MEDIA PLANNING & BUYING
5 reasons you no longer need an ad agency
The current agency model is broken. I know it, agencies know it, but luckily for all of us, clients haven't realized it yet. Gasta SearchMastch could be the savour as its grounded in Tradition and Classic agency approch that will never burn out, it does'nt try to do to much at one time and SearchMatch allows the best flexibility to campaigns I know of.
After more than a decade of working for an agency (six years on the client side), I have come to several conclusions, none of which are pretty pictures for agencies unless they change. You see, agencies need clients more than clients need agencies, and there has been a fundamental shift in how technology has both enabled and altered that dynamic. It has exacerbated the problem with the explosion of new media channels, and it has also provided the solutions.
We have built an interweaving production process that is designed to produce media the old way, not the new way, and agencies and clients seem to be stuck in this model.
Agencies over the last 20 years have morphed into advanced communication production shops. The offline agencies have desperately been pursuing online projects with their clients, and the online agencies have been trying to do more offline work. What they both have not done, however, is change the process of production. They have been too busy chasing the money.
But agencies used to be so much more than that. They were the creative powerhouses. The ideation shops. The meme creators for their brands across society. Some still are, but is meme creation needed anymore?
The explosion of communication methods to reach the consumer has had a natural dilution effect. As the playing field got wider, it gave something to consumers they didn't have before: instantaneous access to desire fulfillment and an ability to access information about a product, not just from the company and the agency's perceived lens, but through other consumers and competitors. There have been three profound effects on the technological expansion of media: a wider communication platform for all, the persistence of data on that platform, and a plethora of spawned agency models.
So how is this all related to no longer needing an ad agency? SEM, SEO, interactive, offline, online, media, social media -- the breadth of these elements has made clients' heads spin, and the rapid pace has left many core agencies scrambling.
No longer does the client feel that one shop can handle all their needs, because in reality, no single shop can. But there is something being lost by all of the expansion: message and brand cohesion. Since your "main" agency is no longer the idea shop, and since that message has inherent problems cascading throughout so many communication channels, why have one?
I am about to commit sacrilege.
Reason 1: "The Big Idea"
What we no longer need is "The Big Idea," or at least not in the way most agencies still view it. Agencies used to exist because of that concept, but many lost their way. The communication cascade has been so profoundly altered that it is no longer The Big Idea but many smaller ones. The argument goes that everything should sit under the umbrella of The Big Idea, but I challenge that assumption. The Big Idea was necessary to help seed an overall brand image in consumers' minds and have it be harmonious and able to fit all of the little communication channels under it. That's really its essence.
The problem is that when integration is attempted by most clients -- truly attempted -- it dilutes the message in the communication medium that is being used because the mindset of the consumer is often overlooked.
Traditional media (TV, radio, print, outdoor) had a much narrower human "need-state" of consumption, so messages could cascade among them while keeping the message coherent, simple, and emotionally impactful. The important thing is the bounce-back from consumers. It is their opinion of you. And their opinion dwarfs yours.
The last 10 years started to completely throw off the machinery of communication messaging. And with the explosion of social media, it became bilateral. No longer is it a tree diagram and a linear cascade downward to consumers. The internet, texting, mobile devices, etc., have all created a persistent communication feedback loop that is impossible to control. You can no longer effectively hide who you are as a company, because your Big Idea must essentially fall out of something bigger: your corporate mission, your reason for being in business.
Yes, yes, all corporations are in business to make money, but underlying that fact is how the company actually functions. The age of corporate transparency has arrived.
My argument is that The Big Idea, the overarching communication "message," should arise from the company itself because it is ultimately dictated back to you by your consumers. Unfortunately, too many companies are so mired in their own internal politics that they feel the need for the outside perspective of an agency. But agencies are often painfully unaware of the details of their clients' businesses. If you are an agency, try to be more influential internally, and don't limit yourself to engaging just with the marketing department. If you develop relationships at a higher level, the coordination between your proposed messaging and what will work for the company will be more harmonious.
Too many clients and agencies change direction so quickly that The Big Idea is never given time to cement itself, and they aren't listening to the bounce-back messaging. They still believe they can control and dictate. How often do company taglines change now? Is that the agencies' fault? No, but if The Big Idea is based on who you are as a brand, then it does not have to change with the wind. For The Big Idea to work, it must be BIG, but you don't need an agency for it. As a brand, you first need to look internally. Understand who you are as a company, and listen to the messaging coming back at you. Don't blame your agency; blame yourself for not listening.
20/08/2009
Gasta Tech News : MEDIA PLANNING & BUYING Part 2
Reason 2: Why build an Edsel?
Most external corporate web presences are over-designed monstrosities. I would argue that almost all businesses could easily survive with a more simplified, streamlined version that could be accomplished with most good blog software. Unless your business IS in business to sell products on the internet, and the website IS your brand, your website is overkill. This is where the consumer need-state comes into play. Your website is a conduit to the consumer's desire, but not the desire itself. Why are you paying an agency so much money to handle it?
