IAB / DMA SEARCH MARKETING CHARTER

It has been a great pleasure to work with the IAB and DMA teams and the Search Engine Marketing Council to create the SEARCH MARKETING CHARTER. You can read more about it here: http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/searchmarketingcharter.html

Why has the search marketing charter been created?

The search marketing industry has been growing exponentially over the last few years to become the largest medium for advertising spend online and a platform in its own right – but this doesn’t compensate for the fact it is still a very new medium. Advertisers new to search marketing have often expressed to members of the Search Council that they are overwhelmed by the choice of search engine marketing companies available and unsure of the quality of their services. Beginning with this launch phase, the charter will build criteria of best practice to promote SEMCo’s adhering to industry established guidelines and to help build advertiser and agency confidence in the medium.

Why now?

As trade body, the IAB became aware at the end of last year that a lot of companies were entering the search marketing field, and others were asking how to choose a supplier from them. IAB asked its members if they wanted the existing Search Council to set guidelines and standards for search marketing companies and they agreed. It’s taken six months to develop the charter with the key trade bodies and other stakeholders.

They are my answers and you cna find more here:
http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/searchmarketingcharterfaq.html

Action packed IAB search task force meeting

We nearly had people standing at the back of the room at yesterdays IAB Search Taskforce meeting.

We kicked off with a good presentation from Google who introduced their mobile marketing plans and successes, very interesting and insightful, it turns out that Googles center for excellence for Mobile is London. Thanks guys.

Then we went over the final draft of the Search Marketing Charter, pleased to get that one out and with the support and help of the DMA and SEMPO.

We were also able to agree the first version of part two, a guide, as part of the Search Marketing Charter for affiliate marketing in search, real progress was made here and it was fun as always to hear the views of the Affiliate side of search.

Finally we were able to address the issues in advanced search marketing that I originally defined within Third generation search engine marketing(3GSEM.com) which is based on the firm belief and certain knowledge that in the early days of search we as an industry wanted to explain that search was simple to understand. I am not sure how successful we were in that mission, but certainly search is a mainstream activity nowadays, and this proves that search as a function is simple to use by the worlds populous. So now I think it is important that we identify the complexities that lie beneath in order to be able to explain that we can manage search as marketing tool and use it in a targeted fashion and xtreme marketing - the kind that pulls results - requires close co-ordination to real world scenarios and this is where geographic, behavioural, multivariate testing and the other activities that I have identified kick in.

It was great to see the take up on this subject by the other search marketing companies at the table enthusiastically opted in to supply content on each of the subjects, nothing new was added, so I guess 3GSEM nailed it straight off.

It must be said that the most memorable part of the meeting were the insights into mobile that Google provided - and hopefully you will see a VIP briefing on that very soon.

video with humour examples...

Following on the from the last post I was reminded again about video with humour, that no doubt underpins the success of youtube and a good number of brands that use humorous commercials...
Tony bows out and earlier on this station...
Great video from Microsoft

Social Media Optimisation

As always it seems a new development in Internet marketing gets a bad rap! It is not just a negative attitude of the british either - it is across the world. It seems that a storm has grown over the term social media optimisation... MyBlogLog Brands All Social Media Optimizers As Schmoes.

I have two opinions on this, a) it is a bit late in coming and had been much discussed within hallowed halls for many years and b) what is all the fuss about, as it is inevitable that people do things in new areas - as true pioneers, incorrectly... it is a classic!

The fuss is basically about people who post comments, or who use robots to post comments on other peoples blogs with links back to thier sites in them. If it is valid and reasonable then fine, if not and you want a link from a given site, then sponsor the site, show your support, demonstrate that it is worth having and acknowledge that you will derive value from it and pay for it. It is not that difficult to create content on your site that is genuinely worth while linking to... it just takes some thought.

Although as Jaap Favier of Forrester Research said just a few days ago (see the link?) contact is king, not content - and he is right. We still need to learn to engage and the passive watching of a video does not do that. As a result of what Jaap said to me, and to you if you watch his video, you will be seeing a site design change over at Weboptimiser soon. But no need to throw video out with the wash water...

