NBC’s Beth Comstock: Google Still Doesn’t Bring Marketers Into Conversation
Battelle at Searchblog reports on his Web 2.0 interview with NBC’s Beth Comstock. His paraphrase:
“Certainly all of *us* may want a clarifying metaphor that helps us grok Google’s relentless push into nearly every advertising market on earth, the real question is whether *advertisers* want it as well. And I think in the end, the answer to that question is most likely a qualified no (qualified because they’ll always be happy to push a portion of their budget through automated and efficient channels). But in the end advertisers are not computer programmers, they are marketers, and while it’s true that the approach of AdWords and AdSense pushes remarkable efficiencies and opportunities into the practice of marketing, I posit that the practice of marketing is about more than efficiency. It’s also about emotion, passion, and conversation. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t automate conversations. At least, not until Google (or someone else) pushes computing past the Turing test.”
Critical to successful marketing is an understanding of relevancy. And relevancy is not a static target. People change, interests come and go, needs arise and are filled and then arise again. To assume some automated technology can follow the ebb and flow of consumer interest, needs and ultimately relevancy is just silly. I have difficulty keeping up with what’s relevant to my wife.