Updated: Google And Publicis Groupe Reveal Their Year-Long Relationship

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Publicis Groupe have unveiled a year-long partnership that involves the internet search giant trading its technology expertise for the French ad holding company’s analytics and media planning abilities, Reuters reports.

No specifics on what exactly the two expect to produce from their pact. Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and CEO, and Maurice Levy, Publicis’ chairman, did tell Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY) that the two companies’ formal relationship began about a year ago. That would place the deal around the time Publicis kicked off the ad agency digital M&A frenzy when it bought interactive shop Digitas for $1.3 billion in Dec. 2006.

Whatever it is, it sounds like Levy shares none of the angst that other traditional ad agency execs feel about Google: “Google is not a short-term friend and a long-term enemy. It’s a real partner.”

Update: I spoke with three executives at three Publicis Groupe media agencies this afternoon. They all said that Starcom has been the point agency on the Google partnership. “We’ve heard about over the past few months, and we’ve been told that Google might be brought in to work with us here and there. But mainly it’s a Starcom thing,” said one exec at ZenithOptimedia.

As for general agency reaction, when asked if this belies Google’s insistence that it’s not a threat to agencies or is it a potential partner – it’s unclear if its relationship with Publicis is exclusive – one media buyer said: “Of course, it belies what Google’s been saying. As for working with them, obviously, you can’t be reflexive about this. But rather than wait around, agencies need to develop some sort of alternative to blunt Google’s incursions into the industry.”

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