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SES Day 2- New Yahoo Search Marketing PPC Platform…

Marketing Focused

Managing Objectives

Multiple Segment Focused

Quality Thorough Technology & Rewards

Multiple pathing

Keywords are now “Targets”

Georegions ability – California (the example shown) has many regions

Automatic keyword/target suggestion tool

Alert ability for campaigns (got applause)

New term – Assists – giving credit to contributing keywords

John Slade then spoke…

Consumers will ignore advertising that is irrelevant

John is an architecture buff – people need to see what is relevant to them.

Advertiser with a high quality ad will perform better.

You will be rewarded for having a well targeted ad.

What will migration look like, and how can I get in? Measured upgrade – same ads will be served – then you can adjust.

What features will I have and when do they take effect?

The new features will begin at your upgrade time.

When will the new ranking model begin?

2007 Q1 (planned)

Can I still use my agency/tool provider.?

Yes.

Audience Questions:

Is day parting available?

You can customize your day time. Still being worked on. This is a 1.0 platform. That will be in a future release.

PPC, relevance, sounds like EPC?

Variables will be changing.

Will there be changes to the minimum bid?

No, not at this time.

Ad groups and structure?

Keyword bid can override an ad group.

Search in being used for other means other than shopping, we need to assist that.

Platform is global, multiple platforms. 

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Introducing nextgoogleceo.com 3.0

Lately, Google has been showing that is it participating in customer listening. This is good! I hope it continues.

Since I’ve started studying search engine marketing these past full months full time, I’ve been applying to Google – even with employee referrals of former co-workers and people I’ve met at Search Engine Strategies, etc. with out the applications executed in a way I consider appropriate – that is the politest way I can say it. I’d like to see that change, I’m presently seeking post-MBA level leadership roles within your Search Services/ Syndication, Advertising Sales, Marketing or other leading areas driving customer satisfaction and impacting revenue as you grow new product lines. Ideally I’d love to work within local, dMarc or mobile. I resubmitted (again) today for numerous post-MBA leadership positions.

So I launched nextgoogleceo.com which is a cute take of HR microsites (and discusses how next Microsoft is obsolete now that google is a common verb in our language), except that I’ve changed the wording a bit to demonstrate my increasingly dynamic understanding of both search and viral marketing and the future thereof. As soon as I hit send, I’m leaving for Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 and look forward to meeting your wonderful business unit leaders speak once again.

I would of course invite aspiring competitors or “next google’s” to come up and talk to me about their ideas as well. I look forward to learning and adding to my large and growing list of amazing people that are making the Internet a special place.

I look forward to seeing all of my fabulous friends at SES San Jose. It’s going to be both great fun and great learning. It’s the 3rd or 4th time I’ll be seeing some of you and I feel like I’m going on a trip to visit family…that is because that is exactly what it is! I look forward to meeting many new folks to and learning many new and great things. Thank you and please travel safely. See you in San Jose!

I leave you with this parting thought: In the book, Creating Customer Evangelists, the chapters on Mark Cuban stand out in regards to the hiring of Matt Fitzgerald as Chief Marketing Maverick: “Instead of selecting a marketing person from the NBA or the sports industry, Mark consciously made a decision to hire someone from outside the industry,” Fitzgerald says. “He believed the NBA marketing community was too in-bred so [Cuban] was looking for a marketing person with a fresh perspective and ideas.”

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Wall Street Journal Says Google “Stumbles” in Video

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an awesome article about Video ads and discusses MSN’s early dominance. The article states:

“MSN’s early success positions the portal to benefit from the explosion in online video advertising now under way. It also raises questions about Google Inc.’s ability to maintain its stranglehold on Internet advertising.”

“Advertisers say there aren’t enough ad spots to go around. A June study by McKinsey & Co. estimates that 80% of video inventory was soaked up in 2005 and that demand is likely to rise five-fold next year, outstripping current supplies. “Whenever we create more inventory, the sales force can sell it instantly,” says Rob Bennett, general manager of MSN Video. “There’s a tremendous demand.””

“Jason Zajac, general manager of social media at Yahoo, says Yahoo currently runs banner ads only on the home page of video.yahoo.com, Yahoo’s page for homemade videos, which are vetted by Yahoo editors. Mr. Zajac says that Yahoo hopes to be able to offer 15- to 30-second ads inside user-created videos soon.”

“At the same time, portals are keeping an eye on Google. The search giant stumbled in an effort to move into video early last year.”

It’s interesting to see people questioning Google’s potential in this area so early in the game. Just like mobile marketing, the premise that Google will dominate is being questioned very early here.  

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Interesting Concept – Think Customers – Not Campaigns

If they truly live what they say, it sounds like I’d like these people.

