Despite massive growth and the UK’s aggressive search market, there are still too many marketers and clients who are not grasping its full potential.  Search advertising offers the marketer significant benefits beyond pure direct response; adding to their understanding and knowledge of their customer and providing insight that can contribute to future strategy:

• Competitor understanding – by gaining knowledge of what your competitors are doing and understanding their target markets and keywords, you will be able to gain great insights. If you keep tracking your competitors’ listings, you can predict and achieve early insight into who is doing what and when.

• Understanding your own business and your margins – search is such a transparent piece of technology and it’s very simple to see what your business and market is strong in. Using tools such as Google Analytics can show you at a glance what is proving successful – and conversely – what isn’t.

• Modelling search spend and return– knowledge of search seasonality, the likely cost per click, a likely click through rate and the conversion rate means you can model media spend and likely return on investment. By layering in search volumes you can start deploying ‘what if?’ scenarios and top down scenarios.

• Optimising media spend for mass market new technologies e.g. mobile and tablet. There are new devices that are coming to market almost every day which allow for customised search campaigns. These strategies should always be different depending on which device you target – and can lead to startlingly good sales volumes.

• Understanding search in the wider marketing mix. Attribution modelling technologies are all the rage which can only have a positive influence on Search investment. For example, Ignition One, Marin and Kenshoo all give fantastic insight into the wider media marketing mix and can also optimise media spend.

As the market continues to evolve, grow and mature I’m sure that there will be new technologies, tools, knowledge sets and case studies that allow marketers to go beyond the virtual door drop methodology that seems so popular right now.

We wrote an article within last week’s Drapers Magazine detailing the reasons behind Aquascutum’s unfortunate decline in recent years; we believe that undoubtedly their biggest mistake was a lack of innovation in their marketing strategy and not embracing new channels within a fast-moving market.  (To read more on this article follow this link).

There were rumblings in the press last night but this morning we woke up to the news that Aquascutum has been sold for £15m to a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed YGM.  YGM already owns the brand in Asia successfully, so we are looking forward to seeing what they do to turn the brands identity around within the UK market.

Administrator Geoff Rowley said “We are delighted to announce the sale of Aquascutum, safeguarding the jobs of over 100 employees and the presence of the iconic Aquascutum brand in the United Kingdom”.

“We hope that under new ownership the Aquascutum brand and business will have the best opportunity of success and growth both in the UK and worldwide.”

April saw the long awaited launch of the Yahoo! and Bing ‘Search Alliance’ in the UK, IE and FR markets. Two Search engines combining their Paid Search Marketplaces, creating a viable competitor to Google on which to advertise and an easier process for Agencies to manage campaigns across both Search engines.

In a nutshell the ‘Alliance’, originally announced in July 2009 and live in the US and Canada since October 2010, means that Microsoft will power the Paid and Algorithmic Search results across Yahoo! and Bing from its Campaign management and Ad delivery platform Microsoft adCenter over a 10 year period. Yahoo! will be the Global sales force for the new combined marketplace and will use the adCenter platform and optimisation tactics to manage Paid Search campaigns for Agencies and Advertisers.

Here is a visual breakdown of how both Search engine results pages will be populated as a result of the Search Alliance.

Whilst traffic from Yahoo! and Bing combined does not rival Google in Volume terms, from an agency perspective this is a real development and potentially one of the biggest changes experienced in the world of SEM advertising thus far. It will make it easier to manage the campaigns on Yahoo! and Bing and allow agencies to report on performance from these two engines combined, providing greater arguments for moving budget from Google.

From a tactical perspective, previous Microsoft optimisation tactics will now be utilised to improve performance across both engines, with all tactical implementations taking place through the adCenter platform. It’s official, Yahoo!’s Standard and Advanced Match will be no more, to be replaced by Exact, Phrase and Broad. This brings all optimisation tactics in line with Google and making it much easier to align Advertiser activity across all engines and making it easier for agencies to run Client activity across all three engines.

