Google and P&G trade secrets

By Rosalie Marshall on Nov 20, 2008 3:15 PM
Filed under Strategy

Google and Procter and Gamble today announced they have been swapping staff to increase their competitive edge.

In what the firms have codenamed the “P&G Google Exchange”, three Google employees were temporarily sent to P&G and 20 P&G employees were sent in the opposite direction.

“All the staff were there to gain more understanding of advertising and insight into how other consumer companies work,” said a P&G spokeswoman.

Google employees hoped the advertising firm would give them more insight into the needs of advertisers, she explained. The programme comes at a time when Google profits are slowing. Advertising firms are of course Google's main source of revenue.

P&G employees went to Google to pick up tips on how their company can leverage online search and advertising, she added. P&G spends a relatively small amount of its ad budget online, according to media reports.

“We are very passionate about this programme,” she said.

But P&G said the exchange, which started in January, has now finished and there is no plan as yet for it to be continued.