Search beats display for brand building – Revolution Feb 2011

The February 2011 edition of Revolution covered an article looking at online brand building activity through search at the expense of display according to a recent survey carried out by communications firm Rocket.

Natural search ranked top  with 32% of marketers citing it as the most effective marketing channel for online brand building. As highlighted by iCrossing’s CEO, Paul Doleman, this higher figure is no surprise as SEO offers a trusted source in online brand building with consumers trusting the natural search rankings more for research purposes than paid alternatives. Not only is this content derived from the brand but we must also consider user generated content, reviews and network contacts as key branding aspects highlighted through natural search.

Coming in second at 28%, paid search. Seen as a key response tool, paid search is increasingly being used in creative ways to compliment brand building activities – check out Ann Summers. Likewise, online PR and email marketing sitting in the middle spots at 22%, can drive brand through targeted campaigns to specific demographics with targetted messaging. What is more surprising is the position of display and social coming in at the bottom of the pack.

Much of the focus at the moment on social, everyone’s talking about it. As outlined by Rocket’s MD, Pete Hendricks, ‘social media pretty much matches search engines in terms if traffic nowadays [...] but some brands don’t see social media as such an effective medium for brand building as there is much less control.’ the age old question of ‘what is the ROI’ maybe a concern for some but surely, in branding terms, social media done well is invaluable which makes it’s low position surprising. Instant consumer reviews, interactions and improved customer service can be the instant gains from social but dedicated resources and management are required to benefit from such rewards.

Hendricks goes on to say ‘with the growth of social media and increased interaction  online, many consumers now see advertising as intrusive and will ignore it’. Surely the overall requirement is simply to be more creative with display. Going back to the basics of marketing and truly identifying the consumers need and communicating this in a clear and concise way will always produce results. The pure nature of display, image based advertising, is in itself brand awareness:

- Rich media offers users an opportunity to engage and interact with a display banner, that in itself is brand lead marketing which can prove difficult in search.

- Automated display buying enables advertiser’s to deliver millions of display impressions cost effectively. We can start to compare display to TV (the ultimate branding medium) in terms of online awareness advertising and reach, all delivered at a  fraction of the cost of a TV buy.

- Online Video offers advertisers the opportunity to produce video assets/TV advertising that once would have solely sat in the offline world and now sits in the online world. Video is a great branding medium.

Used correctly and creatively, display is a great branding channel combining technologies such as social developments with direct response opportunities. Display should not be disregarded in anyway; as outlined above, it is highly effective in isolation, but in combination with search, social or content strategies for example brands can operate highly synergised, connected campaigns.

Many thanks to Simon Ross for his input on this post.

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