Archive for December, 2010

Update on International Search Review 4 – India

December 28th, 2010

Well, our review on the Search Market in India was the fourth in our series of International Search Reviews from Reform. It was an interesting piece, but I figured the best way to learn how the market really works and to generate insight is to actually go there (for a holiday of course). So here are some things that I inadvertently learned while in India, from a search and web perspective.

Things I learned in India:

1) The Market – As we’ve all been hearing, India is a market that’s barely tapped when it comes to internet usage, and the online population is set to explode, like it has in China.

Now that I’ve been there, I’m not sure if I agree 100%. While things like food and transportation were much cheaper in India than in the west, broadband was actually pretty much the same price as in the west, if not more expensive in some places. Many “offers” were still in the 15-45 dollar per month range, at the very least.

Considering that buying a home is significantly cheaper in India and an average salary is about $3.5k (though figures online do vary quite a bit, so to put it in perspective, some of the top jobs in India are in IT and they still make under 10k USD on average), broadband is proportionately an expensive offering and only for the well off. And from being outside the major cities part of the time, it felt even more far fetched (mainly because broadband was not available everywhere yet).

Though I did see a fair few billboards advertising “high speed internet access coming soon”. So at least it will be an option outside the major cities soon.

2) Google Billboards – Speaking of billboards. Google buys billboard advertising spaces on the highways of Delhi. However it took a few passes to realise it was a Google advertisement, and considering how manic the traffic is in India, with constant horns blaring and cars cutting in from all angles in their attempt to convert a three lane road into eight lanes – I doubt anyone even notices it.

Plus, they probably shouldn’t encourage speed on these roads anyway. By that I mean, the ad is for Google Chrome and it’s mainly a picture of a Windows-esque folder that says “Install Speed” on it – with Chrome’s logo in the bottom right corner. Google does dominate the search market here, perhaps because the search market is mainly those who are quite internationally savvy to begin with. Ask the regular people on the street and some of them will have no idea who Google is.

So putting an ad up that is mainly for people who already know who you are is a bit misleading.  The ad looked too subtle perhaps.  Where as every other ad on the road had the brand name in big letters, pushing the big brand name as much as it can.

3) Use PPC and Affiliate Networks To Make Money At Home! – I did manage to get a camera shot of this (shown below), seen all over trains and lampposts especially in Mumbai. Yes, perhaps some of the stereotypes are true unfortunately. Just click away on affiliates, fill surveys, click PPC ads, enter data, etc and make money at home! Ezeeincome.com was one of several sites advertising here, the shot above was from an “economy car” in one of Mumbai’s overland trains, which were busy as expected, but still worth using, though perhaps not during rush hour.

Beyond search, big name sites like TripAdvisor.in will “reimburse” you for reviews, with credits and vouchers one can use elsewhere.  On a computer in India, I saw a pop-up saying I could earn money with each review made on tripadvisor.in, but taking a screenshot was the last thing I was thinking of at that moment (plus it wasn’t my computer!).

4) Mobile Phones – The government is discussing a national broadband plan for the coming years. But with current offerings costing a fair portion of many people’s monthly salary – hopeful predictions like http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/internet/237-mn-internet-users-in-India-by-2015-Report/articleshow/6479094.cms are still far away. However, mobile broadband will make it much more possible.

Everyone seemed to have a mobile phone out there. Some looked like the one I had ten years ago. But I also saw many phones that were perhaps newer than my current phone. Even outside the cities, I saw kids calling and texting away – while piled on a 3 seater vehicle that had more than ten people in it, so this is definitely a market ready for mobile broadband. But 3G mobile broadband is not readily available yet, especially outside the big cities.

So why the big mobile takeup? Well, it doesn’t require a full computer, and it’s cheaper. Basic plans started from under $6 per month, with text messages costing less than two pennies. Calls were also about one cent a minute. But again, adding wireless internet access to the mobile phone was expensive. And 3G wireless access is just being launched – so even though many people had 3G compatible phones, they were using them for traditional means such as phone calls! Chances are the mobiles might have came with the plans, as the actual mobile device costs are again similar to that in the west, which means too expensive for most.

