Search Engine Marketing Blog: piloSEO

Over at Search Views there is some discussion over recent comments made by Steve Harty, Chairman of Bartle Bogle Hegarty in AdWeek. In case you are unaware, Bartle Bogle Hegarty or BBH, is a traditional advertising agency headquartered in Britain. They have developed some very notable ad campaigns in the last 20 years. While they may be masters of traditional media they still don’t seem to understand the power of search. This is evidenced by the comments of Mr. Harty in AdWeek stating that:

“We’re not convinced that the people we are marketing to are using that as a channel…We have a more targeted strategy than, ‘We’re open for business.’ Search is kind of indiscriminate in a way.”

Of course, those of us in search tend to disagree and SearchViews has taken it a step further with a couple of recent blog posts.

BBH is severely lacking in SEO & SEM knowledge

In the first blog post they call out the BBH Chairman’s Quote and go on to explain why it he is wrong. They also go on to point out some of the mistakes BBH is making and how they are missing the mark when it comes to search. Their second post goes even further by pointing out that the original SearchViews article shows up in the organic results for related searches AND they even bought a few paid ads that call out Steve Harty and Bartle Bogle Hegarty for his misunderstanding of search.

While this was done in a humorous manner the fact is that even though traditional marketing agencies give lip service to search they still don’t understand the impact that it can have.

Search is important no matter who your customers are

The point that Harty was trying to make is that businesses who would use their services will not use search to find them. That may be the case but as Joshua Stylman’s post at SearchViews points out those businesses will probably use search to find out more about the company while conducting their research. If the search results contain articles pointing out a lack of knowledge in an important aspect of their business they may be looked upon less favorably. Your customers may not use search to find you initially but you can bet they will use it to learn more about you. BBH does not seem to understand this and it could end up costing them some business, especially if they are offering a search compenent to their marketing strategy. Many traditional advertisers understand the power of search but far too many, like BBH, still have a lot to learn.

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