Jenny, Jason and I have again been trawling the halls of the Hilton Hotel, lurking with intent to pounce on any unsuspecting speaker to ask a myriad of questions about what knowledge they’ve been imparting to the 5000 delegates that have attended this conference.
You can see the result in our daily recap video below – do let us know what you think!
The highlights for me were two of the sessions where reps from Microsoft Advertising were up and at ‘em. I wanted to get into the social media session first thing but got there too late. It was standing room only and a scrum at the door so I watched Twitter to see what was going on inside.
In the Keyword & Content session, our own Katherine Shappley took the stage with four other speakers, eager to tell the assembled about the plethora of KW tools there are out there to help you choose which ones might fit your campaign or business objectives the best.
We hear a lot about “going back to basics” at the moment given the credit crunch, and it was reassuring to see Katherine use an old slide that I still use three years after it was built. It shows the power of demographic targeting and how one keyword, like “financial planning” can mean different things to different businesses depending on which audience they are shooting for.
Using adCenter’s demographic reports you can build up a really good picture of what kind of searcher is looking for your products or services and target them with appropriate ad copy and landing page text.
She also showed some screen shots of the adCenter Add-in for Excel and demonstrated how more and more advertisers are getting value from being able to manipulate data in excel and gain excellent insight into which KW levers they should be pulling to get maximum ROI.
You can see a photo of Katherine presenting on Twitpic.
Other speakers included Christine Churchill from KeyRelevance who said that “Keyword research is the first step in doing ANY marketing online!” She also said she does KW research before she says anything on Twitter as well, because everything we say or write is texted-based and needs to be optimised for search.
Andrew Wheeler from iProspect had a number of tips including – Start small, focus and think about your landing page quality. When researching, use common sense, leveraging all tools and make sure you target your KWs. If they’re not doing the business, then don’t be afraid to delete them!
Next was an Orion Panel. This is where the folks from Incisive get senior people from companies to chew through and debate some of the issues facing the industry today.
Moderated by the ever pun-laden Kevin Ryan, the panel included guys from Google and Microsoft, iProspect, iCrossing and Digitas, all assemble to discuss the State of Search – A Maturing Market Place or Poised for Growth
Between January 08 and the same month in 2009 growth in search was huge: Europe 20% US 33% and AsiaPac 27% - could this kind of trajectory be sustained given the credit crunch and the downturn in the economy?
Pretty much everyone agreed that there was still some way to go and although growth had slowed there were other factors such as mobile that would contribute to continued blossoming. It was forecasted that by 2011 almost 90% of mobile internet users would be actively searching online.
Steven Kaufman from Digitas said that acquisition was what clients were after because it’s measureable and accountable but that the engines were pushing the branding value of search which is a challenging argument. He said it was hard to prove.
Some interesting research from Robert Murray – CEO of iProspect - showed that offline advertising and marketing was driving two thirds of searches and that a third was coming through TV branding exercises and word of mouth. He cited the success of an integrated Avon campaign which was set up in conjunction with an ad placed on TV during the Super Bowl.
Our very own James Colborn – a fellow Brit! – said that search is your immediate online survey and told how using the adCenter add-in for excel, colleagues were using it to predict who was going to win American idol. Search engines had the responsibility to satisfy navigational and informational searches, as well as the commercial. Improved search results and display targeting would be able to help drive success across all media types.
Kevin then asked the question of whether companies were integrating their marketing channels better than say 2004?
Kaufman said that the discipline is not as good as it should be, but some clients were starting to get it and be more demanding.
In answer to the question is TV still branding? Jeffery Pruitt from iCrossing pointed out that although money was being take from offline to online, we still had to acknowledge the power of iPTV. When we can search well via TV then the lines will start being blurred.
Then the conversation turned to conversion attribution. Where do you attribute the value of each message, no matter what channel – TV, outdoor, radio etc – towards the final business outcome? James mentioned Atlas’s Engagement Mapping tool which helps with just that issue.
Kevin’s final question centred around what’s next?
Robert said it had to be technology. At the moment search is too time intensive.
Steven said social media will continue to be a big driver as the ability to tag and make content findable was a huge bonus in helping to optimise campaigns.
James felt finding the right mix of media and targeting to be able to sell, in essence, a campaign objective was crucial.
It was a thought provoking session with Jon Diorio from Google mentioning they were working on automating a lot of their services.
I think that, although growth is slowing, we will have the technology soon to be able to make better decisions and create greater efficiencies in online that answer the branding and cross-media questions much better.
Cheers and drop by tomorrow for more coverage and keep an eye on our Tweets
Mel
Resources mentioned in video:
http://adlab.microsoft.com/
http://advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising/adcenter_addin
Day One Recap & Video