On his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt stopped by the Paris headquarters of the world’s fourth-largest advertising agency, Publicis Groupe, on Jan. 22 to exchange honeyed words with its chief executive, Maurice Levy.

The two disclosed a confidential partnership already underway for more than a year in which they have melded Google technology and Publicis creativity in an effort to boost digital advertising. But with few concrete details disclosed, such as a timeframe or financial data, the meeting seemed more like a bid to dispel rumors of animosity within Google and advertising agencies in general — particularly Publicis. Ad agencies are worried the online giant is poaching their fast-growing digital marketing business.

“There is no anticipation of Google being a short-term friend and a long-term enemy,” Levy said at an casual luncheon where he and Schmidt discussed their collaboration. The non-exclusive deal aims to draw more advertisers to

digital channels by creating product-specific advertisements aimed at very precise audiences. The outcome, Levy said, could offer clients “thousands of different ads tailored for each specific case.”

A Hundred Million Ads

For instance, whether a carmaker wants to publicize the auto parts it sells, instead of posting them all on a hard-to-find specialist Web site, Publicis could create ads for each part and load them into a Google system to display next to substance or search results appropriate to each product. “Publicis is suddenly responsible for all that new revenue,” Schmidt said. “The number of ads isn’t one or two, but a hundred million.”

The partnership will give advertisers more bang for their buck by boosting the efficiency and effectiveness in advertising, said David Kenny, CEO of Digitas, the Boston online marketing firm Publicis bought in January, 2007, for $1.3 billion. It plus could raise the standing of…

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