P&G, Google team up to swap jobs, trade knowledge

The world's largest consumer products company and the online search leader are working together to learn more about each other and about targeting customers.

Procter & Gamble Co. said Wednesday it has done job swaps with Google Inc., and Google employees have been at P&G's Cincinnati headquarters helping with training.

P&G spokeswoman Allison Yang said the company wants to reach more consumers who are increasingly online.

"This is all about learning," she said. "It's about putting consumers in connection with our products in the right spots."

The Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday's editions that discussions on an employee swap began last year between P&G and Google executives.

The swaps began in January, with two Tide detergent brand managers visiting Google and a pair of Google officials coming to Cincinnati.

P&G, the nation's largest advertiser with a global advertising budget of nearly $9 billion, has been emphasizing value in marketing that says products such as Charmin toilet paper and Tide laundry detergent get more done with less than other brands.

The company also has been expanding its online reach, including offering digital coupons.

Yang said an early project with Google was drawing more attention to online video of Tide to Go's "Talking Stain" commercial, which made its television debut during the Super Bowl. Pampers diapers managers and a digital marketing manager were next to participate, and some 15 P&G employees from different areas spent time with Google last month.

She said P&G has shared information with Google visitors about its consumer research, planning and operations.

"The relationship will certainly continue, and we'll continue looking at what the opportunities are," Yang said.

Google officials said their employees learned a lot while "embedded" at P&G about the company's culture, lingo and the history of its brands and strategies. They said they expect to keep up a dialogue with P&G about innovative ways they can work together.

"We've always known that P&G was open to innovation. ... What we didn't know was the extent to which they were willing to push the online innovation envelope to reach consumers in new, user-driven ways," Kevin Kells, Google's consumer products goods director, said by e-mail.

Analysts have predicted slower revenue growth for Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., in the worsening economy, amid signs that Internet users are growing less likely to click on advertising links.

P&G, meanwhile, has been battling U.S. household belt-tightening, but the company last month reported sales grew 9 percent in its fiscal first quarter.