DigiTales Blog - Mel Carson

Speaking At A4U Expo Next Week

Mel Carson — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:14:00 GMT

I'll be teaming up with Dixon Jones and the fabulous Tor Crockatt next week at the Affiliates 4 U Conference and Expo in the Docklands.

The session is about improving ROI on PPC campaigns:

"The expert panel will examine the fundamentals of paid search strategies, covering link and display text, the future of demographics and the quality score, and keyword research tools for affiliates."

If you're having trouble with campaigns check out some of Tor's Keyword Research Tips.

It should be a cracking seesion so hope to see you there on 15th October at 11am!

Hold Your Nerve As Online Grows By 28%

Mel Carson — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:44:00 GMT

Yesterday’s announcement by the IAB that online advertising continues to grow is great news for the industry in these uncertain times.

In the statement we learn that in the first six months of 2008 advertisers spent nearly £1.7B on internet marketing bringing the total share of advertising spend in the UK to 19%.

Needless to say “search” grabbed the lions share growing 28% year on year to claim over 58% of the digital media mix.

Writing on the adCenter Blog yesterday, I was keen to hint that there’s still some way to go yet.

The first half of 2008 was over three months ago and things have got a lot worse in the world.

But the indications are that online and search will still see growth in this half of 2008 as marketers are made more accountable by their superiors, and so in turn plough money into where the accountability is.......and that’s online!

I was at a conference last week - www.nmalive.co.uk - speaking about search and the downturn – the advice was to hold tight and keep your nerve.

A downturn is the perfect time to experiment, learn and build for the future when all this hullabaloo gets sorted out.

Some advertisers will have undoubtedly been spooked and pulled some budgets or lowered CPCs – it’s a shame but it gives others the chance to leap in and capitalise.

Check out this quote from the IMRG:

“Highlighting the current economic slowdown as the key influencing factor, 68% of shoppers said that they are more likely to shop online for Christmas presents this year, with 77% of shoppers planning to carry out about half or more of their Christmas shopping online (in 2007 it was 56%).

This is influenced by the belief in the competitive prices available online, with 79% of respondents satisfied with the competitive pricing available from e-retailers.”

Your customers are going to be online this Christmas............will you?

When Did You Last Write A Letter?

Mel Carson — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:14:00 GMT

While watching (ahem) Midsomer Murders on Saturday I was struck by a question raised by DI Barnaby – aka John Nettles.

When discussing a potential blotting paper clue with his police side-kick he said:

“Who writes letters these days?”

I immediately thought well I do and then realised....NO....I don’t!

The odd “thank you” card might get sent after a dinner party or weekend at a friend’s house, and the lucky few in the birthday book might get a Clinton special now and again, but that’s it.

My handwriting has always been appalling but is now worse with all this infernal typing one does on a daily basis......so little time and so little practice.

I never have to worry that someone might pilfer the notebook that I occasionally write in because I know they wouldn’t understand a word of it anyway!

Have we forgotten the art of letter writing in this increasingly time-poor electronic age?

I remember at school looking forward to running down to the post room to see if the SWALK-backed letter to my latest convent school crush had been reciprocated.

Are those days over or is it all keyboard generated mumbo-jumbo we have to contend with?

I’m going to start handwriting some posts and sending them in to Rich Sutcliffe to type up and publish.

Do you think he’ll mind?

Search Works with TV.......Sometimes!

Mel Carson — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:21:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago The Search Works asked me to kick off their client summit – The Search Sessions – at the fabulous Vinopolis by the river in London.

Honoured as I was, I thought it both polite and in my interest to stay on for the rest of the day and hear the other speakers. Very often I learn a great deal from being at these kind of affairs as I pick up nuggets of information or different points of view that are both thought provoking and provide interesting content for this blog and articles I write elsewhere.

The Search Works content did not disappoint.

Jeff Revoy and Dominic Allon were there from Yahoo! & Google respectively and provided talks which were informative and entertaining to say the least.

My favourite session was addressed by Gary Reid, TSW’s new Director of Search Performance.

Now there’s something comforting about a northerner talking about online marketing. Maybe it’s the southern bar steward in me, but I find the accent so organic and at odds with the cut and thrust of agency-land in the big smoke that a new level of trust is surpassed. If anyone gets a chance to hear Dave Naylor speak you should. He’s from Ripon!

Anyway, Gary’s talk was: “On The Edge of Search – The New Economics of Organic Search” and in a nutshell was approaching the subject of online/offline marketing integration and suggesting many companies hadn’t quite cracked it yet.

Gary gave a couple of examples where TV taglines gave spurious and in some cases brand-damaging results in the organic search results pages.

I’ve mentioned recently about how brands are battling on the box for our online time and it’s a crucial thing to try and do seeing as TV and Online have proved to be Better Together.

