SES Toronto 2008: Opening Keynote
For a second year in a row, Adviso is reporting from Toronto for the Search Engine Strategies conference. This year is a little different, however, since we were invited as speakers! (I have to admit, I’m a little more excited!).
Simon Lamarche and I will be reporting live (as live as we can;) today and tomorrow (June 17-18) on this blog and on Innovation Web, so stay tuned for all the news coming from the largest search engine conference in Canada.
Read Simon’s first post about universal search (french)
The opening keynote featured the founder of iProspect, « The Original search engine marketing firm » (yeah, it’s their tag line… but to be fair, it’s one of the largest search firm, if not the largest).
The entertaining presentation from Fredrick Marckini covered a lot of different subjects but I kept two main messages from it:
1. Traditionally, the return on investment on marketing expenses decreased over time (2 years after a tv ad campaign ends, the ads don’t really contribute to your bottom line anymore, right?). Nowadays, the return on investment from marketing efforts on the Internet can actually grow over time since content uploaded online never dies (as oppose to tv ads). He gave the example of the Terry Tate office commercial that continues to perform well on youtube. In that way, he says that all marketing efforts will eventually lead online…. with a search.
2. Not only you need to understand the language of your customer (the keywords they use) but also where they search. Vertical search is getting really important. Frederick talked about how crucial it is to be present on Google News, You Tube, Social Sites, etc.
Here’s his ending words:
« The future [as the future of marketing] is search centric… and community driven. »