Stay tuned for some insightful posts and comments over the next few weeks.

A big thanks to Rishi Lakhani for helping me get back on track with a new site!

Andy

As a result my blog took ‘a bit of hit’  but stay tuned for some pretty insightful posts over the next few weeks!.

A big thanks to the majestic Rishi Lakhani for helping me get back on track with a new site!!

Andy

I recently wrote for Econultancy on the importance of Marketing DNA and Organisational attribution in 2011.

Many companies outside the digital sector have a good grasp of holistic marketing, organisational attribution, and its central role. However, from listening to people in the market, working with agencies, and from personal experience I think many digital agencies do not address this issue adequately.

A lot of this is to do with how your organisation is structured. In a forward thinking company marketing should be at the centre of all activity across all areas of the organisation.

Marketing should be driving strategy, leading sales (just like you may have a search campaign central to a clients campaign), and fostering a culture of team selling and more of a relationship between sales and product. 

Marketing should be pivotal in driving the business and helping attribute revenue across all areas of the organisation

The full article is here – Marketing DNA and Organisational Attribution

Structuring your organisation for maximum performance

I still shudder and wake up with a hot sweat from my sleep sometimes when I see companies miss massive market opportunities to maximise their potential. I suppose that’s the passionate side in me?

Whilst passion is good, it’s not the be all and end all. You still need to have;

• Experience
• Expertise and a track record (results)
• A Strategic approach to Innovation and Talent Management
• Industry Contacts and Communication skills
• Business and Commercial Acumen
• A results based approach

In 2011 I  would like to see organisations build their business around people skills and not subjective, pre-set structures, and political agendas.

If you put the best people in the best roles you will find it much easier to grow your business and can begin to build holistic organsiations and functions that span across your business – it’s that simple.

As digital marketers you we all know that in people do not consume media in silos.

In 2011 advertiser need to purchase and manage their digital media holistically – and not in silos.

 Surely then……

It makes sense organisations should not operate in Silos and take a more holistic approach to maximising their human capital?

Changes in the digital marketing ecosystem means changes need to be made to how companies structure their business.

I read an interesting piece today from Will Cooper at NMA on how the Facebook and Bing deal means social search can’t be ignored.

In the article, Cooper states that:

 

 

The industry has been talking about how search and social can tie together for some time, but this is the concept in practice: results based on recommendations by your peers.

But it’s the strategic move that’s perhaps the more interesting story. Facebook and Microsoft have been in bed together for some time – Microsoft was an early investor, used to sell Facebook’s display inventory and still powers its search offering. So for them to now strengthen their ties through search is a logical, even predictable, move.

A good article.

It will be interesting to see how this develops alongside a number of ’alliance’ and ‘integration’ topics over coming months.

• CPC’s and the Bing and Yahoo alliance
• Google’s Trademark policy
• Display, Search and DSP’s
• Search retargeting
• Yahoo/Right Media and Dapper
• Google v Yahoo – Display
• AOL and Yahoo?

We can look to the US for some indication of how these policies, alliances, and integrations pan out.

However, there is nothing better than seeing it with our own eyes here in Europe.

One things in certain – expect a few more alliances, lots of integration, and a few more acquisitions in the Digital space – there is lot’s going on!

• Search and Social Media
• Real-time search
• Search and Display
• Google Instant

Wednesday’s launch of Google Instant fuelled a wave of blog posts, comment and debate. To be honest, I am going to wait a while before providing an informed opinion. A few things I will say though:

It will impact SEO, especially pure play ‘ranking’ SEO companies. For others, it simply means adapting to changes with Instant results. It is not dead, just changing.

It will be interesting to monitor its affect on PPC and CTR – but wait for more data before you draw to many conclusions

In a recent article on Ecosnultancy I wrote about convergence of Search, Social, and Display. The timing was quite apt.

The boundaries between search, social and display media are diminishing. This means advertisers, agencies and marketers face a new kind of challenge.

The search world is changing into a new type of ecosystem, one where all forms of digital media can be purchased, tracked, and have ROI attributed via a single platform. It’s only a matter of time before search and other forms of digital marketing can no longer be viewed in silos. In fact, it’s happening as you read.

