Moderated by Gord Hotchkiss, President of Enquiro as well as Chairman of the SEMPO Board of Directors. He lets everyone know that one presenter is missing (?not sure which one).
First up is Curtis Dueck from Epiar (one of the sponsors of last night’s dinner thrown by Allan Dick – on word: wow). Will discuss Search Informed marketing (SIM) – Use of search data and intelligence. Marketing 101 recap…as any seasoned marketer will tell you, in order to connect with those that have a demand for you, they must see you clearly. Once upon a time, the “TV/Industrial complex” made for a circular motion in supply/demand. In today’s environment, how do we connect supply with demand, and how has demand changed?
Two forms of research are necessary: focus groups, surveys and polls. Now they are joined by search research. Billions sample size, “pulled” data sources, and low human hours required to effectively collect data. In the others, the sample size is much smaller, require high human hours, and need to be “pushed” to provide info.
Prerequisites to success with SIM. Willingness to embrace change, to genuinely provide what the market demands, Willingness to change your vocabulary to match what people are asking for. In order to do this, you need comprehensive research and insight. Remember that competitors are dealing with these same \questions. There is an alternative to adopting SIM, but the results could be bad (shows a pic of a dinosaur).
Search frequency research: looking for trends, patterns, ratios, relationships, oddities, and ultimately meaning within the data. He shows a series of search frequency research charts by product segmentation, television demand. He finds that people are looking for plasma twice as often as rear-screen projections. Looking at what market is entering into search engines allows the “finger on their pulse.” Another chart: Brand Equity. Phillips approx 500 times a day searched with one L, another 500 with two L’s. How would that feel to find out?
Another chart: product ideas. With searches related to wholesale candles show an example of product ideas…since “soy” candles are near the top of consumer demand, this could drive the idea to sell them. Next chart: Consumer feedback. Auto brand used in searches surrounding EGR and PCV valves.: Ford #1, but this is bad since these searches are indicating a problem with these types of valves. Chevy and Honda were 2 and 3, respectively. They can then look within a specific manufacturer.
Next chart: Competitive intelligence. Looking for terms surrounding “Microsoft downloads.” If you were looking at doing your own software development, simply knowing what people are searching around MS terms could help guide strategy. Next chart: Foreign affairs. In searches around “Iraq,” he found the Iraqi dinar, which was interesting to currency speculators he knew. Next chart: Public Issues: healthcare. If working in government, or in a pharmaceutical company, you may be able to gain insight into what searches occur around “spasms.” The different spasm being entered into the SE’s provides unprecedented insight into aggregate human condition..
Next chart: Celebrity brand searches. Surrounding “Tiger Woods” was a huge list starting with “wife” (laughs). The last place was Nike….this could be an issue. He showed a couple case studies. #1 client was an online retailer, and they suggested some redirects to various product pages, which worked great. #2 also experienced explosive growth due to the SIM strategy. Anyone is able to apply this information: online/offline, for or non-profit. Anyone who is in the business of demand can benefit.
Next speaker is Bill Mungovan the Director of Search for Carat Fusion. He will present about how you can take the type of data that Curtis presented and build a great campaign out of it. He talks about the fact that he works in a company that still considers search just a department. He points out that although $10B will be spent on search out of $20B online this year, still $150B being spent on other media. This puts things into perspective. He feels that agencies are organizing around preparing for further shifts towards online spend. He feels that they are not currently very well integrated and becoming one agency, but that he feels that is the direction they are going.
Search is a function of demand. Sots between online/offline media and buzz. They need to be told by something somewhere to search for something. Search inventory fluctuates with demand influencers. He will cover a case study of some work done for their client, Hyundai. Goals: maintain 100% share of voice on brand terms, also support online and offline events. Starts with a media plan that includes other efforts such as TV flights. They actually build an area for display and search into the overall media plan, which he was happy about.
They found that display and search interacted: 36% increase in Yahoo! click volume in the (day?) after a Yahoo! homepage takeover. Then shows a chart that search reacts to all advertising. They used scheduled TV spots and an additional homepage takeover (AOL) along with a TV spot to keep sustained click volume. They saw a drop when all print spots were completed. Then they ran another Yahoo! homepage takeover and the volume was brought back up again.
There is a 0% opportunity cost. If you don’t plan ahead and have a huge search budget, the TV spot will not lead to the additional volume. Without having a search program and without using budget for search while running TV ads, you are potentially losing tons of traffic. Allocate enough budget to capture this increased volume that is created online. Connect with offline media plan before client approval. Map keyword bundles to overall goals, not just lower funnel acquisition efforts. Lastly, remember search is still cheap! Very few large marketers are getting it and thinking in the full circle.
Last was Misty Locke, co-Founder and President of Range Online Media. She starts with a short case study looking at brand leads can stay ahead of non-brand spend. Unfortunately, I could not really understand the chart she was working with, but I will try to get a recap from her. The next thing they did was challenged measurements. It is sometimes not the media and the placements, but how we are measuring and tracking it. Realize that the ROI is not the most important factor at all times, but how you grow overall revenue. Currently only 15% of advertisers have consolidated all online and offline consumer data/. 39% actually don’t even measure online.
So they make a group decision between 7 diff agencies involved in one project and worked together with them, in a case study she presented. She showed examples of shared creative with online and offline. The online media can try all three ads they made. This was for Reliant Energy. They has a 13% increase in search conversions the week after the direct mail launch. Q19% decrease in cost per acquisition. Shows some other great results stats, and says they will obviously try this again.
Shows another case study in order to capitalize on Oprah Winfrey show. They placed/monitored ads around her name and products. Results: 100% increase in brand demand during the first week. 34% of total online sales came from search te first week. 60% increase in overall CTR. 5.8 ROI. And a “keyword shoutout” when the guy first featured on the show went from 0-200 searches with the week. I think I remember Misty from a past coverage because she talks so fast! :) This is great stuff but I can’t get it all…
3rd case study focused on a Pier One “Instant Win Game” campaign. Almost 74K players opted to receive offers from Pier One Imports. Resulted in over 343 actual in-store transactions (up 79% over previous years). She thanks everyone.
Gord has been making some good comments between and after speakers. He tells a story about the Lance Armstrong “Livestrong” bands. He went on a show, and was not prepared for the following traffic. He had a Yahoo! Store Website, and it in fact shut down the entire Yahoo! store system for a day due to the traffic generated but the offline exposure.
