Search News: SMX East – Search Marketing Happiness is a Warm Churro
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 6, 2008 | Share This
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The Javits Center is a cruel place at 8:30 AM – especially when Search Marketing Expo East is sharing the cavernous steel and glass girdered barn on the far, far west side of Manhattan with a few other shows. I’m not sure that I had enough coffee in me yet to properly express my horror at being asked “Are you here for the kid expo?” “Christ, no!” is apparently not the standard response.
Happily I did find my way into the SMX side of the hall after picking up the requisite backpack full of swag to slip into a comfy chair for the opening panel: “Search Integration: Are We There Yet?” James Lamberti of ComScore quipped that he wanted to prep a powerpoint slide with a giant “No” on it.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Conferences & Events, Media Convergence, Microsoft, Reprise Media, SEM: Ad Creative, SEM: Keyword Generation, SEM: Paid Search, SEO, Search: How-To, Search: News | No Comments »
SEM: Wachovia and Wells Fargo Miss Out on Windfall from Search Engine Interest
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 3, 2008 | Share This
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Millions of consumers and business who have accounts and dealings with Wachovia and (last week with Washington Mutual) found themselves wondering some pretty basic questions: Is my money safe? Do I have to switch banks? Is the other shoe going to drop?
Increasingly the first place Americans go to when that want answers fast is a search engine. It makes sense – this is when the ability to deliver a relevant result out of the vast sea of information available online truly shines. So why does corporate America still not get it?
Wachovia just announced their purchase by Wells Fargo in the latest in a series of dizzying financial defensive moves by debt saddled institutions. Even more confusing, this comes barely a week after a government arranged shotgun wedding between Wachivia and Citigroup. So what happens when consumers did a search for “wachovia” or “wachovia” and “financial crisis” or “wachovia” and “wells fargo”?
Topics: Advertising: Online, Google, SEM: Ad Creative, SEM: Keyword Generation, SEM: Paid Search, Search: How-To | 1 Comment »
SEM: Election ‘08 - There’s No Debate When it Comes to Optimized Landing Pages for Search Engine Ads
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Written By Andaiye Taylor | October 2, 2008 | Share This
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Successful search marketing campaigns require marketers to execute a multi-pronged strategy the right way. For a political campaign (and any campaign that is impacted by rapidly shifting events) search campaigns must be 24-hour-news-cycle-ready, and if the landing page isn’t spot on it may as well not be run at all.
As we noted earlier this week, the Obama campaign appears to have become a lot more aggressive and quick on the draw with their search marketing strategy. Yet there are two areas where the campaign can build on their improved search presence. First, the Obama campaign could employ a much more tactical landing page strategy. Secondly, and particularly because this is a political campaign, both campaigns could do a better job of pivoting between evergreen issues, those that will always be of interest, and flare-ups, those all-consuming – if sometimes temporary – issues that rule news cycles until another flare-up overtakes them. (Sometimes the two merge as with the always important but, of late, direly important economy in recent weeks.)
Topics: Advertising: Online, SEM: Ad Creative, SEM: Keyword Generation, SEM: Paid Search, Search: How-To, Search: News | 1 Comment »
Search News: SERP-prise! Google Experiments with Banner Ads on Results Pages
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Written By Noah Mallin | October 1, 2008 | Share This
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Back in college I used to experiment some. Google never grew out of this and does it every day. Just as in college, these experiments sometimes entail stepping out of your comfort zone and trying things that initially might seem contrary to your core beliefs – like snorting ricotta cheese or joining an a capella group. In Google’s case this means cluttering up their relatively clean search results pages (SERPs) with banner ads – in particular their Google Images results.
Topics: Advertising: Contextual, Advertising: Online, Google, Search: News | No Comments »
AdWeek ‘08 Recap: Managing Enterprise Search Is Like Being a Mosquito At A Nudist Colony
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Written By Anthony Iaffaldano | September 30, 2008 | Share This
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Last Wednesday, Reprise Media’s Managing Partner Peter Hershberg participated in Media Bites – a breakfast seminar hosted by Advertising Age at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan (nee the museum of Television and Radio).
The event (additional coverage here courtesy of Ad Age), which was part of last week’s Advertising Week festivities, focused on search marketing for large corporations, sort of a 200-level SEM course that assumed that the crowd of roughly 100 marketers were coming to the table with some level of beginner’s knowledge.
First up in the morning was a joint case study from Reprise Media and Microsoft on the challenges of managing search for an enterprise brand. Mark Grote, Senior Search Advertising Manager for Microsoft started off, by framing up the challenge of running the company’s search efforts in fairly colorful terms:
“Doing search for an enterprise brand is like being a mosquito at a nudist colony – I know what I need to do, I just have no idea where to start.”
