• by Sara Holoubek , January 9, 2006

To ring in the new year, let us recognize the real Superheroes of search.

No, don't fret. We are not about to enter into yet another war of the engines discussion. Goodness knows that Google, Yahoo! and MSN are the proven Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman of search. They are the most prominently featured by the media, and glorified by the Street.

The search engine marketing agencies? Guess again. Some may be like Robin the Boy Wonder, and will mature and scale. Others are like Robin's friends, the Wonder Twins--still deciding between "Form of an SEM Vendor!" and "Form of a Full Service Agency!" Perhaps one will emerge as the omnipotent Green Lantern--provided that it has sufficient will power, not to mention a management team, corporate vision, relationship skills and technology.

If you are asking yourself, "Who, then?" let me introduce you to the real Superheroes. They fall into two, oft-forgotten groups: the consumers and the brand marketers. When working together, they are the real fuel behind this $12 billion+ industry, not to mention many of our paychecks.

Let's start with the consumer. Remember him? How soon we forget why Google aims to organize the world's information. The story is as old as hunting and gathering; there is a very human need to find information and things. The modern consumer is The Flash. With his superhuman speed and reflexes, he can outrun technology. Take local search. It was the consumer who was searching for local information long before the engines finally took notice and developed local results in response. As an industry, we are continuously following the consumer's lead to determine where he is going next.

Meanwhile...

The brand marketers, also known to many of us as our clients, are completely ignored. It is their mission to communicate to their audience and issue commands to all forms of life within their domain (their employees and agencies). Sounds a bit like Aquaman, the Superhero who was never featured quite as much as the darlings of the industry, the search engines.

It is all too easy to pick on Aquaman, er, the brands. Their communication powers weaken on land, and they are often blamed for "not getting it." But is it really their fault? Shouldn't the engines, with their x-ray vision, and the SEMs, with their ability to morph, point the brands in the right direction? The fact of the matter is that we are poor at CMO-speak. We consider ourselves above the brands, despite the fact that they are the ones paying for the boon.

Next time, on the Superheroes of Search...

Catch up with our speedy consumer and find out which brands have successfully woven SEM throughout the marketing calendar, once again defeating the Legion of Doom.