This week, Google's share on the mobile ad sphere is set to expand, Burger King's president of global marketing strategy resigns, and Rupert Murdoch goes on the offensive against the freeloading online audience.

Google to acquire AdMob

Google's sizeable share on the online advertising space looks set to grow even further after an agreement was reached to buy mobile advertising network AdMob for $750 million (RM2.7 billion). AdMob is one of the world's leading advertising networks, with a clientele that includes Coca-Cola, Ford, and Proctor & Gamble. In September this year, according to BrandWeek, AdMob served about 10 billion mobile ads on such mobile platforms like the iPhone and Google's Android-powered phone. 

“The big purchase is a clear endorsement that Google sees enormous potential in a market that's still small,” wrote Brian Morrissey of BrandWeek. “Despite the never-ending prediction of 'the year of mobile,' the market has grown by fits and starts.”

 Morrissey added that figures from eMarketer show that advertisers haven't been all that enthusiastic in the mobile advertising space, having spent just $320 million on mobile ads last year. That figure, however, is set to increase to $416 million in 2009, and is projected to reach $1.6 billion in 2013.

"I think part of the challenge is perception, said Omar Hamoui, AdMob's founder and CEO. "People are used to online and this massive market and they want to see it as that massive market today. We're at the beginning, and it's frankly growing a lot faster than online did."

BK's Klein to resign

Burger King's (BK) president of global marketing strategy and innovation Russ Klein is set to leave the company on Dec 15, the company said, adding that he was leaving for “personal reasons”. Under Klein – who worked with BK's lead agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky – the fast-food chain has taken on some very daring, off-beat, and controversial ad campaigns that have left many envious competitors in its wake.

Among some of the eye-catching campaigns included the Whopper Freakout, an ad shot in hidden-camera style in which viewers see how people react when they are told the Whopper has been permanently discontinued. Another big viral hit was Whopper Virgins, in which the company travelled to Romania, Thailand and Greenland to conduct "Whopper-vs-Big Mac" taste tests among people who had never heard of a hamburger.

 View the Whopper Virgin ad below

On Facebook, Burger King drew a storm of criticism when it introduced Whopper Sacrifice, an application in which Facebook users would have to “un-friend” 10 people from their list of friends for a free Whopper. The controversial campaign was pulled out after furious complaints that it promoted an ill social practice – but not without having recorded 233,906 friendships dropped for a hamburger.

As an acknowledgement to BK's innovative ideas under Klein, Whopper Freakout won the Grand Effie for ad effectiveness, whereas Whopper Sacrifice grabbed a Grand CLIO prize in May this year.

"It's our job as marketers to position and juxtapose our brand with something that is inherent to us,” said Klein at the recent CLIO awards. “The challenger mentality is perhaps a little stormier brand position -- and a more adolescent tonality is a nice contrast."

According to Nielsen, BK spends about $275 million annually in major measured media, and in August 2009 the company has spent $175 million on ads.

Peter Robinson, BK's former president for operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will take over Klein's position on an interim basis while the company seeks a permanent replacement for Klein.

Murdoch threatens to pull out News Corp from Google and other search engines

The chairman of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, didn't endear himself to the online community after he threatened to block Google from searching any news content published by his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – once they had carried out plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.

In an interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch pulled no punches in naming search engines like Google for “stealing” content from News Corp-owned publications, adding that they had overstepped their boundaries.

"The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories - they just take them," he said. "That's Google, that's Microsoft, that's Ask.com, a whole lot of people ... they shouldn't have had it free all the time, and I think we've been asleep."

Those comments further escalates the war of words between Google and the 78-year-old mogul, with the latter having accused the search company of acting like a parasite through its Google News pages. Google, on the other hand, says that news organisations like News Corp should pay Google for directing millions of hits to their webpages.

In the interview, Murdoch also defended his position in charging for content, saying that he'd rather have smaller group of loyal and paying customers, as opposed to millions of readers who get the news for free.

“Everyone can afford a newspaper. They’re the cheapest things in the world and what you get out of it is fabulous. And it will be even cheaper when you get it electronically,” he said.

View the full Sky interview below: