Archive for December, 2009

Half Full or Half Empty? Fill It Up All The Way!

by Aaron Strecker ~ December 29th, 2009

Half empty and full h2o glass - strecker postIf I had to pick between the two, I could easily say that I am more of a glass half full kind of guy than half empty.  I would rather look on the bright side of life, than looking around every corner for what is going to go wrong.  But you know what, my glass is under constant siege from the world around me.  The world is what makes me slip over into the dark side, the half empty side, sometimes.  It is what makes me a skeptic in some situations.  I’ll give you an example of this strange (or maybe not so strange) Jekyll and Hyde dual personality.  When I get that call about the great vacation deal for $99, I get excited thinking “This is awesome, a great vacation spot for only $99!”  Then the skeptic decides to interject, “Yeah, but what do they want?  Is this someone calling from their basement trying to rip me off?  Will I ever really see this so called vacation spot?”  I’d say that this is probably the norm for most people.  We want to believe, but there are too many news stories about people being bilked out of their money.  For goodness sakes, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme had enough zeroes in it to make me more than a little bit cynical.  Money is the obvious example, but there are other things that contribute to the emptying of our glass – unfulfilled promises, unrequited love, even bad timing and bad luck.  Is that what we have become in life, skeptical optimistics? 

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‘Twas the Week Before Christmas

by Natasha Ludwig ~ December 23rd, 2009

Natasha ludwig online holiday shopping‘Twas the week before Christmas, no time left to waste
I’d left all my shopping to last minute haste
Through the store fronts I dashed with no time to spare
In hopes the gifts on my list still would be there.

How many relatives, co-workers, friends?
How many presents to buy, wrap and send?
Overwhelmed by my tally I began my plight
“How on earth does Santa do it?” I wondered this night.

The store shelves near bare, the pickings were slim
Had I waited too long? Was the outlook now grim?
Back to my home, I flew with resolve
                          Booted up my computer to search, find, and solve.

On Google! On Yahoo! MSN, Bing and Ask!
Find “Last Minute Christmas Deals”, now this is your task!
To the top of the page, to the top of the list
What deals would I find too good to resist?

Digital camera for dad, video games for bro
Coffee maker for mom, a new phone for the beau.
Holiday gift baskets, sent pre-arranged
Desk toys for the Secret Santa Exchange.

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Conquesting Campaigns: Beneficial Branding Tool or Not Worth the Trouble?

by Sarah Tillitt ~ December 22nd, 2009

final conquesting SERPDo a search for almost any product or service and you’ll most likely see a variety of paid ads on the results page. Search marketers often talk about the importance of “being there” when a potential customer is looking for you. But some advertisers don’t want to be there just when their own customers are searching; they’d like to be present when their competition’s customers search as well!

Campaigns that target the competition by bidding on competitor brand terms are known as conquesting campaigns. Do a search for BMW and you’ll see an ad for Infiniti in the results. A search for the home store Linens ‘n Things shows an ad for Macy’s housewares department within the results. What are some of the benefits of conquesting campaigns? What are the downfalls?

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Advertising 2010: Release The Hounds

by Chris Copeland ~ December 18th, 2009

This post was written by Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search – The Americas, and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, December 18, 2009

Advertising 2010 - Release The Hounds - CC v12.18.09One of the unique opportunities of my role is that I spend a fair amount of time reflecting on how we have gotten to where we are at this point in time — and even more important, attempting to answer the question “What’s next?”

As I revisit this year and think ahead to 2010, I find myself fixated on the advertising catchphases of 2009. These phases give me clues on how to avoid slow, small steps in 2010, making it the year to be aggressive, take the reins and deliver on our terms as an industry — a year to release the hounds and wage war against what went wrong in 2009. I’ll start 2010 with a column looking at how we regain control; but for now, I want to delve into the abyss to make sure we don’t repeat this year’s shortcomings.

From the early disbelief of and dismissive attitude toward the depth of the economic situation at hand, to the drastic (and at times inexplicable) behavior to withdraw from the battlefield, 2009 was not a year to be proud of in marketing. As always, there were great ideas and campaigns put forward, but the overall tone was defined by discussions of the shape of the recovery and the immortal phrase “flat is the new up.” When break-even becomes an acceptable reality, you get what you deserve.

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These Are a Few of My Favorite Things…

by Erika Moersch ~ December 16th, 2009

Few Favorite things- EMoersch
In light of the holidays and the close of another year, I thought it might be nice to take a break from my more serious posts and do something a little fun.  I took a look at the four main engines and started to think about what my favorite things are about them; their interfaces, their mail systems, products they’ve launched, and so on.  Some of my favorite things are Search related, and some have nothing to do with Search at all.  I’ve limited my list to two things per engine.  Let’s jump right in!

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