Madison Avenue bought in to search marketing this month. Late Friday afternoon Neo@Ogilvy, a division of the legendary Ogilvy and Mather Ad Agency, announced the acquisition of search marketing firm Global Strategies International (GSI).

GSI co-founder Bill Hunt is well known in the search marketing community for his writing and as a speaker at conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and AdTech.

While the vast majority of businesses online are no where near needing the services of a company as large and multi-faceted as Neo@Ogilvy, the acquisition is an example of the how search marketing is being integrated as a mainstream marketing channel.

Earlier today I was able to speak with Bill Hunt for about twenty minutes. The conversation/interview ranged across several topics relating to the acquisition, how it would affect GSI, and how it might affect the greater search marketing industry. I then placed a call to Toni Lee, a media rep for Ogilvy. She and I agreed to do an email interview and I am still waiting for her response.

Ultimately, I think the purchase of a major SEM shop by a super-major Madison Ave advertising firm is excellent for the search marketing industry, though the gains will come at the cost of a bit of pain.

First of all, having a firm with the size and reputation of Ogilvy apply search marketing principles to content their clients put on the Internet will lead to a better understanding of the role of search marketing in the overall advertising industry.

Secondly, Ogilvy opens the door for further acquisitions by other large advertising firms. The participation of these firms in an industry with traditionally low entrance thresholds should serve to raise the bar for new companies entering the field. In other words, it will help set standards that eventually serve to weed out burn&churn practitioners.

Lastly, though I highly value the independence we have enjoyed over the past decade, I often feel the scope and power of the search engine and search engine marketing industries are not matched by third-party or inner-industry watchdogs. I shudder to say it but we (and the search engines we work with) have far too much power at our fingertips. From time to time, that power is abused by less than scrupulous practitioners. From time to time, that power is abused by our colleagues working at the search engines. Almost all the time, the general consumer has absolutely ZERO protection and only slightly more technical knowledge. In other words, we are all too independent and often too polite to hold ourselves or each other accountable.

There are a few outstanding voices of accountability in the search media today but by in large, those voices are too small to effect long-term change. The presence of much larger players (who play with much larger figures) is expected to help bridge the accountability gap.

Congratulations GSI and, at the same time, congratulations Ogilvy. The evolution is going to be interesting to watch. As for the rest of us, the bar on holistic online marketing services just got a whole lot higher.

– Story Correction – Ogilvy has been involved in SEM for almost 18-months.