Today marks the tipping point for the marketing OS

News out today about Google's Adplanner. This news is bigger than just Google trying to displace Comscore and Nielsen. At this point it appears Google has built the all in one marketing solution - planning, execution, analytics and billing. With an installed base of at least 1 Million customers, this is a significant development that is likely to affect the fortunes of every company in marketing and advertising related industries.

An analogy might be Microsoft Windows right at the point it became the default OS for PCs. Microsofts other products were not necessairly better, but they were there and easy for users so they captured market share. At that point, the profit engine went crazy. Google's base is built upon Adwords Keywords. Now, they are adding in other media - Print, TV, Radio - and more tools - Analytics, Adserving, Adplanner, etc - to become the default system for marketers.

Now that Google has built sufficient scale with customers and is quickly integrating its products, they do not need to win with the best products anymore. Marketers are using the peripheral (non Adwords products) because they are automatically integrated. So long as Adwords works, the other products will capture significant market share by default. With Google expanding its footprint well outside Search and online media, the time is coming fast where Google is the defauly software solution for most marketers. What makes this so significant is the amount and breadth of companies in the past and currently who have tried to reach this point and have failed (or at least not succeeded yet) - Yahoo, Microsoft, Doubleclick, CBS, NBC/GE, Donovan, etc.

This does not leave out other possibilities. Just like Windows, there were/is always companies succeeding by working to compliment the ecosystem rather than tackling it head on. And Google has not necessarily provided Big Business solutions; so far they are mostly for small and mid-sized businesses.

Lastly, the products, besides the media, are all free and funded by the margin rich ad sales. If there is downward pressure on ad rates, which I expect there will be given Google's expansion in less measureable media, then there will be pressure on margin and added pressure on free products. The key will be if Google can make a compelling business case that the free tools actually increase revnue and profit. So far I think they definitely have, but as I spoke about at Thrivepoint regarding Google Analytics, Free is not always Free.

UPDATE: Today (6/26/08), Publicis announced that they have launched a new ad network and buying platform. The interesting line from the article is, "Publicis's new tool is powered by Google's ad-serving technology." In the past, a major conglomerate like Publicis would have attempted to build it themself but Publicis has always been friendly with Google perhaps with a vision toward this day when Google would be the software platform that Publicis' smart strategists use.