The Compound and Friends - Will Amazon Dethrone Google's Ad Business (with Josh and Greg March)

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

Josh Brown talks with Greg March, founder of Noble People, a media agency based in New York City, about whether or not Amazon's advertising business can supplant Google's search hegemony any time soon. Enable our Alexa skill here - "Alexa, play the Compound show!" https://www.amazon.com/Ritholtz-Wealth-Management-LLC-Compound/dp/B07P777QBZ Talk to us about your portfolio or financial plan here: http://ritholtzwealth.com/ Obviously nothing on this channel should be considered as personalized financial advice just for you or a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Please see this 3,000 word terms & conditions disclaimer: https://thereformedbroker.com/terms-and-conditions/   Subscribe to the mini podcast on iTunes or Spotify Enable our Alexa skill here - "Alexa, play the Compound show!" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? It's your boy, downtown Josh Brown. It's time for another episode of Talk Your Book. I'm here with my friend, Greg March. How about that intro? So much pep, right? Yeah, no. You were coming out hot and I'm like, I'm not going to meet this. No, you don't have to. I'm not going to meet this. Some of that is shtick. Greg is an old friend of mine. He is also the founder of Noble People. Noble People is a media agency and we're going to talk about what's going on in advertising, marketing, et cetera, all of the trends you need to know about. But you mentioned Amazon as the nascent, not really nascent anymore, the third platform that quickly could become

the second platform. So my understanding of the Amazon third party sales and advertising platform is that you can only be so successful before Amazon looks at what you're selling and says, we can do a cheaper version of that. So does that stop third parties from advertising? Yeah, what did Warren Buffett say? Your profit is my opportunity? Or that's what Bezos said. Your profit is my opportunity.

Your margin is my opportunity. No, but it's not like you're going to launch all this advertising on Amazon for a product that they could make themselves, and they're just going to let you keep going. But do advertisers look at that and say, let's be cautious on Amazon? Advertisers have been knocking on Amazon's door for as long as I can remember. Okay. And Amazon has always kind of been like,

yeah, we'll take your money if you throw it at us. But you're used to coming as a buyer and going, I have millions of dollars. You listen to what I say. You care about this millions of dollars. And Amazon was just like, yeah, or maybe we just won't take it. So their posture to the market has softened in a big way. They are looking at this

in their march towards services revenue. I don't know how this counts. The growth of advertising in Amazon every quarter shocks the street by how big it is. It shouldn't. If they chose to triple it, they'd triple it.

Right. It's unbelievable. Yes. They are sitting on pent-up demand that they can make that way, but in the net, in like the holistic view of that company, my guess is it's wise. He's not a dumb guy. Well, people used to start a search on Google, and now if they want a product, they'll just start it on Amazon, and Prime is a big factor in that.

If you're already a Prime member, why would you be looking for another e-commerce site? If you already know what you're looking for, like my kid's basketball just got lost. I'm going to buy another one. Why would you start that search on Google if you're a Prime member? You wouldn't. So now if you're a sporting goods company selling basketballs, why would your ad budget only be on Google? Why wouldn't it also be on Amazon?

And also, if Google's doing their job right and you wrote new basketball into Google, Amazon is either going to come up by either paying an ad, but the first natural... Because Google's supposed to be navigating you to the best place possible. If Google stops navigating you

to the best place possible, Google opens up itself... And you'll stop using Google....towards disruption. So they almost have to navigating you to the best place possible, Google opens up itself towards disruption. Mad Fientist So they almost have to push you to the best place. Marc Savard If there comes a habit of like they're navigating you towards this shitty shopping experience at some other company, then people will go… If Google's just kind of like playing that, at some point the market reacts to that. Now,

it could be way the hell far away and Google's dominance in the world of search is, you know, there's a bunch of logos that are dead, but you can't do that in a meaningful way for a really long time without somebody... Oh, let me ask you this other question about Google, because there's concern that Google's speaker is far behind the adoption of Alexa and the Echo. And if we're going to do less on the internet by staring at our screen, and we're going to spend more time talking to the internet, ubiquitous internet, isn't that a threat to Google's search ad business?

If there are less eyeballs... Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I guess I... I know the voice is so nice. bad business. Like if there were less eyeballs. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. No, I mean I guess I know the voice is so early. So like if I'm at a point where I'm spending real dollars, like at some point it's like you don't have to be a rocket scientist, you count. And like that voice thing is only worth X amount of dollars of interruption media, creation

media differently. I guess my attitude of whether it's the Google thing or the Alexa thing, whatever, I'm unaware of, and there are people who look at this way closer than I am. It's the killer app that builds the thing, and I'm yet to experience the killer app. Do you have AirPods? I do. Okay. Do you have the version 2?

Do you talk to Siri on them? No. So imagine just walking down the street and realizing, oh, I want to see a movie tonight. And just, hey Siri, what time is Avengers playing? Right. And no interface with the phone at all. Yep. And Siri says, Avengers is playing at your local theater at 8pm, would you like me to buy tickets?

Right. To me, that's a threat to Google. I mean, I could be wrong, but I guess doing that with Alexa in your house I guess I'm who's who's doing that as as easy as that is to do conceptually and as you go I like that when you walk around in the world and you tap a handful of people on the shoulder not a lot of people yet right there was an ipod moment yes where someone walked into your apartment on the upper east side and went 5 000 fucking songs right and you went i think bang so i'm my ipod into your it's possible but uh i guess i'm waiting for that moment where like

like an uber thing or a maps thing where like it becomes prevalent to some early adopted group of people is really the way to do it. Because frankly, I could have gone, hey, Siri, just as easily as I could talk it into my iPods. Like I don't know if that changes the game. But frankly, I just have more faith in flipping my thumbs around. That's not to say like I'm pigheaded about the nature of voice. All I use and I try and push it. and my thumbs around. That's not to say like I'm pig-headed about the nature of voice. No, there's no metal community first. And I try and push it. The value for me

is I'm half asleep in the morning and I'm getting dressed and I ask what the weather is. And like that isn't a killer rap. It's a, that has been the,

oh, oh, and I turn the lights on and off. When I'm in bed, I go, Alexa, turn off the bedroom lights and the lights come off

and that's where it ends for me. And I'm waiting for the killer, which I do think will be developed. I just think somebody's got to concept whatever that crazy thing is. And there's no award for being first. Be best. Like somebody else is going to be first. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's lots of people doing things. So in my industry, I think about people saying, hey, Alexa, how's my portfolio doing?

Yep. And then getting specific answers, not about how the market's doing, but literally how their own portfolio is doing. That's obviously a thing that will happen. Yep. Hey, Alexa, get my advisor on the phone. Yep. You know, like I know that that's coming. I don't know who's going to build it.

Right. We'll employ whatever gets built We're not gonna try to invent it right so How do you want how do you want people to follow you where could people? Hear more hear more your stuff, or I know you're not like a huge social media It's like it I get I get destroyed by the king of all social media that like you should like do stuff You do Why don't you do a podcast how hard is it to do a podcast?

I think I think if you had a podcast? How hard is it to do a podcast? I think if you had a podcast, people would love it. All right. My guest has been Greg March. Greg will have a podcast. Google Noble People or Greg March. My guess is I'm findable.

Google Noble People. If you spend advertising dollars and you don't spend them with Greg, I don't really know what your problem is or what you're trying to do. Greg is an expert. Definitely look him up. And thanks for joining us. Go ahead and smash that like button if you like what we had to say. Like is an expert. Definitely look him up. And thanks for joining us. Go ahead and smash that like button

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