Posts filed under 'Events'

Search Engine Strategies, New York 2008

Gotham to host SES expo and conference  

O Manhattan, home of skyscrapers, the Yankees, Woody Allen, Broadway, The Statue of Liberty, hip hop and most importantly, Manhattan clam chowder!

Next week, from March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) to March 20 (Spring Equinox), Manhattan will also be home to the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo.

SES NY 2008 features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related marketing. Yahoo! will be there on the expo floor at booth #2009 with dedicated Yahoos there to answer your questions.

If you’re heading to SES NY 2008, you definitely want to check out these insightful Yahoo! panelists:

Monday, March 17
9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Creating Compelling Ads
Speaker: Jason Dorn, Senior Director, Network Quality Team, Yahoo! Inc.

11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Igniting Viral Campaigns
Speaker: Conn Fishburn, Director of Social Media Strategy, Yahoo! Inc.

2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues
Speaker: Reggie Davis, Vice President, Marketplace Quality, Yahoo! Inc.

Tuesday, March 18
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Ads in a Quality Score World
Speaker: David Miller, Sr. Product Manager, Sponsored Search, Yahoo! Inc.

Wednesday, March 19
10:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Social Media Marketing - What is it and What is it Good For?
Speaker: Conn Fishburn, Director of Social Media Strategy, Yahoo! Inc.

5:30 – 6:45 p.m.
Searcher Behavior Research Update
Moderator: Edwin Wong, Director, Market Research, Yahoo! Search Marketing

5:30 – 6:45 p.m.
Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything
Speaker: Ramsey McGory, VP, Global Exchange, Right Media, a Yahoo! company

Thursday, 20 March
9:00 – 9:45 a.m.
Morning Keynote
Speaker: Andrew Tomkins, Chief Scientist, Yahoo! Search

12:25 – 1:45 p.m.
Meet the Crawlers
Speaker: Sean Suchter, Vice President, Yahoo! Search Technology Engineering, Yahoo

So head to SES NY 2008 to hear top search engine industry minds discuss the ever-changing media landscape. Just bring me back some chowder.

– Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications

Start Spreading the News

SES hits NYC in March; take advantage of a special 20% Yahoo! discount to attend 

They say you never forget your first time. Granted, that phrase isn’t usually referring to “when I visited New York City,” but for this lifelong Left Coaster, it remains etched in my mind. Eleven years old and on a summer trip with the folks, I can still remember the cab ride from JFK to Manhattan, staring wide-eyed as the collection of skyscrapers grew larger and larger. Many natives may take New York’s hugeness and hubris in stride, but even as an adult, it’s still pretty thrilling to visit The City That Never Sleeps.

You can reconnect with The Big Apple yourself, while at the same time growing your search marketing acumen, by attending the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference, March 17-20 at the Hilton New York. In the past, SES has yielded a wealth of data and tactics for everyone from Fortune 500 marketing pros to online sole proprietors who want to take the next step in their advertising efforts.

The SES Expo—consisting of booths with the requisite tchotchkes and eager company representatives—is free to attend, provided you sign up in advance. Of course, Yahoo! will be there, so be sure to come by and say hello. The Conference section of SES includes keynotes speeches, valuable panel discussions and other breakout sessions. As a reader of the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog, you can get a 20% discount off of your Conference registration fee, using the discount code 20YAHOO at the official SES site.

Springtime in New York City: The Central Park flowers will be starting to bloom, and—by picking the collective brains of search marketing’s superstars–so can your paid search campaigns.

— Jeff Hecox, still aspiring to King of the Hill and Top of the Heap

 Photo courtesy jbparker via Flickr

Top Search Agency Shining Bright

Yahoo! congratulates Outrider on winning the 3rd Annual Searchlight Award

If you ask us, the biggest election story last Tuesday was not the Obama and McCain landslides in the Potomoc primaries, but rather, the election of this year’s winner for search marketing excellence. Outrider, the search unit of Group M, was awarded the Searchlight Award for 2008 on a snowy, blustery day at the Time Life Building in New York City. An audience of more than 200 interactive marketers braved the elements to watch four agencies duke it out for top honors.

Expert Perspective
The day began with a stirring keynote by Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction. Rob shared with the audience his thoughts on the intersection of performance marketing and brand advertising, and how Yahoo! is in an ideal position to capitalize on this convergence. It’s always a treat to hear Rob speak, and this keynote was no exception. After Rob finished his remarks, it was on to the finalists.

