karnellKNOWLEDGE

Don't Pay a Thing If You Don't Get a Ring

Paul Bruemmer writes about Verizon's new SuperPages Pay For Calls system:

"The Verizon SuperPages Pay For Calls headline reads: “If Advertisers Don't Get a Ring, They Don't Pay a Thing.” Sounds a bit like, “You pay only for the clicks to your website,” right?

Verizon announced its new Pay For Calls system at Search Engine Strategies 2005 Conference & Expo in San Jose, California, which runs August 8 through August 11. They say the product offering is so innovative that it requires patent protection. “Our pay-for-performance technology and unique ad placement algorithm are so advanced that we've applied for a patent,” said SuperPages.com
Pay-per-call is the performance-driven search marketing strategy that mimics the pay-per-click (PPC) phenomenon of paid search. As such, it hopes to capture some of the PPC market share.

Kelsey Group's Greg Sterling suggests this is possible for a number of reasons, such as the proliferation of broadband and the increase in local searches. Additionally, click fraud is a big problem in PPC advertising. There have been lawsuits over click fraud, creating some doubt as to the integrity of the clicks. Then there's the fact that many small businesses prefer telephone to online leads because they're better able to engage the prospect and close the sale. Customers also like to pick up the phone when they need local products and services. Sterling believes these factors can drive PPCall adoption.

Last month, I wrote about the development of a PPCall search marketing strategy by Miva and telephone-technology firm Ingenio. These PPCall search listings are displayed on Miva's distribution partner sites as well as Internet service provider AOL and mobile phone content provider Go2.

Ingenio/Miva sell PPCall listings by auction-type bidding with a minimum bid price of $2 per phone call. Bids are based on business categories rather than keywords (as in PPC). Ingenio reports that calls averaged $6 to $7 two months after launch, and in some cases went as high as $30.

We all know that the telephone is a powerful business tool and that marketers are always looking for ways to integrate online and offline technologies. What better way than to drive phone calls with search marketing?

Search is the killer app with revenues increasing at a faster rate than any other marketing strategy. Since paid search (PPC advertising) gets the larger share of search marketing dollars, it's time to clone the business model.

PPCall generates phone calls rather than clicks. These phone-call leads are from prospects in a later stage of the buying cycle than the click leads, making them easier to convert. While there are some similarities and differences, PPCall is a logical extension of PPC.

Small businesses, and especially local businesses, are the target market for PPCall. The local market consists of service-based businesses such as attorneys, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, restaurants, beauty shops, tax accountants, plumbers and other professionals and independent entrepreneurs. Many of these businesses don't have websites.

There are about 14 million small to medium sized companies in the U.S. without websites. These business owners are under pressure to go online as the Web becomes indispensable for consumer shopping.

Yahoo! saw the opportunity early on and started improving its local search database and providing free websites to U.S. small businesses. Verizon also provides a web presence at no cost to any business listing in the U.S. This is a win-win because integrating these listings into the engine's local search database gives its users a better search experience. At the same time, it gives the merchants more marketing power with PPCall and PPC.
How Does Verizon PPCall Work?

A dedicated toll-free or local telephone number will appear in your SuperPages Pay For Calls ad which rings through to your regular phone line. Pay For Calls ads are integrated with and appear on the same search results page as SuperPages.com Pay Per Click ads.

The minimum bids range from $2 to $6 per call, depending on the business category. Calls are tracked and billed on a proven platform already in operation.
An additional value of Pay For Calls on SuperPages is the ability to leverage ads in local Verizon yellow pages directories.

The Kelsey Group estimated that by 2009, PPCall could generate between $1.4 billion and $4 billion in gross revenues. Jupiter estimated that search marketing would generate $16 billion in 2009. So if it takes off, PPCall could take one-quarter of the market.

Kelsey Group also reports that U.S. businesses spend $90 billion annually on local advertising. So it's worth going after a piece of the market. As with any new business model, there are always challenges.

With the business model barely underway, vendors are offering different products and pricing options; therefore, there is room for standardization. Some calls are sold at a flat rate and others are sold through auction-type bidding. It's anybody's guess whether PPCall will seriously challenge pay-per-click, and only time will tell. If phone leads are good for your business, it's worth a try."

Paul J. Bruemmer is founder and president of trademarkSEO, a search engine optimization firm serving clients nationwide.

America’s Pharmaceutical Industry Announces Guidelines on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Last night, in a major policy speech before the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 32nd Annual Meeting, PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin announced the pharmaceutical industry’s “Guiding Principles” on direct-to-consumer advertising. The announcement comes in response to increasing criticism from congress regarding the way pharmaceutical companies are using advertising to market their drugs to consumers.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. PhRMA members alone invested an estimated $38.8 billion in 2004 in discovering and developing newmedicines. PhRMA companies are leading the way in the search for new cures. PhRMA’s Board of Directors gave final approval to the Guiding Principles on Friday, July 29, and they will go into effect in January, 2006.