There is more to this debate than meets the eye and well done for bringing it up again, it is something we should consider, as the whole concept of social media optimisation needs consideration, it needs to be worked out, it needs to be understood and nurtured. If it should be employed commercially, it should be used honestly and ethically.

The EPIC that was Interact 2007 is over...

At last I have finished the last in the series of 4 videos that recorded the IAB Interact in Brussels this month, and made a showcase of my newly found video skills. As a result I am not alone in our video making and have been lucky enough to have created a small team of enthusiasts who are busy making even more videos as we sleep...

To see the all the IAB Interact in Brussels videos, visit our Interact IAB Europe page and after watching the first video, watch the next one. Less than half an hour of video took more than 180 hours to make. 60 in the filming and double that in the making and interestingly 20Gb of hard disk space, geeky, but it is nice to know when you have more planned - got to make sure we have what we need when we need it you know.

One of the things that was interesting was that I was able to put together a story, a beginning, middle and an end, and I did so simply by explaining to every person what I was looking for. Only when I downloaded the video was I able to work out how to make it work, it is safe to say that it fell together on editing... There were hours of video that we simply did not use and from each person, apart from the keynotes, Danny and Alain, we only used a few seconds of what was said in perhaps 5 minutes. It was an interesting discovery. Of course the end result is still not perfect, but it does capture some of the enthusiasm, the purpose, content and key messages that the industry wants to be heard and now is enshrined forever into these videos.

Perhaps I should have strived to craft each element in a similar way, for there to be some programatical or visual consistency. But I think that short vignettes each crafted in a different way, reflects the different interview scenarios and makes the point of each stand out.

My primary hope is that viewers find them interesting, informative and viewable. It will be interesting to see if they stand the test of time, and indeed later to compare how often this type of video is viewed and again later reviewed. Naturally we shall optimise each and shortly the videos will be posted around the World and through our analytics we shall know more about the traffic that we receive in the future weeks, months and years.

Thanks especially to all those who gave their time and expressed their views and helped make each of the videos come alive with the joy, prospects and excitement of the industry. I look forward to doing it all again at the next leadership council and at the next interact.

New videos on the site - that makes 100

Loads of new content for the site... search engine marketing firm Weboptimiser

3 more VIP Interviews, a new line up on the front page and I have expanded the IAB sections so that we now have a placeholder for further info on IAB UK and IAB Europe.

The front page retains the Virgin video - I have replaced the middle one from Guy Phillipson announcing the Advertising Revenue Report to the first of three videos (although I have only produced two of them so far) from Interact at Brussels.

The end one is Penny Power of Ecademy - thanks Penny. If you click through to the VIP section
I have just added a great interview of Glen Drury of Yahoo! where he talks about social networking and I have added another video of Darran Snatchfold - making four! Yes I know that is a lot, but this one is kind of a summary of the other three - so watch this one to save you from sticking pins in your eyes on the first three - that is our editing - not his presentation!

Penny, Glen and the new Darran have all been done with the help of Sinem who has cut them down and made them more interesting to watch with cutaways etc. Thanks Sinem - credit where dredit is due and all that.

There are more to come on the VIP front, I have Graeme Foux in the can ready to go of woyano.com, I interviewed both Robert Stevens of Bunnyfoot and Val-Pierre Genton of Bright talk today - The 'B's have it. So more to come.

I have changed the IAB UK page. You can access the IAB Engage for Retail video.
You will now find the IAB Advertising Revenue Report delivered by Guy Phillipson.

I know you will be excited to know that I have changed the IAB Europe page too: Now you can access the IAB leadership council interviews and the latest Interact event held in Brussels, I have the third video to add soon...

Search standards at the IAB

At last my first standard has been ratified and approved by everyone at IAB UK, SEMPO and DMA - it has taken six month to agree three crucial points hoorah! OK, so now we are going to work out a joint press release and release the details of it in the first or second week of July. In the meantime we (hopefully) going to design a logo and a set of words aimed at search engine marketing companies, explaining how they can promote their compliance to the guidelines.

