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Google Zeitgeist Marketing Lessons, NYC-Style

Posted by Abe Mezrich on December 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am

In conjunction with Google Zeitgeist 2009—Google's list of fastest-rising searches for the year that's ending—Google has also released an interesting list of popular city-by-city searches. As a New Yorker, I decided it might be worthwhile to look at what marketers can learn from Google's NYC popular searches list, which I copy here:  

cuny portal
duane reade locations
mta trip planner
seamless web
conedison.com
hopstop
hale and heardy
shake shack
nyu home
queens library

Now for the lessons.
1) People search for URLs. Conedison.com is the official side of Con Edison, the electric company for New York City. HopStop is shorthand for HopStop.com—a great website for managing public transportation, in multiple cities. NYU home is NYU.edu—a website that every New York University is bound to be familiar with; similarly, the CUNY Portal, which you can arrive at through CUNY.edu, is the official Web home of the City University of New York.
The takeaway for marketers? If you have a URL—especially if it's tied to your brand—be sure to include that URL in your marketing keyword list. After all, Web users regularly arrive to websites via search bars, and not just through browser bars. Be sure you've set your search marketing up to let them arrive to your site (and not... Read more

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What Google Could Do with Monster.com

Posted by Abe Mezrich on November 19th, 2009 at 12:00 am

Per a recent Dow Jones piece, rumors are afoot that Monster.com could be up for sale, and that one possible buyer that's been discussed is Google. But (also per the article) the Street doubts that Google is buying Monster anytime soon, "since Monster doesn't seem to fit in with Google's core business."
I do doubt that Google will buy monster—while Google has officially re-entered the acquisitions fray (the AdMob buy comes to mind), Monster would cost a lot of money at a time when GOOG is just dipping its toes back into the acquisitions waters.
But if a Google / Monster acquisition (or partnership) did go ahead, I also think it could provide immediate value for Google: Monster.com could power OneBox results  that appear when searchers type in queries that look like job searches, along the lines of OneBox results that currently appear when users search for flights.
As the success of LinkedIn during the downturn has proven, becoming a hub for valuable job information is a pretty recession-proof business (Monster.com's current troubles notwithstanding). Also along the lines of LinkedIn, the job search business could also be another foot into social networking universe. Might be something Google wants to get into.

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The Social Marketing Geniuses who Run a Hotel

Posted by Abe Mezrich on November 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am

At the latest Business Development Institute meeting, I met the geniuses who run new media marketing for the Roger Smith Hotel in New York (Twitter: @RSHotel). Perhaps their best idea was the simplest: they ask visitors to talk about their stay on TripAdvisor.
Their visitors tend to be happy, so that means they get an enormous number of great TripAdvisor reviews—which means more business.
The takeaway?

Your best customers can be your best marketers.
Direct calls-to-action are a smart idea.
Understand how information flows from brands into the larger community—and leverage that information flow.
Put your brand where the shoppers are.
The first step to good marketing is a good product.

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5 Ways Target hits the target: Black Friday Search Campaign

Posted by Abe Mezrich on November 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am

I ran a search for "black Friday" and found this great Target ad:
    
5 things I like about this ad:

It entices searchers with an implied price statement (there will be a sale)

It used dynamic keyword insertion—it dynamically repeats the search term ("black Friday") within the search ad; that's a trick that's known to catch searchers' eyes, and to increase clickthrough rates.

It's full of call-to-action terms: "Sign-up to Preview."

It leads to a unique, Black Friday landing page.

The action that will keep users engaged with Target through the moment when they're most likely to make a purchase: the Black Friday landing page asks searchers to sign up for Target Black Friday alerts via e-mail or mobile device.

If you find another great search ad--or if you're looking for advice on your black Friday search strategy--feel free to ping me at abe.mezrich@didit.com.

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Why would MicroHoo "warrant careful scrutiny?" (Vote your answers here.)

Posted by Abe Mezrich on August 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am

The Chairman of the U.S. Senate antitrust panel, Senator Herb Kohl, has said that the pending MicroHoo deal "warrants careful scrutiny"--he isn't sure there isn't a trust problem here. Why would Kohl be suspicious of MicroHoo? 5 possibilities below: 

Kohl simply doesn't understand that MicroHoo will create more competition.
Kohl knows that MicroHoo will create more competition—but doesn't think that empowering two of the three biggest online players is the way to go about increasing competition.
He knows that MicroHoo will create more competition—but he wants to open up the door for serious investigations into online antitrust, and wants to seem as objective/thorough as possible.
He understands that MicroHoo will create more online competition—but a powerful Microsoft on the Web makes Microsoft too powerful in the tech sphere, overall.
There's just lots of Government mistrust of Microsoft (it's a holdover from the 90s).

 Which possibility makes the most sense to you? I invite all readers to vote your answers in the comments below--and to add other reasons of your own.

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