First to the stage were Renee Robertson and Jessica Mainelli from Carat, who explained how search marketing was used to build awareness and brand intent for Reebok’s “Run Easy” campaign. Panelist Greg Sterling, a local search expert, was impressed with the use of geo-targeting in this campaign, as it tied in nicely with the unique messaging in Carat’s out-of-home buys.

Outrider then walked the audience through its work to promote Smirnoff’s recent additions to the growing “malternative” beverage category. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, chief Outrider Chris Copeland flew in to help sell the audience on its candidacy for the Searchlight Award. One of the most impressive screen shots of the presentation was a search results page on which Outrider had secured multiple search listings for Smirnoff by using both organic and paid search tactics.

Lance Neuhauser and Neal Wilson of Resolution Media presented a case study of work they had done for FedEx around their 2007 Super Bowl buy. While many digital marketers will generally dismiss the efficacy of a Super Bowl buy, the folks from Resolution made a strong case for building on The Big Game for a strong multi-channel effort with an incredible halo effect. They supported their case with compelling data, including an impressive chart taken from the Yahoo! Buzz Index that highlighted the surge in search activity for FedEx immediately following Super Bowl Sunday.

The last agency to showcase its work was Digitas. The firm’s Chris Paul and Matt D’Ercole walked us through an inspirational campaign called “The Members Project,” which called upon American Express members to ideate and vote for projects that would better the world, and American Express would then fund. Digitas discussed how to leverage a parent brand for a philanthropic enterprise, and how to connect social media, video and celebrity endorsements to a search campaign. Chris and Matt showed the great work that can happen when creative and media are tightly aligned.

The audience was then asked to vote, and Outrider was announced as the 2008 Searchlight Award winner. The event was capped off by a comedy performance by Jeff Caldwell and a cocktail reception.

From all of us at Yahoo!, we warmly congratulate not only Outrider, but each of the other finalists. All of us left winners, as we got to hear from these great marketers and expand the way we think about leveraging search marketing in our campaigns.

It’s an event that I look forward to each year, and hope that you can join us in 2009.

— Ron Belanger, Vice President, Agency Development.

Valentine’s Day Advice

Get your search campaigns—if not your love life—in order

My first real Valentine’s Day was in eighth grade, when I torpedoed my three-week-old relationship by giving my girlfriend perfume instead of chocolate. Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for good V-Day advice—such as, I don’t know, that you shouldn’t tell your girlfriend that chocolates will only make her fat.

Our Yahoo! experts have lots of advice for Valentine’s Day—not to get your love life in order, but to help you get the most out of your Yahoo! search marketing campaigns during this heavy shopping season. We’d like to invite you to an upcoming free webinar where they’ll share Valentine’s Day-related data and best practices.

The one-hour webinar will cover the following:
• Trends in Valentine’s Day consumer spending habits
• How to write strong Valentine’s Day ads
• Examples of how “Valentine” keywords can best be worked into your campaign
• Ideas for Valentine’s Day keywords that may be less competitive
• Search advertising best practices for the Valentine’s Day season

The webinar will be presented this coming Friday, February 1 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time/2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To sign up, please visit the registration page.

— Jeff Sweat

Calling all Search Superstars!

Searching for Searchlight Award Winners

Now that the holidays are behind us, we can all start to focus on the next seasonal reality…awards season. It seems that just about every industry now has their own awards showcase (when it’s not getting cancelled due to the writers’ strike).

So why should all of us in the search world be left out in the cold? Well, I’m happy to announce that our time has come. On February 12, we’ll be holding the 3rd Annual Yahoo! Searchlight Award showcase in New York City. If you haven’t been to it in the past, it’s a must-attend event. You’ll get to hear the insights and strategies behind four of the best search marketing campaigns from 2007. One winner will be crowned the 2008 Searchlight Award winner. (Previous winners include Avenue A/Razorfish and RPA.)

You’ll also hear a great keynote from one of the most digitally savvy and forward-thinking agency minds. Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction, will kick us off with his thoughts on what’s hot in 2008 and beyond. Rob is as witty as he is brilliant, so we’re really excited to have him this year.

We also have four great panelists who will be helping the audience decide who deserves the award. The panel will question the presenters, offering their own insights and providing their own analysis of the work.

Our panelists include the following:
Abbey Klaassen - Digital Editor, Advertising Age
Kevin Ryan - Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies
Greg Sterling - Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence
Brian Morrissey - Senior Reporter, Adweek

Greg and Brian have been with us since we kicked off the Searchlight Awards and we warmly welcome them back. We are also excited to have Abbey Klaasen and the inimitable Kevin Ryan join us for the first time as panelists.

