Borrowing from the headline:
All Eyes on Google from the March 29 issue of Newsweek, it's fair to say that Google is the talk of the town these days. Search engine marketing and contextual ads served by Google and Yahoo/Overture are hogging the spotlight at the expense of other advancements in Web publishing and online monetization models. But there are other developments in online advertising that merit attention. One notable example is the news that
Procter & Gamble (P&G) is expanding its custom Web publishing initiatives with a new health-care related Web magazine called
HealthExpressions.com.. This Web site follows P&G's earlier site, HomeMadeSimple.com. While these early publications are chock-a-block with advertisements for P&G products (which makes it very clear who is sponsoring the site), the content-centered advertising vehicles illustrate a trend in advertising--a trend toward advertisers
creating their own context in which to place their ads. Offline (i.e., print) examples are appearing on the scene, too, such as
a Wal-Mart magazine planned with Time, Inc, which will be targeted for the Wal-Mart shopper demographic. So, while Google, Overture, Kanoodle, and others are busy improving their technology and bid-rate models for placing ads on contextually-relevant Web sites, some top advertisers are taking matters into their own hands and creating the content that is contextually relevant to the demographic they seek. Through this Web-centric publishing and marketing strategy, consumer product companies like P&G can create direct relationships with their customers and learn what products and promotions click with various consumer segments [pun intended]. What can B2B publishers learn from these developments? Perhaps most important, P&G's content-heavy Web sites demonstrate how advancements in institutional publishing technology, along with general acceptance of the Web as an information, news, and entertainment medium, are fundamentally changing the models for distributing content and associated advertisements. Trade publishers beware!