Great video from Microsoft

I have just finished the marathon video edit that is IAB Interact that I shot in Brussels. Well, I still have the sound to do, but I have assembled the bits and ordered into three parts... Whilst there are many interesting comments - and believe me, I have edited those right down, most are real gems. I am very pleased and it will be out any day now.

Marc Bresseel Regional Sales Director, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, refers to the latest video campaign developed by Microsoft and it is great:



It very validly states the problem, although not the solution. I dont really see anyone talking to Microsoft about this, I think it describes the overal realisation that companies must have in order to engage commercially with the web, it does not really promote Microsoft as the solution provider.

So, great job in highlighting the issue, it even links to a blog, although the blog itself seem to be more intent on the promotion rather than solving the problem raised. So at the moment, it appears that Microsoft are missing a trick. However, not sure that I know how to resolve the problem either, so I am in the same boat here...

Ok here goes... How about a call to out all those who abuse or ignore or do not employ best practice marketing? That would be controversial and that could help raise the awareness. Or, more positively, how about making case studies of Nike, Lego etc, those who have embraced these new technologies into something evangelical? I will try...

video editor vacancy

I now have over 100 videos published since march this year, although I took my first video in January and I have about 40 videos not yet processed, I have never the less produced and published 100 videos. So that is 25 videos per month, or one for about every working day. It is a lot of video!

I have learnt a lot too. My first videos are not so good, then I started hiring equipment, then I bought some equipment, low cost, portable lighting and later invested in a semi pro camera, whilst gradully changing the angle of the camera, understanding more and more about lighting, making mistakes about sound and most recently understanding, or at least acknowledging(!) the need for cut aways and background footage.

So I enjoy and find useful interviewing people for video recording and I find publishing, embedding, sharing the end result, easy and fun to do. I can also quickly rough edit, so I am in a position where I can hand over slightly cooked video. I now need someone to stitch it together as I just do not have the time - can anyone tell me where to go? Are you a video editor, based in London, who has experience on Mac and wants to work with Final Cut Studio 2 - motion, color, soundtrack Pro, DVD studio?

All ideas welcome - I am spending so much time on this project now. I can see that Video is going to become a permanent part of the Weboptimiser expanding business. Video for Weboptimiser and its interviewees is starting to gain traction as a result of the prolific amount of interviews that I have achieved. People are being recognised through their interviews - so, TV meets the Web at last.

Are you a video editor? Would you like to access a small video recording studio in the heart of London? Are you able to access my server over broadband, download and process on a project by project basis - let me know.

Eurostar baggage limits

There are none! On looking at their site, they are 'photographer' friendly - I think that marketing identified a niche - photographers - the inference being from a photographers perspective that you could take what you wanted on Eurostar.

Indeed, on checking in, and loading onto the train, staff even joked about the amount of kit I was taking - albeit between two of us, we had 6 bags going and 8 coming back. Coming back I did not have the energy to squeeze the extra light box into one of the big bags and took it separately - partly to see if Eurostar would figure I was over the limit. Although I also managed to pack three extra shiping bags full of chocolate... The office needs me!

This was not the case when I rang customer services. I rang because I suspected the bag limit and being told that we need to be there half an hour early I did not want to be held up and overcharged for too much baggage. I was told I could deliver extra baggage to the terminal 24 hours earlier and it would be available to me within 24 hours of my arrival. I wanted to start filming right away and I did not want to leave fragile, expensive, essential equipment with burly luggage handlers. The telephone support would not commit, I could turn up 24 hours later or I could take a risk and he would provide no guarantees as to what they would say at the terminal.

No wonder Eurostar have had difficulty in making money, they do not seem to be sure about what they are carrying. The staff are perhaps too timid to question luggage limits or too timid to shout about the amount you could take... Does anyone have any Eurostar nightmares? I read on the train that they are dumping Waterloo and will be rerouting trains to St Pancreas with faster travel across the UK - Yipee!