Do you have a campaign from 2007 that you’d like to submit for consideration? Would you like to see your agency featured in a full-page print advertisement in one of the trade publications? Do you want the glory and exclusivity to boast that you are the best of the best? (Yes, yes and yes, of course.)

If so, I would like to personally invite you to submit your campaign at http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/searchlightaward/. (You can also use this link to register to attend the awards.)

We look forward to seeing you in New York to help us decide who will win the 2008 Searchlight Award. In the meantime, we hope your 2008 brings marketing success to you and all of your colleagues.

—Ron Belanger, VP, Agency Development

Post-PubCon Ponderings

Highlights from last week’s PubCon Conference

As we mentioned previously, folks from Yahoo! participated in last week’s PubCon 2007 conference in Las Vegas. Here are some practical tips and lessons learned from the event to help you in your search marketing goals.

Breaking Down the Break-Outs
On the first day of PubCon, Yahoo! participated on a session called “Major PPC Engines: Vendor Panel.” Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Patrizio Spagnoletto answered questions from the audience and shared great tips for creating ads from keyword research to writing ad copy, including:

• Always use the Keyword Suggestion tool
• Review your site for keywords and build from there
• 80 percent of your volume is probably coming from 20 percent of your keywords. Adjust accordingly.

Elaborating on the topic of writing effective ad copy, the session “PPC Marketing 101” featured search luminaries Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance, who also moderated the panel, and Mona Elessiely, Director of Marketing Strategy, Page Zero Media. You may remember Mona as the author of “Mastering Panama.”

The panel tackled a common challenge that many search engine advertisers face: How to make your ads compelling and different from your competitors.

Here are some of the tips offered in this session:

• Urgency—By implying a sense of urgency in your ad, such as “Buy Now,” you may trigger some response among customers who feel they have to click on your ad because time is running out.
• Keywords in title—Try using keywords in your title to stand out from your competitors.
• Benefits—Mention why what you sell or offer benefits your customer.
• Humor—Sometimes a funny ad sets you apart from the herd and attracts attention, which in turn may attract more customers.
• Testing—Find out which ads work best for your business.

For more detailed coverage on this session, check out Search Engine Roundtable.

One of the many great moments at PubCon was the special evening event, “The Open Search Forum with the Engines,” a.k.a., “The Search Engine Smack-Down.” The panel was hosted by the legendary Guy Kawasaki and featured executives from the major search engines. Yahoo!’s Tim Mayer, VP of Product Management, and Dan Boberg, Managing Director of Sales Technology, were there representing Yahoo!.

Kawasaki posed questions on topics ranging from social media, quality control issues and more. He asked the panelists, “What is the philosophy of your search engine?”

“Our goal is to do and have it done in one search,” said Tim Mayer. “That’s why, with our many different products and services, we’re looking into user intent and queries to provide a bundle of information to the user.”

Kawasaki also asked the panelists to put themselves into the shoes of an entrepreneur today and explain what kind of model they would use in today’s new media landscape.

“It’s important to think as a marketer,” said Yahoo!’s Dan Boberg. “All webmasters out there can learn from brand marketers and how key influencers are very important. You have to ask yourself how you are going to create this spark. You want to continue to draw in customers and keep them there.”

Overall, the conference provided plenty of insight and illuminations. You might lose some money when gambling in Vegas, but PubCon was a win.

For further detailed coverage, please visit Search Engine Roundtable event reporting.

—Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications

Photo courtesy Marc Levin via Flickr

Yahoo! at PubCon Las Vegas 2007

The Affordable Leading-Edge Conference for Search Marketers and Webmasters  is Not Just a Simulacra

Whether you’re new to online advertising or you’re a seasoned search marketing pro, WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference (“PubCon”), to be held next week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is almost a guaranteed win.

For four days, in the hyper-real, postmodernist splendor of Vegas, PubCon will feature engaging topics to those interested in search marketing, Web 2.0, SEO, affiliate programs, domains, online video, multimedia and more.

Writing about Las Vegas, the French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, once wrote:

The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert, and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them: the mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.

But there’s no need to worry about being in the dark about search marketing and web publishing, because Yahoo! will be there to help shine a light on the way. PubCon 2007 will feature a special evening session featuring Guy Kawasaki and a panel with Yahoo! execs Tim Mayer and Dan Boberg. And don’t forget to attend Tuesday’s “Major PPC Engines – Vendor Panel,” featuring Yahoo! Search Marketing’s own Patrizio Spagnoletto.

