Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

Search Gold in Dem Dar iHollywood Hills

Today's column will give you a sense of deja vu if you read through the notes I took while at iHollywood July 19-20, but I did a lot of organizing, editing, and analysis to provide context for all these points, so it still may be worth skimming the list. And if it's new to you, be happy you didn't read it in its raw form before (if you do want the originals, check this search via the Rollyo custom search box).

As per the usual notice, it continues in the extended entry, and it was originally published in MediaPost. As per an unusual notice, this is appearing on the blog the same day it came out in MediaPost, so I'm on time for once.

Search Gold in Dem Dar iHollywood Hills

WHEN AN IHOLLYWOOD FORUM EVENT can spend a day and a half covering search engine marketing, a single column can't cover all the highlights. Last week, I discussed how important it is for consumers to discover video rather than just search for it. This week, I'll go much broader, offering fourteen search-themed insights from a number of speakers and panels.

To make the attributions easier, company names are listed with each takeaway, and the speakers are credited by name at the end.

1) Search planning is starting earlier. Google is talking to movie studios now about marketing films coming out next May.

2) Branding lives. Showtime said branding, awareness, and driving tune-in are critical for them. They need to rank high in natural results, and high rankings in paid results offer other positive effects for the brand.

3) Paid search builds brands before SEO kicks in. Showtime said that many of its shows are generic terms ("Weeds," "Meadowlands," "Dexter"), so as it works on optimization, it buys search ads when news of the show breaks.

Im in ur Shakespeare

First there were lolcats. Then there were lolcat generators (which work especially well in conjunction with Google Image Search). Now, there's the lolcat translator, which should never, ever be used in conjunction with Project Gutenberg, the book digitization site. Why? Because if the two are used together, you might wind up with what we have below, the Prologue from Romeo & Juliet, composed in lolcat.

To Shakespeare, and my high school English teachers Mr. Esposito and Mrs. Gottesfeld, I am so, so sorry.

But it must be done:

Entr Chorus

2 householdz, both alike in dignity,
in fair Verona, where we lay r scene,
frum ancient grudge break 2 new mutiny,
where civil blood makez civil hanz unclean.
Frum forth teh fatal loins ov thees 2 foez
pair ov star-cros'd lovers taek their life;
whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
doth wif their death bury their parents' strife.
Teh fearful pasage ov their death-mark'd luv,
an' teh continuance ov their parents' rage,
which, but their children's end, naught could remoov,
iz nao teh 2 hours' traffic ov r stage;
teh which if u wif patient ears attend,
wat here shall mis, r toil shall striv 2 mend.

Taboo Widget - National Geographic Channel

In the Great Company of 149 Marketing Bloggers

It turns out I'm on The Power 150 of marketing blogs. To be tied with CK's blog for anything is incredibly fulfilling, let alone a step behind others like Greg Verdino and a few smidgens behind Forrester. (I'm using smidgens liberally here, as they're far enough above mine). [Update - I added some missing links here, and a gratuitous picture of Greg Verdino.)

It is truly a pleasure just to be nominated.

Thanks to Robert Petrausch, the most urban daddy I know, who remembers when this kid from Mamaroneck couldn't even get out of Google's sandbox.

It's funny though, I read some of these lists and wonder why I'm not on them. It turns out I just needed to find someone willing to a) pick a specific enough category, and b) expand the list past 100.

Whatever it takes, right?

Separately, awhile back, Matt Dickman nominated me for a Thinking Blogger Award. I never followed up on the meme and listed five blogs that make me think. I'm not sure if they've already been nominated, but here are five:

• NewTeeVee: a great blog exploring the TV and online video ecosystem
• ProBlogger.net: while I don't care about making money with this blog (by any direct metric, I've lost a few hundred on this blogging endeavor), Darren Rowse and co. have some great best practices on blogging here
• Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization, and Social Media: pretty pictures
• ThreeMinds @ Organic: often whatever they write about is stuff I hear first on their blog, and then play around with for an hour or two
• Influential Interactive Marketing: Rohit Bhargava, like Matt Dickman and many others, writes the blog that I wish I was smart and committed enough to write

Now I'm done thinking about most everything except finishing up work today and reading the rest of Harry Potter this weekend. Post a spoiler in the comments and you're blacklisted.

[Update 2: To end this post with gratuitous imagery, I've also included a photo of Greg Verdino as one of the Mythbusters guys. And they're awesome.]

Video Searchers, Browsers, and Discoverers

IF YOU WERE AT IHOLLYWOOD'S Search and Media event last week, you might have been surprised to find that the panelists tasked with making sense of video search kept changing the subject when it came up. Everyone wanted to talk about discovery, not search.

