Non-Line Blogging

Now and again a search engine results page is lit up for me by a company doing something smart with adwords.  I think it's a given that we all need to know and love Google, and most companies with an established digital presence put search strategy near the top of their list of priorities.  But this tends to be the big, regular search stuff, and teams work on building and maintaining tens of thousands of PPC campaigns.

The speed of delivery of digital marketing offers a new approach to "campaign management".  You need a maverick, free-thinking approach to search marketing, scouring weather forecasts, news headlines and the mass media for "angles" to position your products or services.   Here's what I mean: Google Trends shows a direct correlation between the "Da Vinci code" film launch in July 2006 and searches for Rosslyn Chapel, where some of the scenes were filmed.  You can do the same for "Lyme Regis" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman", or "Alnwick Castle" and "Harry Potter".  We watch, we like, we search. 

Armed with insights like this we can tap into the "zeitgeist" (every blog has to use that word once a month - it's in the contract) and anticipate search demand.

Being of Welsh blood I take an unhealthy interest in how the land of my fathers positions itself in the digital world.  On a recent visit to West Wales the local paper was having a pop at the national tourist board, Visit Wales, for ignoring one of the biggest marketing opportunities to hit Wales since the arrival of the railways. "The Edge of Love" film released next week is set to be this year's blockbuster about the life and loves of Dylan Thomas, and showcase beautiful Welsh countryside, towns and coastline.  Throughout the world fingers will be tapping the "The Edge of Love" into Google to plan their pilgrimage to the beach where Sienna Miller and Keira Knightly frolicked.  So, as the search terms begin to disappear in the top right hand corner of google's graph, where's all the Visit Wales marketing support?

Oh Dear oh Dear.  The PPC search area is as empty as Traeth Gwyn beach in mid-February.  And just in case you wonder what all the fuss will be about, this is a view of New Quay from Traeth Gwyn beach, where Dylan Thomas lived for a few years in the 1940's.

As a thank you for letting me use this photo I will dedicate my own PPC campaign to driving traffic to this bloke's site. 

And just to prove the power of blogging...hats off to Elle for getting a campaign up!

Come on Visit Wales...it's that easy!!!