For more information, check out the complete schedule. Be sure to visit the Yahoo! booth No. 502 on the conference floor, too. 

Vegas, as Baudrillard said, is the ultimate American simulacra of a city. Why go to Paris when you can gamble at the Paris, Las Vegas? Why visit the pyramids of Giza, when you can witness the wacky prop comedy of Carrot Top or watch an IMAX film about the Nile at the Luxor? Can’t decide whether to play blackjack, see priceless works of art in a casino lobby or spend $4.99 for a prime rib dinner (salad and dinner roll included)? No matter—you can do it all.

Take a break from chasing the ever-fleeting jackpot and get some real, practical takeaways for your search marketing efforts from the Yahoo! search luminaries at PubCon 2007.

When: December 4 to 7, 2007
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas

—Roger Park, Hipster of Hyperreality

Advertiser 2.0

BlogWorld 2007 Shows the Value of Blogging and New Media for Online Advertisers

Yahoo! sent a crew of us to the BlogWorld Expo last week and, boy, what a ride. Clearly, blogging and social media have certainly come of age. Blogs used to be seen as hobbies for quirky Gen-Xers with an itch to share the banal details of their dreary little lives. You know: “Macaroni and cheese for dinner…again! Mom called at nine and ragged me for a half hour about you-know-what…” Blah, blah, blah…

Blogging and Your Brand
But BlogWorld showed clearly that businesses that ignore the vast, electronic mega-conversation that is today’s Internet do so at their own peril. As Clint Schaff of M-80 and Blake Cahill of Visible Technologies pointed out in their seminar, opinions effect brands, and no business can hope to keep on top of its image without engaging with consumers through new media. All it takes for you to lose perhaps thousands of dollars in business is one aggressive, disgruntled customer to start a network of negativity that could reach through the ’Net.

We’re going to hear a lot more detail on this topic from Blake and Clint in the coming weeks, so for now we’ll leave you with a choice quote from their presentation: “You can join the conversation now, or procrastinate and have join the conversation later anyway.”

Crowdsourcing
You’ve heard of outsourcing, where a businesses contracts with others to get certain tasks done. Crowdsourcing is getting people outside your company to help do your marketing—for free—through social media and word-of-mouth. It involves engaging your customers and getting them to wax poetic about your products and services on their own blogs and in social networks. Why have a marketing team of ten, the saying goes, when you could have a marketing team of 10,000? This is another topic that we’ll get into more deeply in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, explore blogging and social media as options to help your company engage with customers and guide the conversation around your products and services.

Here’s some more BlogWorld coverage from around the Web:

There’s more to corporate blogging than just begging your CEO to let you set one up.

Here’s a great list of video interviews by our friends over at Build a Better Blog.

Zac Jonhson blogs Marc Cuban’s keynote speech.

For Flickr photos streams, click here and here.

—Michael Mattis

More Holiday How-to’s

Join Us at Our Holiday Consumer Overview and Search Best Practices Web Conference

Our last holiday strategies webinar was so successful that we’ve added another. This free webinar, hosted by Pato Spagnoletto, our Senior Director of Marketing, will cover how users move between paid and algorithmic search, how to manage campaigns holistically in order to deliver superior performance, and offer tons of helpful tips and best practices for the holidays.

When: Wednesday, November 14, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
Where: Right from your computer.

To register, click here and follow the instructions.

—The Team

Learn the Value of Blogging at BlogWorld 2007

Las Vegas Conference Offers Tracks for Entrepreneurs and Execs

Sometimes doing business online can feel like a bit of a crap shoot. You can’t always tell which plays are going to come up a “natural” and which are going to “crap out.” So it’s appropriate that the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2007 conference is being held in the crap shoot capital of the universe, Las Vegas.

BlogWorld is just about the biggest tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated solely to blogging and new media, with more than 50 seminars. For you, the online advertiser and e-commerce entrepreneur or executive, there are special tracks that can help show you the value of blogging and new media to your brand and your bottom line. There’s also a beginners track for those new to blogging. And the networking opportunities abound.

For more information, take a look at the complete schedule.

The special executive and entrepreneur conference opens on Wednesday, Nov. 7, while the general conference begins Thursday, Nov. 8 and runs through Friday, Nov. 9. So come on down to the Las Vegas Convention Center and BlogWorld 2007. Be sure to swing by booth 325.

—Michael Mattis 

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