Digital Minimal Takeaways from Google Marketing Live - 2018

Just taking a minute to share my thoughts on the recent Google Marketing Live Conference which took place this week. 
The main big idea of the game is further integration between Google’s multitude of platforms & increased streamlining processes for operational tasks to help digital marketers scale their effort.
 
Google is regrouping offer under new and fewer brands leading to the sunset of the iconic DoubleClick brand. it was long overdue, but it’s now happening.
Brands are now self-explanatory.

• Doubleclick Bid manager is now renamed Display & Video 360. It is the platform from which marketers buy, you've guessed it, display and video ads through all exchanges!
• Doubleclick search is now Search Ads 360, where marketers consolidate all their search buying and reporting activities.
• Doubleclick Campaign Manager is now Campaign Manager, the tool marketer use to unify the tracking of all their media buys, including Facebook, LinkedIn, DV 360, Search Ads and Google Ads.
• Adwords is now Google Ads. The free platform where marketers buy their video, search and display ads on the Google network.

 
The distinction between DV360 & Campaign Manager features is being blurred more than ever. It is now possible to run most of your media buys only using DV360 and straightforward if you have GA360.
 
Secondly, there is an increased focus towards Google's cloud infrastructure who touts it's transparency capabilities it offers to the industry. 3rd party measurement firms will now have the ability to leverage Google’s cloud to operate their business and provide greater transparency and trust in their measurements. 
 
Google is making a significant effort to streamline execution flows by providing marketers the ability to create and distribute ads on multiple platforms within an easy to use campaign setup that leverages the same assets and possibility to create lighting fast landing pages.
 
Lastly, at the partner session, in the end, there was quite an interesting closing note that exhorted/challenged agency to show more transparency to their clients and see where this leads them. 
I had just started my consulting gig where I have made a mission for my first year as an entrepreneur to help brands bring their media buying activities in-house, rethink their processes to increase their go to market speed, improve cost efficiency and deliver better results for the same media investments.
 
Can't wait to see what 2019 will bring.
JB