Honda Ad Campaign sends you away from their website

During Monday's (4/20/09) Chuck on NBC, Honda aired an ad where they ask you to go to Edmunds.com and visit the Honda branded cost of ownership posted there. This really threw me for a loop. Why would a company purposely direct customers to go to someone else's website? All my marketing experience (it isn't vast but I consider myself pretty knowledgeable) it is not a good idea to send someone away from your home base especially in the digital realm. The only reason to send someone away from your site is for unavoidable reasons. This was the first instance of this redirection that I could think of aside from the "look us up on Yahoo!/Google" (that didn't necessarily work). I was trying to read into the approach that Honda was using and guessing at why they chose this direction. Here is what I see from this campaign:

Honda is trying to use the "trusted source" that car buyers use to research their future purchases to leverage those buyers into their vehicle. I think this by itself is an interesting concept. One thing that I have a question about though does this actually work. Does sponsored content that pretends to be informational work better than a traditional banner ad?

I would love to see the return on this investment because I am sure that Edmunds not only agreed to be part of the commercial but that Honda had to put a substantial investment in the subpages that grew from their "sponsored" listing.

Class Action Lawsuit vs Blockbuster re: Facebook Beacon Ad Program

After reading this article I had some serious questions about those little legal disclaimers we have to sign to get the software we want.

My first panicked question was: What happens if a Software truly does your life harm?
This came from Blockbuster using the Beacon Ad program on Facebook to notify your friends of what you were renting and buying. Now on the surface that sounds fine. Now place yourself in the young executive's shoes who is a single young man making his way to the top through the Good Ol' Boys club but "spices" up his video watching on the weekend. Then lets before the big promotion the Execs Superiours decide to do some digging into his social life just so they know who the face of the company will be. (I know I am taking a lot of leaps here, first that an executive has time to watch movies and be on Facebook, and that his superiors check up on him, even though that is less of a stretch)
I guess my real point is, is that damaging information is awful when you put it on the page yourself; it is catastrophic when a third party releases it for you thinking it is what you wanted.

Ok now my second question was: Can they really do a class action lawsuit after they had signed the waiver to use a arbitration and NOT do a class action lawsuit?
Well according to the judge currently presiding over this case the answer is yes. According to the article the judge claimed that the terms of use were "illusory" (I love it when judges use big words no one else uses :( it means deceptive). The judge ruled this way because the terms of the contract between Blockbuster and the end user could be changed at anytime. Now I don't know about you but that just described every single software or web-content related contract I have ever signed.
So does this mean I can sign any of those that I want and then sue the pants off of them even though the "contract" says I can't do that? Is it just me or does that ruling just throw to the wind all legitimacy that these contracts have? Why is one part "illusory" while another part of the contract is steadfast? There is probably a lawyer out there that could tell me all the nuances and ramifications of contract writing but to me as a layman I can't see what is going on.
Well we will watch and see.

How bad does your search engine have to be?

According to an article by CNET it states that a February search traffic report from a Microsoft insider shows 48% of Microsoft employees use Google as their search engine and 48% use Live, the rest are divided among Yahoo and others. Hmm what does this tell you about Microsoft's search product? Needs improvement maybe?
Maybe the search engineers that they have headhunted from Yahoo can help them out of this rut with their launch of Kumo. However, I think starting internally with a wish list from those internal searchers would garner them some interesting results as to why they shy away from Microsoft Live search product.
Maybe a $100 million ad campaign is bit too high for a product that can't pass above a 50% usage rate among its own company's employees. Possibly they should consider a $25 million research campaign to make sure they are giving the consumer what they want, oh wait these are the guys that gave us Vista, that's right... my bad...

Google Analytics Qualified Individual

This is something I am very proud of and I think I am one of the few in the Boise area to have this qualification (I could be wrong and please let me know if I am). This little certificate lets potential customers that I have proven my Analytics skills to Google and I am now a Qualified Analytics Individual. Let me know if you need help with your website and how people use/find your site.

