Marketing Pilgrim

If you were characterize the relationship between Google and Yelp these days it would have to occur on a sliding scale that runs between contentious and bearable. Let’s face it, they don’t get along well and each new event in the relationship adds some more drama.

Yelp has rebuffed a Google attempt to buy the service at the end of last year and they have recently been in a spat over the use of Yelp reviews in Google Place Pages. This little battle was based on both the use of the reviews at all and where they were usually placed (which was at the end of the line behind Zagat’s and others).

Now it appears that Google has taken Yelp results out of their Place Page results entirely. According to TechCrunch

A few minutes ago, I pointed by my browser to the Daily Radar Blips sites with the intention of dropping a link to my last post here on Marketing Pilgrim. This is what I found:

Apparently Future US, the parent company of Daily Radar, has pulled the plug on the entire network including BallHype, ShowHype and my beloved TVBlips. Seriously? Just like that?

I took a turn around the internet and Twitter and was surprised to find that it wasn’t a big topic of conversation. Few people seem to have noticed the closure and maybe that, right there, explains it all.

Customer interaction is the key behind two new marketing campaigns that hit the web this past week, Hyundai “Uncensored” and Halo’s Robotic Arm. Let’s take a closer look and see if we can get inspired for a campaign of our own.

Hyundai’s “Uncensored” campaign has gained the interest of both consumers and the media. The idea behind it was to gather unsolicited and uncensored testimonials by putting hidden cameras in cars. The commercials have been airing on TV and YouTube for the past month and now Hyundai is using Facebook to drive their point home. They used their Facebook page to pick 50 participants for a one-month test drive. The drivers were asked to post their thoughts regularly on their Facebook page. They were also given cameras so they could record and upload videos. The assumption here is that most people will post kind thoughts even if it’s not the full truth. But anytime you ask people for an opinion, you’re bound to get complainers and Hyundai has several on their “Uncensored” Facebook page. One woman talks about a class action suit due to a gas problem and another wails on Hyundai’s customer service.

I was all set to post a simple announcement that Yahoo had officially flicked the switch and changed its search results to Bing’s.

I had no plans to give Yahoo a hard time. Give it a break, I told myself. Let it prove to the world that it’s not bailing on search.

Then I read Shashi Seth’s rebuttal to…well, no one in particular.

I’ve heard some innuendo that with Yahoo! Search transitioning certain back-end functions to Microsoft, we are no longer a “search engine.” …most industry players initially build their entire technology stack in-house. As these companies become more successful, and as technology matures, many building blocks of these products are outsourced – even some of the most critical components.

Facebook has taken a stand on just what you can or cannot show in an ad on the social media service. Of course, their decision came a week after said ad was running. As a result, st least a short while it was OK for Facebook to take the money of the Just Say Now organization before it extinguished the campaign.

The LA Times reports

Pot leaves are easy to find on Facebook pages. But the nation’s largest social-networking site has decided they cannot appear in advertisements, prohibiting them as “illegal content.”

The policy was disclosed Tuesday after a national campaign promoting legalization accused Facebook of censoring political speech. The Just Say Now campaign said the popular website rejected its ads after they had run for more than a week. The ads featured the readily recognizable leaf and asked the website’s users to “sign the petition to President Obama to support states’ rights to legalize marijuana.”

How much benefit do you get from being part of Twitter’s limited test of Promoted Tweets?

Well, according to one of the participants, Zecco, life is pretty good at the top of the Twitter Search results!

Over the past two months, Zecco sampled 50 Promoted Tweets and measured their effectiveness. In comparison to regular Tweets, Zecco saw an average 50% increase in engagement with Promoted Tweets and 200 to 300% increases in some cases. During this time, the majority of Zecco’s tweets focused on financial market commentary and new product offerings.

Of course, 300% is relative to the baseline. So, the percentage could appear to be more impressive than the actual numbers. Still, it’s good news for Twitter as it continues on its quest to find a revenue model.