Battle With EMS Is Latest Controversy Surrounding Google's Search-Term Bidding Policy
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- There's a fight brewing over the lightweight, wicking apparel technology known as Dri-Fit -- but the battle is about search marketing and the right to bid on trademarked terms.
Google
Google
Dri-Fit is a trademark of Nike, and the athletic giant has sued New Hampshire-based outdoor-sporting-goods retailer Eastern Mountain Sports, which does not sell any Nike clothing, for bidding on the term "Dri-Fit" in Google's advertising system. So when a user clicks on an EMS ad after searching for Dri-Fit, she is driven back to the retailer's website, which displays other versions of wicking technology.
For Google, bidding on competitors' trademarks is allowed -- even if some marketers think it shouldn't be. But the Dri-Fit debate is only the latest in a series of similar complaints. As major marketers funnel more money into the $9 billion search-advertising category, many are increasingly sour about Google's policy. Google recently settled a trademark-infringement suit brought on by American Airlines, which was upset that competitors advertised against its trademarked terms. The settlement didn't clarify the rules, but it did allow Google to keep selling ads against marketers' trademarks.
Brand awareness
At the heart of it, the debate over trademarks is part of a bigger branding battle marketers wage online, where billions of dollars are spent on advertising and other forms of marketing to create brand awareness. When a consumer goes online to search on a specific brand, marketers don't want competitors to be able to park in the paid-search listings.
Tom Adams, CEO of Rosetta Stone, likens it to competitors sitting at your doorstep: "Think if you had a shop and competitors were standing outside your store, and the moment someone walks up they say 'Please come with me.'"
Marketers absolutely can co-opt the goodwill generated offline by targeting other brands' search terms, said Rob Murray, president of iProspect, citing Mazda's advertising on Pontiac's search term when the latter ran TV ads urging people to "Google" it.
According to iProspect, the money marketers spend offline to build a brand does indeed affect search performance. A 2007 study found 67% of the online searchers are driven to search by offline channels and that, of those, 39% ultimately make a purchase. (Of course, this year's study showed 45% of marketers still don't integrate offline and online.)
Balancing interests
While Google's policy allows bids to be placed on someone else's trademarked keywords, it does not allow a marketer to use a trademarked term in the ad copy. Google asserts that allowing competitors to bid on branded keywords gives consumers more choice in their search results. "We are trying to balance the interests of trademark owners, advertisers and our users," said a spokeswoman in an e-mail. Yahoo and Microsoft search have stricter regulations and generally don't allow advertisers to bid on competitors' trademarked terms.
"If I'm Geico and driving people to Google's search engine to perform searches and Google's saying we want to give consumer choice, well, in algorithmic [search] everyone expects that [in unpaid or natural search results]," Mr. Murray said. "But when it comes to paid search, the fact Google will benefit from all clicks, it's a slippery slope." In Google's defense, he said, there's lots of aggressive bid management going on and Google can only police it so much.
Mr. Adams is part of a coalition of marketers, the Alliance Against Bait & Click, that includes InterContinental Hotels Group, Starwood Resorts, Northwest Airlines and 1800 Contacts. The group is attempting to stop what they call "scads" -- scam ads that confuse consumers. And while the group's target goes beyond trademark bidding, it does count such tactics as confusing to consumers.
Did you really 'Google' that?
"Somehow in context of search-engine advertising, search engines have gotten idea that if you ask for one thing it's OK to give something else or something in addition," said Harvard professor Benjamin Edelman, a member of the alliance. He likens it to hitting the channel for Fox on a remote control and getting NBC instead.
Of course, who decides what is or isn't acceptable is the big question. Adding another layer of cloudiness is that many trademarked terms have arguably entered the common lexicon. For example, a consumer might say they need a Kleenex, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't take a tissue from Puffs. Or a person may say they Googled something, even when they looked it up on Yahoo.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Behind Nike's Lawsuit Lies a Branding Story
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Microsoft Discussing Yahoo Partnership, Yang Says
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang said Microsoft Corp. is still discussing potential partnerships with his company after walking away from a $47.5 billion takeover bid this month.
``They are discussing various other ideas and partnerships with us and we're listening,'' Yang said today at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California. ``They clearly have some interest in Yahoo in some shape or form.''
Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, had sought a Yahoo acquisition to bolster its Internet unit, which trails Google Inc. in the $41-billion-a-year market for online ads. Google has the dominant Internet search engine, while Yahoo and Microsoft rank second and third. Microsoft dropped its bid on May 3 after Yahoo demanded a higher price.
``We did not walk away from that proposal. Microsoft did,'' Yang said. ``I've always said we're willing to do a deal at the right terms.''
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, rose 16 cents to $27.16 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have climbed 17 percent this year. Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft, down 21 percent this year, dropped 26 cents to $28.18.
`Best Person'
Yang, who co-founded Yahoo in 1994, took the reins as CEO for the first time last year. Until then, he had served as ``Chief Yahoo,'' advising the company on its strategy.
``I know I don't have all the experience,'' he said today. ``I do think I'm the best person to lead Yahoo.''
Yahoo faces a proxy fight for control of its board from billionaire investor Carl Icahn. He proposed his own slate of directors this month and won support from John Paulson's Paulson & Co., BP Capital LLC Chairman T. Boone Pickens and investor Daniel Loeb, who have taken stakes in Yahoo.
All of Yahoo's directors are up for re-election at its next shareholder meeting. Last week the company delayed that meeting from July 3 until the end of the month.
Microsoft, whose online division was its only unprofitable unit last quarter, began pursuing a takeover of Yahoo on Jan. 31. It ended discussions after offering as much as $33 a share. Yahoo demanded $37.
Yahoo explored alternatives to a Microsoft buyout during that time. That included talks in February with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. Murdoch said in March that he wouldn't challenge Microsoft's attempt to purchase Yahoo.
`Rich Price'
Microsoft's offer was a ``very rich price,'' Murdoch said today in an interview with Fox Business News. An outright purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft is now ``certainly unlikely,'' he said.
Yang didn't want to sell the company, Murdoch said. ``I think he celebrates it,'' he said. ``He founded this company. He loves it. He loves running it.''
The situation hasn't hurt Yahoo, Yang said today.
``The perception of us being a company in decline isn't accurate,'' he said. ``The process has pulled Yahoo together as a company. This is a real-life exercise of crisis management.''
Employee turnover hasn't changed, President Susan Decker said.
Google Deal
Yahoo also is in talks with Google to allow that company to sell ads alongside some of its Internet search results. The companies could arrange an outsourcing agreement that would pass U.S. Justice Department antitrust scrutiny, Stanford Group Co. analyst Paul Gallant said this month.
Google charges advertisers about 70 percent more per Internet search than Yahoo, according to Yahoo, citing data from last year. Google outsold Microsoft in Internet ads by a margin of 7-to-1 in Microsoft's latest fiscal year.
The online advertising market may almost double by 2010, Microsoft has said. The company announced a plan last week to give users cash back when they shop online with its Live.com search engine.
Google handled 61.6 percent of U.S. Web searches last month, more than Yahoo and Microsoft combined, according to research firm ComScore Inc
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=agSW_LU70QPQ&refer=us
A small step for man - a big jump for TV commercials: C4 launches live adverts
During the first ad break of the reality show Come Dine With Me at 8.10pm, the 19 skydivers will have three minutes and 20 seconds to spell out the word Honda, inspired by the car manufacturer's new advertising strapline: "Difficult is worth doing".
Organisers were yesterday hoping the weather in Spain would hold as the team practised. "There will be no time delay and no CGI [computer-generated imagery]. If it works, people will know who it's for. If it doesn't, they won't," said Ian Armstrong, Honda's manager of customer communications.
The stunt is a means of gaining publicity for Honda's new multi-million pound ad campaign, which features 45 skydivers promoting the Honda Accord by creating a series of shapes over the Mojave desert to reflect new features on the car.
But it is also part of a wider drive by broadcasters to maintain the relevance of TV advertising in the era of fast-forward. Advertising agencies have been forced to raise their game in recent years, to get viewers' attention. Increased choice and viewer fragmentation, driven by the explosion in digital channels, have made advertising breaks easier than ever to avoid. "Time shifted" viewing via personal video recorders like Freeview Plus and Sky Plus has also made advertisers and their agencies work ever harder to prevent viewers skipping their commercials.