Perhaps the best sign of what would ensue was listed on the nametag of the speaker preceding the panel: Randall Hounsell, Comcast Cable Communications Management's vice president of search and discovery. Using Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn, I was only able to find three people with a similar title: a vice president at Elsevier (who's now chief technology officer), a director at IBM and a senior product manager of Mobile Search & Discovery at Vodafone. Though discovery marketing may be a little too nebulous to perch neatly alongside search marketing, these search and discovery pioneers should find themselves part of a larger club soon. (Perhaps they can start a group on Facebook.)

The iHollywood panel I moderated was entitled "TV and Video Search: The Killer App?" Based on the responses from the panelists, the answer to the quasi-question would be a resounding "No." They all appreciated search, yet it's one of several ways people find video online. The second browsing -- whether it's by category, channel or video popularity. Then comes discovery, which can be bisected into "automated discovery," where the publisher offers recommendations, based on other users' behavior, related keywords, or other factors, and "user-referred discovery," which is the same as word-of-mouth or viral activity. For both types of discovery, the end result is the same -- people watch videos they didn't intend to watch, generally at a time when they didn't plan on watching any videos at all.

12 Classic Ad Types, via Slate

From Slate - The 12 Classic Ad Formats - a great primer, though some of the categories are so broad and vague that they basically serve as catch-alls.

Vocal Support for Search

This is actually my column from last week, but I kept getting sidetracked. Here it is retro-style, continuing in the extended entry.

Vocal Support For Search
By David Berkowitz
MediaPost's Search Insider

VOICE-ACTIVATED SEARCH is often billed as one of the next frontiers of search technology as search extends its reach to mobile devices. Yet is there a market for using the technology on the desktop?

Voice Tech Group thinks so, and its proof of concept is Tazti, a new product that just came out in its beta 1.0 version. To appreciate it, you need to download it. I saw a private demo months back at the Web 2.0 Expo, but only recently did I have the opportunity to download it myself, and after a bit of a detour in the setup process, I was treated to some of the most fun I've had with new Web technologies. I had to keep calling colleagues over to show them how it worked. That doesn't mean they'll rush to download it themselves. To understand the disconnect, first we'll explore the technology, and then study its planned advertising model.

Using Tazti requires a download, a hindrance for any search technology, though if the value proposition is strong enough, consumers will gladly go through with it (look back to the desktop search wars of 2004-2005 as a prime example). Once installing Tazti, you're urged to go through a training session with Microsoft's speech settings based in the Control Panel. The first session takes ten minutes but feels much longer. After that, Tazti is ready for its test drive.

Search, Media, and Marketing - iHollywood

More from iHollywood - a great panel, and hopefully the notes capture a lot of these best practices for search engine marketing.

Search, Media, and Marketing
*Dave Fall, VP Product Mgmt - Search Technology, DoubleClick
*Adam Stewart, Industry Dir - Media & Entertainment, Google
*Dema Zlotin, Founder & VP - Strategic Services, SEMDirector
*Robert Hayes, SVP/GM - Digital Media, Showtime
*Bill Macaitis, VP Online Marketing, Fox Interactive Media
Moderator: James Lamberti - SVP Search & Media, comScore Networks

Notes from the panel (my comments in parentheses):

Google - talking to movie studios about films coming out next May

DoubleClick - betting heavily on search (okay, but Google probably could do the search thing pretty well on its own)

comScore: Search as direct response vehicle - is there more?

Google - did study with Nielsen talking to moviegoers after movies. After TV, word of mouth, people were going to Web for most info about films. In terms of level of influence, online was on par with TV. 1/3 of all moviegoers were searching for films online. Gets to full picture of online driving offline.

Showtime: Branding, awareness, tune-in all important - having results consistently ranking high in natural and paid gives positive effect to brand. Latent effect also there. One goal: subscriber acquisition. Targets lifestyle, behavioral campaign (eg people moving). Some responses happen weeks later. Tracked in many ways, such as through rebate offerings.

SEMDirector: Role of search in buying cycle. Search has best ROI of all forms of media. Search is used for arbitrage - monetize traffic on site, but pay fraction of cost on search engines from paid perspecitve, plus organic traffic is free. Some clients have 60% of traffic to site comes from search.

Showtime: 60% of traffic comes from search

comScore: Average is 30%, but can get up there. Most of value of search happens offline. Q: Can search impact brand awareness?

Google: pay attention to whole ecosystem

comScore: Major lift on brand terms when marketing on non-brand terms - holisitc linkage with  rest of media. Q: ROI of paid search, SEO?

Fox: Aggressive with both. SEO - incredible ROI, especially for long run. Takes a lot of work though. Engineers, designers, editorial - all levels of company must get involved. Both provide great ROI.

comScore: Do you need to do both SEM and SEO?

Showtime: Many shows are generic terms - Weeds, Meadowlands, Dexter (maybe not so much for Tudors) - hard for them to beat Dexter shoes on organic search, so need to plan in advance and must purchase words when news hits.

comScore: Any trends of in-house or using agencies for search?

