At home I have TV (a zillion channels of standard broadcast and cable), wireless Internet (websites, blogs, videos, email, instant messaging), audio (the radio, my stereo, my iPod and Podcasts), books, magazines and newspapers.

In my car I have only audio and – for visual advertising - outdoor (those pesky outdoor boards, street furniture and transit.)

No wonder outdoor is booming according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

“Outdoor advertising increased by 9.8 percent to $3.2 billion last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. And while TNS recently lowered its growth projections for the overall U.S. ad market for 2006, it increased its forecast for outdoor to 7.7 percent growth. A number of leading advertising seers, including WPP Group Chairman-CEO Martin Sorrell and Carat CEO David Verklin have predicted that out-of-home media would be among the most explosive growth media over the next several years, second only to online.”

If Google is about search then they are a winner. If they are about their other services then… no.

Take a look at the numbers in the chart from Hitwise. You’ll see that Google’s traffic is squarely centered on search and that Google’s new fangled puppies like Gmail, maps and toolbar, to name a few, are performing poorly.

Yes, Google is doing just fine. But they have cadres of engineers working on the new things. I think what they maybe missing at HQ are a couple of marketers and a bit of marketing. If I was a share holder, I would be starting to ask… wuz up?

In part two of my interview with Ian Beavis, Vice President of marketing of Kia Motors, we get his views on some of the current automobile industry marketing. Who is getting it right and who might not. Ian provides smart brief reviews of BMW, Lexus, Hummer, Volkswagen, Mini and the latest from Daimler-Chrysler – “Ask Dr. Z”.

In the second half we also discuss the Kia positioning of value and fun and how Kia strives to deliver surprise and delight to go well beyond brand perceptions. We’ll be looking forward to more of this with the marketing behind Kia’s soon to be launched Rondo mini-van.

Listen Now:

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Google Alerts are notifications that selected search terms  are appearing on websites. For example, I have Ralston360 and 360View as Google Alerts. I receive weekly notification (you can choose your own timing) that these terms are appearing on other websites. This notification helps me to see when someone is ‘talking’ about my company. Good stuff.

If I am unclear here, here is Google’s definition: “Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms.” You can learn more by going directly to Google Alerts.

I mentioned my new white paper on mobile marketing in Podcast #025. A couple of people have asked me where it is. So… here it is.