• by Derek Gordon , January 23, 2012

Bing introduced a new ad campaign last night during the NFC Championship between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. The campaign tag -- “Bing is for doing” -- is very similar to a campaign rolled out last year by Lenovo (“For Those Who Do”). Both campaigns are focused on those who aren’t just passive consumers of media or information, but who make it their mission to get something done. I was speaking with colleagues recently about how they use Google Search versus Bing, and to a person these folks said they preferred to use Bing for searches relating to travel and things like movie listings. Google, conversely, was great for research, they said – product research, price comparisons and simply finding the right answer to a pressing question.

Lenovo, as viewed through its excellent ad campaign, seems to want to differentiate itself from those who use Apple products. People who “do,” in their minds, are less concerned with all the fanboydom that surrounds Apple and more concerned with getting big jobs done at the lowest cost possible. One side is more fanciful, the other highly practical (or so they’d have you believe.)

Think what you will about either campaign, but I’ve got to say I love the underlying spirit of both – the idea of “do.” Whether “Lenovo: for those who do,” or “Bing is for doing” or, for that matter, “Just do it” (of Nike fame), the whole idea of “doing” strikes me as the right message for our times. It’s also the perfect framing for the search marketing profession.

SEM is not for the faint of heart; it requires a tenacity that is echoed in the “do” ethos of these campaigns. Campaign work almost always starts with exhaustive research, a fair amount of gut check and native instinct, and almost always leads to endless testing and refinement, until finally the results you’re looking for materialize. Clients, whether internal or external, are demanding (as they should be), and you’re only ever as good as your last batch of results.

So, yeah, search marketing isn’t easy. But it is for doers. It’s for the kind of people who make it their mission to wake up every day and do that which they’re passionate about a little better than the day before.

If this sounds like you, you’re a doer. And if you’re in search marketing, you’re very likely in the right profession.