So will the Yahoo! and Bing Search Results pages look the same? Certainly not! Both Yahoo! and Microsoft are responsible for driving users and queries to their relative results pages. Both companies have the opportunity to innovate their own Search space to attract new users and drive additional query volume. Whilst the ranking, wording and layout of the Ads will be the same, both engines will be allowed to draw in additional content from their properties to enhance the listings and make the user experience

What does this mean for Yahoo!? By utilising the use of the Microsoft platform, Yahoo! now has the resource to focus on consumer innovation for their Search results page and not have to pile resource into building technology for Ad Serving. Microsoft are able to innovate their results page to attract additional users and also have the resource to develop features that enhance Ad Serving for Advertisers across their adCenter product portfolio.

For more information on the Search Alliance visit the website

To become a donor is very simple – all you need to do is go to your profile, click on ‘Life Event’, ‘Health & Wellness’ and then the option ‘Organ Donor’.  You are then able to choose whether or not to make this information public or private.

There has been some debate over the past couple of years whether or not organ donation should be made compulsory.  Since August 2011, if a UK resident applies for a driving licence in the UK they are required to actively decide whether or not they wish to become an organ donor.  However in 2007, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, suggested that organ donation must become compulsory as the NHS was unable to meet the needs for the number of organ donations required in the UK.  This still hasn’t happened but a number of organisations including the BMA, wish to see the UK bring in a system of presumed consent i.e. active opt-out is the only way in which organ donation wouldn’t be a consideration.
The NHS Organ Donor Register Site states that “Our current experience in the UK shows that up to 90% of people support organ donation with more than 15 million people, or 25%, having joined the ODR.”

Surely the measures that Facebook is taking is a step in the right direction to increasing the numbers of organs donated.
For more information on how to register via Facebook to become an organ donor, please visit the NHS website.

This week we are going to be looking we looked at 80 year old brand, Coach, to discover why it is still a huge success in modern times.  If we go back in time to (the year it was established) we can see how it all began.

In 1941 Coach was founded and developed in a New York loft and 20 years later, debuted the logo it still uses today.  Over the years we have seen many defining moments for the brand for example: the release of the iconic Coach duffle bag and tag in the 1970’s, the opening of their first flagship store in the 80’s, the website in the 90’s and the launch of their social media channels in 2009.  This is a brand which has been consistently innovating throughout the generations which is why it is still as popular now, if not more than when it first opened.

Even though Coach was one of the first to launch a website 1999, you will be surprised to hear that the site isn’t an ecommerce one.  So you may be wondering how they are so successful in the digital space.

Here is why I believe it is so.  The brand continually innovates and grows and therefore, drives footfall to their stores rather than driving sales to their website.

Through the use of their social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, they have managed to rank up quite a following – 3.3 million Fans on Facebook and over 320,000 followers on Twitter.

Although their Twitter page has evidence of engagement with their audience, their Facebook page is streets ahead, with frequent comments being added to their wall and an average of 10-15,000 likes per post they have a phenomenal interaction rate with their audience.

The fact that they don’t just use their Facebook channel as a pure sales-based platform and add posts which give the brand and the people behind it a personality, only adds to the charm of the brand overall.

Their cross promotion and brand message is flawless throughout and they are also one of the only brands to have gone through and backdated their brands history, when the timeline structure was introduced to brand pages.

Their campaign ideas cover both their website and offline campaigns. It really seems like they leave is no stone unturned when it comes to Coach’s marketing strategy.

It was for these many brilliant reasons that I was surprised to see that the brands performance in the search space isn’t as well invested in.  They aren’t doing badly at all, they are at the top of the first page on Google in terms of Natural Search, yet there is no evidence that they are using any form of Paid Search or bidding on any keyword terms.

This leads me to believe that with a little bit more advice within the digital space, this brand would be able to develop into something even more remarkable than it already is.

