Glueck doesn’t Love Google

The Chump’s not too surprised: It was only a matter of time before someone came out against keyword-based search advertising. That man is Travelocity chief marketing officer Jeff Glueck and his “mission” is covered on ZDNet.com.

Glueck took to the soapbox at the Shop.org Annual Summit, an event billed as “The Premiere Gathering of Internet and Multichannel Retailers.” Glueck enumerated three reasons why keyword-based search advertising doesn’t work: It embodies the law of diminishing returns; it is not self-funding; and it is not inherently “golden.” (Hey, that’s what it says here.)

ZDNet reports that Glueck is feeling bummed out at Google because Travelocity is a US $125 million Google advertiser and “is not provided the transparency and respect that common courtesy and standard business practices call for.”

“According to Glueck,” writes ZDNet, “Travelocity has long been a proponent of search but as of late has been one of a handful of major etailers to raise concerns publicly about falling ROI in search on generic terms and its margins. Gluieck says he has found success by shifting moneys back to traditional TV and print, branding and service differentiation investments as well as new channels like advergaming, online display ad targeting, instant messengers, RSS and more.”

The ZDNet piece ends a bit oddly, with “Glueck told his fellow advertisers that if they succumb to Google’s self-motivated sales pitches they may end up destroying shareholder value and end up risking their own year-end company bonuses!” Hmmm…colorful. Ah, perhaps covering journalist Donna Bogatin just wanted to go out into New York City, where Shop.org is being held.

You can read the full article at ZDNet.