Kevin Gamache Resume

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Kevin Gamache

(Leave a blog comment below to receive additional contact information)

Relevant Experience:

CLM, LLC, Boise, ID 2006 - 2008
Full service marketing and advertising firm servicing clients around Idaho, Utah and California

New Media Specialist

• Research, organize and implement interactive media and search marketing campaigns for broad range of clients. This includes banner advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO); coordination and implementation

Media Buyer

• Plan, implement, and track media buys for CLM’s diverse client base. Types of media purchased are, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, & Event

Spotlight Events, Inc., Eagle, ID 2002 - 2006
National dance competition company devoted to providing a fun, family-oriented environment to compete against other dancers on both a local and National level

Advertising Manager

• Manage external advertising presence in Dance trade magazines such as Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, Dancer, etc…
  
• Work with web developer on company website design, incorporating each year’s theme and marketing message to participating studios and dancers
  
• Develop press contacts for each event city and submit press releases regarding the competition dates and times and invites for press coverage

Event Coordinator

• Supervise and direct 7-10 member teams at event locations to ensure quality, customer service-oriented show for large 700 – 1200 member audiences
  
• Book and organize facility rentals and maintain constant contact with event location officials to ensure problem free event
  
• Organize giveaways and promotional items for weeklong National event participants in Branson, MO and Las Vegas, NV

HNA Impression Management, Boise, ID 2002
Regional Advertising, Marketing, impression management firm specializing in corporate image redesign for long term marketing effect

Project Coordinator

• Developed database of press contacts in wide range of media outlets for clients from diverse corporate interests
  
• Maintained client portfolio flow through office to ensure client received materials in a timely manner but thoroughly edited and complete.

Certifications:

Google Analytics Qualified Individual
Google AdWords Professional

Other Experience:

Treasure Valley TV Public Access Station, Winter 2000
Acted as consultant for initial launch of the Public Access station, organizing Public Relations events to promote the startup of this station.

Education:

Boise State University, Boise, ID
Bachelor of Arts in Communication, 1997-2000

Pi Sigma Epsilon, 1998-2000 – Professional Marketing Fraternity

• Activities Coordinator, President - During term as president, increased membership and increased participation in National events by membership.

My Open Letter to the Associated Press - WTF

Now before I start ranting against the Associated Press' latest threats against search engines and other news aggregators let me say this; I can understand their need for an additional income stream. I agree that the newspaper industry needs to look closely at where its readership comes from and how those readers are drawn to their websites. I also understand their grab at any straw that they can find. I would link to the article I found but I don't want a lawsuit. Instead just search for "A.P. Seeks to Rein in Sites Using Its Content"

Now for my rant:
There is a big difference in cutting off an illegal supplier of traffic and one that is a major and legal (at least according to Google) supplier of traffic. Something that the AP needs to think about is this: Does Google really need you, or are they supplying a service to you? No seriously I do not know the answer to this. I see Yahoo! as a more flagrant user of AP News on their Search page than Google. Having said this I am constant user of Yahoo! for my search needs and I have the occasion to click on the stories that they list on their news feed. Do people go to Google and Yahoo to get news or do they go there to search for news. Does Google now have to pay for everytime I search for Mt. Redoubt explosion and a news story comes up?

I am not sure if the major news organizations use Google Analytics but I am sure they know where the majority of their readers come from or where they are referred from. My experience with online advertising with newspaper comes from a local perspective and these were based solely on the number of impressions that my ad was served. How then does the AP and the newspapers not benefit from Google and Yahoo's news feeds? If it were not for those feeds I would have never added to their impression count and thus gave them the opportunity to charge more for their impression based advertising.

I fully admit that I am not fully aware of all the issues surrounding this move by the Associated Press but as a Search Marketer and a user of Search News Feeds, I stand by my opinion and will leave it at that, my opinion. If yours differs please leave a comment for discussion and give me the other side.

Yahoo Showing Facebook and Wikipedia Pics next to Natural Results and an In-Results Video Player

Yahoo seems to be experimenting with enhanced listings for Facebook, Wikipedia, and an In-Results Video Player (or have they been doing this for awhile and I just didn't notice? Probably not since I am a Yahoo searcher for my search queries.) It appears to be part of a beta test for Yahoo! Search Gallery.

For this test it looks like it is set as a default for all users, since I did not have to opt-in to it and I was not logged into my Yahoo! account at the time. This seems to be a variation of the Search Monkey apps that they launched about a year ago but all of these enhanced listings are for the most part developed the same. I have screen shots below of the Facebook, Wikipedia, and the In-Results Video Player. Hopefully more to come.