Articles like http://www.domain-b.com/industry/telecom/20101227_mobile_network.html are perhaps misleading. Yes, there are more mobile phone subscribers and their phones are connected to a wireless network, but the network is not necessarily one with any real internet access, let alone 3G. Major provider Tata only launched 3G in November 2010, while Airtel delayed their launch till 2011.

So will people be using their 3G phone for things like video chats and internet access when ready? Not if the Indian government have any say, as they look to delay plans further – http://www.slashgear.com/india-faces-3g-data-video-call-ban-over-real-time-security-fears-22120687/

On a side note, I didn’t see a single iPhone.  Everyone had Nokias!  I even looked this up when I got back and turns out that most of the top phones in India are in fact Nokias and iPhones are not nearly as popular here.  There’s an interesting report by Google/Admob at http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/AdMob-Mobile-Metrics-May-10.pdf if you’re interested in more details.

Summary – Is India a booming market with loads of potential in the internet marketplace? Yes. But it might take a little longer than expected before it fully expands across the country’s population.

How does it look today? Take a look at our India search market review (with downloadable PDF). Or view information about other countries in our series of international search market reviews. Thanks again to all those who commented and gave us feedback and help in 2010, Issue five of our series is set for release in early 2011.

Search data CAN help predict the outcome of Strictly!

December 20th, 2010

As promised, today my smug face is getting a full run out. Way back in October, after the first couple were voted off Strictly Come Dancing, I had a look at search volumes around our Strictly Come Celebrities and suggested Kara Tointon would win this years’ show. Well, it appears that the data didn’t lie, and on Saturday night the lovely Kara was crowned Strictly Come Dancing champion of 2010.

Such was the power of the data and argument put forward that Kara would win, that a certain non-executive director here at Reform decided to have a flutter on the show, getting in early while the odds were still quite long on her winning. I’m certainly looking forward to a Christmas thank you drink from the winnings!

Interestingly, I had a look at the search volume around the names of the contestants in this year’s X Factor, to see, with hindsight, whether I could have done a similar analysis for that show. However, there was no clear winner in terms of search volume in the X Factor. Matt Cardle only saw the most search volume around his name twice before the final week, with searches for One Direction, and particularly Cher Lloyd seeing much higher volumes throughout the competition.

Given that Matt won the majority of the telephone vote every week but one, this is obviously a very different pattern from that we saw with Strictly. I wonder whether the fact that the X Factor contestants are a group of unknowns before the show has an impact on the way we search for them. Perhaps the fact that Cher and One Direction are the two most searched for X Factor contestants is just a reflection of the younger demographics of the people watching the X Factor. Given the data from the first few weeks of the show, I would probably have suggested Cher Lloyd would have won the X Factor this year. Looking back, she was actually favourite as the live shows started, somehow snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Much like the England cricket team… fingers crossed they bounce back!

So what does this mean for the future of using data to predict the outcome of events? Probably, just that it can only tell you so much, after which you still rely on the people you’re writing about doing a good job. It was clear from the start that Kara was a good dancer, and the data showed that she was also generating a lot of interest online. For Cher Lloyd, again, it was clear she was talented, but her grimey-rap style was polarising for opinion and so would have been a worse horse to back… so to speak. Either way, as 2010 is coming to a close I have half an eye on what other events we can roll this out to. Can digital data help us to predict who will win the Eurovision Song Contest ahead of time, for example? Or maybe we’d be better focusing on next year’s Britain’s Got Talent? Do you have any suggestions as to what we should look into in 2011?