"More people are watching television than ever before. But things are becoming more complicated. People have to want to watch something, you can't force them. People will navigate towards the good stuff and ignore the bad stuff," said Armstrong.
The results can be seen in the spate of award winning "event" campaigns of recent years, including Sony Bravia's "balls" and "paint" adverts, Cadbury's Dairy Milk gorilla and Honda's "cog" campaign, which featured an intricate study in perpetual motion. "We always want to find clever ways of engaging with people and reaching people," said Honda's marketing and communications manager, Harry Cooklin, explaining how Channel 4's idea won out over 19 others.
Channel 4's sales director, Andy Barnes, who like other broadcast executives is battling a looming advertising downturn, said the advert, which required special dispensation from the advertising watchdog, broke "the boundaries of the perceived confines of TV advertising".
"We wanted to create something unmissable and what better way to produce something 'must see' than to stage the first live ad event on TV," he added. "It's about creating talkability on a big scale, managing the risk and being seen as pioneers for it."
Channel 4's internal department dedicated to developing innovative ways of using the medium for advertisers has already been responsible for initiatives such as a "themed break" during Grand Designs Live for products known for their design, a "retro break" featuring new and old adverts during the channel's 25th birthday programming last year, and green themed breaks around the environmental season Dumped.
Others claimed to have produced live ads, but Channel 4 said that all previous examples were broadcast "as live" rather than going out as they happened. In 2006, the online dating site Match.com booked a series of ad breaks during ITV's Celebrity Love Island. Members who won a competition to appear were filmed in ITV studios in front of a live audience making a plea for love to the watching millions. But the inserts went out on air 15 minutes later.
Earlier that year, Ford ran a campaign featuring a "live" competition. Viewers were asked a question about the commercial and invited to enter a competition via the internet, telephone or text. Later in the evening, the advert ran again with a graphic announcing the winner.
Television historians, of course, might argue that the first live adverts were on US television in the 1950s. All TV was live, and the camera would pan from game show contestants to the host, who would endorse a brand of soap powder or coffee that had helped fund the programme.
First British TV ad
Gibbs SR toothpaste (above) won a lottery to be the first advert at ITV's launch on September 22 1955. It was little more than a jerkily moving newspaper advert, spoken in received pronouciation. Bernard Levin wrote in the Manchester Guardian next day: "I feel neither depraved nor uplifted ... I have already forgotten the name of the toothpaste."
First sponsorship
Advertisers quickly latched on. The station clock became prime real estate, one cigarette manufacturer using it to proclaim: "Time to light a Red and White". This was banned in 1960.
First ad-funded editorial content
"Advertising magazines", banned in 1963, were designed to spin a loose narrative linking several products. The most famous was Jim's Inn.
First colour commercial
Aired in 1969, the first colour commercial was for Birds Eye frozen peas.
First interactive ads
Mazda launched the first "interactive" ads, which viewers recorded to find a competition answer. In 2000, the first "red button" ad allowed Sky viewers to order a voucher for a free jar of Chicken Tonight cooking sauce. Source: National Media Museum
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Google's 'Analytics Evangelist' Explains Why Websites 'Suck'
Kaushik: Despite Mounds of Data, Marketers Don't Understand Consumers
By Mya Frazier
Published: May 21, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Avinash Kaushik thinks one of the reasons why so many websites "suck" today is because of the hippo -- as in the "highest paid person's opinion."
And, yes, you're likely a hippo -- a successful advertising executive, CMO or brand manager, pulling in a six-figure income, often found pontificating about what does and doesn't work online. You use tried-and-true metrics such as unique visitors and click-through rates to decide on the best design for your landing page or what content is best suited on your product site.
'Least closest'
Yet, despite your mounds of data, Mr. Kaushik thinks you are the "least closest to the customer."
It was a blunt indictment, considering Mr. Kaushik offered it during a talk before roughly 200, well, hippos -- marketing executives from Procter & Gamble, Victoria's Secret, Coca-Cola and Timberland -- at an invite-only client conference held by Resource Interactive, a Columbus-based digital agency.
Mr. Kaushik is the "analytics evangelist" at Google, a new post created after his one-year consulting gig with the search giant expired. (Mr. Kaushik was previously director of research and analytics at Intuit, the personal-finance software company, and he is also the author of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day" and web analytics blog Occam's Razor.)