SEMDirector: More of a shift to in-house. More talent coming on the market (really? - not seeing it). Technologies to measure/manage have evolved.

comScore: What about advanced learnings from search?

Google: Amazing correlation between search volume and box office results (outdated study too, before great tracking). Database of intent.

Fox: Most popular gaming search is "cheats." Created new site for cheats. No advertising. 2  million unique visitors in a year and a half. Revolve content creation strategy around search trends.

Showtime: For 2nd, 3rd seasons - uses past search history as planning process for next campaign, eg around top characters/actors. It can factor in even who gets top billing.

(Expect lots of new features starring Paris Hilton)

SEMDirector: Distinction between company selling laptops and notebooks - they sold notebooks, but changed it to laptops because that's what drove searches.

comScore: What would you recommend newcomer do as forward-thinking use of search?

DoubleClick: Companies organizing around organic/paid with comprehensive campaign are doing much better. Takes some mental toughness to reorganize around copy, IT issues, etc.

Google: Integration into other channels - focus on offline.

SEMDirector: Centralizing Center of Excellence model where core strategy for search is set at senior, central level.

Showtime: Sync with offline campaign, eg commercials syncing with paid search.

comScore: Include awareness offline in planning. Use data understood by whole organization.

NBCU, Blinkx, Yahoo at iHollywood

This was a great session at iHollywood with three really different, really bright folks (full disclosure: I work with one of the panelists and kind of have to say that about him, but I don't need to say that about the other two, and even objectively they were all great). This is all in their words. I'll try to massage some analysis into the next column, since I'll undoubtedly write the next Search Insider on all of this.

In Search of Media
* Marc Esper, VP Search, NBC Universal
* Jyri Kidwell, Entertainment Category Director - Search Marketing, Yahoo
* Federico Grosso, SVP Business Development, Blinkx
Moderator: Michael Stroud, Co-founder & CEO, iHollywood Forum

Q: If you don't focus on search, are you dead in the water?
NBC: Search is more of a browser. Huge traffic driver. Ingrained behavior. Big for offline marketing campaigns. If they're going to a search engine and they get 10 different options, they need to present themselves as the best option. 1/3 of traffic comes from search, on average. Some time ago (before focusing on search), did a search on Yahoo for Olympics - came up #17. "That's unacceptable."

Paid search is a great way to jumpstart it. Also accelerates SEO with blog outreach. 40% of SEO is on-site, 60% off-site (a la linking). Shows tend to rank really well - "Office" ranks better than Microsoft, others

Yahoo: Search is a great tool for after you become aware to find what you're looking for. Awareness process will happen offline though. Search is the next step. Yahoo also plays role in awareness - they drive from awareness, then search, then go online, then they watch the show. They're looking to be a platform to drive awareness.

Q: Role of Search & Discovery
Blinkx: Working with publishers and broadcasters to make sure that whether or not you're searching for something you can still find relevant content. Technology comparable to reading a title of a book vs. the whole book, comparing meta data to the video itself. Now can identify what is written within an image - eg, a street sign.

Q: Can you tell the difference between George Bush and Osama Bin Laden?
Blinkx: Facial recognition is the next step. We're not quite there yet. Speech to text is still relied on heavily.

Yahoo: Difference in types of content. Two groups of searchers after a show - 1) Catch-up searcher missed the episode. Get back to the water cooler. 2) I want to go deeper, engage, talk about passion. Getting into message boards, talking to friends, doing mashups - anything. Not all searches are the same.

6 Trends Driving the User Revolution - iHollywood

I'll be blogging from iHollywood Forum's Search & Media event. It started with a great keynote from Safa Rashtchy (and yes, I still need to copy and paste that to get the spelling right).

Safa Rashtchy, Managing Director, Sr.                     Research Analyst, Piper Jaffray & Co.

6 Trends a Drivers of the User Revolution
1. The emergence of "communitainment" - teens being entertained as a commmunity
- Community + Communication + Entertainment
- Advertisers must
"Over the next 10 years, we expect more than half of Internet usage will be communitainment"

He puts it at 30% right now. Advertisers need a new type of message and a new way to transmit that message.

2. Increasing popularity of Usites - user-generated websites
- Yelp, TripAdvisor, Yahoo Answers, YouTube - mass medium

3. Mainstreaming of the internet
TV still populari, but it's more about how the Web is being used as part of the daily routine

4. Declining usage of traditional media
TV ratings down
"There's a difference between TV being on and people watching TV. A) People are not watching, and B) if they're watching, they're doing a lot of other things too."

5. Fragmentation of content consumption
Half of people use the Web while watching TV, but when the ads come on, they're all on out

6. Evolution of user-generated brands