Most corporate websites are painful reflections of their internal structure. They spend millions on revamping and solving problems, but in reality, they do not address the core issue. The agency model preys on this behavior. It is as if you built a shack that has had room after room bolted onto it -- kitchens, dining facilities, bathrooms, showers, etc. It may appear to be somewhat cohesive on the front end, but at what cost? This is not an agency problem but the client's unwillingness to make substantive decisions for their external web presence.
When you decide to redesign that shack, all of the extra detritus comes along for the ride.
You may discard items here and there, but feature-creep somehow always results in another monstrosity being built, and you end up building an Edsel.
I recently advised a client who had switched from a traditional website to a standard blog template system using WordPress. The company designed the template adhering to its color palette and design philosophy, and for $100,000, the company ended up accomplishing what its agency had estimated would cost $500,000 to build. The end-product did more than what the agency was pitching, and it shaved an additional $200,000 a year off maintenance costs for the company. It also allowed internal staff to update the blog easily and communicate simply.
Another advantage of a switchover like this is that the search engines pick up all that new content much more easily than an overly designed Flash site. Remember, the majority of consumers now use search engines to navigate the web. So when you build a monstrosity of a site, the issue isn't just the cost of the build itself, it's the cost of maintenance, and the agency you need to employ because it wasn't designed for search engines to scan.
Design a system that is templated specifically for your needs, and the control goes back to your company. Isn't that where these decisions should rest anyway?
Reason 3: Scalability, production, and distributed messaging platforms
You used to be able to produce one TV ad and run in one market. If it resonated and helped move product, all you needed to do was scale the effort. The ad was already produced. You just had to spend more money. Same with print, outdoor, and many other traditional media. But with online, the playing field is so disparate that much of it is not as scalable.
You can produce a banner, but for some reason you always need to change it and produce more. Not to mention, you have to do it in four different sizes. Before too long, you have too many little snippets running in too many different places, and you find yourself myopically looking over analytics reports tweaking a tenth of 1 percent here and there. For what? The model is not scalable the way offline is. Sure, you can throw more media at it, but anyone in online media planning knows that with each new site, and each new format, you increase the complexity.
What most brands don't have is the willingness to run a single ad, test and control that one ad, and beat the hell out of it. Now that's efficient! The customization of messaging on the internet for each subgroup has created a cacophony of noise. So why not simplify? It's only a matter of will, and you can probably ditch the huge amount of production, media trafficking, and complexity you are creating for yourself in trying to find the one thing that works with your agency.Gasta SearchMatch allows this Niche
There will never be one banner ad that fundamentally changes your business and impacts the consumer in the way one TV ad could. It's the same with SEM. I watch company after company let their ad agency do their SEM ad copy. Are you serious? There is not going to be anything brilliant that an agency can do with 85 characters that you can't. Let an SEM vendor do it. Again, you're spending money on the wrong thing. If you're going to use an ad agency, use them for ideation, not wasting billable hours.
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, WordPress, blogs, email systems, and a host of other tools are available for you to extend your brand, so use them. Why build internally what other companies have spent millions building, tweaking, and supporting? And why have your agency build them? Look at Facebook the same way you view outsourcing any other aspect of your business. Facebook hosts it and deals with the IT and serving costs. You should be making the decisions, listening to those channels, and managing them.
Reason 4: Stop focus groups
This is where I enrage every company in this business. Sorry. In the end, it's about what your consumers are saying about your product, although that conversation used to be isolated from both the client and the agency. Agencies used to have to conduct focus groups to gauge consumer opinion. There is no need for a focus group, ever. They are the harbingers of clients intending to cover their ass, and agencies that profit from it. Truth be told, many agencies hate focus groups, and please don't ever use them for validating creative.
Agencies use them so when the idea fails miserably, they can point to the focus group and know that they had senior-leader approval. Business now moves way too quickly for that. Make the decision and go with it. Why are you spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get opinions from small groups of people who will tell you something that doesn't even affect their behavior? Trust me, they don't work. Instead, get Radian6, Biz360, Nielsen BuzzMetrics, or eCairn Conversation to help you learn what your consumers are actually saying. I advocate strongly for having this knowledge generate from inside your company and not from an agency. If it is inside, it will not be limited to the marketing group.
This is the conversation that the CEO needs to hear, as welll as the product development people, etc. It should become core to your business because only by truly listening to your consumers will you make better products. And listening in on the conversation when they aren't aware is the only way to get at the real information. Do you really think consumers in focus groups don't know you're behind the mirror? Wake up.
Most external corporate web presences are over-designed monstrosities. I would argue that almost all businesses could easily survive with a more simplified, streamlined version that could be accomplished with most good blog software. Unless your business IS in business to sell products on the internet, and the website IS your brand, your website is overkill. This is where the consumer need-state comes into play. Your website is a conduit to the consumer's desire, but not the desire itself. Why are you paying an agency so much money to handle it?