Mr. Kaushik employed the word "sucks" frequently when he talked about the traditional metrics used for measuring online marketing. And as far as online marketing goes, it sucks too. He likened it to a "faith-based initiative."
Getting the 'why'
The point of Mr. Kaushik's candor is that he wants marketers to start thinking more about the "why." To get at that, he espoused the use of more online surveys of site visitors to find "segments of discontent."
He advised marketers to create conversations with consumers using a simple, short and free online survey created by Iperceptions.com, an online research firm. The survey asks: Who is coming to your website? Why are they there? How are you doing? What do you need to fix?
The surveys "get customers involved in fixing things," he said.
What analytics means
After his talk, Mr. Kaushik described the day-to-day duties of his job at Google as "giving a lot of talks" to teach people how to make better websites and spreading the word about Google's seven "analytic tools," mainly Google Analytics and Ad Optimizer. He noted that anyone from a mom-and-pop business to a Fortune 500 brand can use these tools.
"Google is giving the same tools that, only prior to Google, you had to get at a big advertising agency or digital firm for free."
When asked to explain in more depth what Google Analytics -- and his role as an analytics evangelist -- means for digital and traditional advertising agencies, Mr. Kaushik said: "We want to be the company that really lives the spirit of accountable advertising."
Gates Announces Rebates for Web Searches
REDMOND, Wash. (AdAge.com) -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates today said the future of search will not only include simple, intuitive user interfaces and results based on rich semantic data but it will also reward consumers for their engagement.
Simple ... but is it brilliant?
Under the model, coined Live Search CashBack, an advertiser determines the cost it is willing to pay to sell a particular product via Live Search, a typical cost-per-acquisition pricing model. But instead of Microsoft getting the money when a consumer clicks on the search ad and fulfills the purchase, it offers that fee back to the customer in the form of a rebate. Microsoft doesn't make money on the ads: a classic example of economic disruption.
In a few years, Bill Gates said at the Microsoft Advance '08 confab, "we can look back and say search started to get a fair bit more competitive and we can look back to this announcement."
Mr. Gates spent much of his last presentation to advertisers as Microsoft's chairman talking about the future of search -- a clear indication of how importantly Microsoft views this channel. He criticized pure keyword search as "just syntax and not semantics and has limits no matter how much you build those things up."
At Microsoft, he refers to it by the phrase "information at your fingertips."
"Web search is an element, a piece of information at your fingertips," he said. "But you shouldn't think of it over time as being isolated. If you're in a document and you want to do a search, everything in that document should be helpful in terms of guiding what I want to look up."
Instant details
New innovations and business models will be key to the future of search, he said. In addition to CashBack, Microsoft is also launching what it calls "intelligence tools," in which Microsoft mines content in the commercial search task. Someone searching for a flight, for example, can get additional information that predicts the flight's price volatility. Searching for a hotel might offer up a rate key that gives users a sense of whether they're getting a good deal, based on a hotel's historic prices.
From a user standpoint, CashBack sounds simple: When a user searches for a product -- say, a digital camera -- on Live Search, he or she sees a green button that says "compare prices." Clicking that button takes the user to a page that compares prices and shows cash-back offers from a number of retailers. When users click to buy that product from the retailer, they are entitled to the rebate.
The rebate isn't instant, however, and the consumer will have to sign up for an account to get the cash back via either PayPal or a check in the mail. Microsoft said it has 700 merchants signed up for the program, including eBay, Barnesandnoble.com, Sears.com and Zappos.com.
Commerce represents a third of all searches but is the dominant share of revenue, Mr. Gates said. However, satisfaction with commerce searches is much lower than other kinds of searches, such as when users look up entertainment information. The CashBack launch, he said, is a way of "simplifying the tasks and rewarding the consumers and advertisers for their engagement in a major way."
Time will tell
Microsoft said it would measure progress based on how many cash-back offers there will be on Live Search; whether advertisers were reporting good return on investment; and whether Microsoft was growing its commerce-based query volume, meaning is it shifting share?
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127252
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127252
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Hey all adnerds out there
Well... this is another blog on advertising.
And may be bit more than the other ones or perhaps may not.
Anyway welcome you folks to this blog. PLease gimme u're comments
