The first comes from paidcontent.org and it describes how the role of the specialist internet marketer is evolving from Search Engine Optimization [SEO] specialist to Social Media Optimization [SMO] Specialist
“[The] SMO recognizes that Facebook already has the best position to introduce content to users. Already, audiences are using Facebook as the news interface to their favorite sources (both media titles and their friends) in a way that Google News hasn’t cracked the code on; products like Flipboard that take this to the next level are captivating.” -SEO Is Dead, And The New King Is ‘SMO’
The other stories stem from a presentation by Dropbox CEO Drew Houston on how Search advertising failed to deliver customers on a cost-effective basis. As he put it “All the AdWords in the world are not going to save you if no one’s looking for what you’re making”
“However, when the company tried to continue that growth through traditional methods, it found that it was paying something like $400 to acquire each new user, which was far more than customers paid for the service…What went wrong? Houston said the problem, particularly with search advertising, was that no one was actually searching for a document syncing product. That’s the danger with trying to solve a problem that may be real, but that people don’t realize they have yet.” – VentureBeat Dropbox CEO: Why search advertising failed us
“Search-related keyword advertising is a multibillion-dollar industry for a reason — because it is extremely good at converting people who are searching for information into shoppers who want to buy something. But it doesn’t work for everything, and it’s worth being reminded of that sometimes” – GigaOm Search Ads Are a Hammer, But Not Everything is a Nail
These ideas go back to the basic ideas I explored at the beginning of the journey (Think: Is advertising online really your best option? , Today’s media? It’s all about Find Me, Find You and Let’s Exchange, A dedicated follower of fashion?, CrowdSongstress and Forget Freemium. Tomorrow we’ll be talking Memium)
The next step in this evolution is of course the rise of the ETO specialist. These are the people how will help you to optimise your advertising so that people not only find you but improve your transaction conversion rate (i.e. Exchange and Transaction Optimisation Specialists). Only then will advertising online complete the journey from Find You, Find Me to let’s exchange.
Of course not everybody agrees with me that advertising is going to become so deterministic in its approach.
I have received a number of off-line responses to my post earlier in the week on the new science of advertising. One industry notable suggested that .. “It’s no longer the age of brands broadcasting, but the age of brand’s attracting and encouraging people participation….’Brand Entertainment’… [This means] Engineering the content (offline or online) is the new world for brands/ad agencies. It’s now all about how you engage people and have them participate in your brand and take them on a compelling journey (a sustainable one to build a long-term connection) is what gives a brand value. Not short-term product sales or tactical ideas.”
These ideas reflect why I think traditional agencies find the Find Me dynamic of Social Media so enticing. Unlike Search Advertising it is easy to see how the Traditional Brand Building and Management model fits within the new world Social Media advertising.
The thing I like about the trend towards mobile and online Exchange and Transactional Advertising is it represents a new wave. It’s the punk music or the French new wave cinema equivalent of marketing and it is taking advertising back to its origins: The simple idea that you can forget all the glamour, the high art forms and the psycho-babble because the reason you do all this is to actual sell something.
Yes we will see a future of big budget “Brand Entertainment” – a veritable Disneyland and Universal Studies of online/online mobile social media marketing – but we will also see a future of Transaction Exchanges driven not by branding and positioning but availability and price.
The MobCon future may not be eBay in its purest form but at least the growth in transactional advertising is creating shock waves in an industry that has grown complacent with its own message.. It will be raw, it will be crude and it will hurt the industry elite but it will blow through the industry like a breath of much need fresh air.
Posted on October 29, 2010
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