Most corporate websites are painful reflections of their internal structure. They spend millions on revamping and solving problems, but in reality, they do not address the core issue. The agency model preys on this behavior. It is as if you built a shack that has had room after room bolted onto it -- kitchens, dining facilities, bathrooms, showers, etc. It may appear to be somewhat cohesive on the front end, but at what cost? This is not an agency problem but the client's unwillingness to make substantive decisions for their external web presence.
When you decide to redesign that shack, all of the extra detritus comes along for the ride.
You may discard items here and there, but feature-creep somehow always results in another monstrosity being built, and you end up building an Edsel.
I recently advised a client who had switched from a traditional website to a standard blog template system using WordPress. The company designed the template adhering to its color palette and design philosophy, and for $100,000, the company ended up accomplishing what its agency had estimated would cost $500,000 to build. The end-product did more than what the agency was pitching, and it shaved an additional $200,000 a year off maintenance costs for the company. It also allowed internal staff to update the blog easily and communicate simply.
Another advantage of a switchover like this is that the search engines pick up all that new content much more easily than an overly designed Flash site. Remember, the majority of consumers now use search engines to navigate the web. So when you build a monstrosity of a site, the issue isn't just the cost of the build itself, it's the cost of maintenance, and the agency you need to employ because it wasn't designed for search engines to scan.
Design a system that is templated specifically for your needs, and the control goes back to your company. Isn't that where these decisions should rest anyway?
Reason 3: Scalability, production, and distributed messaging platforms
You used to be able to produce one TV ad and run in one market. If it resonated and helped move product, all you needed to do was scale the effort. The ad was already produced. You just had to spend more money. Same with print, outdoor, and many other traditional media. But with online, the playing field is so disparate that much of it is not as scalable.
You can produce a banner, but for some reason you always need to change it and produce more. Not to mention, you have to do it in four different sizes. Before too long, you have too many little snippets running in too many different places, and you find yourself myopically looking over analytics reports tweaking a tenth of 1 percent here and there. For what? The model is not scalable the way offline is. Sure, you can throw more media at it, but anyone in online media planning knows that with each new site, and each new format, you increase the complexity.
What most brands don't have is the willingness to run a single ad, test and control that one ad, and beat the hell out of it. Now that's efficient! The customization of messaging on the internet for each subgroup has created a cacophony of noise. So why not simplify? It's only a matter of will, and you can probably ditch the huge amount of production, media trafficking, and complexity you are creating for yourself in trying to find the one thing that works with your agency.Gasta SearchMatch allows this Niche
There will never be one banner ad that fundamentally changes your business and impacts the consumer in the way one TV ad could. It's the same with SEM. I watch company after company let their ad agency do their SEM ad copy. Are you serious? There is not going to be anything brilliant that an agency can do with 85 characters that you can't. Let an SEM vendor do it. Again, you're spending money on the wrong thing. If you're going to use an ad agency, use them for ideation, not wasting billable hours.
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, WordPress, blogs, email systems, and a host of other tools are available for you to extend your brand, so use them. Why build internally what other companies have spent millions building, tweaking, and supporting? And why have your agency build them? Look at Facebook the same way you view outsourcing any other aspect of your business. Facebook hosts it and deals with the IT and serving costs. You should be making the decisions, listening to those channels, and managing them.
Reason 4: Stop focus groups
This is where I enrage every company in this business. Sorry. In the end, it's about what your consumers are saying about your product, although that conversation used to be isolated from both the client and the agency. Agencies used to have to conduct focus groups to gauge consumer opinion. There is no need for a focus group, ever. They are the harbingers of clients intending to cover their ass, and agencies that profit from it. Truth be told, many agencies hate focus groups, and please don't ever use them for validating creative.
Agencies use them so when the idea fails miserably, they can point to the focus group and know that they had senior-leader approval. Business now moves way too quickly for that. Make the decision and go with it. Why are you spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get opinions from small groups of people who will tell you something that doesn't even affect their behavior? Trust me, they don't work. Instead, get Radian6, Biz360, Nielsen BuzzMetrics, or eCairn Conversation to help you learn what your consumers are actually saying. I advocate strongly for having this knowledge generate from inside your company and not from an agency. If it is inside, it will not be limited to the marketing group.
This is the conversation that the CEO needs to hear, as welll as the product development people, etc. It should become core to your business because only by truly listening to your consumers will you make better products. And listening in on the conversation when they aren't aware is the only way to get at the real information. Do you really think consumers in focus groups don't know you're behind the mirror? Wake up.
