Branding in Search Marketing: Let's Discuss HOW, Not IF
Yesterday's post by Scott Karp on Publishing 2.0, which he subtly titled “Search Advertising Does Not Build Brands,” drew (trolled for?) search marketing's strongest defender, Danny Sullivan.

As the media planner/buyer for MarketSmart Interactive, a company whose roots are in search marketing, I figured I should throw my hat in the ring with this observation:

Despite the strong words and obvious anger in the comments between Sullivan and Karp, they're not really *disagreeing* with each other.

Karp's key point is this:

...search does not do the kind of brand-building work that visual advertising has done. To say that there is brand building done by the company once someone clicks through does NOT mean that the search ad did that branding.

I agree with Karp here. Search does not do the *kind* of brand-building work that visual advertising does.

But it certainly does some kind of branding, as Danny points out:

...there’s definitely some branding value in search — and the more you talk with some actual brand owners who are spending that money and who are NOT afraid search will wipe them out, the more you realize this.

The point that I can best sympathize with came from Jonathan Mendez: “Brands are built through experiences.”

So guess what, Scott and Danny are both right.

Rather than viewing these mediums as isolated experiences, I think there needs to be branding credit given to all mediums as they contribute towards this experience.

Ultimately, a more valuable debate is *what* kind of branding does search marketing provide - both organic and paid - and how does this kind of branding differ from the branding delivered by, say, banner ads, online videos or MySpace profile placements?

And most importantly, which is best suited to meet your company's branding goals?

Their debate certainly proved timely for me - I'm currently writing a strategy article on integrating search and media buys, and the branding opportunities in both.
Geoff Lamm - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |