We’re in

We’re in the new office, unpacked everything.  I’m sat opposite the delectable Juliet Stephens, she’s amazing. Crazy Mike took an early bath, but has promised me he’ll stick around for a celebratory ale tomorrow.  Can’t stick around long though as I’m hooking up with Tubbsy (see previous post) for a drink tomorrow night.

Rob’s sat behind me, which is annoying as he can now see me do no work.

Here are a couple shots of the view from our corner of the world – beats looking at the Jerry Sadowitz lookalike from the last place:

This is the view West over South Westminster at about 8.30 this morning – lots of building work going on.

This is the view North towards the river, that’s the IMAX and the Hungerford Bridge train route into Charing Cross, which you can see in the distance. Cool huh?

Hatmatic moving offices today!!

Well we’re off to pastures new, after being at Pope St Studios for just over 12 months.

We’ve hung out with some cool people and some strange people, as is the way with the office share phenomenon.

Tubbsy – Katherine Tubb – runs 2wayspace, and turned a grotty student bedsit into a white space loft thingy which rocks.  She is a lovely lovely girl who goes about her business always with a smile on her face.  She’s also a babe.  She heads up 2waydevelopment – placing volunteers overseas in developing & underdeveloped countries.  Check out her site and give her a bell if you fancy a change of direction, in this dark and gloomy working climate.

Dan is a designer – web, TV, print – he’s a wicked bloke, got some great music taste, always keen to share (legally of course) and he’s got loads of screens and hard drives, and speakers and gadgets, a WACOM tablet, Harmann Kardon speakers, and bassbin, the works.  He’s currently playing Super Stylin’ by Groove Armada, the vibe is chilled. Have a look at some of his work – Chippendale Design – we’d definitely like to do some work with him.

Mei and Debs look after the UK arm of a German company called PlainPicture and they are a stock imaging supply and sales company, they both top girls, and there is some totally coincidental and random link in that Debs sister’s boyfriend is Max, Duncan J’s brother, we were sat in the office blabbing on about affiliate shit, and Debs is like, I know eConversions, I know these guys.  Bonkers.  They’re off to move into another office, sharing the space with a bloke and his dog. More on that later.

Ashley Rigg runs Global Edge – an overseas property information website (I think!). They are also decent lads, there used to be three of them but one day Keith just didn’t come back.  They’ve survived without him, possibly through the recruitment of three or four dedicated overseas property specialists (student interns) who are working for a song.  Good business strategy.  Hats off.  Here’s hoping they ride out the tough times.  Sure they will. Pete is the sales dude there, and he’s a top bloke. He’s got this amazing blog which he generates shedloads of revenue because he writes such blinding content, and his traffic levels have soared.  Take a squizz at Walshey.com.

Lindsay “In Da” Hood runs BMyCharity in partnership with a tall posh dude called Ben.  He isn’t in the office here, though I did see a tall posh dude here yesterday, so figured he made an appearance.  Lindsay lives in Lee Valley, and cycles in from there, she’s got a crazy and consistent sales pitch which is unrelenting and by all accounts very effective.  BMyCharity business model is awesome, take a peek.  She’s put up with a lot of our bullshit, shouting, laughing, being loud for the last 6 months, so big shout out to her.

Rob Berrisford of course, CK Net are moving out of here with us an into our new swanky offices overlooking the South Bank – we will continue to have much laughter and revelry, and get some decent work done along the way. We’re actually working with CK Net on some Paid Search work at the mo – CPC, imagine – and it’s going pretty well, so hopefully more of the same. Also better quickly mention Chris at Broadplace (sister company to CK Net); even though he’s based in Leatherhead and doesn’t drink alcohol, he’s been a star on the Black Tomato account, and without him we wouldn’t be where we are today.

There have also been some crazies in here: Nico and his French Mastiff BuBu, who bit my arse in the Summer, proper weirdo Nico, his business is renting out property, but that didn’t stop him from leaving his workspace in a shit state when he buggered off earlier in the year. Took the legs off the desk, claiming they were his.  Odd.  Good luck girl

Brianna kinda came and went – she was good fun, then just disappeared.  Rob and I are in agreement that if we are ever to stumble across that Neil fella who came and stole information, and got on everyone’s nerves though no-one can pinpoint why, well we’re going to tear him a new asshole.

