It’s a fact, I am “obsessed” with Online Marketing Expo/Conference SWAG. Some are ashamed, other makes fun, but quoting Tech Crunch Article, TechCrunch50 swag bag: Room for improvement ”there’s nothing wrong with a good tchotchke,  and this stuff is kind of fun to give out to kids, and useful if you need clothes for changing the oil or painting a room”. 

Now for all of you who do not know what SWAG is let me inform you. Not to be confused with a  ”cheap purchase during your high-school days” SWAG, as defined by UrbanDictionary.com: “Stuff/Sh*t We All Get – Relating to the trade show convention industry, where exhibitors hand out “free stuff” to visitors. Most of the time these items are purely promotional materials, and are fairly worthless. ie. pencils, mugs, and mouse pads. [...] SWAG always has the company name, logo, slogan, product, service, and contact information clearly printed somewhere on the item/s. Some convention goers have made a hobby of collecting as much swag as possible, and compete with others at the show.”

As Used in Conversation…

Posted under Events

Kevin Ryan & Me

Gotham Media Ventures recently hosted “Digital Media, Advertising: The E-Marketing Breakfast“, sponsored by Gridley and Company LLC, one event of a series of breakfasts that will take place over the next few weeks/months. The topic of this breakfast was laoded one – Searching for Dollars: The Future of Search Opportunities and Investment. The venue – Harvard Club of NY….

…at this point it becomes clear: Not a casual event! Unfortunately I didn’t think to wear a suit. I came expecting marketing executives and ended up finding a mixed, well-dressed crowd of VC’s, AE’s, CEO’s and SEM Guru’s. I was just happy I didn’t go with the Pink Polo. Either way, it was definitely a step up from the casual networking and entrepreneur events I’m used to attending. And I’m happy to say the panel was exceptional.

Moderating the event was Stan Sandberg, Principal at Gridley & Company LLC, the events sponsor. The panelists were as follows:

Kevin Ryan Comments on Google

Stan began his introduction with a lengthy happy birthday wish to search giant Google, though I’m not sure today was the right day as I discussed in my previous article  Google’s 10th Birthday! (But what day?). He mentioned 3 solid facts: Internet Marketing is growing fast (22.8%), Search is the biggest and fastest growing sector, and most shockingly in “99 was thr cup of the .com boom…99 was the breakout year.  248 IPOs in 99…0 Venture-Backed IPOs in Q2 2008″, (a point continuously repeated during Web2.0 Expo Panel “Starting up in Silicon Alley”, which I will blog about tomorrow).

On that note, the panel began. There were many great points made covering a number of important areas in Online Marketing. To get them all out, I will format the rest in Q&A form:

Stan: Your thoughts on the future of Search & Search Budgets?

• Aimee: “Much longer investments in strategic planning.”
• Adam: “A lot of growth in analytics in order to create value.”
• Sarah: “There will always be more money in search because it is measurable.”
• Kevin: “Data-mining is absolutely mission critical.”

Stan: Role of the Search Agency today?

• Aimee: “There is a change in process of how agencies are approaching companies.”
• Adam: “Definitely interested in brand building with companies that have offline” (mentioning the possibility of partnering up with the offline agency the company chooses.
• Sarah: “A lot more contingent on the marketer and collaborative efforts…collective brainstorming.”
• Kevin: “The reality is – it is driven by the client. Agencies are driven by the P&L in the end of the day…the client has to drive it.”

Stan: What are you seeing in terms of keyword trends and ROI?

• Kevin: “Two issues -> Minimum click costs continue to increase & media channels are deciding whether or not your site is worthy and that is a BIG problem.

Stan: Google = Better Results…your thoughts?

• Kevin: “70% of search in the US is Google…90% in Western Europe”. Keep in mind geo-location.
• Aimee: “Be aware of the other search engines and how they work. [...] Google drives volume, but other sites can drive better conversions.”
• Adam: “The volume is on Google. It has been a disappointing competition to watch…I am hoping somebody can compete with Google.”
• Kevin: “Google Properties will eventual equal Government Intervention.” In reference to Chrome, “Google terms & conditions are crap”, but he finished off by saying “…maybe we would be better of joining Google.”

