Lee Dunbar

Jun

24

The Round-Up

June 24, 2008

What happens when Google and Disney get together to throw around a few ideas? You get the Walt Disney World Resort available on Google Earth in 3D. The project features over 1,500 fairly detailed 3D models of buildings and attractions in all four theme parks and more than 20 of Disney’s Resort hotels. I had a lot of fun scrolling around — what a great way to allow your guests to move around and explore the park when they are either planning or dreaming if a trip to the most magical place on earth.

Montreal is the first North American city to role out a self-service bike rental system. Users will be able to pick-up a bike at one location for a nominal fee and drop it off at another location which are dispersed around the city.

More search engine election fun. A blogger has launched a Google bomb attack on McCain. The strategy was designed to raise the rankings of negative news stories about McCain. Yes, the same strategy you use to raise the visibility of your organization, can be used by your competitors to raise rankings of negative stories or reviews about your organization, officials, staff, or product. It is a good strategy to continuously monitor your own brand, trademarks and product category keywords. It can be as simple as subscribing to a comprehensive Google news alert.

It also seems that people are messing with page views and video ranking on YouTube. In an effort to make it the most viewed video, a blogger has created a refreshing web site that is increasing the number of views of Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend video.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Community Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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Apr

24

So you’re watching A&E TV, and these strange images fill the screen. You see a grainy picture full of static. A dog walks down a deserted small-town street. You might notice what appears to be dead bodies lying around. A website URL flashes on the screen www.whathappenedinpiedmont.com.

You visit the site and find the blog of one Andrew Tobler, a student at Berkley,  who apparently received a “bizarre” voicemail from his sister who lives in Piedmont, Utah. Despite his attempts, Tobler has not been able to reach anyone from his hometown.

A search for Piedmont, Utah on Google returns a list of links to blogs, Yahoo! Answers, news stories and, yes, Andrew’s blog all discussing the military build-up and the mystery that surrounds this small town.

You can find pictures of a military blockade,


and a screenshot of a news clip about a chemical spill,


you can even watch a video news clip that Andrew was able to capture, digitize and upload to YouTube,

 

but what you won’t find in your Google search is any information about Piedmont, Utah, because it doesn’t exist.

And thus begins a viral campaign for A&E’s adaptation of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain.

Looking at posts on forums, blogs and services such as Yahoo! Answers, it seems some people have bit. There has even been some distressed speculation that this could have been terrorism. We haven’t seen people jumping from buildings, or the hysteria that surrounded Orson Welles’ 1938, radio adaptation of the H. G. Wells’ classic novel, The War of the Worlds, but discussion of the mysterious happenings in Piedmont, Utah is certainly making the rounds on the net.

The success of this campaign is yet to be determined (although Google Trends does show a definate sign of some action around keywords that include variations around Piedmont), but other media properties have seen great success extending the story beyond a passive experience into a more experiential, interactive activity.

A good example of this is ABC’s Lost, which has used a number of websites to reveal clues, provide back story and allow fans to discuss the show. In doing so, they have successfully created a massive online social community built around a one hour sci-fi drama.  On the larger screen, we saw the producers of The Blair Witch Project provide back story and a treasure trove of bonus features and extras that helped vault this low budget horror into the mainstream.

If you want to experience Piedmont, Utah, you’ll have to tune into the Andromeda Strain mini-series which is to air starting on the US Memorial Day, or you’ll have to visit British Columbia, CA, as the film was actually shot there.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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Mar

31

Monday Round-Up

March 31, 2008

The New Yorker has quite an in-depth piece about the state of newsprint. The industry has reported a 42% decrease in market value in the last few years and since 1990 a full 25% of related jobs have disappeared. It has been long known that the Internet would take a big bite out of print media, but what seems to have alarmed some people is just how quickly things have accelerated.

On a similar topic, the New York Times has an article about how youth are relying on social networks and online tools rather than traditional media to read – and share – important news stories. I had my eyes opened a little during the last federal election. I created a blog and developed a few satirical videos that I uploaded to a video sharing site. I was amazed at how quickly the videos received hits, (each one into the thousands), and spread across the blogosphere. Bloggers were linking to, and even embedding my videos into their blogs – and the twist was that they were bloggers supporting different political parties and ideologies.

Search Engine Watch columnist, Marty Weintraub, has an interesting article outlining how religious, political wars are being fought over Google’s search engine rankings. In particular, he discusses how Jews have fought to lower the ranking of an anti-Semitic web site using what is called ‘Google bombing” techniques.

 … and for something completely different …

Are we there yet?

The SimpsonsUniversal Studios has launched a microsite for the new Simpson’s attraction that will be opening very soon in Orlando, Florida. I’m a huge Simpson’s geek, and it was quite the tease to see the ride when I was just at Universal at the beginning of March and not be able to go on it. Well, there was some consolation in the fact that I was able to take my son’s picture in front of the Kwik-E-Mart.

Tags: Community Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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Feb

1

Google Shows Signs of a SlumpHaving just finished a report for a software company that I work with comparing current Google campaign numbers to last year’s, an article entitled “Even Google isn’t immune to advertising slump” written by Matt Hartley in today’s Globe and Mail comes at an interesting time.

As companies begin to batten down the hatches and trim advertising budgets in the face of waning consumer spending, it remains to be seen how Google — a company based almost entirely on advertising revenues — will weather the storm. 

While Matt suggests that the reduction in Google’s growth can be attributed to companies cutting back due to the current recession in the United States, I have another take.

You see, we are trying to spend money. In fact, we are trying to spend more money than we are. Since September, we have noticed a fairly dramatic downturn in the number of impressions and conversions from our Google campaign. At the same time, our click through rate has remained steady and our conversation rate has actually had a healthy increase.

Despite boosting our daily max, (doubling it actually), and bidding higher on our core keywords to maintain our ad positioning, we just aren’t getting the impressions needed to maintain the number of leads in our pipe. Even though our click through rate is pretty good, the lack of impressions (number of times our ad is showing) is dramatically down – a reduction of around 7 million pairs of eyes in January alone. That adds-up. Quick.

As impressions have decreased, competitive has increased as our companies fight for what potential prospects are left. We have actually seen a 24% increase in our average cost per click, resulting in a higher cost per conversion (somewhat offset by our increased conversation rate – a result of our improved targeting).

From all the data I’ve looked at over the last four or five months (including looking at keyword search comparisons, and using a number of SEM/SEO tools), there is a definite downward trend in our sector, and I would assume in a number of sectors.

So a conclusion that I have made is that in the world of PPC, a loss in Google’s profit may not necessarily be a reflection of cut backs by their advertisers, but in a reduction of searches by the consumers – thus resulting in a lower spend by advertisers.

At least, that is the situation we are in at the moment.

Tags: Business Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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