The Video Problem...

I have a conundrum... As well as typing on a french keyboard... Here at IAB Europe, at Interact in Brussels I have have had the pleasure of taking a further 30 video interviews. The problem is that there a number of publishers who want to place them on their sites exclusively. So this is very complimentary, but how do I please all the people all the time - so I am hoping that someone reading this might help. I have one idea, auction them... So I allot each publisher 10 points... I provide access to eqch of the videos via a private site. They vote using their points, the highest bid wins and uses their points, those who are unsuccessful get their points back. I have five publishers, I produce 30 videos... Publishers want exclusivity for a period of one week. How many points... Is this the right method... Any better ideas...

Engage for Retail, IAB Leadership Council and more VIPs!

My feet are not touching the ground at the moment, barely have time to process the videos I am taking... Somehow I have just squeezed out another 15, hah, no problem! So, well on track for 200 for the year now.

Thanks to everyone at IAB UK for setting it up and of course to all those lovely people who spoke, as usual nice to see familiar faces - including a good number who have never been on video before - well done! Great commentary too.

The IAB Leadership Council - what can I say, just more of the above plus, some really inciteful stuff and of course a big thank you to Alain who took the time to explain his plans for IAB Europe more of that on our search engine marketing site.

Then VIPs, are the VIPs, again these are a combination of clients, nice people and industry stars - the quality of content is getting better and better and our content wings are seriously spreading - it is such an exciting project, you will see more as it expands now, but I think we are getting close to the tipping point we are looking for...

So if you would like to appear on one of VIP briefings, let me know, it is just about to go big and your profile will very definately be raised... type in Roy Patel into Google... (Hi Roy! - you know already...).

Toasting laptops, podcasts and er.. video again.

I have turned my laptop to toast again - no it is not burnt out, just burning hot. I am simultaneously processing videos and producing dvds, the firewire port is truly ablaze, with equipment daisy chained out I need two four way adapters to keep the whole thing going!

Not only did I take four videos at the Internet World show, I also had another IAB Europe Leadership council event to attend, where I am meeting increasingly familiar and friendly faces. I managed a further 6 videos there and this time one from the President himself, Alain. So you will see it at a sited near me, soon!

So on catching up on my emails - here I am at gone 12 Satarday night, Sunday morning now and I have recieved an email from Andy White - no relation! I met Andy at the Corporate Podcasting event where after a brief conversation within the venue he was keen to interview me, he did so over lunch in the restaurant and you can hear it all here: http://www.summitsolutions.co.uk/blog/#post-73 the interestings things to me were a) I did well, although that could have been his fine editing skills - but I dont think so, there are a couple of things I repeat, although I realised how easy that is to do from my own experience and 2) how clear the recording is. I remember he pointed a strange looking hand sized recorder at me with a soft grey fuzzy short lead microphone on top and that was it. I have since checked the equipment out and I am surprised to find that this kit is veyr expensive which it has to be said really put me off. It put me off because given the choice of spending that kind of money I would prefer to go down the video route. But, and this is a big but, the sound and the production quality of Andys podcast - even though he has mixed me with a competitor (and that is a good thing) is brilliant. So a big thanks to you, for showing me the way and sharing that experience with me and putting out on your site: http://www.summitsolutions.co.uk/blog/#post-73

And Now, Ladies and gentlemen, back to Internet World... Ah yes, before we get back there - today I did something which I am sure is totally illegal - I superimposed a mates head onto a clip of Casino Royal - the sea scene where he spots the lady on horseback from the sea.

And Now, Ladies and gentlemen, back to Internet World... Aha it was great to be congratulated by some of our competitors for having such a strong presence there - it was nice to see people that we know and love of old and it is always funny to see people (competitors) we know ignore us - one day they too will join a trade body and start to put more in, share information realise that there is more to what we do than money and competition! I often wonder if these people understand what open licencing means and if they have considered the alternative business models and how we can really use these new technologies for themselves - I am musing on how long it will be before it becomes apparent that they are following another trend and not creating one of their own.