Tauzin stated in a press release issued by PhRMA yesterday that “With these principles, we commit ourselves to improving the inherent educational value of advertisements. Patients need accurate and timely information and should be encouraged to discuss diseases and treatment options with their physicians. These principles will help us reach that goal."

Furthermore, William C. Weldon, Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson and PhRMA’s board chairman, stated that “by formally adopting these guidelines, we are committing to the American people and the medical community that we will use advertising not only to promote new medicines, but also to educate consumers about health and disease. We are saying that we will place a balanced emphasis on the risks as well as the benefits of medicines...Good DTC advertising empowers patients to speak with their doctors and it helps them make more informed choices about their health and the medicines they take.”

The following are some of the key elements of the Guiding Principles:

• Companies should submit all new direct-to-consumer television advertisements to the FDA before releasing them for broadcast.
  
• DTC television advertising that identifies a product by name should clearly state the health conditions for which the medicine is approved and the major risks associated with the medicine being advertised.
  
• DTC television and print advertising should be designed to achieve a balanced presentation of the benefits and risks associated with the advertised prescription medicine. Specifically, risks and safety information in DTC television advertising should be presented in clear, understandable language, without distraction from the content, and in a manner that supports the responsible dialogue between patients and health care professionals.
  
• Companies should spend an appropriate amount of time to educate health professionals about new medicines or new therapeutic indications before beginning the first direct-to-consumer advertising campaign. In determining “an appropriate time,” companies should consider the importance of informing patients of the new medicine, the complexity of its risk-benefit profile, and health care professionals’ knowledge of the condition being treated. Companies should continue to educate health care professionals as additional valid information about a new medicine is obtained from all reliable sources.
  
  The principles in their entirety: PhRMA Guiding Principles

Of very special note, interactive marketing was specifically exempted from the guidelines. This could be HUGE for our industry as it leaves our channel as the last remaining option for the type of targeted communications that brands need/want to do as it relates to driving consumer awareness and preference.

One pundit points out: “The guidelines only apply to TV and print advertising and not to Internet advertising. Perhaps the industry puts the Internet into a different bucket that it considers "non-advertising." Online marketing experts have already seized upon this and hope that restrictions on TV and print will mean more work for them. This remains to be seen." (source: http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/2005/08/phrma-finalizes-dtc-principles.html)

Connecting the Physical World with Cyberspace

TrendCentral.com has recently reported that:

" The latest project to come out of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (Dodgeball’s creator Dennis Crowley is also an alum) is John Geraci’s Grafedia. Grafedia is essentially text written anywhere (sidewalks, walls, etc.) that “links” to media content such as photos, music, and video. Practitioners write a word or phrase in blue with an underline and send the “linked” media content from their mobile phone by texting the word/phrase plus “@grafedia.net”. (Media can also be uploaded from the computer straight to the Grafedia website) Viewers can “click” on these “links” by sending an email or text message to the word or phrase plus “@grafedia.net” to then see or hear the “link” ’s content. For example, a blue underlined “Beck” written on a wall could “link” to a video from his new album.

With hundreds of media files uploaded to the Grafedia server since it launched just a few months ago, Grafedia has popped up in NYC and San Francisco, as well as in England, France, and Brazil. The idea is to create interactivity in public spaces, to link the physical world to the Internet. As young consumers have an affinity for technological innovations, Grafedia could ultimately become a useful marketing technique. "

source: TrendCentral

The biggest broadband game you never heard of

In the most connected country (Korea), Kart Rider recently dethroned the venerable Starcraft as the biggest online game. The company that makes it, Nexon, has also achieved something far more significant: it has cracked the money making formula as well. By selling cute digital upgrades to the player's kart-racer avatars, the company pulled in $110 million last year and expects $250 million revenue this year.

When Koreans were recently polled for their most impressive automobile, a Kart Rider premium entry even crept in at #2, just behind the Porsche Carerra GT.

Over 25% of the entire population admits to having played Kart Rider, a remarkable performance that cannot have escaped the eyes of online game-designers world-wide. Although Kart Rider is only slated for asian expansion (the company is keen to launch a Chinese edition), if you want to see what it is like to buy your way to the top, perhaps you can look into a sailing the Doubloon ocean at Puzzle Pirates (another quietly popular game you never heard of), or, just join a US MMORPG such as World of Warcraft, and then shop for pre-levelled avatars on ebay. Gamers racing (or fighting) their wallets is definitely here to stay.

More on Kart-Racer can be found in the english edition of the Korea Times and an admiring Business week article is here.

The center of the Kart Rider universe, and the all-important upgrade shop, is its korean site kart.nexon.com.

source: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/64953