Search Engine Optimization

Clickz reported on a very interesting announcement made by a prominent hybrid PR company called Connor Communication.

"we don’t do that anymore."

Connor had dropped original PR in favor of SEO and discontinued their offline efforts. Company will be focusing on optimizing entire websites for their clients rather then doing few pages. Offline PR wiil be left in the graveyard.

For a PR person it would probably sound like a dopey and ridiculous move that would not last, but it is really? How insane are Connor Communications decision makers?

Not at all. They’ve just secured their existence as a firm.

In another interesting article Gord Hotchkiss of Mediapost talks about revolution, as well as evolution which PR is experiencing. He argues that big companies will face extermination unless they get search. His biggest argument is that they will be wiped off because they never will.

“….It took them 50 years to adopt electricity, even though the advantages of electrical power were obvious. By the time they made the move, younger, smaller, faster-moving and more nimble companies had passed them by. Many of the industrial dinosaurs never recovered and died away.”

‘….From the big agencies’ perspective, high atop their vast media-buying empires, the agency monoliths seem invulnerable. It’s only if you’re scurrying around down here at ground level that you see the cracks in the ground underneath them.”

I believe he is somewhat correct. We have observed emerging patterns in the world of advertising for quite a bit a now, and numbers speak for themselves. More and more giants are taking internet seriously and spending more and more money online. Though search is never mentioned in the analysis apart from PPC, going on the internet means doing search. There is no way around it. Search will only go up with time.

Though I agree with Gord Hotchkiss, Mike Margolin has a lot of powerful arguments on his plate to defend PR companies.

“….other media channels are crucial in generating awareness and driving just the search activity that we most value.”

“….the more forward-thinking agencies already know that a great advertising idea doesn’t mean “a great 30 second spot” - it means understanding how people learn and communicate and how their perceptions are shaped and then choosing wisely from the available media tools how to communicate the brand’s message.”

Mr. Mike Margolin painted a very colorful picture of the decision making process within PR companies and has done very well defending their positions. He argues that traditional advertising is essential to create brand awareness and search would not be as effective without it. He is very correct here and commercials which do not punch the brains with "Go get it NOW" do create awareness that transforms into searchers. However that is the minority. Mike also describes the structure and decision making process of a PR firm.

One thing needs to be said – the old process is the primary reason why the big guys are going to get left behind. The culture is too different. As Gord said, advertisers are looking for that next BANG to unroll or for that killer idea to light up that torch, while search is a piece by piece, slow, boring process. Where no BANGs ever come, and each and every granule can be measured and accounted for.

There are also the media sales people, the management and the big bucks involved in TV that slow down the process. The structure needs to be rebuild and thought over, which takes times, new people and money.

All this time somewhere beneath the grass are the grass hoping SEO companies, who have made their bones and gained needed reputation. As the times moves forward the small guys are going to be biting a bit more. Piece by piece, bite by bite.

Though the giants will not die, we will see a swap of power in the future. Some will be left behind, starving for contracts. Some will benefit from right decisions. New powerful players will emerge.

Dropping traditional advertising for a PR company, especially a big one, would not be right. Forming effective SEO department and allocating more budget and weight to search is a start.

Because search is sexy.

Last Friday Google London held a fund raising effort for Kids Company and Refuge Center. As a part of the fund raiser, Googlers dressed into different outfits such as Superman, Batman, Spiderman and other superstar characters.

However the most notable one was not the superman or the batman. It was the Googleman. One of the guys finally broke the rumors of the new upcoming Google produced movie and showed off the main character.

The Google Man

Google has not yet released the details on the plot, but from the pictures we can see that one of the opposing characters will likely be a CatBat or a BatGoogleMan.

The movie will be fully sponsored and shot by Google Inc. and is projected to come out by the end of 2008.

Okay… There is no movie. It was a fund raiser =), but it’s nice to see Googlers having fun.

As far as the movie, Sergei Brin (co-founder of Google) has been working on one called Broken Arrows. There are no dates of when it will be released, but if you are interested you can check out the trailer. It does’t look too existing. I think Sergei is better off developing algorithms =), but who knows, it is never perfect the first time.