Gasta Tech News : MEDIA PLANNING & BUYING Part 3
Reason 5: You should hire the right people
It's time to make big decisions about your company's future. Companies have started to see the power new technologies can create for a brand, but do they have a CEO enlightened enough to take the necessary risks? Build up talent inside your company. Don't promote people internally from different divisions. I am often dismayed when I hear companies say, "He was a great performer in our internal marcom department for 12 years and would make a great choice for heading up our new global communications team." If you want game-changing talent, look externally. Sorry, but the people you tend to have left in your company are those who were either not talented enough to get recruited externally, or they are just great internal politicians with an M.B.A. from a good school. That is not to say you don't have great talent already in place, but it is more often that they are being shackled by someone in the upper management structure who won't take the necessary risks for your company to thrive in this new age. It's time to remove the shackles. The group must have C-level representation to succeed.
If you are not willing to do that, then by all means, keep all of your agencies just humming along. They will be very happy to keep taking your money.
I would appreciate hearing your feedback in the comments section below.
Sean X Cummings is principal of SXC Marketing.
It's time to make big decisions about your company's future. Companies have started to see the power new technologies can create for a brand, but do they have a CEO enlightened enough to take the necessary risks? Build up talent inside your company. Don't promote people internally from different divisions. I am often dismayed when I hear companies say, "He was a great performer in our internal marcom department for 12 years and would make a great choice for heading up our new global communications team." If you want game-changing talent, look externally. Sorry, but the people you tend to have left in your company are those who were either not talented enough to get recruited externally, or they are just great internal politicians with an M.B.A. from a good school. That is not to say you don't have great talent already in place, but it is more often that they are being shackled by someone in the upper management structure who won't take the necessary risks for your company to thrive in this new age. It's time to remove the shackles. The group must have C-level representation to succeed.
If you are not willing to do that, then by all means, keep all of your agencies just humming along. They will be very happy to keep taking your money.
I would appreciate hearing your feedback in the comments section below.
Sean X Cummings is principal of SXC Marketing.
19/08/2009
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11/08/2009
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10/08/2009
Europasearch the future of contextual search
Europasearch.com offers the best value for money contextual advertising platform on the web. The platform is called SearchMatch, and what is unique about Europa SearchMatch is that it allows your advert to show in the number one position for your Keywords,with no competitors. The Keywords are yours as you have purchased them already for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. No one can competitively click on your keywords to waste your money or raise the price of PPC, because there is no PPC. Get it? You buy your niche or direct marketing keywords for a 1,2,3, month or 1 year period.
The SearchMatch platform also allows you to buy your keywords only across the regions you are intersted in as your target market, North America, UK /Ireland, Central Europe,China, Japan, Australasia. The Keywords you buy may only be relevant to you or your brand, like 'Gucci Bags' or may be generic like 'Car Insurance'. Your keywords might be seaonal like 'Christmas hampers'in which case you may only need them for 3 months of the year for a specific region. The SearchMatch platform is the worlds first truely anti click fraud service that enables and empowers the advertiser to run the top competitive keywords to suit their budget. Not only that the Unique Five Star number one position will start to develop organic traffic as it picked up by Google and the other major search networks as a backlink on The Europasearh network.
Europasearch is a blended search engine that will bring up results for videos, news, images, and web results with one mouse click, your ad will appear across all the blended search services, so if someone searches for a how to video on 'Christmas hampers'your advert will come up first on the video search as well as the web results index. this is a great service and great tools are available on the search results page for sharing results with LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg.
Europasearch currently has 165 web search engines launched across global regions and is now offering a white label search solution for countries, cities, industry, or towns. to find out more about the white label hosted search solution contact bizz@amiwired.com.
The SearchMatch platform also allows you to buy your keywords only across the regions you are intersted in as your target market, North America, UK /Ireland, Central Europe,China, Japan, Australasia. The Keywords you buy may only be relevant to you or your brand, like 'Gucci Bags' or may be generic like 'Car Insurance'. Your keywords might be seaonal like 'Christmas hampers'in which case you may only need them for 3 months of the year for a specific region. The SearchMatch platform is the worlds first truely anti click fraud service that enables and empowers the advertiser to run the top competitive keywords to suit their budget. Not only that the Unique Five Star number one position will start to develop organic traffic as it picked up by Google and the other major search networks as a backlink on The Europasearh network.
Europasearch is a blended search engine that will bring up results for videos, news, images, and web results with one mouse click, your ad will appear across all the blended search services, so if someone searches for a how to video on 'Christmas hampers'your advert will come up first on the video search as well as the web results index. this is a great service and great tools are available on the search results page for sharing results with LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg.
Europasearch currently has 165 web search engines launched across global regions and is now offering a white label search solution for countries, cities, industry, or towns. to find out more about the white label hosted search solution contact bizz@amiwired.com.
Gasta and the future of contextual search
Gasta and the future of search
I can’t find my phone. What are my options for locating it?
1. Look for it
2. Ask others if they’ve seen it
3. Phone it
I would probably apply those strategies in that order as each fails. Of course, what I really want is for my phone to magically appear in my hand whenever I need it. That would be nice.