Stan: Innovation – Where will it come from?

• Kevin: “Cuil was the worst piece of sh*t search engine. What we saw at the end of that was VCs are now questioning ex-google employees. The press is second guessing the ex-googlers as well. [...] The same journalists who said Cuil was big, also say Yahoo is going down”
• Aimee: “Digital out of home is going to be huge…mobile, video online…also marketing tools”
• Adam: “We need to use 3rd party analytics companies in order to make sense of it all”.
• Sarah: “Google – they got the eyeballs”

Random Quotes…

• Sarah: “There are cases where search makes no-sense!“
• Aimee: “1+1=3″
• Kevin: “We have to be careful how we use the word Study today” (referring to stats and case-studies).
• Adam: The trend and timelines is as follows “Offline -> Website -> Mobile & E-mail”.

The conference ended on a great note, and overall I feel the crowd was pleased.

Me, Aimee Reker & Adam Heimlich

Posted under Events

Web2.0 Expo was fully packed with good swag, give aways and presentations…ALL FOR THE SAKE OF LEAD-GEN! Each booth would trade SWAG for a simple bar-code scan so they could follow up with you after the show. I particularly enjoyed Axiom Software Inc’s approach to lead-gen. Their booth offered a Flip video camera if you entered your contact info and explained “How has Web2.0 Expo effected your business?”

Here’s AC Lions very own Managing Director, Dan Goldsmith, offering his opinion….

Posted under Events

Jeff Pulver & Joshua Russak

I recently attended Pulver Breakfast and I’m about to give them a big-shout-out for “innovation”. But first, for those of you unfamiliar with Web2.0 Expo, just check it out here. I have my badge, but haven’t had the chance to do my rounds there (excited for SWAG!!). As for Jeff Pulver, I wrote an article a while back about the last time I attended his breakfast meetup, Omma Social and Pulver Breakfast: Success!. To find more information, check out the facebook group Breakfast with Jeff Pulver.

Me, Brett Petersel, and Chaim Haas

I have to admit it, the second time around, was great. I think the highlight this time around was when I met Brett Petersel, Events Director at Mashable and New York-based Social Media Consultant. He is a great example of why I attend events like these. Referrals, career advice and good-to-know’s! On the left is Chaim Haas, VP of Kaplow PR (they represent Skype and Target)…also a great source of knowledge! All in all a successfull event.

Now…This may be a long shot, but I had to get this off my chest… I am finding extreme similarities between Jeff Pulver’s Personal Social Networking Toolkit and Web2.0 Expo badges. I have no yet had a chance to upload my pictures of the badges, but note these similarities: Jeff Pulver’s badges have Your Name and Title and then an area for you to either write a TAG-Line or be TAGGED by others. You’re basically a walking billboard for yourself.

It also “just-so-happens” that the Web2.0 Expo badges have a nicer higher-end version of this, with cloth stickies that say “Blogger”, “We’re Hiring”, “Hire Me”, etc. making it easier for you to know what you’re getting into before approaching an individual. I give Jeff FULL-CREDIT for this concept and only hope he takes pleasure in knowing that they copied him.

Posted under Events

Google's 10th Birthday

That’s right…this is Google’s 10th anniversary/birthday. Funny enough, nobody really knows the exact day, as quoted directly from Google’s Answer Pages: “Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake.”

TechCrunch offer’s their own theory in their article, Happy Tenth Birthday Google! When Are We Celebrating?

“Google is actually nearly 13 years old if you go by their own corporate history page: “By January of 1996, Larry and Sergey had begun collaboration on a search engine called BackRub, named for its unique ability to analyze the “back links” pointing to a given website.”

But if you go by when the Google.com domain name was registered, they’ll turn 11 on September 15.

However, the date Google celebrates as their birth month is September 1998. They celebrated on September 7, their date of incorporation, until 2005. Since 2005 (and also randomly in 2002), they’ve celebrated on September 27.”

If you have any other theories, I’d be glad to hear it. Google, at the age of 10 is already more successfull than I’ll ever be. YOU CAN FORGET GETTING A GIFT! All the best Google and thanks for your app’s!

Posted under Online Marketing, SEO/SEM