Google or Bing - I am not the only one

Hey,

Just a quick one relating to my last post. 5 reasons to move to Bing and some of the stats I was missing. Where do you go to search?

Bing and Google

Hey all,

Its been on my mind for a while about this whole Google vs Bing debate. I know Bing has a strong international presence, particularly in China but is it really going to compete in the UK. I don’t have the official figures to hand but I know there is still a massive market share gap between the two search engines.

The whole point of a search engine is one point of contact and hub to answer all your questions and queries. So inevitably people are going to choose or show preference towards one of the two. With the growth in search engine marketing and its likely dominance of ad spend in the future this is a serious area we as marketers and strategists need to get a grasp on. Is there any chances everyone will suddenly start to type in Bing rather than Google? I honestly don’t think so.

However my concern is that we are starting to look at search on too broad a platform. I know there is a certain amount of people who will say if in doubt plough your money into Google. Which to be fair is not a bad idea. However when looking to be more and more targeted and the pressures on ROI should we truly just dismiss the niggle that is Bing? I think, maybe not. We need to seriously look further than market share. Who are these people using Bing within the UK? Chinese students and expats? Younger audiences? Older audiences?

Who are these people!?

Could we be missing out on an opportunity to really hone in on a segment of the UK population to tailor messages to? Search is growing and growing as an advertising channel and I think we really need to look strategically at search not just how much money to split across the content and search network but which search engines to utilise. This should not be just resigned to international campaigns but also those within the UK.

That’s it for now!
Cheers, E x

I've recently wrote a lot of draft blogs and either lost my train of thought and failed to complete them or find myself re-reading them and thinking what the hell am I rambling about. But then I guess when you read the tag line of my blog that is exactly what is to be expected.

I need to find more time to take and out and really get back into blogging. It is so easy these days to say your too busy but to be honest sharing and connecting is the society of today. So why disconnect yourself by claiming to be too busy, ultimately it can cause a lot of loneliness. Recently with advertising, being the tougher industry it is in these times, I have found myself becoming more and more absorbed in the day to day and forgetting to take a step back and remember the bigger picture. With the pressure to hit targets and bring in money the fine line between sales and marketing becomes much easier to cross. What, which is ever so more important in these times, is strategy. Without strategy you are spitting into the wind and just hoping in the short-term you can keep dodging and diving and stay dry. However the law of averages says eventually you are going to get wet, building the right strategy even if you do spit into the wind can significantly reduce this probability.

In the advertising industry it is not just internal strategy you have to think about but that of your clients. Sometimes it is much easier to take an outside consultative approach to developing strategy by being able to take in the wider environment as well as getting deep into the skin of clients. Now is the time to embrace change not skim over the pot holes and hope for the best. We need to engage, anticipate and embrace the changes in every industry not just our own and have ears close to the ground on not only what change will come but how to take hold of it and mould it before it emerges.

Anyway just a brief one, more to remind myself than anything else.

Been a long day!

Signing out,

E x

Just an update

Sitting on the train to Newcastle on the way home for the weekend and not thinking about too much. Pretty tired after a work night out last night to establish our local pub. We have an initiative at the minute to further develop the social integration of our office which to be honest isn't as shocking as I thought. Sometimes I guess in the advertising world people are in a certain area based on their personality which creates a collection of a very different set of people when you put us all together, from creatives, to account handler to planners it becomes quite a clash of emotions, prides, egos and personalities in general.

Anyway never mind that, a good night was had by most and it will be interesting to see the voting results as they come out. Lot of scope to do some cool stuff with these guys, and they are a good bunch even though I wouldn't tell most of them.

What have I been up to recently? I have been to Venice and France both of which are amazing. I think I personally prefer Venice because it is warn in. It is lived in a little shabby in parts but has a past. Where as Paris was unreal, like a backdrop kind of views but was almost too perfect and clean. I mean come on I am Geordie now living in London, I expect Pigeons, beggers, sick, kebab leftovers none of which I saw in either place so when somewhere is too perfect it doesn't have the reality feel which after a while can become a bit too much.

I am looking to live abroad in a few different places over the course of my life to really get a feel for the world and myself and the different ways of life. As much as I would like to live in Paris I think it would get a bit too much, however living in Venice I think could be a great place, the warmth you get just walking into the place, the river the nature the beauty is overwhelming at times. The food is also good not too foof for me like the french food and I have to tell you the bread was good. French bread was better though I have never ate so many carbs in my life as I did in France it was not good.

However France I want to concentrate in a seperate blog as the adventures I had there are worthy of their own dedicated time.

Nothing to really stimulate your lives with in this post just wanted to give you a bit of an update.

I will be writing about France soon. Maybe even try and post some pictures up.

Thinking outloud once again.

