Ad Spending:: The State of Search Engine Marketing - 2004

"Research published by SEMPO" abstract, press release and PDF summaries available. Topics covered include:
The size and rate of grow of the industry
A breakdown of spending between pay per click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO) and paid inclusion (PI)
A breakdown of in-house vs. outsourced SEM
Attitudes and concerns about industry issues including PPC bid inflation, click fraud, and ethical standards."

Use strategically to target spending....

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Emarketer

Predict huge changes as consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertising moves online. : "A brand manger's job is getting more complicated and more challenging as broadband penetration grows unexpectedly fast, as consumers spend more time online comparison shopping and buying,"

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MarketingSherpa.com

Data suggests that "epostcards averaged 50% higher open-to-click rates than email newsletters to the same lists..."

One example from the hospitality industry found "A fun, friendly epostcard featuring an enticing photo worked much better than longer newsletters or straightforward sales offers would have. "

Advise using for making one point only with under 100 words. (3 linked offers at a push)

MarketingSherpa carried outan epostcard test this week for a big end of year SherpaStore sales push this week.

Lesson #1. We forgot the human being
Lesson #2. Text-only outpulled the HTML (Whoa!)
Lesson #3. The bottom link got the most clicks

Article has useful links to other studies and resources for e-postcards.

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DMNews.com "Advertisers Use Search for Branding"

" A survey of search engine advertisers found that the No. 1 objective for their search marketing programs is building brand awareness, rather than generating sales.
In the survey, carried out by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, 61 percent of respondents said increasing brand awareness of products was an objective of their paid placement campaigns. The response narrowly beat sales and lead generation. The survey, conducted by IntelliSurvey, polled 288 search advertisers and agencies..."

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Wired News: IPod Ads

More iPod "marketing" "School teacher George Masters has the marketing world abuzz with a homemade ad for Apple Computer's iPod that is rapidly 'going viral.' ..

Masters quietly posted the spot to his site a few weeks ago. It received moderate traffic until it was picked up by several blogs last week. In a matter of days, the ad has been watched more than 37,000 times, and is making the rounds on blogs and e-mail...

Masters said he's quite aware the ad is nothing like Apple's campaigns.

"It's off-brand but that's the point," he said. "That's the fun of being one guy. You're not limited by a style guide or a creative director. You can branch out and think different."

Steve Rubel, a vice president at New York PR agency CooperKatz and author of the Micro Persuasion web log, said evangelistic customers like Masters will increasingly play a role in marketing.

"It's a sign that consumers want to have a role in promoting a product they love," he said. "There's a real trend toward consumer-generated media. People are creating news, they're blogging. People will create marketing as well. This guy is a great example."

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Netimperative - The poster that talks back

"...the growth of mobile phones in the UK - in which 47 million people now have a mobile phone – has taken interactivity out of the confines of the bedroom and the workplace and onto the street.

Hypertag , which installs interactive devices on posters which allow passers-by to download information onto their handsets, has made unlikely bed-fellows of outdoor advertising and mobile interactivity. And we’re not talking about niche clients either. The start-up has just launched a campaign for Transport for London, and also boasts O2, Proctor & Gamble and Nintendo on its books...over the past few months the company has offered everything from money-off vouchers through to competitions via sites that carry the Hypertag technology"

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Heineken check out the podcast...

Podcasting News: "Heineken has jumped into the commercial podcast world with an exclusive interview with Thirst Resident DJ Daniele Davoli. He speaks freely about his experiences with Thirst, his latest projects, the global dance scene and even Britney Spears.
Though it's a leading edge marketing concept, the podcast is refreshingly low-fi. The podcast is a straight ahead interview, and free of intrusive advertising."

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Netimperative - The Blogfather? Calacanis expands family

But blogs still have an important role in marketing, says Calacanis, just not from the ‘push’ angle: “Marketers are already very involved in blogs. Bloggers are the top 1-5% of the audience, so if the people on Autoblog.com are saying something about the new Mini Cooper you can bet Mini is watching. The folks on Autoblog are the ones telling their friends what cars are coming out and what deals are available. Marketers live for the mavens... word of mouth is the most important aspect of marketing – period! And blogs are the number one way word of mouth spreads today. That trend will continue, for sure.”

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Andy Wibbels of Easy Bake Weblogs picks the following 5 Top Marketing Tips of 2004:

"1. See a search engine box as a virtual storeshelf. People go to Google looking for something just like they go out shopping - will they find your product? (from Intelliseek call)

2. Politically bent but extremely applicable to marketing (replace vote with buy: People do not necessarily vote in their self-interest. They vote their identity. They vote their values. (from Lakoffs Dont Think of an Elephant).

3. The marketing is the product. (Seth in Purple Cow)

4. What makes you unique will make you successful. (William from Reach)

5. And a great arresting question: What is the boldest, most outrageous, most provocative
statement or position you can take in your niche market? (via our girl Andrea)"

Visit his blog to track responses via your feed...

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Plan and Track branding effectiveness: "Media.Com has signed up to MarketNorms, a new database from Dynamic Logic, which contains branding effectiveness from almost 1,400 online campaigns taken from 1.55m survey respondents. Information can be extrapolated from this data to reveal the impact of various campaign factors such as ad size, ad format, industry, exposure frequency and creative attributes, to help plan campaigns"

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brandchannel.com

" |Orbitz versus Opodo | Online Branding of Travel Websites
American Orbitz and Europes Opodo are the twins of the travel agent industry. Both are online businesses with major airlines constituting their shareholder base..."

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brandchannel.com | Trends in Online Retailing | Better Promoting Products Online a few pertinant points....

"While the offline retailing market is growing in low single digits, online retailing has doubled in size in the last 24 months to become a US$ 144 billion market.

1) Merchants benefit when customers associate their positive shopping experience with the sellers' brands, elevating the third-party retailer in the eyes of the consumer.

2) We see a trend toward SKU-level or item-specific merchandising. Your brand image is critical, but if you're not thinking about merchandising in terms of the most detailed product attributes and variables—pricing, title, description, keywords—you're not fully leveraging available merchandising control.

3) Online shoppers are becoming savvier at evaluating competing product offerings and merchants on the web. Whether they purchase online or offline, shoppers increasingly base their perceptions of a retailer's selection, service level, and brand image on the online experience. The depth and quality of information that retailers provide through online marketplaces and shopping portals exceeds that of other promotional tools such as search engine marketing. So, we see these channels as critical for establishing credibility with consumers.

4) To be competitive, you have to present the most current information in terms of inventory and pricing to your customer, whether they are on your own e-commerce site or within a remote channel. With the advent of more structured tools based on XML web services, it's possible to greatly improve the timeliness of data presented to customers through third-party channels. "

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DMNews.com>
"Forbes.com has quietly removed paid advertiser links in its news stories after objections from its editorial staff. "

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