As ever and in this vein, I had another interesting yet obvious conversation - to me this is the epitomy of a brilliant idea - the obvious nature, its simplicity and its ease to understand - and perhaps even - to implement as well. Well, we may not be as close as I would like to ease of implementation apart from the old - nothing that £50k would not fix for you! But here it is: multi variant testing the new buzz phrase from the world of web analytics... So, there are hundreds or even thousands of types of people, but, imagine that there are only two - the logical and the emotional. The logical are those that need data to prove that a supposition is right, the emotional - they need to see and be certain that loads of others have done the thing. Each type needs data, each type would follow a different route according to thier needs before getting to the close. Fixing this route, through multivariate testing is a very strong opportunity put in these terms and definately qualifies under one of my concepts - that of third generation search engine marketing - advanced search engine marketing. Of course my example is limited to just two strands of people - the logical and the emotional, multi-variate testing platforms should be able to create unique paths that are suitable to a wider variety of people - please, dear God, may they be implement in a search engine friendly way!

Quick update, at a recent IAB meeting on the subject of advanced search engine marketing, it was concluded that we would refer to multivariate testing as good old fashioned dynamic pages, Hoorah for simplicity!

Day 1 at Internet World 2007

Again! Another Video - front page of Internetworld.co.uk manner from heaven - thank you Lord - two video coups - one day!



's funny! Both videos were filmed, uploaded, converted and then edited within the VIP lounge, all with my very own hands - so fast I forgot to add colour correction to the first - its the real thing folks - met Mr Coca Cola shortly afterwards too. Really! Head of, Danny set it up - thanks man.

I told you about my presentation... I did not cover it in the video, because although I billed it as the end of the day I filmed it before my presentation as I realised I did not want to have a video up there saying that I had a presentation at three - that was only day one, not two or three. So I had no choice I had to make another video. Even more ad hoc than the first one - the only people around then were staff - now we were live- truly live - clients and visitors...


Can't wait to see how the presentation worked out...

Day 1 at Internet World 2007

Whew - what a busy day - taxis delivering children, a mad rush with all sorts of equipment and bags to the event - you can imagine - first to arrive - waited, waited, waited... for the organisers for their video interview - they were overwhelmed - the biggest IW show in years, so I had to step in and do the interview myself, I figured I was doing a backup - turned out to be the show - here it is:



So at 11am there it was, online on the front page of Internetworld.co.uk a true video coup!

As explained, my presentation was at three - it started with a few seated residents - par for the course! Where is everyone - within minutes the seats filled and colleagues could not find a space - ensuring that there would be a number of people rubber necking - whats going on! Sound worked, presentation played, mac connected like a dream - for this presentation I even prepared video - sound from machine did not work - no worries I spoke over the soundtrack (that was not playing) and filled in the gaps - by the time I got to my third video - expecting total disaster and seeing in the gleeful eyes of the audience that they could not wait for another failure technical had stepped in and connected me up - hoorah! (was that guy smokin somthin?). The funniest thing was spotting Davina Lines in the audience just at the moment her audio was not working- I offered her the mike - she could at least lip sink - she would remember what she said - wouldnt she?

You can see it all later - I recorded the whole lot -failure and success to camera - downloading now - so in a few hours guess what I will be able to show you all - I have not seen it myself yet - so maybe not... Laters!

Busy Bee at the IAB

It was a great honour and pleasure to be asked by Val-Pierre Genton to speak at his B2B event at the IAB UK today - and to speak to and hear from an audience of agency folk. The other speakers were really interesting too, Sarah from Trade Doubler, Ed from Concep Global, Graeme from Nexus Group and of course Val-Pierre himself hosting the event in fine style - although I had expected Champagne Val-Pierre, seem to remember that was why I came to the first meeting...

I had to cover 10 years worth of experience in search in ten minutes, and then so did Ed on Email marketing. Loads of fun... Whilst Sarah admitted that there was a lot of life in the consumer model with many obvious B2B opportunities yet to be found and created.

