This post was written by Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search – The Americas, and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, February 5, 2010

This weekend, the Colts and Saints will battle to determine the king of the football hill during Super Bowl XLIV. A month into 2010, there are battle lines across the search landscape that also bear watching. These battles will shape the devices, platforms and consumer experience for this year and many to come. Here’s your quick primer of the battles, the stakes and what to watch for to determine who has the upper hand.

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

One 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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The last year has seen enormous pressure on the advertising business as we know it. Beyond all the well-documented ills that have troubled the sector, an additional staple of the way media has been planned and bought is seeing its popularity come to a crashing halt. And that hallmark is the use of ‘perceptions’ and ‘panels’ to drive decisions.

In a digital age, guessing what people think about your business and validating it in test settings is an outdated concept. There was a time when the speed by which media was produced and disseminated would allow for the assurances that come with the model of targeting large swaths of the public through small segment tests. Unfortunately for some, and opportunistically for others, that time is ending.

In no better way does this show itself than the emergence in the past 10 years of Google, and in the past 12 months the emergence of Twitter. In today’s social and search marketplace, there is a unique opportunity to use intent for insights instead of perceptions and panels for planning. Allow me to demonstrate how any business can use these insights from search and social to redefine its approach to broader media application.

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This post was written by Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search – The Americas, and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, November 20, 2009

If you have a child in the 18 to 36-month-old range, you may recognize the catch phrase of the Wonder Pets in the title above. I happen to have a two year old who enjoys the adventures of Tuck, Ming-Ming and Linny. For those who have never seen the Wonder Pets, they are three animals – a hamster, turtle and chick – who enjoy celery, and each episode set out to save a poor, innocent animal using their can-do attitudes and, yep, teamwork.

So what do these Nickelodeon creations have to do with search? Well, since I never attended kindergarten and therefore missed all those things you need to know, I prefer to use my kids’ TV viewing as a means for learning the lessons of life. The Wonder Pets, in their “team together” philosophy, exemplify the greatest area of growth still needed in the search space.

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This post was written by Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search – The Americas, and published in MediaPost’s Search Insider, Friday, October 23, 2009

If you walked out of your home to find graffiti on the outside, what would you do? If you got to your office building to find more of the same, but from different “artists,” how would you react? Regardless of the quality or spirit of the message, your initial reaction would likely be violent to find your personal property defiled, your professional workplace violated. Now, imagine if the suggested course of response was to not cover it up, but rather to add your own graffiti to the wall.

Your emotions would then be of outrage, right? Well, let me introduce you to the business conundrum that is Google SideWiki.

Debuting to industry fanfare less than a month ago, the toolbar application allows any user to “tag” opinions about any Web site for other toolbar users to see. In one recent case, a pharmaceutical manufacturer witnessed the proclamation that its product made a man’s arm fall off. In other examples, brands have watched competitors attempt to siphon off traffic through covert messaging and mentions of alternatives to such poor products. Many savvy Internet marketing professionals have taken to the Web to show how SideWiki can be gamed by using Google profiles to move comments up and down.

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