Gary’s tips:

- Pass consumers between channels with clear calls to action
- Develop a cross media message that is suitable for search

Ensure the call to action is:

- Easy to remember
- A product feature or benefit
- A slogan or marketing message
- A top performing key term
- Built around a key term you can dominate in SERP’s

Things to avoid:

- Don’t use URL’s in traditional media
- Avoid new phrases/generic phrases
- Don’t assume you can easily get a good position for a generic key term
- Don’t forget to assess the search landscape for possible threats
- Don’t discount possible competition for key terms you make popular

Not sure about not using URLs in traditional media. This is pretty new stuff so surely two bites of the cherry would be better than the chance of no searches or direct visits at all?

Maybe Gary will chime in and clarify.....

I may be guilty of being a “search” guy through and through, but I cannot see how the channel cannot be at the heart of every marketing campaign helping drive consumers through from awareness to purchase.

Making sure your product or service can be easily found is the whole point of marketing surely?

Google - Are We Running Out Of Domain Names?

Mel Carson — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:18:00 GMT

Not according to Vint Cerf - Chief Internet Evangelist at Google - who was just on BBC Breakfast.

In a 5 minute piece on the future of the web "Bill 'n' Sian" managed to asked some silly questions (at their own admission) about whether there was life on other planets when Vint was talking about the interplanetary internet communication protocol he's working on!

Vint said our fridge should be able to talk to us by scanning the produce items in the chiller and surfing the internet while we're at work, producing an ideal recipe for when we get home famished!

Are we running out of domain names? Well no, but we are running out of internet addresses which will expire by 2011.

Luckily IPV6 has been introduced to take over from IPV4 and will provide trillions more addresses to use.

Would have liked some more insight from the great man but he was removed to make way for a piece on how to get your grandma to text more!

Come on BBC! Please give your geeky viewers a few more minutes of substance in the morning!

At ad:tech London For 2 Days

Mel Carson — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:01:00 GMT

I'll be at ad:tech London over the next couple of days.

Thoroughly recommend the conference even if you just attend the free expo and seminars.

I'll be on the MS stand and speaking on both days at 12.30pm so pop by and say hi!

Business Travel Tip: BusinessTraveller.com

Mel Carson — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:11:00 GMT

I was stuck in the rather tatty BA lounge at Amsterdam Airport last night and picked up a copy of Business Traveller to while away the two hour delay I was putting up with.

If you do a lot of travel it’s actually a really good read. Being a bit of a consumer champion I found the reviews of various airlines new offerings quite an eye-opener, especially the tips on which seats choose and the food recommendations.

Then there’s a load of info on hotels, travel gadgets and tips on air mile usage and collection.

The website has a bunch of cool features, guides and tools too.

From a reader survey did you know:

- 59% of us think a fully-flat bed on long-haul is more important than price

- 67% of us think that hotel business centres have had their day

- 64% of us would be happy to take a shower on a plane

So the next time you’re taking a trip take a peek and get the most out of your journey.

Air travel’s getting so expensive it pays to know the inside scoop so you can get the biggest bang for your buck!

Sergey Brin's New Blog - Too

Mel Carson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:40:00 GMT

Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, has apparantly released his own personal blog at:

http://too.blogspot.com

Talking about his fear of developing Parkinson's disease in his first post, it's obvious he's expecting a huge following by including this statement in the comment area:

“While I would like to receive and post many insightful comments, realistically I am unlikely to be able to read through all of them and may accept very few or none at all. Thank you for your understanding.”

Some folks over at TechCrunch have questioned the design.

But what do you think?

Valuable insight into the great man or too much of a distraction from reading DigiTales religiously everyday?

Blogumentary: Infectious Digital - Episode 2

Mel Carson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:41:00 GMT

Back in June we caught up with Infectious Digital as they started their journey as an agency start up.

It's been a while, so I recently caught up with the Andy and Martin to see how things were coming along:

It’s been nearly 3 months since we talked to you last – won any business?

Yes, Lots! It’s been a very busy 3 months, and we’ve been really encouraged by the intensity of interest from advertisers looking for a more bespoke, specialist offering. Last week we announced our first major ‘media’ client: www.footballsuperstars.com , which is a fantastic MMO football game. Apart from it being a great product, it is a very diverse digital marketing brief, which will intertwine a strong social media core with content distribution, search and smart display ad targeting.

There are a few more clients in the pipeline too, which we can’t talk about (yet). We’ve also been working on number of consultancy projects for a variety of different business, ranging from technology vendors to digital creative agencies.

When pitching as a start-up do you have to be more creative than an established agency to get noticed?

The thing is, we have quite a different story to many of the more established agencies. There has been so much change in the ‘digital media world’ over the last year, from the rise of social media to data and technology driven targeting and new auction model trading dynamics. To get the most from these changes, you have to think and structure in new ways, so in simply doing what we do, we’d hope to think we stand out from the crowd!

How did your new logo come about? And the blog? Have I got competition?

Martins old school friend up in Liverpool designed it for us. We gave him a simple brief, which was to stay away from typical web 2.0 style typefaces and design. We really like it, and feel it says something about the intertwining nature of what we do. The blog (which has just had a sleek re design), has been a really interesting project for us. Not least because we designed and built it ourselves, but also because it’s great to see the number of people interested in our opinions on stuff.