Afterwards I found myself alone in the basement, dialling into the IAB Europe search taskforce call, speaking to another set of and making new friends in Holland - hello Paul!

Then afterwards, I called up Val-Pierre and Graeme - you will see them on the VIP video soon...

Handiscoping the Pope

Yeah I went to Rome last week, this Easter and I saw the Pope. There I was checking out St Peters, and who should pop in, the Pope! So, your eminence, what are your feelings about the current trends in SEM? What was that, you think Handiscoping is a bit of a worry. Could not agree with you more...

Then, err, Rome in a flash... Very nice city, lovely people.

I went to Rome and I met the Pope... And...

... I saw something I had seen before - people holding their cameras in the air, zooming in, adjusting the viewing angle and using their Camera like a periscope.. But is it a Periscope I would like to call it a handiscope or perhaps to term the verb: handiscope - to use your video camera to view over things. Whilst in Rome I saw people using to view over fences and many things, I even found myself doing it - to handiscope? And so I made my first wikipedia entry... Periscope~ handiscope ~ anyone...

I was reminded last week of 3GSEM, just when you think the latest thing has already moved on, I received a solid jolt that confirmed 'we were right!' to focus on 3GSEM. When I said that 3GSEM stood for third generation search engine marketing I was thinking about the sophistication that is now involved in the process of delivering search engine marketing services. That is easy to say, but what does it mean? This question is made harder when so much technology needs to be protected and revealed only to clients who have signed NDAs and you are sure are not likely to take what we have developed...

So, Web Analystics, of course is an indication of third generation of search engine marketing. I met John Marshall at the third Emetrics Summit in London, where you will see what a nice man he is. Indeed he was a delight and much sought after at the event, I was delighted of course to 'capture' him on video. In all I was able to take about 14 videos, including one of Mike Grehan - watch this space. I hope to put the entire collection online soon, but first here's Johnny:

For Jim Sternes video, visit the Web Analytics section on the Weboptimiser web site.

Fixing things with cut and paste alone.

OK we are not perfect. Today I was mostly fixing something that had not gone wrong... Indeed I ended the day at the clients site showing them how to use our content management system (CMS) - and discovered its imperfections - I think the client was pleased that I had taken the time although a bit bemused that it 'did not work' and there were a few problems - not all ours! but at the heart of it the cms had not integrated well with the sites cascading stle sheets (CSS).

On the surface the CMS was completely failing in its objectives, we established that the javascript was not operating well within IE. This is a technical issue beyond us and the client - fixed by installing firefox hoorah! Ruined by the fact that Firefox would not accept a paste from Word - although Firefox did explain what needed to be done I am not a PC king and I definately was not going to resolve that over the phone. After a while of struggling to explain key concepts I suggested I pop by. I am glad I did as I discovered a new way of cutting and pasting (I said key concepts!) that proved to be a way around the problems presented by Firefox (isnt Firefox supposed to be the best?) I used the nifty trick of right clicking and selecting paste - it really was that simple to overcome - (all on a PC - and I dont use PCs) - quite pleased with myself here.

Then when we had mastered cutting and pasting, although the content looked perfect when pasted from word to our 'what you see is what you get' (wysiwyg) CMS interface it just did not show properly on site - a sneaky peak at the site code revealed outrageously bloated code... Back to the CMS - if found an html code button '<>', pressing revealed the bloat - quick work around - cut and correction to

and that was that. Simple really.

but hey computers are confusing and some of the basic things can prove to be a nightmare - even today. Not sure what the lesson here is, apart from dont sell a wysiwig CMS to anyone that is based beyond atube stop! Next week I will be fixing the wysiwyg and the CSS and maybe it all work properly as expected...

I am truly sorry. Will try harder next time, please believe me. You do remember the days of wysiwyg, don't you, or am I just showing my age again...

First the Skis

So here it is the big action - shame we did not video my first fall - that was very eventful - all you could see was my legs waggling from a head first dive into the snow off the side of the kids slope!