Clients’ increased interest in Facebook and renewed interest in display are great examples of this evolution. EMarketer predicts that $1.28bn will be spent by advertisers this year on Facebook. According to estimates from Borrell Associates, display will grow almost 60% in 2011, reaching $10.9bn. This presents an opportunity for social, search, and display markets to grow and learn from each other.

Two of many buzz words you will read about in coming months are real-time search and real-time bidding. Real-time search is just one indicator that points to the convergence of search and social media.

Renewed interest in display and the rise of Demand Side Platforms is fuelled by real-time bidding (RTB) – This means that search centric methodologies can be applied in a display environment. In order for marketers to keep pace it’s time to get real and adapt to two significant paths of convergence. 

Real-time search, just one indication of the convergence of search and social media

Last week saw the launch of Google real-time search. Twitter-inspired “real-time” search results now how have their own Google webpage. Following on from Bing’s launch of ‘Bing Social’, Google has provided a dedicated portal for those seeking information, mainly relating to Tweets.

Google’s real-time search lets you sort results according to location of tweets. It also has a “conversation” view designed for following ongoing discussions on the web. For ‘fans’ on Google alerts a new real-time search option is available in a drop-down menu. This allows users to get an email update related to real-time search results.

Traditional search, SEO and PPC, now has a new partner in the form of social media. However, both disciplines cannot live long in silos. They support tactical brand positioning, engagement, and research. For example, the emergence of Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a combination of SEO and social media strategies.

Real-time search is still very much under development and so the new Google page, when it works, has received criticism based on its similarity to Bing, being Twitter centric. Many believe it to be no more than an enhanced reputation monitoring tool at the moment.

Real-time search platforms and homepages may need some further work, however it does signify a move towards search and social media convergence.

Real-time search is already having an impact on SEO as fresh/real-time content leapfrogs relevance, especially for news related searches. SEO companies now have to ensure they optimize for fresh content and not just relevance.

In addition, social media-exposed consumers are also far more likely to search for brand and product-related terms, and click on a brand’s paid search ad. Real-time search enables brands to ride waves of interest and use this ‘social media’ intelligence to plan follow up campaigns.

It’s important to remember that Google’s search system (forget the real-time search page for a second) has been around a like time. It is based on popularity measured by links, mentions, recommendations and interactions – sounds pretty social already right?

Search is intent-driven and social media aids distribution, content also finds you. For some marketers the two are separate, but they cannot live in silos forever. Social will have a search feel and search will get more social.

SEO insight and social media campaign management used together allows presents marketers, advertisers, and PRs (PR and social media) a vast array of opportunities. Social media content can be optimised to enhance marketing efforts and engagement. Distribution of content through social media platforms increases direct and indirect links to site.

In addition, if an issues breaks on social networks on a certain topic then paid search is the quickest way to get in front of people and address issues as and when/even before they arise. BP being a good example of this even though it was a little late.

Google was 12 yesterday – Happy Birthday Google!!

Today, they have a large search event, surrounded in mystery, but with some subtle hints projected via the interactive logos on the homepage this week.

I think there will be more than just one announcement. Relevant to this article – I think it will introduce streaming results as you type to provide faster and more interactive results.

Other topics may include updates to the user interface and AJAX powered search results (but that’s a whole, and very big, other article!)  

Real-time bidding, the convergence of search and display

Search marketing has always been at the core of digital. Much research and comment about its relationship with display has been well published over recent years, many of this is old news.

What is new though are the advances in technology that allow simplified campaign management and allow the benefits of display to be more closely aligned to those used in  search. This has presented new ways of managing display and providing clear metrics, and predictable results. Did I mention that social media, regardless if you view it as separate or part of search, has a role to play in this via Facebook?

Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) allow improved performance and ROI for an online display campaign by creating a single system that connects to multiple ad exchanges and other media suppliers. Advances in technology allow people to aggregate and bid on inventory of multiple publishers and ad networks. This happens in real-time, on a per impression basis. This is called real-time bidding.

Traditional display has always focused on delivering the right message to the right customer. However, real-time bidding (RTB) now allows advertisers to target display audiences directly. It allows bidding (much like search auction markets) on impressions based on key factors such as demographics and behavioural profiles. The result is that the advertiser can target customers with the right message, to the right customer, at the right cost, and at the right time.