Search on the internet today is somewhere between a technology-driven stage 1 (Google, and minor variations like Wolfram Alpha and Bing) and a people-driven stage 2 (Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Amazon recommendations). One might stretch the metaphor to argue that RSS, Google Alerts and the like are forms of stage 3; I’m not sure I would agree.
Technology markets typically display the following characteristics.
- Incumbents are displaced by products that are an order of magnitude better, not just 20% better.
- Product evolution is about adding value by getting closer to the user
The Internet has evolved. It has become more personal, less about static home pages and more about communication and collaboration (behaviour rather than data). This is what we would expect: The Internet is moving closer to us.
But what most people think of search has not changed significantly:
For the first 10 years, the web was primarily just a bunch of pages, and Google was an excellent tool for searching primary data.
Then we started doing mashups and social networks; these are essentially derived and dynamic forms of data and it’s not that we search differently, per se, but that we simply don’t think about search in these arenas in quite the same way. How many links away from me are you in a social network? Who is listening to the same music as me on Last.fm? What relevant experience do we have within our business? What houses are for sale on my street?
Inevitably, search will move closer to these problems, because these problems are closer to us.
Context is King
The end game for search is recognizing a context where an answer should be presented rather than sought. There are a few candidates in this field.
The semantic web garners a lot of attention (or at least it did once!). It attempts to wrap content in more meaning by enriching it with relevant keywords (I know this is a simplification, but really, who cares?). It is a rather an old fashioned view of the web because it solves an old fashioned problem — find relevant pages. It’s not that there is no room for innovation in this arena it’s jut that Google does this so well, you’re only ever go to be picking at their leftovers. Start-ups entering the search arena should be focussed on a different set of use cases.
There is a lot of talk about real time search but I think it is confused. Nothing is real time, particularly the typical examples that are given like Twitter (go talk to guys that build financial trading systems about “real-time”!).
Further, it is a rather unattractive property. I want data to arrive at the right time and real time is a narrow set of those cases (your house is on fire!). But we don’t understand what right time means so we’ll shove it at you whether you like it or not, so that when you actually need the data, it will have disappeared down the drain with the rest of the contents of the firehose.
Which returns me to my opening gambit. I want my phone to appear in my hand when I need it. How do we know when I need my phone? We start with behavioral triggers (he put his hand to his ear!) and continue to layer in those activities that provide meaning such as task-lists (I must order my groceries) or conversations (they are discussing the price of tomatoes).
Put that way it sounds a lot like the future of search belongs to collaboration: ‘What am I working on with you?’ is a the kind of behavioural question we could hang a new form of search off. What do we have to do to complete this project? That’s a context begging for unsolicited answers.
The future of search is not about better text fields and faster, smarter indexing; the future of search is about you and me.
This is a guest post by Jasper Westaway of OneDrum. Throughout the summer we’re running guest posts we like - exclusive to TC Europe - written by people on the tech scene in Europe. If you’d like to contribute get in touch. More info here.
I can’t find my phone. What are my options for locating it?
1. Look for it
2. Ask others if they’ve seen it
3. Phone it
I would probably apply those strategies in that order as each fails. Of course, what I really want is for my phone to magically appear in my hand whenever I need it. That would be nice.
Search on the internet today is somewhere between a technology-driven stage 1 (Google, and minor variations like Wolfram Alpha and Bing) and a people-driven stage 2 (Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Amazon recommendations). One might stretch the metaphor to argue that RSS, Google Alerts and the like are forms of stage 3; I’m not sure I would agree.
Technology markets typically display the following characteristics.
- Incumbents are displaced by products that are an order of magnitude better, not just 20% better.
- Product evolution is about adding value by getting closer to the user
The Internet has evolved. It has become more personal, less about static home pages and more about communication and collaboration (behaviour rather than data). This is what we would expect: The Internet is moving closer to us.
But what most people think of search has not changed significantly:
For the first 10 years, the web was primarily just a bunch of pages, and Google was an excellent tool for searching primary data.
Then we started doing mashups and social networks; these are essentially derived and dynamic forms of data and it’s not that we search differently, per se, but that we simply don’t think about search in these arenas in quite the same way. How many links away from me are you in a social network? Who is listening to the same music as me on Last.fm? What relevant experience do we have within our business? What houses are for sale on my street?
Inevitably, search will move closer to these problems, because these problems are closer to us.
Context is King
The end game for search is recognizing a context where an answer should be presented rather than sought. There are a few candidates in this field.
The semantic web garners a lot of attention (or at least it did once!). It attempts to wrap content in more meaning by enriching it with relevant keywords (I know this is a simplification, but really, who cares?). It is a rather an old fashioned view of the web because it solves an old fashioned problem — find relevant pages. It’s not that there is no room for innovation in this arena it’s jut that Google does this so well, you’re only ever go to be picking at their leftovers. Start-ups entering the search arena should be focussed on a different set of use cases.
