SEMCON 2008 Keynote: Eric Hsu of Yahoo! Search

Search — The Indispensable Local and Global Highway
Eric Hsu, Senior Manager, Yahoo! Search Marketing, SEA

Eric’s keynote gave emphasis to the merging of online and offline marketing strategies in the overall push for brand and product visibility.

According to him, the growth of the internet is likely to continue at double digit pace, due to high penetration on a global scale. Penetration of world population is likely to expand to almost 1.8 billion in the next 4 years. Subsequently, the growth of time spent online is increasing also. Yahoo!’s average daily page views were 3.8 billion in March.

With traditional media, i.e. magazine, newspaper, radio and cable, time spent vs ad spend is huge, and while search and the internet behavior is shooting up, “our job as advertisers is to put our clients’ products in the path of search behavior” (David Verklin, CEO, Carat Americas).

62% of search engine users don’t look past the 1st page of results. (Take note, of course, that this is Yahoo! data.)

41% of respondents switch query and/or search engine after 1st page. (I’m not sure if I got this one right.)

Yahoo! is the only game in town offering both search and display advertising. Based on their research, advertisers increase their share of online sales by 244% and offline sales by 89% when the used search and display at the same time.

The effectiveness of the advertising in driving lifts in sales isn’t limited to online purchase, But OFFLINE as well. i.e. 9% increase through Display only, 42% Search only, 89% Search + Display.

Display increases trademark searches. On average, exposure to a display ad increases trademark searches by 26%.

In traditional media, 72% won’t remember URLS. URL is NOT a call-to-action. People would most likely search for the product online, ergo, marketers should make sure their brand/products are searchable.

There is a need for integration between online and offline media.

Case Study #1: The KFC Display + Search Approach. KFC advertised a coupon display, and took advantage of paid search too, dominating the first page of search.

• Day2 - KFC site crashed due to huge coupon downloading.
• Day3 - Chicken fillet burger out of stock. (Yuuum, I’m suddenly hungry!)
• Day5 - KFC considered a next coupon campaign by finding the high ROI immediately.
• Search volume of the term “KFC” boosted 35 times vs normal.
• In 3 weeks, over 150,000 coupons were printed out.
• Daily redemption index was more than 200%, online coupon redemption comparing with physical coupon.
• KFC sales: 20 times vs Yahoo! ad spending.

Case Study #2: Kellogg’s Special K Promotion. Kellogg’s offline advertising included TV spots, print ads (in magazines like Shape and People), and Cereal Boxes, which all highlight a Yahoo! call to action: “Search Special K at Yahoo! Today.” Subsequently, they tried to dominate both organic and paid search too. The result, increased sales and online brand presence.

In conclusion, online and offline marketing is connected. Integration is a must to reach consumers more effectively from offline and online.

And then he gave a special deal for SEMCON attendees. And no, I’m not giving out the promo code. :)