boomers say that advertising these days are intended for someone younger than them.

Can advertisers really be missing the mark on hitting America's largest and most wealthy demographic?

Join Google and Nielsen on Tuesday, October 26th at 3pm EST for an eye opening webinar that will change the way marketers think about boomers forever.

Through clickstream, survey data and online testimonials, we will learn The Four Truths about Boomers and Media:

• Boomers are sponges for content and media. Even more so than the younger generations.
• Boomers sit on an aided adoption curve with technology. With the help of family and friends, they have the ability to ramp up on technology quickly and proficiently.
• Boomers are most comfortable straddling what's familiar and what's new. We'll see where they are traditional in their behaviors versus where they are open to new ways.
• Boomers are a curious and thoughtful group that value quality and family.

Date:
Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Time:
3pm EST/2pm CST/12pm PST

Register for this webinar today.

Posted by Jenny Liu, CPG Marketing

If you're like me, you hate the anticipation of waiting for the holidays to get presents. Well, today's your lucky day, as we have 2 gifts you can use this month -- Think with Google webinars from Consumer Packaged Goods and Consumer Electronics. Enjoy!

• ThinkCPG Webinar - Dig Into Data with Ali: Holiday Recipes
  Thursday, October 14th, 11amPST/ 1pmCST / 2pmEST
  During this webinar we dig deep into Google's search data and uncover the latest recipe search trends, the most searched for recipes during the holidays, how much of this search is coming from meal planners, researchers, and last minute shoppers, examples of brands doing it right, and the huge opportunity to help America dig in this holiday season.
  Register here

• Think Holiday 2010 Webinar: Consumer Shopping Intentions
  Wednesday, October 20th, 11amPST/ 1pmCST / 2pmEST
  During this webinar we will discuss consumers' holiday shopping plans (what, where and when will they purchase?), key shopping dates you don't want to miss, and new strategies for holiday 2010. This webinar is most appropriate for Tech / Consumer Electronic Retail clients, but is open to attendees from all industries.
  Register here
  

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Cristina is a person who interacts with media all day long. In the morning, she browses beauty sites before biking to work. Over lunch, she reads a Colombian newspaper to check in on the results of the presidential elections, and then texts her friend about dinner plans from her iPhone. She searches for restaurant recommendations, meets her friends at the restaurant, and finally goes home to watch her favorite telenovelas. Connected with technology and her culture, Cristina is a modern Latina, proud of being Hispanic and American at the same time.

Why should marketers care about Cristina, and others like her? Hispanics are the fastest growing US population, and their buying power is projected to reach $1.4T by 2013¹. Hispanics are also coming online extremely quickly: the total time Hispanics spent online grew by 6.9% in 2009², 3.9 times faster than the general market rate.

To connect with Hispanics like Cristina online, it’s important to understand a few key myths about the market.

Myth #1: I need to have a Spanish-language website in order to market to Hispanics.
While 22% of Hispanics speak only Spanish and another third prefer it, most US Hispanics are comfortable with English³ and feel that English sites are more comprehensive⁴. While a Spanish-language website can be an asset, it won’t make or break the success of your campaign so long as you think carefully about your message and present a compelling value proposition on your site.

Myth #2: The return on investment from Hispanic marketing isn’t big enough.
Hispanic advertising campaigns are often more cost-effective than main-market campaigns. Online CPCs and CPMs tend to be much cheaper due to low competition, and Hispanics are actually more likely than their general market counterparts to take action based on search and banner ads⁵. Moreover, over half of online Hispanics complete a purchase at least once a month⁶, so direct response marketers can engage as deeply as brand builders can.

Myth #3: My general market campaign covers the Hispanic market.
Hispanics may be comfortable with English content, but marketers are missing the opportunity to win Hispanics’ loyalty if they use their general market campaign as a catch-all. Hispanics value their identity, and 66% of US Hispanics appreciate being marketed to in a culturally relevant way⁷. A recent campaign by Ford demonstrated how bilingual marketing can improve sales: Ford’s marketing team doubled the incremental lift of their English creative when they rolled out dual-language, culturally relevant creative⁸ in a recent direct mail campaign.

Interested in learning more about Hispanics in the US? Email multicultural@google.com to stay in touch, and keep an eye out for fresh primary research in Q4 and Q1.