There is a lot of talk about real time search but I think it is confused. Nothing is real time, particularly the typical examples that are given like Twitter (go talk to guys that build financial trading systems about “real-time”!).
Further, it is a rather unattractive property. I want data to arrive at the right time and real time is a narrow set of those cases (your house is on fire!). But we don’t understand what right time means so we’ll shove it at you whether you like it or not, so that when you actually need the data, it will have disappeared down the drain with the rest of the contents of the firehose.
Which returns me to my opening gambit. I want my phone to appear in my hand when I need it. How do we know when I need my phone? We start with behavioral triggers (he put his hand to his ear!) and continue to layer in those activities that provide meaning such as task-lists (I must order my groceries) or conversations (they are discussing the price of tomatoes).
Put that way it sounds a lot like the future of search belongs to collaboration: ‘What am I working on with you?’ is a the kind of behavioural question we could hang a new form of search off. What do we have to do to complete this project? That’s a context begging for unsolicited answers.
The future of search is not about better text fields and faster, smarter indexing; the future of search is about you and me.
This is a guest post by Jasper Westaway of OneDrum. Throughout the summer we’re running guest posts we like - exclusive to TC Europe - written by people on the tech scene in Europe. If you’d like to contribute get in touch. More info here.
09/08/2009
FAQ on Gasta white label solution
FAQ on Gasta white label solution
How will our branded site receive traffic?
a) Case 1 - A new domain with no existing traffic or index on Google
· As a Gasta Partner you will be connected with 200 active sites on the Gasta Network that have over 110,000 indexed pages in Google
· Our network will cross promote you internally across all our sites (http://gasta.com/ads/adnetwork)
· Gasta serves between 250k to 500k searches a day <-- We will push you domain
· You domain will be picked up and indexed on Google within 24-72 hours of launching
· Case example Gasta.cn <- when initially launched it was index with over 12,000 pages on Google with 6 weeks
b) Case 2 - Existing domain
· You can bring in an existing domain
· As previous applies.
Will we need to SEO the site our selves
· No, our sites are completely SEO optimised using our platform. The only thing we start out doing is creating a dictionary of keywords that describe your site (see - baroneracing.com HomePage) - this leverages and helps search engines both understand and create an index for you site.
· Our system takes care of the rest - for example Google SiteMaps, Meta Titles etc.
· We can provide you with a complete admin interface that allows you to tweak and add keywords and SEO mark-up or we can care-take this for you.
Who will host it?
· We can will host it - however we can offer to install the site on your own server if you wish.
Can we customize the links on the home page
a) Standard implementation (eg. baroneracing.com or gasta.com)
· Yes, the home page is completely customisable.
· The standard layout will allow you to change the keywords (tabbed directory) and ALL text on the home page.
· This is controlled from your admin area, or care-taken by our support team.
b) Custom implementation
· We can 100% create a customised homepage for you - alternative designs or new features as you request
Will there be adsense ads in our result page
· You can turn ads on and off via the control panel.
· If you wish to have adsense (or any other simliar third party ads) you can control them from you control panel.
· Your ads, your revenue, your option.
Note: On Ads
· The Gasta White Label has it's own version of adsense built in. We call these 'InstantAds' and 'SearchMatch'.
· Using the example http://gasta.com/Search/casino
o Draw you focus to the top left logo and the grey bar - directly below this is 'SearchMatch'.
o Now to the right column and at the top - notice your ad - this is 'InstantAds'.
· You can control the number of ads you wish to display in each unit via the admin.
· Both ad types can cross pollinate with each other.
· The Ad scope (this is how the system decides what ads to be displayed) can be set to 'exact' or 'universal'
o 'exact' is a direct keyword or contextual match
o 'universal' - display an exact match first (if available) and always display 'ad stock' regardless.
In addition
· You can sell you ad space if desired directly.
· You can create your own network of related sites.
· You can export you ads to existing sites (similar to Google Adsense)
· We can sell ad space for you.
· Turn the feature off.
I would suggest that the ads system be filled with a library of your corporate and associated network services and set to universally be displayed.
Gasta white label solution comes in three partnered solutions.
Basic
· We retain control of all Ads and Revenue including Google, SearchMatch, InstantAds and other third party campaigns
· Only the logo and keywords can be customised
· Branding and Copyright remains as part of the Gasta Network
Partnered
· As part of the Gasta Search Network all advertising revenue sold to third parties via your domain is split evenly on SearchMatch & InstantAds.
· All third party advert revenue (eg. Google Adsense, Trade Doubler etc.) on your site is 100% is retained by your company.
· You will receive a 50% discount on all adverts you place across the entire Gasta Network.
· Ad revenue sharing is completely optional. You may turn the ad system off.
· Initial set-up cost
Dedicated
· 100% Control of Ad system and 100% retained Advertising revenue
· 100% Branding as Your Company
· Create your own Exclusive Ad Network and Ad Content.
