Big Chip Award Winners

Last week, the company I work for, PushON won the Big Chip Award for ‘Best Use of Search’ – the event is the most prestigious digital award ceremony in the North West, and is judged by experts within the industry.  The category we entered, ‘Best Use of Search’ encompasses both Pay Per Click and Organic Search Engine Marketing.

It was for a project very close to my heart – The Little Greene Paint Company.  I’ve worked on this account from the beginning, and we’ve worked closely with their web development team to implement changes which give them the best possible chance to rank in search engines, and also convert the traffic they receive into sales.

I’m happy to say, that since we entered the competition – a number of significant further improvements have been made – for example, the launch of The Little Greene Blog, improvements to their paint finish listings, and a development which is soon to launch – a tagging system for paint colours which helps people find related paint colours, types of colours or styles (helping users find what they want both from search engines & when they are on the site).

I feel that this year, we got the groundwork right, and I’m looking forward to the progress over the next year, where we can work on some exciting and engaging projects which will help push the brand forward online.

Posted: July 2nd, 2009 under Online Marketing, Paid search marketing, Search Engine Optimization - No Comments.

Google AdWords Desktop Tool Bug

Is it just me?

It may be, but there was a bug in the latest install of my Google AdWords editor (version 7.5.1).

The problem was that every menu option had an ampersand preceding, so I was presented with the following menu:

&File |  &Edit |  &Data | &Account | &Tools | &Help

And nothing I clicked on did anything.

After restarting, reinstalling, still no joy, I then un-installed and downloaded & installed the latest version of the US Google AdWords Editor, and that did the trick.

So maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s the British (GB) version of AdWords Editor, but if you have the same problem, now you know how to get around it.

Posted: June 3rd, 2009 under Digital Media - No Comments.

Marketing With Video

At PushON we have worked on a whole range of different video projects and recently won the contract to help K3 promote their brand new video series. This exciting opportunity has given us the chance to play with some excellent new tools and engage with a vast array of different audiences. The projects scope is essentially what has excited us most. The company markets worldwide so we are not confined to UK audiences and so far we have been able to build up quite a following.

I think its exciting to see companies especially in markets which often limit advertising to the ‘tried & tested’ attempting new and innovative marketing strategies. The aim here for example is to build the K3 brand online and promote the company as a fun, innovative and exciting company. The series has also been created in such a way that it can appeal to a large general audience although we are targeting IT managers, manufacturers and people involved with IT.

It will be interesting to see how the series continues to grow and it has also been nominated for an award at this years Big Chips. All very exciting.

Posted: May 14th, 2009 under Online Marketing, Viral Marketing - No Comments. Tags: video

Microsoft adCenter Analytics Closes

Not long after adCenter Analytics beta launched some new featured for Excel 2007, Microsoft have decided to close their Web analytics program.
They offer a list of alternatives (which incidentally includes Google and Yahoo!).
There was a strange sentence in the blog post which announced the discontinuation of the product:

“despite the end of life plan, the beta was very much a success”

Weird… they successfully determined that the project was not commercially viable… not sure I would phrase it as a success.
However, if you don’t test anything that has a potential for failure, then you limit your growth.

Posted: March 16th, 2009 under Web Analytics - No Comments.

Google Launch Interest-Based Advertising

It looks like Google are updating their AdWords/AdSense model to take into account behaviour and personal preferences of their users.

It is astonishing when you look at how much data Google has, and in real terms, this will affect at least 80% of people in the UK (whether they know it’s happening or not!).

Anyone who uses the Google search engine for a start, but then there are the other properties that the big G owns – meaning anyone who uses iGoogle, Google Docs, Gmail, Blogger, Feedburner, etc will also be affected.

Google says that this new Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to display ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “marketing”).

It looks like this will apply to the content network (i.e. anyone who displays Google AdSense on their website), but I’m sure they will be using it for search.

So… other than privacy, can you see any other issues that you would be concerned about here?

Well, what if you share a PC, and are buying a present for your spouse, or you have an ‘adult interest’. Your partner notices the adverts are a bit more risky than normal, and she now knows what you plan on getting for her birthday.

On the other hand, and the reason I am happy that this privacy nightmare is coming into place -

1. As a user, I get more relevant adverts shown to me
2. As a marketer, I waste less money

Fingers crossed, Google isn’t evil…

Posted: March 13th, 2009 under Online Marketing, Paid search marketing - No Comments.

Sony Digital TV Recorder With Extra Megabites & Pixels

I don’t condone excessive bad language… except in this video where it is the key to making you cry with tears of laughter.

Thanks to Simon for distracting me at work with this fantastic video from The Onion:

I actually have one of these at home, I bought it from a bloke on ebay…

Posted: February 10th, 2009 under Off Topic, Technology, Viral Marketing - No Comments.