I recently attended in New York the 360i Summit, organized by a company with that name. The focus was on 360 degree marketing.   Most fascinating to me was how quickly the once-mysterious features of Web 2.0 have become as well-oiled as cocktail talk. And this is not idle chatter. This new breed of marketers is really changing the marketing game in significant ways. Magazine publishers can learn from them.

My favorite presentation was titled: Search 2.0: Using Search Informed Research to Monitor, Promote and Defend Your Brand Online. No, this is not a title of a PhD dissertation. Its just a long way of saying how important and necessary it is to incorporate SEO, SEM, Emerging Media (widgets, viral video, podcasts etc.). Search Informed Research (SIR), including behavioral targeting, and buzz monitoring of Consumer Generated Content into an integrated marketing plan. Phew!

The 360i Case Study was a new product launch featuring Sausage Fest Hot Dogs that soon will be coming to a store near you. Technology, of course, has both expanded and restricted the product launch cycle and provided marketers with a number of ways to monitor success and avoid missteps.

This Case Study examined how to identify, promote and defend a brand through four different phases of a product launch: before, during and post launch, plus managing a crisis situation.  A quick key word search on Google indicated to our marketers that phrases such as Sausage Festival and Fest were already quite popular, referring to everything from soft porn to the name of a Welsh band.  Now our friends knew a little more about this meaty terrain (and didnt overdo the sausage jokes).

Before the team could try to advance their sausage, so to speak, on the Google hierarchy, it had to avoid using technologies that limit search visibility. In short, search engines cannot parse (crawl) scripting languages including: Flash-rich websites, JavaScript and Ajax.  So there were Web technology considerations. And the team would have to conduct some Buzz monitoring of current and past online conversations about hot dogs. They discovered that 40% of online hot dog conversations related to toppings. Buns were at the back of the pack with about 7%.   

The next step was to shore up digital assets, including videos and tagging and conduct a competitive SEO/SEM analysis. The marketers created a toppings poll based on the previously conducted Buzz Monitoring. They included tags based on Search Informed Research (SIR) and linked them deeply to related web site content. The team reminded us to avoid the sandbox, which is where the search engines can put a recently purchased or launched URL. The listing could be suppressed for weeks or months

Once clear of the sand trap you would embed keywords from the SEO team into digital assets. Embedded links are copied and pasted into social media such as MySpace, Friendster, Facebook and the like. Our team then conducted a linguistics analysis to determine what terms are the most frequently searched keywords referring to hot dogs. By far hot dog is the most popularly searched term, about 68% of the time with franks and wieners decidedly off the back.  Keyword Search Informed Research (SIR again), helped guide site content development. The team discovered that about 30% of hot dog related searchers are for recipes. In turn the web site content used SIR to increase reach.

Just to reiterate all this is happening before the launch of the soon-to-be famous hot dog.  In the same spirit, our team suggests we do a demographic search analysis for the keyword hot dog. Our inquiry discovered that males, age 30-34 are most actively searching for hot dog related online content. While this didnt come as a great surprise, we are glad to know for sure. We think beer is the preferred liquid but there is no hard research to support that conclusion.

Although the sausage dogs are not yet on the grill, the launch (and the free lunch) is fast approaching.  We still have to build a targeted list of blogs, communities and forums as part of the outreach. The team advises we splash the various pages with Coming Soon widgets.  The team also suggests developing a relational map and attendant strategy.  Relationship maps can be used to expand the breadth of search campaigns. In short the maps could extend to grill, potato salad, mustard, ketchup and probably ketchup stains.

Finally the team gets to the launch phase which will start with an SEM campaign including: branded keywords, general keywords, and demand driving keywords. This effort will be followed by a major outreach resulting in new content about the site with link backs and incorporating Buzz.  And dont forget the blogs that could include polls, product reviews, tips and the like. Our marketing team suggests we identify search terms being associated with and/or searched in conjunction with the branded terms. We discover that consumers are searching for online coupons for the high priced Sausage Fest Hot Dogs. On-site Optimization and content refinement is ongoing through this phase.

In the post product launch our marketers suggest a keyword analysis to identify weak rankings for high traffic drivers. As part of this process they recommend conducting SIR, SEO/SEM as part of a competitive analysis and to identify areas of opportunity.

Unfortunately, the picnic is not over. A well-known newspaper identified a bad batch of Sausage Fest Hot Dogs that caused food poisoning. So we have a crisis situation and are advised to initiate aggressive SEM campaign with positive messaging.  During a crisis situation it is important to identify key consumer pain points and communicate back to client PR and marketing department. Initiate new content build out, microsites and other strategies to push down negative press.

Relax! These efforts have pushed down negative press and Sausage Fest Hot Dogs are once again the cats meow.

This presentation, ably done and more than a little tongue-in-cheek, carries important lessons: Start early.   An integrated approach is essential.   Defend the shelf space.

The larger instruction is that this approach could be used for just about any launch, perhaps even magazines. Another key lesson for the 360i Summit was that more companies, especially those in the entertainment space, are using features of Web 2.0 as part of an integrated marketing plan. Don Steele, Director of Digital Marketing at Comedy Central, remarked that by marketing our content in a diverse manner we can create momentum, capitalize on buzz and constantly driving Comedy Central on all our platforms. And their digital platforms are many: search, mobile, wikis, viral, podcasts, social networks and contextual links.

Full circle marketing has become the order of the day. Few movies or television programs are launched without using this approach. For some efforts this approach is part of the fundamental business proposition. As a representative from Universal Studios said, they can tell in a day what a movie will make in a lifetime.  

Search continues to grow more robust. YouTube will soon be able to marry search with advertising by keyword, geography, gender, age, and time-of-day.  Perhaps Don Steele put it best when he said we are marketing 365 days a year. That is indeed full-circle marketing.

Please go to http://www.360i.com/  for more details about this innovative company.

They have promised to offer a seminar at MPA applying the Hot Dog Case Study to launching magazines.

You never know.

Charles McCullagh