After reading the report, which had very mixed reviews overall, we felt very let down that digital marketing was very much left on the back burner.  So we decided to commission our own research to find out exactly how consumers use the digital space to shop and how it is working alongside bricks and mortar stores during such a difficult financial climate.

The report looks at how brands are currently marketing themselves and how those that are ‘doing it well’ are succeeding within the digital space.  We compare both luxury and high street consumers and brands to demonstrate how consumers are using the Internet and what journey they take when making a purchase. We also take a comprehensive look at how ecommerce is evolving, how consumers purchase online and the measurement of success of numerous brands.

Here are some of the key findings in the report:

•       High Street vs Luxury Retail – does consumer behaviour differ depending on the sites consumers shop at?
•       What are the most popular paid search terms for retail sites to bid on?
•       Which fashion-based sites have the best natural search rankings?
•       Which are the most popular high street and luxury brands according to Facebook, Twitter and Google+?

To enjoy our Fashion Sector Report, please visit our website.

The debate over the EU cookie regulations has gathered steam recently, as the deadline for compliance on 26^th May 2012 comes ever closer.

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding’s regulations aim to standardise how all data is treated across the 27 EU member states and would give the authorities the ability to penalise companies up to two per cent of global annual turnover if there is a violation.  The consequences of ‘doing nothing’ are too business critical to ignore.

The European Directive 2002/58/EC on electronic data privacy (processing of personal data and the protection of privacy), states that all users must have given consent before a cookie is stored on their computer.

Any company running a website that serves a UK market must gather evidence which shows that they are taking steps to comply with the legislation.

There has been a lot of resistance to the directive so far but the harsh reality is that this directive WILL happen whether we like it or not even if some think the ICO are taking the biscuit.

The fact that regulators have been so active over the last month is a clear indication that this law is being taken seriously and that regulators intend to see it enforced in 2012.

The regulators are making it clear that this is your problem, not theirs. UK information commissioner Christopher Graham dealt with this head on:

“If you have decided that this is all too difficult, that you don’t want to give your users choices about how your web pages might collect information about them … then be assured that if we get complaints or have concerns then we will be checking your site and we will take the necessary steps to ensure that you do work towards compliance.”

Any company running a website that serves a UK market must show that they have taken actions to satisfy the current ICO requirements. Based on common interpretation of the situation, we believe that performing a cookie audit and producing the appropriate output documentation should fulfil this.

Why do I need a cookie audit?

A cookie audit is the first step you should take towards UK cookie compliance and EU cookie compliance.

If you operate a website in the UK or in the EU, you are required to identify all the first party cookies and third party cookies in use on your website.

The best first step towards doing this is to perform a cookie audit.

How does my site become cookie compliant?

The UK ICO understands the role of pragmatic solutions. The ICO continues to push for cookie audits and is open to a range of innovative ways to bring the discussion about tracking to the consumer.

How will this particular cookie crumble?

So what does this really mean for your company?  To help you understand these new rules and the impact they may have on your user experience, fresh out of the bakers oven, I Spy have a developed a list of ingredients that are essential in the form of a ‘Cookie Audit’.  Through our audit we will:

• Identify and analyse what type of cookies you are using, your current policies for obtaining consent from your customers and how you are using them
• Grade your cookies as essential, non-essential and non-intrusive, non-essential and intrusive, or obsolete
• Produce a cookie usage audit report – this will outline what each cookie is for, how intrusive it is, whether it is first or third party, how to get more information on it, and what to do about it
• Produce a cookie usage statement to add in to website’s privacy section – this will outline what each cookie is for and how to get more information on it
• Give general advice on how to ensure your website is compliant with the ICO directive as defined at the time of the audit

The main things to remember are:

• Begin the process of assessing each of your websites cookies and clarifying the purpose of each one
• Respect your users privacy! Be clear to them about what the cookies are being used for and how it affects them.
• Ask their consent if required

As a leading digital marketing agency with experience across search, social media, website optimisation and display advertising I Spy have significant experience in helping businesses understand their customers’ online experience and journey as well as data management and analysis.

