The emissary from Google came bearing a PowerPoint presentation.
As the Ocean Spray team at ad agency Arnold Worldwide squeezed into a small conference room in its Boston headquarters, Jim Norton, Google’s Boston agency team manager, plugged in his laptop. “We want to help you any way we can,” he said.
That’s a surprising pitch from Google, which fueled its spectacular growth with small ads placed by users, not professionals. But now the Internet search giant is wooing the agencies that direct the advertising budgets of the world’s largest companies.
In recent months, representatives like Norton, who works in Google’s Cambridge office, have been calling on agencies in Boston and around the world, trying to gain ground in major ad campaigns. They’re telling advertising professionals that Google is an ally, not a rival, in the fast-evolving world of online marketing.
The agencies are approaching their new suitor with caution, for the most part. The relationship with Google hasn’t always been smooth. A few years ago, Martin Sorrell, chief of WPP Group, one of the largest advertising holding companies, described Google as a frenemy, both friend and enemy.
Troy Kelley, chief digital officer at Arnold, freely admitted he used to consider Google a threat. “Google was Skynet,” he told Norton, referring to the evil artificial intelligence system in the apocalyptic “Terminator” movies. “Google was scary; now we’re looking to see what we can get out of a relationship.”
Google is powering its charm offensive with what it believes the agencies need: online tools and instruction in the ways of Internet advertising. The company offers 19 free programs to advertisers, including Google Analytics, which measures and analyzes Internet traffic, and Ad Planner, a tool to help advertisers “identify Web sites that your target audience is likely to visit.” Last month, Google also rolled out a beta “online educational…