In 2015, US consumers looking for
information, products and services on the Internet will—for the first time—do
more of their search queries on mobile devices than on desktop computers.
Combined with the fact that YouTube will nudge Google into second place to
narrowly become the number one search engine, it’s clear mobile and video will
be front and centre of every marketer’s activities.
The focus on mobile is
underscored by a survey (The Advertiser Intelligence Reports, Wave 21) of
approximately 2,000 marketer and agency decision makers conducted in July and
August of 2014 by research firm Advertiser Perceptions. Among all respondents,
48 per cent expected to spend more on mobile advertising over the next 12
months while a mere 5 per cent indicated they would cut such spending. To put
this into perspective, 32 per cent anticipated increased Satellite TV advertising
spending and just 19 per cent saw additional spending on magazines.
Unfortunately, many companies
(not least of which Microsoft, from a product development standpoint) did not
anticipate the speed at which mobile devices would become so ubiquitous. Now
they are not only playing catch-up from a content optimisation standpoint, they
need to do it across such diverse devices as smartphones, tablets and “phablets,”
all with varying size displays. Add the complexity of search marketing to the
mobile mix—and the fact that roughly half of all digital advertising in the
States is devoted to search marketing—and the term “catch-up” is better
characterised as a never-ending sprint.
With regard to search marketing,
the increasing consumer preference for, and reliance on, mobile devices, along
with marketers’ prolific generation of content to leverage that reliance,
requires a thorough understanding of consumer intent—expressed in subtle ways
via search keywords and phrases. Only by understanding the “information need”
behind a keyword or phrase are marketers better able to develop content that
specifically meets that need. “Intent computing” is a growing area of research,
particularly in the field of digital marketing. It is based on predicting the
probability of a specific intention held by an end user by applying machine learning
and data mining methods.
It’s said that nearly everyone in
the modern world is influenced, to some degree, by advertising and other forms
of promotion. However, dramatic transformations in the way that we are served
marketing media, and the way we consume media generally, is fundamentally
changing the art and science of advertising and marketing. A recent survey
cited by Inc. Magazine said that 70 per cent of consumers want to learn about
products through content as opposed to traditional ad methods. That’s quite a
sea change from just a few years ago.
The ascendancy of video is a
great example of the need to accurately decipher consumer intent in order to
sell something. That’s because user intent can determine whether a video may be
a better user experience following a search query than looking at a static page
on a website. The key is knowing whether it’s more effective to show somebody
how to do something than to tell them how to do it. While it doesn’t sound all
that complicated, consider that the typical enterprise-level, global brand like
Four Seasons Resorts & Hotels or software/services giant SAP can at any
given moment be managing tens of millions of search keywords.
Fortunately, companies like
Google, with about 65 per cent of US search marketing share, keeps getting
better at understanding the intent behind a query so as to deliver the most
relevant type of content. Google rewards companies with higher rankings if it
considers their mobile experience “friendly,” based on how easy it is for
consumers to interact with the mobile content.
Setting digital aside for a moment,
we are frequently reminded that it is but one element of successful branding
and sales efforts. A recent case was provided by Phoenix Marketing
International, which has surveyed 2,000 consumers each month to gauge their
recall and response to various advertising media, including television. The
company says that 32 per cent of consumers who were shown a Mercedes TV
commercial recalled having seen it, concluding that TV advertising has been
particularly effective for the automaker.
The Phoenix study shows that, no
matter how cool you think you are in the digital age, the message and the
medium still matter. It’s still the luxury, lifestyle broadcast ad that has the
most emotional appeal.
by Grant Stanley 2015
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