Advertising Archive

I’m up at “O Crack Sparrow”  tomorrow to catch a flight to Tenerife.

Simon Ferguson and Kevin May from Travolution very kindly asked me if I’d do a double act during The Travel Convention with Kevin, and speak at a session called Riding The Wave.

I’ll deliver the “here and now” of Web 2.0 and how consumers are interacting with the web, what their expectations are, and I’ll tell a few stories about what the internet holds for big brands and one-man-bands alike.

Kevin will then leap in and narrow down the opportunities to the travel sector.

It should be good fun, and I must say the setting couldn’t be more perfect.

Not sure I’ll want to come back…..oh no…..hold on… I’ve got to be in Las Vegas next week for PubCon!!

Bummer!

If SMX London was a residential property, a British Estate Agent would have described it thus:

“SMX London is a bijoux, four-roomed apartment, laid out over 3 floors. Packed with all the mod-cons a professional would desire, the kitchen needs a special mention for its capacity to create fine cuisine, rarely seen in properties of this ilk. Close to all the local amenities, direct access is provided to handymen from all disciplines from whom advice flows like fine wine.

The rooms have been decorated in various themes to suit your mood and professional persuasion, and the clear access between them is punctuated only by its own elevator, built in the style of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

The dynamic designer duo responsible for bringing this property to market, have assured us it is the perfect place to entertain friends both old and new so early viewings are recommended! Price on application…”

Given the success of the inaugural SMX in London, I’m sure the next one will be even better attended. Although much of the coverage has been about SEO, there was a whole track on Paid Search.

I counted 30 delegates in the What’s New With Search Advertising session in which I was speaking with Richard Firminger from Yahoo! Richard Gregory from Latitude and Alexis Sitaropoulos from Miva. Maybe it was because more people were interested in the organic tracks, maybe it was because Google didn’t trot along. If it was the latter I’ll have a chat with Mark Howe tomorrow, as I’m on another panel with him and Firminger at Mindshare.

The highlight for me, other than me having two other colleagues, Colm Bracken and Max Whiteford, speaking about ad copy and paid search tactics, was the What’s New With The Algorithm sesh.

Now ok…..so I knew all four guys up there pretty well – Kristjan, Dixon and Mikkel were on the now infamous Icelandic Jaunt last November, and I met DaveN at SEODays and nearly had him blown up by al Qaeda – but they didn’t have to mention Live Search and what Microsoft are doing in this space quite so much unless they thought we’d crossed over to the useful/viable side of Search Street.

Nathan Buggia leant across during the course of the talk and asked had we ever had quite so much airtime and I had to say no. I think we were taken a little by surprise, but maybe because we come so far and still feel we have a lot to do – but at least the seeds are germinating. The adCenter Community Team have done sterling work with the blog and being active on the forums and now with Paul Stoddart in the UK and Nathan in the US we’re trying to get in amongst the SEO community and show we’re innovating, listening and acting on their feedback.

I thought the whole event was a great success, the sessions our guys spoke at became nice little debates and discussions rather than: Present, Question, Answer – and it was great getting Gord Hotchkiss over – I could listen to him for hours!

We didn’t get over to the Case Study track and was wondering how that was attended and received? Some folks in the UK have recently said of SES and SMX that they’re “old boys clubs” and of little value any more. That’s a sentiment I feel is totally unfair, as they have introduced case studies and real world examples that are approachable and accessible for newcomers and green search marketers. It’s the key to keeping the balance between the more advanced types and helping people new to the channel have as much success as we have utilising it.

Looking forward to next year although I can’t see a date on the site!!!

Last week the Evening Standard reported that local retailers in London were getting visibility through a local review site called We Love Local – The report suggested that the site was inspired by The Standard’s “Save Our Small Shops” campaign…

Actually, welovelocal.com is one of a number of websites trying to capitalise on the trend for local search providers cropping up and being a resource of local services, recommended or reviewed by other users. A kind of Tripadvisor.com for you local area if you like.

Tipped and Qype are others trying to tap into this market – it’s a nice idea but needs some critical mass of reviewers and reviews before they really get going.

It’ll be just a matter of time before they get snapped up by a bigger search provider though.

It’s interesting that The Standard’s angle comes at the same time that Microsoft released research into SMB’s advertising online – or rather investing in websites that never get seen.

