Commentary

Online Media: Search Finalists

The challenges inherent in search marketing didn't stand a chance against the clever strategies deployed in these campaigns.

Avenue A/Razorfish

Topamax

Avenue A/Razorfish: Amy Saunders, VP, Group Director; Brian Hennigan, Account Director; Chris Tuleya, Search Strategist; Megan Dallas, Search Coordinator; Josh Palau, Search Manager Ortho-McNeil Neurologics: Pam Cebulski, Product Director; Katie Rockwell, Product Manager

Topamax, the most prescribed migraine-prevention medication, found itself under pressure from competitors. The client and agency wanted a search campaign to meet two goals: First, to direct users to a free trial online voucher. Second, to raise awareness of treatment options by driving users to Topamax sites, such as Migraine Solutions.com.

Avenue A/Razorfish created three primary groups of keywords: "branded," "migraine," and "headache." It purchased more than 4,000 search terms and developed copy points for specific combinations. It designed a campaign that ran branded terms adjacent to relevant articles on partner sites.

The campaign drove more than 15,300 voucher downloads, but at half the brand's budget goal. The content campaign had a click-to-download rate of 23 percent, and a cost-per-download 75 percent lower than campaign goal. Organic traffic to the Topamax sites increased from an average of 5,800 visits per month to more than 19,000 per month.

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Outrider

Sears

Outrider: Jada King, Client Service Lead; Mike Wachsnicht, Senior Account Manager

Sears: Gayle deDie, Marketing Manager, Customer Direct; Colleen Cassell, Director, Customer Direct Marketing

Sears.com and Outrider established two search marketing goals for 2006: Raise revenue and increase ROI.

To accomplish this, Outrider took what Sears already knew about marketing to its consumers and leveraged it through search. The agency tied the Sears weekly print circular promotions into the creative messaging for paid ads. The agency relied on real-time analytics and made daily adjustments, assessing which product and creative were driving click-through rates and conversions.

Messaging included general sales creative, discounts on promoted products, free shipping where available, and the option to pick up in-store. In addition, Sears exploited all available search tools to increase efficiency.

Integrating search into its promotions paid off for Sears: The Web site saw click-through rates increase 200 to 300 percent, facilitated smarter search spending that coincided with promotions, and improved placement on the search engines without increasing cost.

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RPA

Honda/Element

Pete Imwalle, Sr. VP, General Manager; Edmund Purcell, Management Supervisor; Claudia Styczen, Account Executive; Gordon Walker, Sr. Account Executive; Mike Margolin, VP, Associate Media Director; Haley Brothers, Marketing Planner; Tom Roberts, Creative Director; J. Barbush, Associate Creative Director

RPA's challenge was to introduce the attributes of Honda's four-year-old Element. The agency wanted to attract visitors to a microsite and let them "drive" around a digital island, interacting with quirky animals that illustrated the Element's features.

In addition to standard keywords, the search campaign bid on cost-efficient keywords like "opossum," "platypus," etc., and terms such as "fun stuff online" and "funny video," since those searchers are the ideal demographic for the Element.

RPA gauged the success of keywords by noting the engagement of each visitor. Did the user interact with one animal or five? Did he or she view a video or complete a game? The agency focused bidding on the keywords that generated interactions.

Visitors averaged 14 minutes on the digital island. Search accounted for nearly 40 percent of responses. Overall, search-driven traffic was comparable to what could be expected from a more costly home-page takeover.

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For more information about the Creative Media Awards ceremony go here.

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