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Madison Avenue STILL Doesn't Get Search 
By: Mr. Frog 2006-07-25 I'm a New York-based frog, and like human residents of this city, I often find myself having dangerously close encounters with fast-moving vehicles in this city.
Last week, a block away from Did-it's New York HQ, I was nearly squished by a speeding bus. As the bus sped away, I noticed that there was a big sign on its side bearing a peculiar word: HUNGERECTOMY. "Hungerectomy?" my reptilian brain wondered. What could this word possibly mean? What mysterious product stood behind this strange word? But then, it dawned on me: the letters spelling out "Hungerectomy" used the same font displayed on the Snickers candy bars that I've enjoyed for years. "Aha - I get it: a Snickers Bar will surgically remove your hunger. Pretty clever!" Back at the office, increasingly curious about the new Snickers campaign, I typed the term "Hungerectomy" into Google. I badly wanted to know more about how Snickers could help me with my hunger problem. Unfortunately, this query came up dry: the only organic results pointed to some ad-oriented Blogs which had discussed the "Hungerectomy" campaign. So I read those Blogs, and learned that "Hungerectomy" wasn't the only nonsensical word appearing on busses throughout New York. There was also "Satisfectellent," "Nougatocity, " "Substantialicious," and "Peanutopolis." So I typed each of these terms into Google and again, I got nothing. No organic results that led to Snickers' site or to any other properties owned by Mars Incorporated, Company, no paid results, and in the case of "Nougatocity," a suggestion from Google that I had misspelled the word "Negativity.". "Okay," I said to myself. "Let me get over to Snickers.com. If there's one place on the Web I'll be able to learn more about having a Hungerectomy, it would be Snickers.com." But there was nothing relating to the new campaign there - just one of Snickers' old slogans ("Hungry? Grab a Snickers."), plus an unrelated 30-second spot. By this point I was more angry than hungry, because it was obvious to me that Snickers is the latest big brand to suffer from the failure to integrate Search into a big-budget ad campaign. Does it make any sense for an advertiser to pay hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) to arouse the curiosity of consumers of an ad, and then leave them left high and dry when they invariably start querying the search engines (especially when made-up words such as "Hungerectomy" and "Nougatocity" could be bought for practically nothing)? Are the CMO and the brand manager at Mars/Snickers interested in having their brands associated with snacking? Why not buy the keyword snack? Do they think of Snickers as the original "energy bar" well that keyword would be great too. Do people need to be reminded how yummy "peanuts" taste in a Snickers bar? Again, a great keyword to buy, and all for less per month than a few TV spots or bus ads. I wish this kind of campaign disconnect was an anomaly, but it isn't: it happens a lot. The failure to integrate Search isn't the exception to the rule - it's the rule, and it's just one more sign that too many traditional advertising agency firms are unqualified to deal with today's media realities. If this were the year 2003, such oversights might be forgivable, but in an age in which the powerful relationship between offline media exposure and search behavior has been established, it's unforgivable. Unless these agencies start thinking holistically about their media buys, they're in line for an "Accountectomy" once the client realizes how deeply its interests have been damaged by the lack of an integrated Search campaign. Tag: search, Snickers Add to  Del.icio.us |  Digg |  Yahoo! My Web |  Furl
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About the Author: Mr. Frog is a leading Search industry visionary. Mr. Frog is a member of the Did-it Search Marketing team which accompanies him to most major marketing conferences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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