In addition we can provide you with a completely bespoke design. We can offer to redesign the home page or results page to suit your company needs.
How will our branded site receive traffic?
a) Case 1 - A new domain with no existing traffic or index on Google
· As a Gasta Partner you will be connected with 200 active sites on the Gasta Network that have over 110,000 indexed pages in Google
· Our network will cross promote you internally across all our sites (http://gasta.com/ads/adnetwork)
· Gasta serves between 250k to 500k searches a day <-- We will push you domain
· You domain will be picked up and indexed on Google within 24-72 hours of launching
· Case example Gasta.cn <- when initially launched it was index with over 12,000 pages on Google with 6 weeks
b) Case 2 - Existing domain
· You can bring in an existing domain
· As previous applies.
Will we need to SEO the site our selves
· No, our sites are completely SEO optimised using our platform. The only thing we start out doing is creating a dictionary of keywords that describe your site (see - baroneracing.com HomePage) - this leverages and helps search engines both understand and create an index for you site.
· Our system takes care of the rest - for example Google SiteMaps, Meta Titles etc.
· We can provide you with a complete admin interface that allows you to tweak and add keywords and SEO mark-up or we can care-take this for you.
Who will host it?
· We can will host it - however we can offer to install the site on your own server if you wish.
Can we customize the links on the home page
a) Standard implementation (eg. baroneracing.com or gasta.com)
· Yes, the home page is completely customisable.
· The standard layout will allow you to change the keywords (tabbed directory) and ALL text on the home page.
· This is controlled from your admin area, or care-taken by our support team.
b) Custom implementation
· We can 100% create a customised homepage for you - alternative designs or new features as you request
Will there be adsense ads in our result page
· You can turn ads on and off via the control panel.
· If you wish to have adsense (or any other simliar third party ads) you can control them from you control panel.
· Your ads, your revenue, your option.
Note: On Ads
· The Gasta White Label has it's own version of adsense built in. We call these 'InstantAds' and 'SearchMatch'.
· Using the example http://gasta.com/Search/casino
o Draw you focus to the top left logo and the grey bar - directly below this is 'SearchMatch'.
o Now to the right column and at the top - notice your ad - this is 'InstantAds'.
· You can control the number of ads you wish to display in each unit via the admin.
· Both ad types can cross pollinate with each other.
· The Ad scope (this is how the system decides what ads to be displayed) can be set to 'exact' or 'universal'
o 'exact' is a direct keyword or contextual match
o 'universal' - display an exact match first (if available) and always display 'ad stock' regardless.
In addition
· You can sell you ad space if desired directly.
· You can create your own network of related sites.
· You can export you ads to existing sites (similar to Google Adsense)
· We can sell ad space for you.
· Turn the feature off.
I would suggest that the ads system be filled with a library of your corporate and associated network services and set to universally be displayed.
Gasta white label solution comes in three partnered solutions.
Basic
· We retain control of all Ads and Revenue including Google, SearchMatch, InstantAds and other third party campaigns
· Only the logo and keywords can be customised
· Branding and Copyright remains as part of the Gasta Network
Partnered
· As part of the Gasta Search Network all advertising revenue sold to third parties via your domain is split evenly on SearchMatch & InstantAds.
· All third party advert revenue (eg. Google Adsense, Trade Doubler etc.) on your site is 100% is retained by your company.
· You will receive a 50% discount on all adverts you place across the entire Gasta Network.
· Ad revenue sharing is completely optional. You may turn the ad system off.
· Initial set-up cost
Dedicated
· 100% Control of Ad system and 100% retained Advertising revenue
· 100% Branding as Your Company
· Create your own Exclusive Ad Network and Ad Content.
In addition we can provide you with a completely bespoke design. We can offer to redesign the home page or results page to suit your company needs.
08/08/2009
Gasta web 2.0
About Gasta
Started in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1998 Gasta is a global search engine and web directory. Translated into six Languages, Gasta has now launched search engines in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, French, & German,
Gasta has now launched SearchMatch paid inclusion programs for all 400 of its search engines and sees paid listings as the future of Internet marketing enabling and empowering advertisers to bid on niche contextual Keywords and phrases that are directly related to their business. Gasta organic growth of traffic extends the long tail of keywords and adds added value to all our client campaigns.
Platform
Gasta is written in MVC Asp.net, C#, and XML, Jscript,
Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.
Geo Targeting
Gasta automatically includes effective Geo Targeting of advertising across regions so the user searching in Dublin receives adverts from Dublin and UK Regions and the user searching in New York receives inventory from USA regions.
More than 97% of gasta.com users live and/or work in the regional search areas the index is aimed at. This offers an extremely focused way of targeting prospective customers. Localize to globalize. With Gasta.com you the advertiser only pay for the traffic you receive. Gasta.com has a unique featured Site scheme allows you to directly gear expenditure to traffic. This is the most cost effective method with no wasted clicks.