“Too many marketing organizations are still underperforming due to a “think campaigns” mentality rather than “think customers” mentality. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. To make the transition from campaigns to customers-and reap the rewards-organizations must begin by gaining a strategic focus. Using the four best practices of relationship marketing, help identify your marketing organization’s weakest link when it comes to building more profitable customer relationships and then choose the best Enterprise Marketing Management solution for filling the technology gaps. From increasing their customer IQ to bringing measurement up to customer speed, companies like BMO Bank of Montreal are becoming relationship marketing leaders, and they have the results to prove it. Think customers.”

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Yes.com Tells You the Song on the Radio

It would have been so cool if they had things like this when I was a kid. I know what some of you are saying, “Dave, they do have stuff like this and you still are a big kid!” Well my youthful appearance aside, the concept of yes.com is certainly neat. Hear a song and know the time it was played and don’t know what it is? No problem. Just go to yes.com within 24 hours and you can look it up, rate it and even buy it from Itunes if it’s available. You’ve got to like that. The rating is potentially a great example of customer listening if the feedback were to reach a critical mass. 

I would have done one thing differently in launching the site however. While it was a smart more to put the radio station access panel on a different site(many sites with two audiences fail to do this and blur their value proposition), yes.net (now redirected), to segment the customer base, they only got it partially right. The yes.com site is nowhere in the top ten for the phrase “find song on radio” and the yes.net site shows up with out a description tag. They should have launched a “coming soon” e-mail collection page for yes.com and developed a linking campaign to it as it should be the #1 Google result for the term.

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ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Developing an Integrated Local Media Strategy

Warren Kay – Yahoo!

Fred Lebolt – Chicago Sun-Times

Shawn Reigsecker, Founder and President, Centro

Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio, Inc.

Local based online advertising will likely mirror offline advertising; becoming 1/3 of all spending over time.

Fred Lebolt – Integration must occur before local and then integrated local. Most have not begun the integration process. Audience targeted delivery.  F+B+M = A Frequency + Branding + Messaging = Audience – the integration piece. Marketing analysis to figure out integrated strategy. The second strategy is local strategy. To me it means geography. Advertisers say they want mass media at the local level. Changing these messages is work. Hard work. Having the offline piece is our greatest advantage. Client example – US Cellular, bundled offline and online campaign covering.

Warren Kay – Two sides of the equation – location and advertisers. National advertisers increasingly want to tailor – zip code, etc. Subscription based model for small businesses.
Pay for performance that is variable. National advertisers can adjust the message.  Online portal. We struggle with what is local internally. Local small businesses spend money nationally.

Marc Baruch – We are so early in this game. 98% of businesses have never purchased online advertising. There is a huge disconnect. When I think of integration, I think that is step two. Getting more people online is step one. Driving customers to a web site is a tactic, not a strategy. Pay for performance is the model for now. Before we get to integrated platforms, we need an expanded group of products. Any media is not susceptible to pay for performance adverting. I think integration is a long way off as the number of ways to do things is expanding.

Shawn Riegsecker – We are the leading provider of local media. We have access have access to over 3,000 publishers. This is a really timely topic. This is the first local panel at an ad:tech. When you think about clients, very few are truly national. How search drove advertising for the last few years, local will be doing now for the next several years. Brands want content. When I talk, I talk about national versus local, I’m not talking local versus local. I come at it form a different view. We are missing out on the largest content play available. You can’t buy the search engine front pages at the local level. To move forward, there needs to be a common platform.

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ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Framing the Market and the Value Chain

The one that is clear to me is that the mobile marketing space has more questions than answers.

Panel:
Peter Fuller – Founder and Managing Partner, i-Jump
Courtney Jane Acuff, Associate Director, Denuo

Numerous doors of entry:
Reaching consumers:
SMS (text messaging)
WAP (wireless web)
MMS (multimedia)
WAP banners
Video
Starstar dialing (new data dialing service)

Wireless web – about 5% using it currently.

Rich brand experience coming via MMS

The carriers don’t always play nice in the sandbox. Aggregators play a role. Agencies need to understand

Zoove.com – domains

Putting it all together:
Think of the mobile phone as a newspaper, television, Internet, game player, note passer (text), wallet and telephone – in one.

Create a complete user and brand experience, as you would create typical offline cross-media campaign.

Services that you can make money on like service communications are interesting.

Metrics piece needs to be figured out.

In the end it’s all about money, revenue streams are in question.

It’s frustrating and exciting, that things become obsolete constantly.

A discussion about best practices and the challenges of making them work is adopted.

McDonald’s – 15 million Big Mac boxes – game pieces – lead to opt-in.

Axe – free ring tone promotion

Kellogg’s – healthy eating tips.

Cost – $50,000 minimum to play – technical integration, properly, short code, hosting – the media to support it.