72andSunny | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

See Winmo sales intelligence in action

B2B Digital Opps: Google acquires Pointy & Appsheet, increases YOY media spend (Score 40)

AppSheet this January, two start-ups that thankfully come with plenty of funding under their belts. Pointy last gained $12 million in Series B funding in July 2018, bringing its total funding amount to ~$19.2 million, per Crunchbase. AppSheet reportedly raised $15 million in Series A funding this past April. Google paid ~$163 million for Pointy and a reportedly undisclosed amount for AppSheet.

Pointy increases a store's online accessibility by making its clients easiest to find via web search; it allows small businesses to list in-store products online instantly, which increases a mom-and-pop-shop's chance of standing out in the online crowd. AppSheet simplifies business apps with its no-code platform; this makes the process of building an app more efficient. Since these acquisitions happened back-to-back, it seems Google intended to superpower its user small business empowerment strategy at the start of 2020. This should lead to increased spending dollars put toward B2B initiatives. Not to mention, this cause-based strategy of helping smaller companies should assist in the small business world's fight against the pandemic.

**Since Pointy is based in Ireland, we unfortunately cannot provide contact information for this new Google brand.**

View spending patterns and estimations for digital display (Adbeat) and national TV (iSpot) below. Grow.Google specifically assists business client growth, so I've included this brand. Google may spend less on the two new brands than Grow, but Grow should be associated with both Pointy and AppSheet. Pointy seems to have launched a TV brand push in May 2018, which accounts for much of its spend, whereas AppSheet increased spend in H2 2019, particularly in Q4. Google's overall TV spend increased in FY 2019 and continued into 2020.
 

Kantar suggests that Google increased digital search dollars in 2019 and traditionally allocates dollars toward broadcast, digital, OOH, print and radio. Google will likely focus on pushing Grow.Google as teachers and online workers remain indoors.

Sellers -- Get these new Google brands in front of struggling grass-roots stores near you. Let's bring the public's attention to the small businesses that need your help. Read more about Google's small business initiatives here.

Agency readers -- Google's list of agency relationships is being updated, but to the best of our knowledge, it holds the following AORs for various brands: Arts & Letters, creative AOR. Google could possibly use your help with digital initiatives on a project basis to help target small businesses in need of their help.