Posted by Meghan Sherlock, US Hispanic Specialist

[1] Selig Center for Economic Growth, Terry College of Business, The University of Georgia. "The Multicultural Economy 2008." January 2009.
[2] Comscore, April 2009. “U.S. Hispanic Internet Audience Growth Outpaces Total U.S. Online Population by 50 Percent.”
[3] Juan Tornoe. “Hispanic Marketing Is Not Spanish Marketing.” http://nglc.biz/2010/07/22/hispanic-marketing-is-not-spanish-marketing/. July 2010. http://advertising.aol.com/sites/default/files/webfm/research/HispanicCyberStudy-2010.pdf.
[4] AOL Hispanic Cyberstudy. 2010.
[5] “Search ads”: ARAnet Adfusion survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, provided by eMarketer, March 16 2009. “Banner ads”: eMarketer. “US Internet Users Likely to Read And Take Action After Viewing Banner Ads, by Race/Ethnicity.” June 2009.
[6] RTO Online, Hispanic Internet Usage Report, February 2009.
[7] Alvaro Cabrera, Executive Director of Integration at Diest, Inc. June 25, 2009. “10 Things You Should Know About US Hispanics.” http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2009/06/10-things-you-should-know-about-us-hispanics.html.
[8] Deliver Magazine. August 2010. “Talk, Don’t Translate.”

Did you know that a user spends an average of just eight seconds on a website before deciding whether to stick around (Marketing Sherpa)? If you’re an e-commerce site, this means you have to be faster than Usain Bolt - the world record-holder for the 100m dash.

Next week, find out how Google can help you capitalize on those eight seconds and improve your online shopping experience. Visit the Google Commerce Search team at Shop.org’s Annual Summit, held in Dallas, Texas from September 27 - 29.

If your organization plans to attend the show, be sure to visit Google in Booth #120 and attend the Big Ideas session Wednesday at 12:45 PM featuring Nitin Mangtani of Google Enterprise, who will be speaking about search insights for today’s e-commerce technology.

The Google Commerce Search team will be joined by Product Search, AdWords, and the Google Affiliate Network. We can’t wait to show you the many different ways we can help your business.

Posted by Guillaume De Zwirek, Google Commerce Search team

While "top" lists are usually reserved for the end of the year, we've already reached two significant milestones in 2010, and wanted to share them with you at this "midway" point (or 2/3 point to be precise):

1. Happy 2nd Anniversary - back in March, the blog reached its second anniversary. We celebrated in style by giving it a makeover - sprucing up the right navigation bar with a shorter list of labels, links to content by job roles, a Twitter feed, and links to other useful Google blogs for the agency community. Have ideas on how to further improve the blog? Be sure to share them with us.
2. The blog hits 300...posts! - on August 6th, our post on SES San Francisco brought us to another milestone. 300 posts! That means we've been bringing you about 10.3 posts a month on topics ranging from product launches, upcoming events and trainings, best-in-class case studies and research, and quick tactics to improve account performance. Anything you'd like to see in the next 300 posts? Let us know!
   

And while we're on the topic of milestones, our friends over at the Fast.Forward. channel now have over a quarter million channel views (not to mention 1700+ videos from more than 185 companies). If you haven't visited the channel in a while, be sure to browse the newest videos, check out the latest consumer trends, access free tools to improve marketing performance, and through a short survey, share your perspectives on marketing spend.

Thank you for being loyal readers over the past 29 months. We look forward to continuing to share tips, tactics and stories with you to help you grow clients' accounts.

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

Since the launch of AdWords in 2000, Google has worked with advertisers and their agencies to increase brand and product awareness -- and to drive sales -- by helping advertisers reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time, through the effective use of search advertising. The success of this tactic has generally been measured by connecting search advertising campaigns to revenue within the e-commerce domain.

As consumers have become accustomed to a multi-channel world, however, it has become important to look outside the "e-commerce box" to measure search campaign success. The goal in doing so is to find the correlation between search advertising and overall company sales, both online and offline, as customers are present in both places.

In recent times, a growing number of our customers have asked us and their agencies how they should approach the concept of quantifying online's impact on in-store sales. We recently thought through the concept with Razorfish and came up with a joint POV; you can find that on the Razorfish site, here.

Originally posted to the Google Retail Advertising Blog.

Posted by Brett Goffin, Google Retail Team