UPDATE: Can we do it again? Find out about Strictly Come Searching 2011 here.
Blog post by Penny Anderson, Consultant at Reform

Getting your brand into the right frame of social

December 14th, 2010

Social, Smocial, Searchocial… we hear variants on the social theme from every corner of the marketing universe, whether client side or agency, the new marketing holy grail has arrived. Bringing brands to life online has never been more of a priority, and I for one am absolutely delighted to see that the ‘stinging nettle’ of brand and consumer in conversation is being (tentatively) grappled with, as a good indication of how advertising will never return to the strictly ‘shouty shouty’ model of yore…

Although the tone, medium and messages may have changed, the conundrum as to how we divine ‘which 20% of my social media (formerly advertising) budget is actually working?’ must be addressed more than ever in these times of austerity and accountability. Having recently read Jim Sterne’s excellent book on Social Media Metrics (Wiley, New Jersey, 2010), I have discovered that the metrics of social are as messy as they are vital in determining how a brand can develop competitive advantage, lower costs and increased customer satisfaction. One of the many factors we need to address is that turning customers into brand advocates, a favoured social media objective of many brands, is not as simple as it may sound. As a sales person of some repute, I know that persuading someone to buy from you, and then to independently recommend your product and services to others, is not a five minute pile ‘em high sell ‘em cheap story. Yes, the 5 P’s of People, Place, Promotion, Price and Product still all matter; but now you have to factor in metrics for a brands emotional resonance, identification of influencers, recognising sentiment, hearing the conversation and triggering the desired actions. These soft metrics are what makes social so powerful, yet they are also open to subjective analysis and the qualitative understanding of online phenomena, which can include the fact that people lie about their identities online, have hundreds of virtual friends, but live alone etc. This blurring of where the advertising ends and the personal begins, brings with it significant CSR implications, as well as the need for silos within brands organisations and local communities to work more closely together.

Brands need to become ‘consultative’ in both their messaging, their openness to feedback and the ways in which they reward brand advocates and ambassadors, as well as recognising that they when they start or engage with a community, they can’t just subsequently abandon it without consequences. Social media is not a one night stand – because if you treat it as such, your name will be mud all over Facebook in the morning… Social is about brands not over promising, it’s about flirting with permission, moving onto a face to face meeting when it feels right for both of you (and your mates if you’ve asked their opinions), and it’s about still remaining on good terms when the relationship is over and you’ve decided to move on…

Recognising the nuances of how brand building social media strategies can work, has led to Reform developing a new service for our clients, whereby we formulate communications and messaging strategies which utilise the power of social media metrics alongside the development of tactics and plans that enable its optimisation. Called Sway, it encompasses the soft with the hard, and is designed to produce powerful conversations that lead onto even more powerful relationships between brands and consumers. Please contact Amanda Davie on amanda@reformdigital.com or call 020 7874 1898 to discuss how Sway can help get your brand into the right frame of social.

Blog post by Mary Keane-Dawson, non-Executive Director of Reform

What Are People Strictly Come Searching For?

December 9th, 2010

Throughout this series of Strictly Come Dancing I have looked at the search volumes for the celebrities taking part and tried to make conclusions – or perhaps, more realistically, assumptions (or wild guesses) – as to what the various patterns meant for the celebrities and their chances. There has already been a modicum of success for my predictions as I suggested a few weeks ago that Ann Widdecombe wouldn’t go and win the show – she and Anton waltzed out of the show last week. Not quite Mystic Meg just yet, though if my week one assertion that the data made it clear Kara Tointon would win the show comes to fruition then I may be unable to control my smug face for an hour or two.

Anyway, today I’ve taken another look at some search data for the remaining celebrities, again using Google’s Insights for Search tool, looking at what people are searching for around our celebrities beyond just their name. Starting with the current bookies’ favourite Matt Baker, as an ex-Blue Peter and Countryfile presenter you may think that he would be an odd kind of pin up. However, he is clearly one for the ladies as the top ten searches around him include ‘matt baker married’ and ‘matt baker wife’. Lots of women throughout the country using search to see whether they might have a shot with the ex-gymnast. Not to be outdone, the top rising searches for my top tip for success, Kara Tointon, include the keywords ‘fhm’ and ‘kara tointon fhm’ as people presumably are searching for in-depth, cutting edge interviews and opinion pieces about her. Ahem.