I remember in 2001 a high profile CEO of a European DotCom based in London, left to join a company whose business model was to knock on doors in the high street offering to set up and maintain websites for small shops, hairdressers and independent traders.

We laughed at the time….but it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now…

SMX London post coming soon…but enjoy the below from the guys at Site Visibility – Cheeky beggars!

Top line takeaways from the report on UK SMBs in the online space:

SMBs are saving Search Marketing for a “rainy day”:

 – 34% are planning to use it “in the future”
 – 20% have never “got round to it”

Many are resistant to trying out Search Marketing:

 – 92% of SMBs have not even tried to set up a campaign, even though 78% are aware of the online tools available to them

Of those who have investigated it:

 – 44% thought it was too time consuming
 – 33% though it was too complicated
 – 56% though it was too expensive

Nigel, Trade Marketing Manager for adCenter in the London says:

“UK SMBs are missing a trick by not investing in search marketing campaigns.  The misconceptions that exist in the industry, search marketing is holding back potential SMB revenue.  This is surprising, considering the majority of people questioned use search engines and yet they are not investing in search marketing to grow their own business. 

In today’s world, just having a website is not enough – you have to drive traffic to your site to ensure you are front of mind with your potential customers.  Search marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to achieve this.”

What an opportunity?!*£$

Check out the full report here: Search Marketing for Small Businesses

Check out the adCenter Blog for more on this SMB Research

…I’m going to do it all again next week!

Quite a few of us Microsoftees will be speaking at Search Marketing Expo – Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman’s inaugural London conference under the SMX brand.

The conference, taking place on 15th & 16th November at The Hilton Metropole in London, is aimed at:

 – Advertising Budget Holders
 – In-house search marketers
 – Brand managers
 – Paid search advertising planners and buyers
 – Organic search optimization specialists
 – Web technology experts

We’ll be covering a number of sessions on:

What’s new with search advertising? – Me

Creating search ads that convert – Colm Bracken – Lead Search Media Analyst

Search ad testing & tactics – Max Whiteford – Editorial Policy Analyst

Dealing with the penalty box – Nathan Buggia – Product Manager Live Search

If you’re thinking of coming Register Here using the promotional code SPSMX07 to get 10% off the entry fee!

I am sitting at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm. It’s very quiet, I’ve just eaten smoked reindeer and the bar is closed….

The last 48 hours that was SMX Stockholm has gone in a flash of furious learning, rabid talking and the much needed drink or three.

My session on what’s new with the search engines went off without a hitch. A 9am slot is actually pretty nice as everyone’s keen, attentive and of course, awake! It also meant I had the next couple of days to relax and listen to all the goings on which was nice for a change.

Singling out the Universal Search session, Andy Atikins-Kruger and Dixon Jones both spelled out the advantages and disadvantages of a shift by Google and others to a more blended set of search results, including not just regular links but also pictures and video.

Adam Lasnik, who I’d never met until last night, then gave us the inside scoop into why Google went down this route.

Adam, who is a lovely bloke, obviously very clever, and an engaging, extremely polite speaker, said that as Google want to organise the worlds information, the natural course of action would be to try and include all forms of media in whatever format.

It’s just taken so long to come up with the 1-stop-shop because they had to figure out ways to scale it.

The mantra seemed to be – Keep it fast, keep it simple and keep it relevant – which is kinda what you’d expect?

He hinted that partnerships were in the offing too, so not just GoogleBot sniffing around for content, but going deals with third parties.

Keen to put agencies who specialise in search engine optimization mind’s at ease, he encouragingly said “it’s still about the web, keep the usual strategies, create quality content in other forms and expect similar SEO guidelines to apply.”

So how has it been received by users? Well according to Adam users are finding what they need a lot more quickly, resulting in them doing more searches for other stuff, and far fewer users clicking on the second page of results. 

I asked him if it had had an effect on the paid ads (AdWords) but he said he didn’t know because he’s not on the advertiser side of Google, but judging by the recent revenue figures and the share price crashing through the $700 barrier, it can’t have had that much of an adverse effect!!

Other than the usual suspects that attended as speakers, there was a new kid on the block (the speaking one anyway) – Joost De Valk – a Dutch 25 year old SEO consultant and web developer, who impressed me with his knowledge and, more importantly, his delivery of it.

One to watch….