A few weeks ago Razorfish Group Search Director Adam Heimlich and VP Josh Palau were fortunate enough to speak at the Search Insider Summit at Captiva Island, FL. SIS is a great event that brings together a lot of the leading minds in the industry. This year’s format provided a breath of fresh air in the form of a series of 15- and 5-minute presentations. Quicker pacing allowed for a diverse group of presentations and plenty of new faces.
Crowd favorites included Chris Copeland’s “What if There Were No Google” and Mike Moran’s “Online Transparency and Authenticity”. Copeland provided a realistic plan to diversify out from a world that is currently Google-dominated (he also managed to work in references to Brokeback Mountain and Tiger Woods). Moran’s presentation distinguished myopic search “optimizers” from strategic “connectors.” Connectors do what’s best for the user, which leads to better long-term performance. Optimizers chase the algorithm in the moment.
Here’s what the Razorfish guys presented:
Prospect Expectations and Loyalty
Heimlich went full-on college professor with a thesis and three points — no slides – to challenge the notion that search can’t build loyalty. He said users are so loyal to search itself that advertisers who support search experiences on their site can have a loyalty advantage over competitors who don’t. Heimlich’s support was anecdotal, though he promised data in a Razorfish POV later this year:
- Bounce Rates – Bounce rates provide a view into the mindset of searchers. People abandon search landing pages early and often because it’s jarring to move from the user-centric design of a SERP to the non-user-centric design of most search landing pages. If a site doesn’t serve a user, she quickly goes back to search. Bounce rates evidence users’ confidence that someone else will serve them better.
- Digital Natives – Heimlich implored marketers to understand that young searchers have good reasons to expect experiences designed for them. We’re not spoiled — we just grew up in a world where information has always been at our fingertips. Marketing messages that only exist outside the world of free entertainment and utilities don’t deserve to be heard.
- Google’s Development Road Map – Heimlich pointed out that despite Bing’s promise of easier decisions, Google’s “extensions” strategy will make the leading search experience even more info-rich and quantitative than it already is. Paraphrasing a Google developer who claimed “Influence can only occur in the context of meeting users’ criteria for engagement,” Heimlich said it’s up to advertisers to figure out the role info experiences play in building brand affinity.
Marketing in a World of Search Everywhere
Palau talked about how to elevate the search conversation within a client organization. He followed a string a talks about how search has changed — blue links are out, universal search is in. Palau claimed search didn’t really change as much as marketing in general. He advised the search-industry pros in attendance to wrap their heads around the big picture or forever be banished to the kids table. Palau concluded with these five ways to make search matter to the CMO:
- Speak the Language – The boss doesn’t care about match types. They care about revenue, fame and solutions to business problems.
- Don’t Disparage Other Tactics – Search is great, but not in a silo. Advertisers need effective broadcast and display media in order for Search to perform as well as it can. Talk about how search works with these channels.
- Transcend Direct Response – Search does so much more than DR. If you focus only on click-to-conversion, search will get a fraction of its due.
- Enable Stories Everywhere – Engage the audience and make it easy for them to share. The stories they tell become the brand stories prospects find via search.
- Learn to Forget ROI and Remember the Audience – If you focus on keywords that meet ROI goals, you end up ignoring many customers who want to engage. When you pay attention to the user and what he wants, new horizons open up.
If you’re ever looking to go to an online marketing conference, we highly recommend the Search Insider Summit. As long as you’re willing to engage during the breaks and share your challenges, the payoff is well worth the fee. And Captiva is beautiful in April.