Last week we had over 200 visitors per day, which may not sound like many (and no Mel, you shouldn’t be worried!), but for a business like ours, with no real media support, it’s really encouraging. Lots of people seem to be signing up to our RSS feed too, which is very Web 2.0!

You can’t possibly do everything so have you started to hire? Have you been impressed with the calibre of talent out there?

Well, since you ask, yes! We’re currently recruiting for a Search and Performance Media Manager and there are another couple of positions in the pre Christmas pipeline. We generally post vacancies on our site www.infectiousdigital.com.

In terms of talent, we think there is plenty of it out there, but there is still a lack of broader marketing experience in the digital industry per se. The type of people who will be attracted to working at Infectious are those looking for a more creative agency environment and the chance to be a part of something new and different.

Things seem to be going well! But don’t you miss the security of the big corporate? How are you adjusting to having to buy your own coffee, fix your own printer and take prospects out with money from your own wallet?

We certainly miss the regular monthly salary, but we were saying only yesterday that we’ve never been happier or more enthused about work.

We stop by Borough market every Monday to stock up on coffee, Martin has become an advanced photocopy engineer, and we just don’t take anyone out unless we’re in possession of a 2 for 1 Wagamama voucher ;-)

I Watched A Whole Film Last Night!

Mel Carson — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:04:00 GMT

In a bizarre turn of events I ended up watching The Machinist starring Christian Bale on TV last night.

The film was actually on TV - FreeView - not a DVD or a pay-per-view, and I watched it all the way through!

I didn't have my laptop in front of me to keep me company, I didn't make or take a phone call during running time, and I didn't check email or take a sneaky peek at Twitter either during the breaks.

The whole film - every frame - was watched with no distractions and NO other media or device was involved!

There's obviously something wrong with me so can anyone suggest where I might get some help?

Sad Day For Search With The Demise Of XL.com

Mel Carson — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:03:00 GMT

I'm pretty down about XL going under today!

Four years ago, when I was at 24/7 Search, I pitched for their search account via Web Liquid and won it.

They then revealed a very sophisticated strategy for filling planes via search and wanted us to implement it.

It took time as perhaps the technology wasn’t up to the vision back then, but they made us work hard and we were successful.

The biggest kick I had that year was going home one day on the tube after a particularly tough day, the guy next to me opened a piece of paper which was a confirmation email for flights with XL.

It was the first time I’d seen any tangible reward for my efforts.

The look on the guys face was a picture!

He was about to go on holiday and search engine marketing had helped him get there!

Just a pity XL is going nowhere now......

When Was The Last Time You Read A Book?

Mel Carson — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:58:00 GMT

I was watching The One Show on the BBC yesterday and there was a piece about reading and what a feat it was for one of the presenters to have read 160 books in 3 months.

Now that’s a tall order but how many books do you get through in a year if any?

I try and read alternative fiction and business/self-help. So one month it might be a John Grisham and the next Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

With being online so much, wading through hard drive TV recordings, and now possessing a Microsoft Zune and watching short videos and podcasts on the train in the morning, I find time to read difficult to....erm....find.

Even if I try and read before turning the light out at night, if I’ve had a glass or three of wine it’s the last thing on my mind.

Will books as we know them ever die out? Or will we force ourselves to keep the tradition alive?

"Insuring" Brands Battle It Out On TV

Mel Carson — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Watching television over the last few weeks I’ve seen a number of ads with clever tactics to drive users to their sites.

Direct Line is telling people to remember that you won’t find them on price comparison sites and that their best prices are found on their site.

I can’t actually remember who the other two are which doesn’t bode well does it?

One refers to itself as a search engine which is a marginal description if you ask me. The other has about fifteen different actors repeating the name of the URL so it gets infused into everyone’s subconscious but mine.

Fascinating how they’re trying to influence the viewer into trying their “route to policy” rather than anyone else’s and thoroughly pleasing that they “get” the relationship between TV ad viewing habits and online behaviour.

I just wish more industries and brands would step up to the plate!

(Apologies about the baseball analogy - I've obviously spent FAR too much time in the US recently!)

Direct Marketing Alive & Well In Victoria

Mel Carson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:42:00 GMT

During my short walk from Victoria Station to our offices this morning I encountered no less than six people from various companies handing out flyers for different goods and services, two free give-away promotions and distributors of two free magazines!

Who said marketing was the first to hit in an economic downturn?

This Credit Crunch thingy must be a myth........so I'm off to buy a Bentley!

Microsoft Charity Party This Weekend In Aid Of Barnados

Mel Carson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:28:00 GMT

Our adCenter Team are throwing a party this Saturday in aid of Barnados in Central London.

It's part of a drive to raise £10k to re-vamp and spruce up the Sunrise Children's Center in Kent

Check out more details here:

http://www.justgiving.com/microsoftadvertisingcommunityproject

If you're interested in coming please email me through the blog or ping me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/MelCarson - and I'll sort you out some tickets!

It should be a great night and all for a very worthy cause!