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New Marketing Fundamentals by Brian Fetherstonhaugh at SMX London 09

posted on May 27, 2009

Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO—OgilvyOne Worldwide

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Once again SMX London was held at the rather grand New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden. Unlike the typical chilly days of last November Spring was in the air and to begin the conference Brian Fetherstonhaugh of OgilvyOne took to the stage in front of a packed conference hall to deliver his keynote.

Brian began with addressing the concept that search was the holy grail of marketing. And even more so in a time of recession—the industry itself was still growing at a rate of 10-20% a year! He then told attendees that whilst OgilvyOne had worked with some top brands including American Express, Sears, Ford, Shell, Barbie, Pond’s, Dove and more. But as Brian pointed out, David Ogilvy was kind of crazy! “He was an “interesting and nutty guy”.

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Optimising Images for Search Engines – SMX West

posted on March 9, 2009

The following is a special report from SMX West 2009.

Peter Linsley—Google

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First up Peter Linsley of Google ran through some of the concepts behind Google images and also factors that may influence ranking of images on Google which included some of the following:

  • Number of referring sites—so whether the image is used on more than one website is a key metric in Google’s ranking Algorithm.
  • The text around the image and the kind of words contained is also a factor taken into account by Google.
  • Also placement of image—and whether it is above the fold

Peter also suggested that other dynamic features were in play. For example can a user comment on the image via a comments box? Or whether the image could be rated somehow.

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Paid Search Ends 2008 On a Positive Note – Up 12%

posted on January 8, 2009

By Rene LeMerle

For the best part of 2008, we heard the common tale of marketing budgets being shifted online, as companies sought affordable and measurable results. It seems the retail sector was no exception.

A report out by search management firm SearchIgnite suggests retail paid search grew 12% in Q4 2008, compared to 2007′s fourth quarter results. The growth trend was consistent across all the top three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN).

Of the three months in Q4, Nov 2008 was the stand out, experiencing a phenomenal increase of 43%, which suggests retailers we going on the offensive to leverage Black Friday/Cyber Monday activity. Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite said:

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Google Testing More New Features: Enhanced Listings, Pagelinks, and Spelling Corrections

posted on December 13, 2008

Man, I feel like my favorite search engine is going through puberty! So many awkward changes! Yep that’s right, it appears that Google is once again planning on changing the way it displays search results. Danny Sullivan reports on three changes that are currently being tested live. This news comes in just a few weeks after other major changes have been implemented.

Enhanced Listings

These are listings that contain price ranges and ratings of different products and services from businesses that include this type of information on their site. So far only Yelp, Citysearch, CNET, TripAdvisor and Download.com are a part of the testing phase. One would assume that when this feature launches to the public it will be available to any site that has reviews and price ranges with in content. Danny says that this feature is similar to Yahoo’s Search Monkey.

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Search Advertising Surges in Q4 – Defying the Economic Downturn

posted on December 10, 2008

by Rene LeMerle

Amidst the economic doom and gloom, a new report has been released which shows that Search is defying the trends and predictions. Search advertiser numbers are surging in Q4 2008.

AdGooroo, a provider of competitive intelligence keyword research and suggestion tools, has released its Mid Quarter Search Engine Update Q408 which reports “First page advertising activity on all three search engines was up sharply during the first two months of Q4″:

While substantial growth is to be expected during the holiday season, the increase in active advertiser counts is surprising given the current environment of gloom and doom.

The growth across the search engines is remarkable given the current economic climate. Google has increased its advertiser count by almost 55%, which goes well beyond any seasonality.

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Google Expands Magazine Search Functionality

posted on December 10, 2008

By Peter Young

Within the Google Book Search facility, a wide range of publications are available, however despite the number of resources online, only a small handful of those are magazines.

However things are changing. Google have announced an initiative to bring a vast number of magazine archives and current publications online. This will involve digitising millions of articles from an array of previously offline periodicals such as the New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony (to name a few).

For example, using the example from the official Google Blog. Performing a search for [hank aaron pursuing babe ruth's record] will return the 1973 Ebony article about Hank Aaron in all its ‘original’ glory—even allowing you to view the 1973 fall fashions. Reading further will allow you to ‘Browse all issues’ meaning you have access to a wide range of Ebony articles from across the decades.

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An Interview with SMM Guru: Brian Chappell

posted on December 4, 2008

By Joe Hall

Brian will tell you that he doesn’t call himself a guru, but in my opinion, others should. Last week, I came by a video on IM Broadcast that caught my attention. In this video social media marketer, Brian Chappell, responded to people that claim they are Social Media Marketing Gurus, but in reality they lack any real experience. Brian’s video reminded me about the constant discussion in the SEO community about fake SEO’s. I wanted to get a better understanding of what exactly successful social media marketing looks like, so I asked Brian if he would be willing to answer a few questions for the Marketing Pilgrim community.

Here is my interview with Brian Chappell (an active member of the SEO community, works at Ignite Social Media and blogs at BrianChappell.com)