Bremley the laughing Buddha, just very excited and giggly little man who works in World Development.  Only really spoke to him once, but that was a trouble-free moment, so don’t have much to say bout him.  There were a few comings and goings, people I’d just smile at.  Rob’s sister did some work for him for a while, as did Ollie – the UK’s first deaf guy to go to the North Pole.  All I know is he ate really loud. Also there’s this cool Indian guy who works for Tubbsy who speaks fluent Spanish – amazing!

There’s a really strange tall Scottish girl just got here, and she doesn’t want us playing music, so it’s properly time to go.

We’ll hopefully see some of these guys on the social – more than we ever did when we shared this space.

Things we’ll miss:

- Tubbsy

- the cool people

- the Woolpack

Things we won’t miss

- the walk from LB

- the internet connection

- the heating / lack of

- client visiting facilities

Where we off to?

New address: Hatmatic Ltd., 5th Floor, Capital Tower, London SE1 8RT

Come see us!

Vodafone ditch OMD

I can’t fathom why it took Vodafone so long to realise what a mockery OMD Digital made out of the phrase “client service” and have finally after much protracted negotiations, and pitches, no doubt at enormous physical and financial cost to the bidding agencies involved, plumped for Carat to service their needs in the digital advertising space.

So begins a new dawn for Vodafone, and hopefully a better performing, more accountable media schedule.  Not to say I have much insight into the working of their previous incumbent, just that it always seemed such a struggle to get consensus between client and agency on the basic principles of strategy, intent, reason, implementation, day to day structure, resource, the list goes on.

We at Hatmatic have our feet up, are leaning into our Parker Knoll, and having taken the first swig of a hot cuppa, will now start to monitor from afar. Good luck Carat.

Google Changes: April 2008, the impact on the market, and suggestion on how best to combat this.

What’s happened?

The policy revision on 4^th April 2008 applies to complaints Google receive regarding trademarks in the UK and Ireland.

The impact of this revision is that Google will no longer review reported trademark infringements at the keyword level, providing the resultant ad copy / text does not incorporate the trademarked term.

This means that anyone will be able to bid on “brand name” providing they do not include “brand name” in the ad’s body copy, and while Google will perform a “limited courtesy investigation”, the onus is shifting to ad relevance rather than the policing of trademark infringements as has been the case in the past.

As of 5^th May 2008, keywords that have been restricted previously due to trademark infringement will no longer be restricted in the UK and Ireland.

 

Why has this happened?

Google claim that their goal is to provide users with the most relevant information [to their search], whether this is from Paid or Organic, and part of their strategy for reaching this goal is to provide relevant choices and giver users the opportunity to determine which ads they find most relevant.

Google often plays the “consumer choice” card, but the likelier reason is the Google Dance.

This is where Google change the rules to prevent certain individuals and organisations from attempting to manipulate their sites in order to achieve as high ranking as possible through unfair means.  This is referred to as the Google Dance.

 

Is the advertiser’s brand still offered any protection?

Google still provides some protection, in the form of quality score. In the States, advertisers are already seeing some new competitors bidding on their brand, but their ads are at the bottom of the list below the advertiser and several of their partners.

Their bids would have to be uneconomically high to get a good ranking – because their landing pages by definition are not relevant to the search, and Google takes that into account in ranking their ads.

 

What are the risks to advertiser?

There is a risk that competitors will use this as an opportunity to direct genuine brand traffic elsewhere, e.g. to their own websites.

Furthermore, if you sold any of your products through resellers, or brokers, there is a risk that you would see a sales volume shift, from your site to some of these broker sites.

 

What should we do?

First and foremost, ensure that you have an Adtext Ban in place.  This will ensure the majority of potential rogue bidders are not able to populate their ad copy with any brand references, and will save any enquiries should this arise.

Secondly, the best way to keep competitors out of the space will be to have a decent number of partners, such as resellers or affiliates, who will bid alongside you.  Their landing page content will be relevant to your product offerings, and their GQS (Google Quality Score) will be higher, pushing down all non-affiliated bidders.

I recommend preparing a brand group for this purpose, one which will work alongside any existing brand affiliates you have, and which you can activate as soon as you experience any untoward practice by competitors.

Either way, you stand to experience a drop in traffic via your direct listing, but out of a choice of traffic going to an affiliate or to a competitor, the former is preferable.

Approaching additional new affiliates and requesting page content, in case you need to utilise their services – a big ask, but not impossible.  Again, approach trusted affiliates you’ve worked with before, and they’ll no-nonsense some standard content for you, at least to help in the short term.

