Display advertising boosts results from search: study

For those who can afford it, a combination of display advertising together with search marketing will make a lot of sense. There is a direct correlation between the two, according to a new study which has been reported by eMarketer.

That such a correlation existed was always taken for granted by marketers, but it is good to see numbers demonstrating it. An excerpt from the eMarketer article:

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, agreed that display can boost search. “There is a connection between display and search ads,” he said. “Marketers know this intuitively. Often it’s not the search ad alone that gets consumers to act, but the context of all the marketing that preceded it.”

eMarketer predicts that search and display ads will retain the highest share of online ad spending formats through 2013, and will be the only formats to maintain double-digit share through that period.

Asia Interactive Awards 2008 - Call for Entries

AdAsia, a popular magazine for advertising and marketing professionals in Singapore, is organizing the third edition of Asia Interactive Awards, and the publication is inviting "specialist firms, web designers, advertising agencies, media agencies and clients based in Asia to enter these prestigious awards."

There are several categories underwhich awards will be given (far too many, I felt, to be honest)and there is an entry fee of SG$80/- per entry.

Interactive agencies and professionals wishing to enter their work for these awards can submit their application online.

Top SES coverage, Top SEO Blogs & Top "How to"

SES Coverage
Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose concluded last week. As the premier event for the search industry, there has been lots of coverage about the event. A list of the top articles, compiled by SearchEngineWatch.

Top SEO Blogs
If you are looking for the top blogs related to search engine marketing, check out this compilation. Looks like there's been some effort put into compiling this list; so the least I can do is link to the Top SEO blogs :)

Google Suggest
Lastly, Google has rolled out Google Suggest on its homepage, which is essentially a real-time search query prompt [Yahoo Search has had this for some time now]. Users will be shown query suggestions as users type in keywords into the search box--- another feature that'll make searchers lazy. Will a feature like Google Suggest impact the "long tail" theory of search? I reckon it could because if more people begin to use the keyword suggestions, we may see searches getting concentrated over fewer terms. We'll have to wait to see the extent of impact, as there are some ifs and buts here.

Here's something for those interested in trivia. The top "How to" list (taken with the assumption that Google Suggest is showing the most popular/ in-demand search queries)as shown on Google.com, here in Singapore on August 27, 2008 [Recording this for posterity!]:
> How to tie a tie
> How to kiss
> How to have sex
> How to lose weight
> How to draw
> How to make money
> How to write a resume
> How to play a guitar
> How to make a website

Challenges in B2B online marketing

I found a useful blog post titled, the Top 5 Challenges for B2B Demand Generation Marketers.

An excerpt that I found particularly relevant and important for companies that have second thoughts about using online marketing / search marketing for their B2B marketing efforts (emphasis mine).

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What matters today in marketing is to be findable when people are looking. This, of course, means being everywhere they might possibly be when they start searching.

There are two interesting implications to this. First, it implies lots of cross-media, low-volume campaign all year long rather than spending your budget on one or two big programs. This way you can spread your budget across time period and channels.

Second, you need to focus your efforts where people look – and by far, this means managing your search engine marketing campaigns, especially on Google.

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