Anatomy Of A Web-Advertising Campaign

In The Beginning There Was Marketing

Anyone in business who has any interest in using the Web to further his or
her business is well aware of "search engine optimization." Not a day goes
by that my email in-box isn't loaded with information on how to get the best
search engine results, and not a week goes by that a client or potential
client doesn't request that their website be not just search friendly but
search engine fanatical.

For some time we have been preaching the importance of delivering the
marketing message and that your message should not be corrupted or distorted
by techniques aimed at attracting search engine robots well driving away
real people who may actually be potential customers.

Now I realize that in many circles this attitude is considered outright
heresy, but hopefully there are a few marketing types around that understand
websites have to deliver more than miscellaneous random eyeballs; websites
have to deliver a message that is memorable, understandable, useable, and if
you're really good at your job, information that can be incorporated into
your audiences' belief system.

With that in mind we were pleasantly surprised when Google the primary
target of this SEO obsessive compulsive frenzy of technical slight-of-hand
announced that they were instituting Google Video Ads and to add a little
icing on the cake, they purchased YouTube adding to their already
considerable investment in Google Video. Somebody at the big "G" thinks
video is a viable Web-medium even if the purveyors of search engine fool's
gold would have you believe otherwise.

The list of companies, including Forbes, Amazon, Wyeth, and Ford, delivering
Web-audio and Web-video grows daily and we are not just talking about major
corporations. Small companies are using multimedia to get the edge on their
larger competitors who still have their heads buried in the search engine
optimization sand.

Acknowledging All The Issues

In developing our campaign to promote the use of Web-audio and Web-video as
an effective method of delivering marketing messages over the Web, we
identified four key issues that would have to be addressed:

(a) We had to demonstrate that website design was about delivering the
marketing message and not just search engine optimization.

(b) We had to demonstrate that even small and medium-sized companies could
afford professional Web-audio and Web-video and that it wasn't cost
prohibitive.


(c) We had to demonstrate that professional Web-audio and Web-video required
more than just the ability to use a video camera and that professional
multimedia story-telling required a unique set of creative skills and
technical ability not often found in-house in most businesses.

(d) We had to demonstrate that the development and production of creative
multimedia marketing and professional webmedia content had to do with talent
and experience, not size.

These were the challenges that informed all our subsequent decisions.

The Concept

In order to make people pay attention to what we had to say we needed a
concept that was both familiar and edgy. Sure we were sticking a finger in
the eye of all the search engine optimizers but you can't be afraid to make
a strong statement if you want people to sit-up and take notice, especially
if you are fighting a tidal wave of misconception.

The fact that we were telling people that delivering your marketing message
on the Web using multimedia was more important than search engine
optimization was enough to make what we were doing controversial, but we
also needed a vehicle that allowed us to present the opposing point of view.
What we needed was a recognizable style that demonstrated our ability to
deliver a memorable, comprehensible, useable, belief-altering message in the
medium we were promoting.

Since we primarily use Macintosh computers for all our work and only use PCs
to check for compatibility, we thought we would pay homage to the brilliant
Mac commercials running on television.
The format worked for us because it allowed us to create two characters of
our own that would present opposing points of view over a series of videos
that would comprise the campaign.
We knew that some people would react unfavorably to our using such a
familiar format but we figured it would demonstrate how even small but
talented production companies can deliver high quality multimedia Web-based
marketing on tight budgets.

A Market Primed and Ready

Our efforts in advocating the power of using the human voice and image to
deliver marketing stories over the Web was finally getting through to
companies who were fed-up with the cost and ineffectiveness of continually
chasing the holy grail of search engine optimization. Company presidents and
marketing managers were starting to listen, starting to realize there was
another way. This campaign was aimed at pushing these business executives to
act on what they already knew: good marketing is about delivering the
message, not keyword density.

Preproduction, Production, and Post Production

We wanted to make sure we had a distinctive sound by composing our own
signature theme music and creating our own cast of characters with a
distinctive message promoting the concept of multimedia. In fact these
planned web-commercials really don't sell anything, all they do is make
people aware that search engine optimization is not the only thing they
should be thinking about when they are developing a website or webmedia
campaign. In short, the medium was the message.

The use of Web-audio and Web-video is the best way to implement this kind of
marketing presentation. We sat down and started to write and before we know
it we had eighteen scripts each featuring a different issue in the search
engine optimization versus multimedia controversy.

The next step was finding the right actors to play the part.
Whereas Web-audio allows us to draw upon a vast number of voice talents
across North American, video is much more limiting, especially if were
wanted to keep the cost down to a reasonable amount. Even if we were
prepared to blow the budget on actors, we knew our clients wouldn't, so it
was important to demonstrate that we could get the job cast at a sensible
cost.
The casting proved to be an interesting exercise of frustration and humor.
We had all types of applicants ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous to
the outright bizarre, but ultimately we were able to find two fine young
actors who understood exactly what we were doing and who took to the parts
as if they were written specifically for them.

One of our greatest assets as a firm is that we do everything from concept
to implementation, including writing, videoing, editing, graphic, motion,
and website design; but if you want to produce a campaign at a sensible
price you still have to be careful you don't write overly elaborate scripts
that require multiple sets, locations or hard to acquire props. That said we
still had to find a cute dog we could trust on set, links of various kinds
of sausages, a hard to put together toy, and best of all a real
straightjacket from an interesting website that specialized in rather
strange items of clothing.

The shoot itself went extremely smoothly and we ended up shooting all
eighteen videos in less than two days. We assumed some of the videos that
looked good on paper just wouldn't translate to the screen, but to our
surprise every one of the scripts worked. We knew what we wanted to say and
weren't afraid to say it, even though we were flying in the face of
conventional wisdom.

While Josh Bader our Director of Photography was digitizing, color
correcting and editing the raw footage, Simon Bader our Director of Audio
composed a number of theme music compositions to choose from for our
signature sound. Once all the pieces were put together into a series of
finished videos, we were ready to implement the campaign.

Implementation

The first set of six videos were uploaded to Google Video and YouTube as
well as onto a webpage
(http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads/) that was created to house the full
campaign of eventually eighteen videos, each presenting a different issue in
the search engine optimization versus multimedia controversy. Versions of
the videos were also used to create a Google Video Ad campaign.

Credits

Produced by MRPwebmedia
Executive Producer: Jerry Bader
Written By: Jerry and Josh Bader
Director of Photography and Visual Design: Josh Bader Director of Audio and
Music Composer: Simon Bader SEO Guy: Sean Kaufmann Multimedia Guy: Erez
Bowers

About The Author: Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website
design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com
http://www.sonicpersonality.com.
Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.