In recognition of our market leading expertise in the area of analytics, data and conversion optimisation, we were appointed the sole UK agency partner in the launch phase of Google’s new Premium Analytics product.

Don’t delay and fall foul of the law, get in touch and let us help you ensure you are Cookie Compliant.

Claire and I were sent to the Brighton SEO conference last Friday, which is organised by Kelvin Newman, who is creative director at sitevisibility.

There were a few speakers throughout the day, but the most interesting conversation was the kick off Q&A between Rishi Lakhani (Online Marketing Consultant), Martin MacDonald (SEO Strategy Director at Expedia EAN), Dave Coplin (Director of Search, UK at Microsoft) and Pierre Far (Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google).

A few interesting questions were being asked, such as ‘is SEO dead?’ to which the answer was of course ‘No’! It is constantly evolving, but it is not dead! Over the past 10 years it has evolved – and it is now not just a numbers game, but a quality one. It is still very much an infant industry, and as long as search engines exist, optimisation will exist.

Another good question directed at Pierre, was ‘what is a bad link?’ to which he replied: ‘the link needs to be a link to genuine good content and not just a link for a link’. If you are taking part in link farms, then you are clearly going down the wrong route.

The conversation moved on to content and what qualifies as good content. The answer to this was to put yourself in the reader/consumer’s shoes and ask yourself if you got what you were looking for. Another tip given was to think about how people will share your content – make it easy for them and set up the social buttons. Social Buttons count! Take the example of Rishi’s ‘I wrote a letter to Google’, which ranks number one mainly because it was shared en masse and only a small number of backlinks!

This brings us to social signals and how to define a good or a bad one. Dave Coplin mentioned that you will know if there are good as it will be shared. The more it is shared, the better it is and therefore the more weight it will carry. However, once you have acquired your fans, likes, etc. you need to keep them.

And the final question was the one every delegate was eagerly waiting for – it was about the ‘not provided’ data within Google Analytics. Google are ‘trying to protect users’. Most people in the room were angry at this response – and the main issue was where we can find the queries that these users typed to land on the site. The answer was Webmaster Tools – but this convinced no one.

Pierre who was representing Google at this event, chose his words very carefully and didn’t divulge much about what Google has in mind… With Firefox’s latest update, the search engines and now the browsers are going to have an effect on how search traffic will be tracked.

Let’s keep our eyes and ears open on this topic – but big thank you to the organisers of Brighton SEO, it was a great day!

The movie clips will feature many of ‘Old Hollywoods’ most renowned stars, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe and give us an insight into their personas.  However, the exhibition space will not only be rolling this short film of clips but displaying some of the archived artefacts used to film such celebrated movies like Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch.

We are all very excited to see what this space looks like now and immerse ourselves into the glamour of the movies and all they have to offer.

We are now beginning to see online giants such as Amazon and Ebay adding the Pinterest button to their sites.  So what do they see in the social networking site?

Well the answer is pretty simple.  As retail is such a visual sector it stands to reason that they should promote themselves on such a visual site.  Pinterest has become increasingly popular over the last few months and is gradually being seen as a way to increase traffic to websites.

From my personal experience of using Pinterest, both as a consumer and a blogger I can honestly say it is the most addictive social networking site that I have used since Facebook.  It also provides great leads for my fashion blog, driving traffic, shares and comments higher than any other site has done in the past.

We have seen many brands using the social networking site in various different ways, so for some true Pinsperation take a look at how these brands have talked advertising on Pinterest:

1. Barneys New York
2. Bergdorf Goodman
3. Club Monaco
4. DKNY
5. Land’s End

These brands are leading the way in the trend for fashion brands on Pinterest.  As these brands are so visual, it is important to be seen as a trendsetter as this reflects upon the brands personality and therefore, what they are selling to their customers.  so being on Pinterest can only reflect upon them in a positive way.