The ‘silver bullet’ that real-time bidding (RTB) provides is that, when used in conjunction with remarketing data, it enables real insight into behaviour. This allows the retargeting of users across a multitude of platforms.

Maybe we should add another point of convergence here that sits between search and display, remarketing and retargeting ?

Advertisers have better transparency, efficiency, and accountability and greater control over targeting and managing their online media campaigns. The efficiency can be very similar to a search campaign and natural synergies are highlighted by many a search professional.

Display can learn a lot from search and much debate has arisen as to when, how, and if true convergence will occur. It’s easy to see search influences on display. However, there is a high level of complexity in bidding across multiple ad exchanges and gaining knowledge of individual publishers, not to mention learning and enhancing creative skills, could cause problems for the search marketer who wants to run display. A DSP combined with paid search management technology will help solve this right?. Time will tell.

What we do know is that display combined with search management platforms presents opportunities for centralised digital platform developments.

Conclusion

Real-time search (as an indication of search and social media convergence) and real-time bidding (RTB) through DSPs are creating a new digital marketing ecosystem and a movement away from siloed search, social and display.

Real-time search is just one indication on the inevitable convergence of search and social media. Real-time bidding and demand side platforms (DSPs) allow search and display to work more closely together. Facebook integration into DSPs further shows how social merges with search and display. Marketers can now bid on paid and performance display media via one platform, per impression and in real time.

This heralds the dawn of digital optimisation. Some may say there are significant shifts in the market, others say three as social (i.e. Facebook) connects with search and display.

Either way, if you are not looking into this, then you need to ‘get real’…

Great session at SES San Fran chaired by Matt McGowan and featuring speakers such as Didit founder, Kevin Lee and Google’s Aitan Weinberg

More to follow shortly……!!!

Hence, I am sat in a packed session at SES San Francisco on the ‘Search – Where to next?’ session.

Moderated by Graham Mudd, VP, Search and Media, comScore Inc

Speaking;

Brian Kaminski, COO, iProspect

Marc Poirer, Co-founder & CMO, Acquiso

Shashi Set, SVP, Search Products, Yahoo

This promises to be a great session focusing on the key to the future of search. Data and technology being the key to the future of search.

 Here is my bullet point review;

Marc Poirer – “Search marketing is part of something bigger”

• Forrester – By 2014 online spend will reach 54 billion dollars
• The future will see a money transit from traditional channels to online channels
• Technology changes everything
• There are a number of innovative new technologies focusing on attribution, tracking across different channels and interaction.
•  This also includes access to display inventory, real time bidding, and the rise of demand side platforms.  These technologies are available today and will be widely available in the future
• Search is becoming part of something bigger – different  skills will be needed – this presents a huge opportunity for agencies

Brian Kaminski

Brian addressed the audience and invited people to think back to the Sony Walkman as an example of how a company did not keep up to date with technological developments as Apple did with the iPod.

Quoting Ferris Bueller;

Life moves pretty quickly and people need to keep up to date with technology and development.

5 clues to future of search;

1. Data is an advantage. In the future it will be required

Embrace the move towards data – invest in technologies and invest in people with data skills.

2. Most search results will be real time and more connected (look at twitter)

3. Convergence will continue – look at the relationship with Display

4. Search is used as a  net. Many different forms of Media will be used to plan search activity

5. Search will be less about keywords and more about social led searches, images and so forth

SEARCH IS  CHANGING – Don’t wait for the change, seize the opportunity and;

1. Set budgets for testing and innovation
2. Invest in data systems and data skills
3. Thing outside the PC
4. Look at new trends and jump on them quickly

 Shashi Seth

How Yahoo is planning for the future;

• Search has not focused on users enough.
• In the past, search has focused on backend (crawling, relevancy) but not the front end on search
• The front end of search is new sources of information, connected devices, get information pushed rather than pulling from search engines
• Microsoft Alliance – Shashi talked about moving back end to front end – Microsoft focus on back end and Yahoo help bring to front tend
• Yahoo technology now and in the future is focused/ing on giving people correct answers – You ask a question and get instant answers rather than have a sea of blue links
• In 5 years mobile searches will outpace PC searches
• Keep your eye on ‘Sketch-a-Search’ for the iPhone as an example of how Yahoo is making search easier for users who don not have to ‘think’ or ‘type keywords’

I hope so as it’s bang on the money.

