Interactive Seven 2009 Supplement - Marketing Week

MWIB_260209_p011 19/2/09 17:13 Page 11
INTERACTIVE SEARCH
“As more companies
seek a co-ordinated
approach to their
online marketing
strategies, we expect
increased demand
for campaigns that
integrate both paid
and natural search
strategies”
Andrew Girdwood,
Bigmouthmedia
sion to scrap Best Practice Funding and launch the SearchWiki tool enabling
its users to take control of their search results. Nigel Muir, managing director
of independent search engine marketing agency DBD Media, says: “As
the credit crunch turns into a fully-fledged recession, it is clear that... the
year ahead for search marketing is going to be dictated by the economy.
The impact of search marketing needs to be communicated through companies
as a whole, and search marketers need to make their voices heard
through detailed, tailored and accessible reporting. The inherent measurability
of search campaigns, and online marketing as a whole, means
that marketers can speak to board-level directors in their own language –
with cold, hard data.”
“Search marketers must demonstrate strong business understanding
and apply this knowledge to ensure tight, strategic, search-marketing plans.
This will ensure that all key words are effective, and that budget for paid
search is placed as accurately as possible. Search marketers with insight
into the marketing process as a whole and with strong business understanding
will shine in these tough times.”
Business boom
Justin Taylor, interaction partner at specialists MEC Interaction, also
says search will see an increase in business, but must face higher demand
for results reporting. “Advertiser-led search, be it natural or paid, will
continue to increase its market share for advertising dollars. Clients will
require agencies to deliver deeper, more measurable results, focused on
both actionable ROI and brand ROI. Key search players will experiment
more with visually led search for commercial purposes. This is attractive
to both advertisers and the likes of Google, who have seen their share
price fall over 55% in the past six months. From an agency perspective,
search will continue to feature heavily on the majority of media schedules,”
he says.
Search will begin to be used across multiple media channels. Mobile
operators are agreeing deals with search engines to provide a default service,
and offline campaigns are using text message numbers to convey their
messages interactively. Search is being used as a market research tool, for
consumers to do research, and for businesses to measure its effectiveness.
Online research into consumer buying patterns is starting to inform
offline campaigns too. Lewis says: “As economic pressure mounts, search
engines will undoubtedly be looking to monetise more of their inventory.
Depending on your view of both text and graphical contextual advertising,
these represent big opportunities as the three players pull together
their insights from different channels. The monetisation of video content
through the use of text ads is potentially a long-term vision when you consider
some of the current research and development, and the ability to
search through audio content.”
Rich experiences
Ward says: “Search will become a richer experience for the consumer, with
more images and video results. Marketers’ search-engine optimisation
strategies will become more important than ever before, as marketers will
need to rethink how they can optimise images and videos to help increase
the ranking of their website. Users tend to combine their media choices.
For instance in a TV ad break, they may be surfing the internet for information
relating to their show. This presents a huge opportunity to engage
with users in a more receptive state of mind.”
The ability to reach an audience at the right time is important to maintain
their attention and secure your ROI. With the internet full to the
brim with potential search results, keyword-based search results can provide
valuable insight into how users interact with brands. But, to ensure
they are worth the cost, marketers should look to analytics to ensure the
terms really reflect the brand and to identify the best ways to achieve maximum
impact.
Ed Lamb, digital director at Digital Tullo Marshall Warren, says: “Marketers
who try to keep control of content about their brand spend a huge
amount of time trying to police it and fail anyway. Those which are
adaptable and react positively to all brand mentions will create greater
brand affinity.”
It is clear that as 2009 develops, the search arena is changing once again.
The challenge for marketers now is deciding how to work with the many
different search tools and devise new ways of maintaining consumer interest
without isolating their core audience.
Marketing Week Interactive 11