On the heels of sealing a deal with Publicis division MediaVest, Google has cemented the concept of a digital upfront and its ability to attract big brand dollars with a giant commitment from Publicis digital shops Razorfish and DigitasLBi. The deal is worth more than $100 million according to AdAge which first reported the story.
Like the MediaVest deal, Razorfish and DigitasLBi will have access to all of Google’s properties including display and mobile networks and YouTube, and Google will provide creative resources for crafting content and web videos. Brand pages on Google Plus and Hangouts are also included in this latest agreement. Google inventory will be available at discounted rates.
“In the past the legacy of the company has been in the performance space. We’ll continue to grow there,” Torrance Boone, Google managing director for America’s agency business development, tells AdAge, but Google’s focus is now moving to attracting brand budgets. “It’s about positioning Google as a partner of choice in the brand space,” said Boone.
Campaigns executed by digital shops Razorfish and DigitasLBi tend to be online-first focused instead of the traditional approach of starting with television and add digital as a complement. Boone said of the agencies, “They can be uniquely tapped to drive the brand agenda of very large clients who are increasingly focused on digital as the core of their brand marketing efforts.”
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