Not until the final day of the last Email Insider Summit in May, did the issue of how the economy might affect marketing spending get mentioned -- and barely so. But that was pre-bailout and Lehman Brothers collapse and and maybe another bailout (the Detroit Big Three). This week, the economy is likely to be referenced from the time David Baker, vice president Email/eCRM Solution at Razorfish, offers his introductory remarks Monday morning until he offers a conference recap Wednesday. It's "the ghost hovering in the room," Blaine Mathieu, CMO of Lyris, Inc. said in an interview. …

E-mail marketing may never be confused with the movie business. Still while less flashy, the ROI is probably greater. Even so, this week's Email Insider Summit is taking place in Park City, Utah -- just weeks before Hollywood converges on the spectacular ski resort for the Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 15-25). Two things are for sure: Oscar winners will walk the streets and hotel room costs will skyrocket. (At the Stein Eriksen Lodge, where the Summit is taking place, a standard room will go for $835 a night.) Less certain is whether Park City -- a 2002 Winter …

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Gracias to Geri Guillermo for leading this roundtable and sharing her notes: Topic discussed: Ad-Supported Media practices for portals Many were unaware of this type of solution. Publishers in attendance gave examples of portals buying keywords on other engines - ie, MSN Music buying keywords on Yahoo Search to drive traffic to downloads or artists content. Best practices - (with MSN Music as advertiser) Diversify your keywords and segment into brand terms, generic terms, artist name, song titles, etc. Concentrate on the tail to drive efficiency and anchoring …

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Search Insider Summit Roundtable Notes: What’s Next â€" E-Commerce Facilitator: David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i Friday, December 5, 2008Opinions on images and videos appearing within Google search ads: - Not much activity, interest - Video in text ads = bad user experience - Better for engagement (as opposed to clicks / conversions) - When people want video, they go to YouTube Goals of roundtable attendees: mainly clicks & conversions (as opposed to engagement or other branding metrics) - Engagement is “squishy” …

I am in a shuttle full of conference attendees on the way to the airport and everyone is tired.  We have had great fun, great networking and are unanimously more knowledgeable about our industry.  So just how cool was SIS in Park City?  It was so cool that even former Beverly Hills 90210 star, Ian Ziering wanted to get into the sessions.  If you think I am kidding, all I can say is don't miss the next one. And one final quote: "My goal for this week was not to be quoted," said one unnamed googler.   

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Here's the straight poop from Rob Griffin of MediaContacts, table leader and notetaker extraordinaire... Agencies, Engines, and Clients • Engines are tech companies learning to be media companies and as a result self service is expected and proposals are often generic or push new non-search products. This forces agencies to redo or rethink proposals. This is important as search matures as a media because it will increasingly be expected that service levels will match display. This is the agencies job but the job is that much …

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. These notes courtesy of table lead and notetaker Janel Landis of SendTec... Overall, the social buzz meter is really low this conference. Many people have only heard the word Facebook once or twice throughout the whole conference. Social is difficult is measure and monetize. Now that times are tough and advertisers are more ROI focused, there is little justification for social media. Social media is more important for relationship and reputation management. Is customer satisfaction worth paying someone $50k/year to monitor the blogosphere and …

An interesting thread in the breakout session about social media among the agency folk was who should own the social platform/channel/tactic. On one hand, it would seem social media should be the responsibility of the PR firm. After all it's their job to monitor/mold the public perception of the brand, respond to issues/opportunities, liase with the influencers, get "free" mentions, etc. On the other hand, search firms have a unique ability to leverage the digital channel to mine millions of data points and respond in real-time. And it's our jobs (especially when it comes to SEO) to tap …

Commerce360 President Craig Danuloff turned up the heat during a discussion with panelists at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit Saturday when he identified "an elephant in the room" and asked John Nicoletti and Ron Belanger from search engines Google and Yahoo, respectively, "Is there a way to clarify the lines between what you're willing to say and what you're not, because the downside for agencies is trying to get the little secret you're not quite suppose to tell." During the round table panel, "There's Three Sides To Everything," Danuloff asked Nicoletti and Belanger in relationship to quality and impression …

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Here's the scoop from Richard Zwicky of Enquisite: Issues raised by the attendees - How to measure results when dealing with lots of small customers - Cross channel attribution - The constant evolution of search and how it doesn't mean the same thing today as it did a year or 5 years ago: text, images, video, social, etc..... and this continues to evolve and grow into more areas of everyday life. - The inefficiency of passing data between channels - Not enough inventory …