Fragmentation within disciplines

Yes, yet another new buzz word in the industry, is a challenge that many marketers face:

For example;

• Fragmentation in SEO – content and link strategies, black/grey/white hat, universal search, and social media optimization
• Fragmentation in PPC – localization, personalization, universal search, cross channel attribution
• Fragmentation in Display – Audience networks and Ad networks

Fragmentation in the Industry

Brands have a difficult choice to make in vendor selection. Is it?

Tier One/Full service agencies, larger specialist digital or search specialist, the pure play SEO, the pure play PPC and SEO company, the ‘boutique agency’, the freelancer, the technology provider and agency, the consultancy, the in-house team, or a combination of some/all?

Fragmentation within the Digital organization

Basically this relates to discord between;

• Sales and marketing functions
• Marketing, sales and operational and the specialist departments who are the knowledge backbone of the company.
• (The ‘Snake Oil Salesman’ v the ‘non commercial technical specialist’ -that’s another post on its very own!!)
• Discord and Alignment between emerging media teams, social media teams, search and display teams, media planners and buyers, technology and consultancy, affiliate, rich media and so forth

The list goes on…..

The Challenge

The common challenge marketers now find is how to ‘connect the dots’ and ensure that any search or digital discipline is not viewed in a silo. Clients want to see streamlined search and digital solutions.

Many practitioners tend to focus solely on their field of discipline (be it search, seo, display, email, or affiliate).

That’s fine as clients and in-house departments want to learn about specific domains of specialism. However – If you ask them would they like to see a little bit also on how this fits in their marketing mix and with other channels I bet most say yes.

Insights into a solution
If you are in the US and you agree, then you need to get to Connected Marketing week in San Francisco next week; 

It will be the biggest gathering of interactive marketing events aiming to educate marketers on every aspect of the digital industry. Participating events include SES San Francisco, Online Marketing Summit (OMS), Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference, Email Experience Council, IAB and Tim Ash’s Conversion Conference.

http://www.connectedmarketingweek.com

“With ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week, we’re launching a new vision of marketing – one that incorporates not just search but the reality that a successful marketing program has to incorporate an understanding of just how audiences are connecting and sharing vital information,” said Mike Grehan, Global Vice President of Content, SES, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ. “We’ve lined up the top organizations in the marketing industry to present, share and mingle with marketers during our festival.”

I am very interested to see how many speakers will just do a one product presentation.

Even just one slide on how it connects with other media would be nice, No?

The solution

In a follow post I will report on the key takeaways and show you how marketers can work closely in a matrix type structure to meet the changing demands of clients and their audiences. This will include;

• How to build better relations with their prospects by not just focusing on their core product in a silo and showing how their product and services ‘connect’ with the rest of the digital marketing mix.

• Giving insights into what clients want, how they like to see information shared, and how they view connected marketing.

For example – Search Marketing needs to connect the dots between;

Search management
Search optimisation

Crosss Channel Attribution
Digital optimisation
Onsite optimisation
Behavioural and re-targeting

• Provide examples as to how agencies and search/digital providers alike can build better relations with their in-house peers (marketing and product specialists) by sharing insight, avoiding conflict between domains of specialism, share knowledge on the different audience type profiles across their digital disciplines and win more business

If you’re a marketer, brand, consultant, specialist, or full service agency….We are all in it to win right?

Hence we should be ‘connecting the dots’ between our products and services and between our company colleagues and specialist departments (internally) to build an even brighter future for Search and Digital

Watch this space on how to begin to ‘connect them dots’

Well, Google wave’s goodbye to Google wave after “not seeing the user adoption we would have liked”

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

September 14th is the day that Google users begin to get a ‘better user experience’.

That’s what, erm, Google say

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-to-canadian-uk-and-ireland-ad.html

Following on from changes in the US Adwords policy last year on Trademarks -Advertisers will be able to directly name the product/brand they promote and not just bid on the Trademark term (and ad creative copy without mentioning the product).

Trademark owners will need to be very careful about misuse of their trademarks

However, does this mean a rise in redirects, good news for scams?

Watch the Google space!