I did manage the big one - the first time I suffered some serious stalling - it took me an hour, the second, I stalled, but for just 10 minutes. Absolutely loved the speed at the end - on the flat! It was a perfect time to leave and come home, exhilerating as it was...

skiing - for real!

Yup, it really is me on my first 'complete and unassisted' ski run! Thanks for the emails kind people, I know you were more amazed that I was away from computers for more than 6 days than anything else- a major achievement for me, probably the only time in the last 25 years! - So this is what I do with my non PC time - OK, I did cross country too, I walked across a frozen lake, cut a hole through 40cm of ice with a chain saw, spent a lot of time in a Sauna and got smashed with the inlaws... Is all good!

new sites, results and skis to chew on

HI there coalface blog readers. I have at last finished or at least finished the start of a few more web sites, semcasestudy.com and sembestpractice.com and started to update 3GSEM - 4GSEM anybody? I already own it, so no problem. Also I am in the middle of updating sembenchmark.com although I am tempted to donate that to IAB Europe.

Last weekend, I visited Jyvaskyla via Tampera Finland, flying Ryanair for less than a pound each way. Thank you Michael. I learned to Ski, not bad at 44! it was crazy, I completely stalled on my first downhill and did a little better on my last shot, but I could weave and I can Ski - well, I felt in control as the air whizzed by. I completed my cross country and classically, whilst saying hello and waving on my return to everyone, pleased and amazed that I had succeeded, I fell and bent my stick! Ho hum, the break was good - no computer for 6 days and my entire body ached!

Today I am at the Corporate Podcasting summit and am now using digg on the Weboptimiser site. I am pleased also that we are already achieving number 1,2,4,8 and 9 against the term search engine optimisation on google video. Web 2.0 - social search - anyone - hey we are not just talking about it - we are doing it - who knew!

David White CEO of Weboptimiser Group Ltd

Here I am! I have taken all the bee swollowing moments out already! David White is CEO of Weboptimiser Group Ltd. David talks about his expectations and highpoints of the IAB Europe Leadership Council held at the Over Seas League, London, January 26th 2007.

Roy Patel UK MD of Metrixlab

Roy Patel of Metrixlab provides his feelings about the IAB in Europe today and explains some of his companies findings and forecasts for the future of the online industry across Europe. Recorded at the IAB Europe Laadership Council held at the Over Seas League, London, January 26th 2007.

The Videos are out!

At last - 17 interviews later, lots of struggling with machines that did not used to have enough memory or processing power and a great discovery to find that nowadays, at last, we do have machines that are both affordable and can do the job! I did have to rent the lights, but apart from that the whole thing was quite a low budget affair. It goes to prove, to me at least, no doubt all you people realised already - that you can make business quality videos using a handicam and google video. I tried YouTube first and as you will see, they do not synchronise the sound at all well.

If you fancy some channel hoping, I can prove it to you! Hopping mad more like... Danny does a fantastic job, but sadly YouTube lets him down. Whilst over on Google Danny does a fantastic job and now you can hear him fantastic stuff - keep it going. Danny is such a pro he did the intro without prompt or discussion, just straight in for the take. Excellent. On re-reading this I ought to add that every take he did was a one off - we are just acting out this life, I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, and with the lucky advent of online video, you can too.

OK, we are nearly there, I am waiting feedback from a couple so right now there are a few blanks, but all the videos are coming together and are soon to be accessible directly from within the IAB Europe website itself. For an immediate peek of whats coming, check it out. - My privilege - two nice links direct to the Weboptimiser website - and I got to have 17 conversations in one afternoon - more than if I had been a delegate, although of course I was one of those too. I just happened to bring along the camera, some lights, a special microphone, a laptop that we used to autocue the questions... it all came together very nicely. Thanks to every one, it was fun.

It was a genuine pleasure to meet so many people in such a short period, it was a great fun, full marathon - well 17 video interviews in something like four hours - I was knackered! It was great to meet people I had met before and even better to be giving them the opportunity to present themselves on camera I made some new friends too, girls and boys from the states, Spain, France, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, Woking, London... and I got to have some close ups with 'the competition' too. Nice to meet you and I look forward to doing it all over again in Belgium in the summer.