Summary

There will not be an overnight switch, which will hammer your direct traffic, so I urge you to exercise caution, and prepare methodically, with perhaps one additional affiliate waiting in the wings.  If the occasional rogue bidder does appear, and a tiny proportion of your traffic is directed elsewhere, it may be better to accept this, than to activate additional affiliates on a long-term basis which will increase third party commissions, and bring down your ARPU.  Let’s watch carefully and wait.

Letter published in NMA

Thought I’d quickly post this, as I wanted to get my word in before I take another beating on the forum from the usual suspects.

I wrote this last week, because I read James Little’s letter and didn’t feel it was a fair reflection on the state of play in the space.

Some of our clients adopt a brand bidding strategy, a carefully briefed group of affiliates who have permission to represent our clients in he Paid Search space.  Some don’t allow brand bidding full stop.  None offer a free-for-all on brand, as this would be a nightmare to manage and result in spiralling bid prices and bad moods from Search agencies.  Take a look at the forums for problems with a brand bidding policy in the program T&Cs – networks generally get a shoeing for it.

Brand extension is where we concentrate our advice and efforts.  Exact match is a no-brainer and I am not advocating that, what it does act as though is a licence – for affiliates to reinvest in generic terms. Exact match gets bad press and is doing so presently, because of the cookie overwrite issue.  It’s a fair point. We are looking at the option of taking the brand affiliate out of the mix, or paying multiple referrers, but realistically this is still some way off. Mainly due to the lack of match fit technical partners providing reliable data at the reporting end.

That said,  exact match in isolation isn’t advised – it’s merely going to cannibalise your direct search activity, leading you to misreport on sales, and will piss off your hard-working, content affiliates.  The 80 who drive the crucial 20, and it’s growth in that 20 which will bring you more sales.

Still, I’ve learnt that if you have an opinion and are prepared to share it, then you’ll get a few people who don’t agree, call you an idiot, disrespect you on public forums, etc.  Thick skin will allow you to air your views and potentially someone will agree, or at least be interested to find out more.

Here’s the article: Letter in NMA 26/03/2008 – Brand bidding can be of benefit

Getting a proper kicking

I was kicked, but the kicked get to get back up again, unlike the kicker, who gets to contemplate the kicking without any venture anywhere.

I was kicked by someone I thought about kicking, but didn’t because I thought Love conquered all. I still believe that, but not about me ‘n’ the kicker anymore.

She is hot to look at, but in the head is not quite there – she wanted to do “other things” this year.

Already there are vultures trying to pick off the meat – eeeewwww – I’ve had nightmares already, and I expect one of my mates to step in as soon as he gets her number. He’s already been waaaaaaaaaaay too concerned about my “loss”; he’ll be on her before you can say: “get your own bird you fucking grabbing sleazy, hanger-arounder.

Getting kicked is in the passive tense; the kicker is in the active area, so getting kicked allows a response (not sure where I’m going) while the kicker has acted and task is complete. So the kicked is in advantage, gets to respond, gets to feel ….. shiiiiiiit. Woooo. Nice.

That’s the only shit that I am going to struggle with – I don’t need to have to go through that – I got kicked – I move on.

The mighty Reds

God’s country was awash with glee this Saturday past, and will still be drying it’s laughing eyes this day that is Wednesday, after the incredible feats witnessed at Twickenham.

Some 20 years after last turning the enemy in their own backyard,  I can sit back, stare into the midle distance and proclaim “I was there!”.  Max Boyce was there no doubt, but his PR agent has moved him onto new catchphrases these days, I’ll take that one Mr B thanks all the same.

I compared my fitful joy to that of the bride AND the groom on their wedding day, no matter how many glasses of bubbly or toasts drunk, there was nothing to sway the sheer ecstasy of what is after all the best day of their respective lives.  In theory.  In practice this was the same for me also.  I drank heavily that first pint of Guinness at the Turk’s Head in St. Margaret’s, in one, and after 6 pints at the stadium.  This in part explains my chiselled physique, my adonis torso, the other being my exercise regime.

England have fallen to pieces, four injuries on the day, Strettle early on, Moody, Rees and Tindall.  Sheridan is out for next weekend.  What happened to their boys?  Our only serious injury was to Jonathan Thomas who was strong-armed by the unlikely Wilkinson, put him under, literally.

And they fell to bits in the second half of the second half – baffling, but welcoming, and we took advantage hell yeah!