• by Kate Kaye , June 24, 2004

Search marketing is in its infancy, so it seems natural that some of its most ardent evangelists have embraced it only recently. Search may be a relatively new focus for this week's In the Trenches subject, Randy Schwartz. However, hearing him expound on the ebb and flow of search marketing, it's apparent that he may have found his niche.

Following an education focused heavily on the creative side of advertising, the left-brainer quickly fell into media. During the '90s, Randy built out the media department and served clients like AOL and iVillage at a small interactive shop owned by TMP/Monster.

He's acted as Director of Media at Reprise Media, a full-service search engine marketing firm, for the past year. Randy and his team handle campaign strategies for clients including Reader's Digest, Bell South, and the Los Angeles Times. His daily workload entails juggling proposals and sifting through endless amounts of data.

What are your favorite online destinations in the a.m.? Why?
MediaPost, iMedia Connection, and Search Engine Watch are all really good. Also, John Battelle's search blog [www.Battellemedia.com] offers a consistent voice and perspective, and the Blogory [www.findory.com/cgi-bin/blogory.cgi] is a meta site that tracks lots of blogs. And then also the Reprise Media blog, which is actually on our home page [www.reprisemedia.com], includes links to all the major news stories of the day pertaining to the search industry and a quick one- or two-paragraph synopsis and a point of view. I signed up for Google News Alerts throughout the day.

What other sites do you visit frequently? Why?
I love metacritic [www.metacritic.com] for music reviews. They cover video games and movies as well as CDs. I also go to an Australian movie site. ... It's called Dark Horizons [www.darkhorizons.com]. They pull news feeds from Variety, fan sites. It enables them to offer new content every day.

I guess I'm sort of in the search mode most of the time. Most of the sites I go to essentially are aggregate results. ... It's like one-stop shopping in the same way somebody might use Google as their home page.

What's in the cards for blog-related search?
We expect to see Google, Overture, and Microsoft to build or acquire some type of framework for blog search. I can't imagine that a blog search engine is far behind.

What is the most challenging part of your job?
Managing clients. Some clients are direct marketers, and they're very nimble. Other brand marketing clients have already allocated money for the quarter, and that denies us the chance to compete with other media in their overall marketing plans--to pull money away from another channel.

What's difficult and challenging to figure out is how to layer all these different tactics to make sure campaigns are managed progressively without just trial and error. [It's] two steps forward and one step back every time.

What do you like best about your job; what keeps you interested?
I like working with data. ... Media is a little bit esoteric. I appreciate evangelizing search as a media strategy. ... I also appreciate the accountability to validate work and justify fees. But we can also use that same data to challenge clients' assumptions.

When will true media integration take place for advertisers?
A lot of agencies view search as just a source of traffic, and look at search as a way to subsidize their Internet campaigns. It doesn't look like traditional media to the consumer or the advertiser.

Google just released image ads; that could recreate the entire industry. [A lack of image ad offerings] is one of the blocks to traditional agencies' entrance into search. Search is changing, and will allow for greater cross-media campaigns. ... Ideally, the Internet is a new platform that offers access to all media.

What's the most divisive online policy issue right now?
Fair practice and trademark issues. Everybody's waiting to see what the next big lawsuit is going to be. I'm not saying I condone [Google's loosening of its trademark restrictions]; I'm just saying don't get involved at the keyword level. ... It offers advertisers the opportunity to position and create brands online the same way they would any other medium. It fosters competition.

The flip side is it hurts the user experience. I type in 'Coke' and get a listing for 'Pepsi.' If consumers do have trouble distinguishing the paid from organic listings, it's the engine's job to separate church from state.

Do you know someone who deserves a salute from MediaPost's In the Trenches? Let us know! Contact Kate Kaye at kate@mediapost.com.