So, I recently read an article where the author had seen a kid standing at a bus stop in Cleveland, in January, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Makes no sense to dress like that, right? Not in the middle of a Cleveland winter. Well in the article, she was using that story of dressing appropriately for what the weather is like as an interesting metaphor for advertisers needing to make sure that they are giving the consumer what they want in the current climate. Her point was why in tough economic times, are some advertising agencies advising their clients to push their products in the wrong way.

This made me think a bit beyond just our current economy, which, by all accounts, is not doing so well right now. Common opinion puts us somewhere between one of the worst recessions and the Great Depression. We may not be to the point of 1930’s government cheese lines, but one could argue that $700 billion worth of bailouts is a lot of government cheese. I’m going to say that there are a lot of things that do not compare very well now that almost 80 years have passed between these major economic swoons. That doesn’t mean that times aren’t tough, just very different types of tough times. Ask the person who is on unemployment and wondering where exactly that next job is going to come from, since we are cutting positions at a record pace. Sorry for the soapbox diversion, now back to our regularly scheduled topic.

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This post was written by Chris Copeland and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, March 13, 2009

Over the past three months it has become in vogue to discuss the future of search in one word — Twitter. With real-time, consumer-driven micro-blogging, Twitter has suddenly become what the next generation of search is to be. I started to discuss this topic in a column a few months ago, but as the buzz keeps getting louder, it seems to be a good time to revisit and debate the merits of the noise and the potential for both Twitter and the crowd sourcing of search to become the future of the space. In doing this, I’ll serve up one way Twitter might get at living up to its hype. (Note: From this point forward I’ll use Twitter as the example, to save the extra typing of “or another like service.”)

The Challenges

In exploring whether Twitter has the ability to become a viable alternative, let’s look at the issues it must overcome. The most glaring to me is the role that Google plays in the public consciousness. Google is a trusted advisor, a repository of information, a question and click away. And while it’s easy to debate the ease of finding information and the user’s dependence on the algorithm to place everything in proper order (compared to the 20th century equivalent, the encyclopedia), it’s a vast leap forward.

And that is the first challenge for Twitter: it leaves the parsing in the hands of the consumer. You ask the question and have to determine, based on your network, who you trust more, and the validity of the answer. Twitter is challenged in this regard because currently the options for finding answers are limited to those following you. And, if your network is full of slumdogs like Salim and not the lone millionaire, then you may be out of luck. At best, you will be left waiting until your own Jamal returns to the discussion. And that becomes issue number two. Speed. Search may not always give you the answer on the first click, but in almost all cases, the answers are within the results with the right kind of digging.

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This article is part five of a multi-post series on SearchFuel discussing tips to a successful search marketing program through integration of your search and media agencies. Click here to access previous articles in this series: Let’s All Play in the Sandbox Together, Share for Success or Share to Exceed, Communication-Your Shovel to Success and Budgeting Campaigns- Building With All the Right Materials.

It’s time to tackle the next stage of building our sand castle – picking paint colors, flooring and lighting fixtures, or in layman terms ­­– setting our campaign goals. In previous blogs, we’ve discussed the grains of sand involved in teamwork across multiple media partners – playing together, planning and communicating and budgeting – now that the foundation is in place, it’s necessary to get to the details.

The campaign goals are more than likely to be mandated by the client. They want to set a goal for ROI or CPEA (Cost per End Action) so they are able point out how their money was spent and what they received in return. It’s important to bring to the table secondary goals and add-ins so the client realizes that working together as a team will bring value-add to the account.

Let’s say our client wants registrations as their goal indicator. They want 5,000 registrations to their program by the end of the year with an average spend of $500 per registration. The interactive or direct mail groups can probably reach these goals, but TV may be less likely. So how can TV get involved in helping with the goal? Mentioning the website or phone number repeatedly and prominently in their ads will provide viewers with the proper information and lead them to the registration page where they can sign up. The cost of TV on its own may not meet the client goals. A combined spend across traditional and digital media helps the client become more cost effective per registration. Showing the correlation of on-air TV ads and registrants vs. off-air times and registrants can help correlate the relationship of TV to the rest of the campaign.

If testing or combining data isn’t a possibility, find out what value each specific medium brings to the campaign and suggest a proper measurement. Many online campaigns measure awareness as a goal. The cost to get the brand name to users can be much lower in such campaigns. Revenue campaigns can be the hardest for all marketers, especially in times of recession.

A funnel approach can be helpful with revenue generating campaigns, as they will help determine what a potential buyer is thinking and how to reach them at the decision stage-and where to place the most money in reaching these people. Funnels also help you to have multiple goals, and to reach those goals.

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I will be the first to state that I welcome any new progress in search, whether it comes from Yahoo!, MSN, or another third tier search partner in order to break up the natural monopoly Google owns.  That is why I am excited, albeit hesitant, with the news that MSN is working on a more improved search engine.  I have always felt that MSN has the potential to do well for the user who is using search in order to find the information that they desire.  So with that, I am excited of the news that has hit most of our inboxes this morning, that MSN is testing their new code, named search engine Kumo, internally.

Kara Swisher at the WSJ Blog, BoomTown, reports on the new features and actually has a few screen shots.  I like the clean look that Kumo seems to be trying to achieve, and that the features navigation is on the left side; definitely a way to breakout and be different from Google’s across the top navigation.  I have always found Google’s to be somewhat cumbersome if you are wanting to use one of their other features around the particular KWP search that was performed, i.e. product search needs the searcher to click on the “more” link in order to drop down the Shopping section of Google.  MSN’s navigation has the potential to provide all features that they offer in a single view navigation.

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