Geordie in London x

Augmented Reality

I was sitting to day delving into my own skills and working on some innovation task force work when I was reminded of the minority report. How far away are we from the level of technology they feature in this film and the ability to target messages to the individual as they walk past? Not so far it seems. I was reading some articles on augmented reality and location based advertising and it all seems so close. Ok so it may not be using iris recognition although this, I think, isn't far off particularly if the government eventually gets to go ahead with ID cards and the mainstream introduction of Iris Recognition in airports as security measures. Thinking about it we do draw a lot from utilising individual data captured for other reasons. I know people see this as becoming a big brother nation but really we draw entertainment from more and more reality TV and... there is such an issue over spam and unrelated advertising that surely this level of data and targeting will allow the advertiser to sift out and desensitise individuals by simply avoiding advertising to people who may not wish to see certain adverts.

Anyway that is off the subject of what I was intending to write about. Augmented reality was what I was talking about, with the increased use of touch screen and GPS to achieve this. Already we have iphone apps to show us where the nearest tube station is in London and also there is the development of google maps street view. How long is it before we no longer see a 2D image of anything? Before we actually don't see blueprints of an architects design or website map but see a 3D augmented reality version of it? Already Ikea is utilising new technology to try before you buy and Virgin Media is one of the risk taking brands trying out this not so new but developing technology.

Working in recruitment advertising I am trying to see how we can apply this. Perhaps it brings more power back to the applicant that the client now needs to pander to. How long before when applying for a job you expect to have a tour of the office on your computer screen? I don't mean just a video tour I mean actually seeing what it would be like and have an experiential day there without leaving your house. For engineering roles how long before we start using Wii technology to actually get graduates to do the job without the potential damage of ruining a project or making a major mistake?

Unless the recruitment advertising world starts to innovate and find clients with enough balls and money to take a risk more and more clients are going to go down the McDonalds route and get a commercial agency to take on their recruitment and employer branding business.

With product and commercial inevitably ahead of recruitment advertising agency it may become a dying sector. Augmented reality, virtual, touch screen, technological dominance are inevitable right?

Unless we start to pick up speed or leapfrog commercial agencies in the digital world it could become a major issue to survive. Another possible direction may be the specialisation and fragmentation of the sector the same way in which commercial advertising agencies have gone with brands now outsourcing social media, employer branding to one agency, web design to another, PR to another, direct marketing to another, media buying to another? Do we need to specialise or can we continue to attempt to achieve the once strived for and talked about integrated marketing agency?

Or when is that high flyers and innovators start to turn to advertisers to develop a brand for them? Turn to an agency to create them an online profile and brand? Give them the brand that people keep advising them to develop and protect with more and more employers scoping out a person online before a decision is made. Lets face it even in real life when we meet new people we rarely ask for a number or an email, the question is.. are you on facebook? Ok I'll find you!

Be online or be lost?!

Dancing has taken over in popularity?

Don't get me wrong I have not whole heartedly been watching Britain’s got talent but from the media coverage these things obviously get it is hard to miss. Maybe instead of product placement brands should approach potential candidates to have a fetish for them and openly promote this on the show. Let's see who has a strong preference for Haribo out of the contestants? View product shots behind the scenes and a Haribo world t-shirt when out and about buying Starbucks.

Anyway that is beside my point. What struck me when having a cheeky fag in the break was the inexplicable amount of dance acts after one George Sampson won. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems the masses have now caught on to the fact there are far too many singing shows for one to be entertained continuously, we as a nation have reached saturation. Xfactor will continue to be a cash cow however the stars as so 'theoretically' name them are the dance groups or individuals it seems. Is this an interlinking thought into the movement online and ability to have video ipods and interactive adverts or the youtube nation and yahoo’s video search functions. Let’s not doubt that youtube grows these stars and moves them worldwide just look at the wifey who wants to be Elaine Paige. Who in my opinion ain’t all that amazing second time round anyway. Could it be our need to have multiple stimuli and continuous movement links well with the new found acceptance of body popping and wheelbarrow dancing?

Is the nation moving away from the music to mainstream dancing (of all kinds and variations, my preference being street or true hip hop). How many people can come out belt a tune we have heard time and time again. Does dancing have this allure of requiring hard work and talent that (untruly) doesn't always seem in the eyes of the public to apply with a god given talent of a beautiful voice.

Do we want more from our entertainment? Dancing changes and needs too to be fresh. Styles change, moves are created, and combinations are unique. What is it that has made us suddenly switch to wanting to see people dance for us rather than sing?

Pondering outloud!

Rejuvinate!

It has been a while since I wrote anything, my excuses which are bullshit include bloggers block and lacking time to enjoy the finer elements of writing.

Today I come to you with a fresh start, new beginning and time to trully cut through the bullshit and get back to what is real....

Chapter two begins again.