Moving on, it has been widely reported in the news today that Gavin Henson thinks it might be time to move on from his ex-fiance Charlotte Church, but the search data suggests that the British public aren’t quite ready to let it go, as ‘charlotte church’ appears 4th in the list of top searches for Gavin. We do love a good celebrity romance – failed or otherwise. This is further borne out by the searches that have been made around Pamela Stephenson as ‘billy connolly’ is 6th in the list of top searches for her. We also as a nation seem to be not just a little bit obsessed with how good she looks for her age, with the term ‘pamela stephenson age’ experiencing ‘breakout’ increases in search volume over the last few months – that’s increases of over 5000%. I for one hope to be getting full marks for my Viennese Waltz when I’m 61!

For Scott Maslen the data is not looking too hot, as only searches including the words ‘strictly’ and ‘eastenders’ make it into the top ten and rising searches list for him. He obviously isn’t having the same effect on the women of the country as Gavin or Matt. Also, worryingly for his chances of success in this weekend’s semi-final, his name has seen the lowest search volume of all the remaining celebrities over last 90 days. This combined with already having appeared in the bottom two last week make me think he’s going to have to dance the dance of his life on Saturday to stay in. As Gavin is also a bottom two survivor, I foresee battle of the boys in the bottom two this week between Gavin and Scott. We shall see!

Blog post by Penny Anderson, Search Consultant at Reform

Is It Good To Be Bad In SEO?

December 2nd, 2010

There’s an old saying that all publicity, even bad publicity, is good publicity. In a recent article from The New York Times, Search Engine Optimization through search juggernaut Google proves that the old saying may be the current truth in ecommerce.

The story details a consumer who purchased a pair of Lafont sunglasses from DecorMyEyes.com, a website ranked at the top of Google’s search results. While she believed that the high Google ranking and the look of the site brought assurances, she had no idea of the nightmare to follow.

Within a few weeks, she received the glasses in the mail, but, a loyal follower to the brand, she immediately spotted them as counterfeit. In investigating the purchase, she discovered that she was also overcharged by 125 dollars. When she called the website support to inquire about the purchase and ask for a refund, she was berated by the owner of the site, who called her a bitch and threatened her with graphic sexual violence. He also told her he knew where she lived and sent her a picture of her front door.

The consumer immediately called her credit card company but unfortunately, they also gave her trouble in investigating the matter and getting a refund.  Her requests for refunds landed her more harassment from the owner of the site, including calls at three in the morning and e-mail threats against her.

How then did this website get such high status from Google? The answer, according to the article, is simple. Many times consumers expect a smooth transaction and when they receive it, they don’t leave feedback. But when they get a horrible transaction, they need a place to vent their frustrations and the jilted consumer will go a review based website to describe their experience, throw caution to other consumers and link to the website to show where to consumers must avoid. The problem: This actually helps them.

DecorMyEyes saw that while consumers left feedback and provided links to their site on reputable sites on Google’s augustness scale, their Google ranking would increase… and so their sales would follow. They realized that bad publicity is not only good publicity, it’s also free publicity.

Since the Google algorithm may not be able to discern sentimentality, the search engine looks at the added content on a reputable as a benefit and gives DecorMyEyes a greater ranking. The website, seeing the potential, has taken the SEO philosophy and run with it, spurring on more comments by frustrating reviewers on websites into even more action. According to the article, their goal is “NEGATIVE advertisement” and that goal is garnering SEO great dividends.

A Google ranking leading to productivity of the site, even with bad reviews and now a scathing New York Times article about it, reaffirms the great power that SEO has on ecommerce business. Getting a high Google ranking, DecorMyEyes has built an ecommerce site that the owner claims to be “fantastically profitable.” Yet his completely unethical and terrifying business practices show that, in the wrong hands, SEO could be a powerful tool for unlawful sites intending on trapping consumers.

As of Tuesday night, Google was yet to comment on the article but many replies commented on how the search engine algorithm should be altered to punish sites receiving bad reviews, protecting consumers from sites that use SEO to prey on them. Google have now responded on their official blog, announcing that they have developed an algorithmic solution in an initial response to this problem, but they can’t guarantee that people won’t find further loopholes in the algorithm.

The outcry over the site has spread significantly throughout the week and one may wonder if the owner of DecorMyEyes is already relishing the profits of getting his website in the very prominent online version of The New York Times.

Read the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html