To illustrate the challenge, Grote walked the crowd through the structure of Microsoft’s Windows division – 15 versions of Vista, promoted by 23 different stakeholders using a wide range competing business goals (downloads vs. sales vs. etc.) With all these different variables, it’s tough to know how exactly to most effectively manage a campaign.
Peter followed this up by highlighting the major elements of our relationship with Microsoft (and, for that matter, the essential parts of any enterprise campaign):
Topics: Conferences & Events, SEM: Paid Search, SEO | No Comments »
Search News: Obama Finally Does Search Engine Marketing Right
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 29, 2008 | Share This
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When last we reported, John McCain had pretty much ceded social media to the already brilliant Obama strategy but instead had set up his own, quite effective search engine strategy to get to the undecided and independents – those most likely to use search to find out where the candidates stand. Many observers including this blog and Reprise Media Managing Partner Joshua Stylman publicly drew attention to this disparity in resource allocation.
It looks like the Obama campaign heard us.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Reprise Media, SEM: Keyword Generation, SEM: Paid Search, Search: How-To, Search: News | 2 Comments »
Social Media: Friday Thoughts – YouTube Shakes Up the Monetization Tree
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 26, 2008 | Share This
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I decided this week to NOT do the weekly round-up, suspending it for the sake of the economy. Hah, for real though, Ad Week gave us all enough to chew on that there wasn’t time to look at some of the tidbits and trifles that normally stud my weekly round-ups like so many raisins in an oatmeal cookie.
I do want to draw your attention to a little something TechCrunch posted today (and which has been making the rounds for about a week) — one answer to a question that’s been asked for a while now: Will YouTube figure out how to rake in the dough?
Topics: Advertising: Online, Google, Social Media, YouTube | 2 Comments »
Search News: McCain Suspends the Campaign Suspension When it Comes to Search Ads
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 25, 2008 | Share This
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John McCain announced on Wednesday that he would be pulling all advertising and suspending his campaign while he hurries back to Washington to help “fix” the nation’s ailing economy. A number of observers have wondered why the campaign would have to be suspended and from the looks of McCain’s search advertising the candidate is wondering the same thing.
A quick glance at Google confirms that search ads are still running for terms surrounding both McCain’s and Palin’s names, placed by the McCain/Palin campaign. This jibes with other offline evidence that the campaign continues such as an appearance by McCain with Katie Couric last night (after apparently lying to David Letterman about “flying back to Washington” and not being able to make his scheduled Late Show appearance) and an airport rally for Sarah Palin today.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Google, SEM: Ad Creative, SEM: Keyword Generation, SEM: Paid Search, Search: News | 1 Comment »
Search News: Google – Knol and Void?
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 24, 2008 | Share This
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It seems like every few weeks Google launches a product – a knowledge resource (Knol), a browser (Chrome), a phone (the G1), a personal deodorant (QScore – the Smell of First Page Ranking) …OK I was joking about the deodorant but still…
When your share price is still north of $400 and you are insanely profitable I suppose it’s your corporate right to launch whatever darn products you want. It ain’t no thang but a chicken wing and all that. The question I have is, once you launch a product are you obligated to, you know, actually continue to develop it?
Topics: Google, Mobile, Search: News, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Analytics | No Comments »
Ad Week ‘08: Digital Bites Breakfast Features Rare Look at Microsoft Search Engine Marketing
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Written By Noah Mallin | September 23, 2008 | Share This
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It’s Ad Week here in New York which means a big tent in Bryant Park, leggy models pushing away their tuna nicoise at fancy outdoor cafes and Tim Gunn running around in a tizzy. OK, wait, that’s Fashion Week — my bad. Ad Week is totally different.
One way you can tell it’s indeed Ad Week is that Advertising Age’s Digital Bites Series has a killer official event. This year’s - “Digital Bites Breakfast - Search Marketing + Optimization” - looks to be a particularly hot ticket.
Reprise Media Managing Partner Peter Hershberg will be joined by Senior Search Advertising Manager, Corporate Marketing at Microsoft Mark Grote to kick off the event with a case study: Microsoft: Building Brand Equity Through Search Engine Marketing. Online registration is now over but it is possible to get tickets tomorrow at the Paley Center for Media where the event is taking place. Registration starts at 8:30AM and the event starts at 9:15AM.
This will be followed by a panel on Key Challenges and Opportunities in the Search Space moderated by ComScore’s James Lamberti.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Conferences & Events, Microsoft, Reprise Media, Search: News | No Comments »