IAB Leadership council

The IAB Europe credentials were established yet again. It was a great pleasure to meet up with familiar faces and to meet and greet some new ones. I was glad to extend a warm welcome and a big hello to Stan Faryna and Ana-Maria Ilie who run the newly formed IAB Romania - thanks for dinner that was great fun - Stan, Ana and Julia. They are now one of several fledgling IABs who have the benefits of all the other IABs to support them. Indeed IAB Europe now has over 20 countries within its reach.

It was also great to meet Erica from IAB US and Erin who works for IAB EU in Brussels two legal beagles. Erica is Senior Manager of Industry Initiatives and Legal Affairs - her main responsibility is the management of standards, legal affairs and has been responsible for implementing a number of legal changes across Europe. She kindly agreed to be our first video interviewee and I had great fun talking to her in a fireside chat at the Over Seas League in Piccadilly. Erin was able to discuss her role - also on video - and the benefits that IAB members receive - I was fascinated by what she had to say - and some will be shown online soon - see below. The surprising thing to me was that although I have been working with the IAB for the best part of 10 years - much of what she was said was news to me - I had heard rumours of legal services that we were all benefitting from but it was not until meeting Erin in person and discussing these issues further with Erica that it all made sense.

Erin and Erica were really interesting to talk to, they had different perspectives one working in Europe, the other in the States, bu they share common goals and it is physical events like these that really make the difference in terms of expanding awareness and to communicating the possibilities. It is always great to meet interesting people - and that, for me is the main purpose of these events. I think I, like many others, certainly Stan Faryno of IAB Romania left the event with renewed enthusiasm and excitement for our great industry.

I undertook 17 interviews in all, wrote them all to video and when I got home - I discover that those 17 people have given me 8.7 Giga Bytes of footage for me now to edit. I expect to be out from my bunker in about a month - we hope to publish all the videos online at the IAB Europe web site.

It was a great day and the list of people I videod included Erica and Erin Lynch of Europe Analytica, based in Brussels, Belgium, Anthony House of Google, Stephanie Carr of SearchWorks, John Myers of Search Latitude, Antonio Traugott Hernandez, Director General of IAB Spain, based in Madrid and Barcelona, Patrick IAB Belgium, Roy Patel, MD of MetrixLab, Caroline Vogt of Microsoft, Marc Hemple, co CEO of Interactive Communication Group, Switzerland, Nate Elliot from Jupiter Research, Amy and Stan from IAB Romania, Jo from Conde Nast, Peter Mason - Advanced International Media and of course the relentless Danny Meadows Klue. They were all great - it was my pleasure, time well spent, thanks very much to you all. having just seen the rushes we are looking good to go!

So as ever, my message to all non IAB members is join - the internet trade is at its beginning, today we can still change the world - participate - or miss out. For all those IAB members that could not attend - we missed you - but don't worry - key information will probably be published on the IAB Europe web site
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See you all soon. David

It is a happy new year

The first week back had its ups and downs and there were a number of good things happened for the business. Most importantly I was reminded of how good people are and indeed the benefits of membership of the IAB.

Through the IAB I was asked to chair a seminar in May to talk about my favourite subject - search engine marketing! Our clients had some good things to say about our 24 by 7 pay per click service and how pleased they are to have sold more over Christmas since we have been employed on their account. Right up to Christmas we were recieving excellent references and feedback from our SEO clients so it was gratifying to receive more testimonials from the PPC side - they all add to our testimonials folder.

Danny Meadows-Klue gave me an excellent book - Wisdom of the Crowds. Guy Phillipson agreed to appear in one of our future marketing events. Our sales team completed a project that I really did not expect them to. Our production team came up with some great ideas and want to take them forward - so I can't wait for 2007 to unfold!

I would urge everybody within the internet marketing industry, search or otherwise to participate and work more closely with the IAB. My experiences in 2003, 2004, 2005 and now 2006 was excellent and our prospects for 2007 are better then ever before - roll on 2007.