Diverse User Base
Gasta.com search results are rendered by a network of Search Partners ranging from major Internet brands to organizations who specifically address the Region. Gasta has also implemented social marketing tools on all search results to share video, news, images, blogs, and web results as well as the actual SearchMatch ad itself. A unique service for a search engine.
Gasta.com has a more focussed appeal because it is targeted directly to a local audience
Ad Management
24/7 Ad Campaign Management access your account and manage your listings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the gasta.com Management and bid System
Gasta white Label solution
The Gasta Hosted white label solution can be launched in a matter of minutes and offers a variety of solutions and ad platforms to Partners. These search engines can start earning revenues as soon as they are launched with a variety of monetisation features such as preloaded Google Adsense and SearchMatch and InstantAds platforms. Gasta has now launched white label partner sites in India, USA, and Australia. We are currently seeking regional partners in China, Singapore, and Latin America.
Partners
Gasta partners include:
Services: Microsoft Bing, Google, Miva, ABC Search, Adify, BT, Mirago UK, Admeld, Adconion,
Social Marketing: LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, Bebo,
Content : BBC, Irish Times, Irish News, Belfastmedia group, FlashSeek,
Francis Higgins
bizz@amiwired.com
Started in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1998 Gasta is a global search engine and web directory. Translated into six Languages, Gasta has now launched search engines in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, French, & German,
Gasta has now launched SearchMatch paid inclusion programs for all 400 of its search engines and sees paid listings as the future of Internet marketing enabling and empowering advertisers to bid on niche contextual Keywords and phrases that are directly related to their business. Gasta organic growth of traffic extends the long tail of keywords and adds added value to all our client campaigns.
Platform
Gasta is written in MVC Asp.net, C#, and XML, Jscript,
Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.
Geo Targeting
Gasta automatically includes effective Geo Targeting of advertising across regions so the user searching in Dublin receives adverts from Dublin and UK Regions and the user searching in New York receives inventory from USA regions.
More than 97% of gasta.com users live and/or work in the regional search areas the index is aimed at. This offers an extremely focused way of targeting prospective customers. Localize to globalize. With Gasta.com you the advertiser only pay for the traffic you receive. Gasta.com has a unique featured Site scheme allows you to directly gear expenditure to traffic. This is the most cost effective method with no wasted clicks.
Diverse User Base
Gasta.com search results are rendered by a network of Search Partners ranging from major Internet brands to organizations who specifically address the Region. Gasta has also implemented social marketing tools on all search results to share video, news, images, blogs, and web results as well as the actual SearchMatch ad itself. A unique service for a search engine.
Gasta.com has a more focussed appeal because it is targeted directly to a local audience
Ad Management
24/7 Ad Campaign Management access your account and manage your listings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the gasta.com Management and bid System
Gasta white Label solution
The Gasta Hosted white label solution can be launched in a matter of minutes and offers a variety of solutions and ad platforms to Partners. These search engines can start earning revenues as soon as they are launched with a variety of monetisation features such as preloaded Google Adsense and SearchMatch and InstantAds platforms. Gasta has now launched white label partner sites in India, USA, and Australia. We are currently seeking regional partners in China, Singapore, and Latin America.
Partners
Gasta partners include:
Services: Microsoft Bing, Google, Miva, ABC Search, Adify, BT, Mirago UK, Admeld, Adconion,
Social Marketing: LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, Bebo,
Content : BBC, Irish Times, Irish News, Belfastmedia group, FlashSeek,
Francis Higgins
bizz@amiwired.com
07/08/2009
Gasta SearchMatch
Your Customers Are Online: Can They Find Your Website?
The search world is fluid; keywords, rankings, links and more change everyday, and define your brands online success or failure. Help your customers find your products and services by effectively promoting your online brand with proven techniques. A recent Datran Media survey found 57% of marketing executives identified search marketing as one of the strongest advertising mediums for their company. Another 54% indicated that they have increased budgets for search while decreasing offline and direct marketing efforts.
Gasta SearchMatch™ now offering the best value for European keyword advertising across 200+ internet search engines. Get your niche targeted keywords now with a unique Instant Ad Free/
Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.
The search world is fluid; keywords, rankings, links and more change everyday, and define your brands online success or failure. Help your customers find your products and services by effectively promoting your online brand with proven techniques. A recent Datran Media survey found 57% of marketing executives identified search marketing as one of the strongest advertising mediums for their company. Another 54% indicated that they have increased budgets for search while decreasing offline and direct marketing efforts.
Gasta SearchMatch™ now offering the best value for European keyword advertising across 200+ internet search engines. Get your niche targeted keywords now with a unique Instant Ad Free/
Social Marketing Services
Gasta now offers the ability to share web search results, videos, news items, images, and Blogs with your chosen social networking partner site, Gasta now has social marketing links with FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Bebo, and Digg. This service not only offers an added value to our users but also greatly assists our advertisers with their social marketing and brand awareness campaigns.
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