Kudos to the Honda advertising team, not only for thinking of this *brilliant* commercial, but for also snagging Matthew Broderick to reprise his role as an adult-like Bueller, and for creating one helluva buzz on the internet to make sure that everyone, and their mother, father (mine included, who actually forwarded me the commercial, although I had already seen it), brother, and sister see this incredible mini-movie before millions of more people see it during the actual Super Bowl. How’d they do it? They simply sent out a newsletter to their entire opted-in email customer base saying “See our ad before 100 million people do” and embedded the extended version (a whopping 2 minutes, 25 seconds) of the commercial in the newsletter and invited people to “share with your friends and family too”.

What was the overall goal for releasing the commercial early and online? While I can’t speak on behalf of Honda, I can always speculate:

1. Possibly they were excited to show off the new CR-V.
2. Possibly they were thrilled with how the commercial turned out and just couldn’t wait to show it off.
3. Possibly they were testing out the effectiveness of internet marketing and wanted to see how fast the buzz about the commercial would spread.

Let’s go with option three because the whole point of making a commercial is to expose it to as many people as possible, right. (Note: no question mark needed in the previous sentence because I wasn’t asking a question, okay).  The beauty of internet marketing is the measurability of outreach. And this commercial certainly “outreached”. The commercial was emailed out 2 days ago. In about 48 hours, I see that the commercial (hosted on YouTube) has been viewed 6,518,483 times, garnering over 23,000 “likes”. Searching on Google for “Honda CRV Super Bowl Commercial” returns 5,880,000 results from the Christian Science Monitor to ABC News to people’s personal blogs and everything in between. The commercial posted on Honda’s Facebook page has 1,170 “likes” and 112 comments. Wow!

I would deem that Honda successfully used the power of the internet to leverage their commercial.  They reached over 6 million people in 2 days, some of whom may not necessarily have seen the commercial otherwise (me included: Super what?). The commercial has been talked about in countless online publications and the video will live forever on the web, available for viewing again and again. And for all the rest of the people that haven’t seen it, they will see it on Super Bowl Sunday. The combination of releasing the commercial early online and airing it on a day when 100 million people are expected to see it on TV, will insure that this commercial makes a lasting impact. Just as the original movie did. Well done, Honda!

Is Your SEO Apropos or a No?

How appropriate that the image I chose to enhance this post was named “ethical SEO”!  So this great semi-satirical article was posted on Slate on Tuesday, and I had to share! 

But first!  Before I link to the article, please read it knowing that there is a lesson or two in there:  Keyword stuffing is a big SEO “NO”.  This article also is a great example of how some web publications try to “outsmart” search engines.  Neither of these are on Web Marketing Therapy’s “Healthy Marketing” list.  And it also has interesting speculations about the future of Google’s algorithms . . . oh, and it discusses AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post, but that’s just an aside. LOL! You’ll be laughing too after you read it.

With that said, enjoy the article!

PPC is Temporary, SEO is Forever.*

* courtesy of some website, somewhere . . .

No related posts.

Just Say No to Extracurricular Clicking!

Before I delve into a simple (and often, overlooked) way of how you can enhance your user experience on your website, let’s practice a bit of marketing meditation (I’ve just re-introduced yoga into my weekly workout routine so humor me on this! Thanks!).

Sit up straight in front of your computer.  Close your eyes.  (Inhale, exhale.)  Open your eyes.  Repeat after me, “Ommmmmmmmm”. 

Release any tension in your wrists and type in your website address.  Begin to navigate through your website as if this is the first time you have ever been to this website. 

FOCUS on what a new user would have to do to get to the page of information that was of their interest.  Repeat after me, “Ommmmmmmmm”.

As you move through the website, you begin to develop an AWARENESS of what a user of your website may be experiencing.  Repeat after me, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”. 

Through this experience ask yourself:

• Is the information I am offering easy to find?
• Do the text links on my website take the user to where they expect to be, or where I want them to be?
• Am I giving the user a roundabout or straightforward experience on my website?

Seriously now, reviewing your website objectively – as if it wasn’t yours – is a great thing to do from time to time.  In this fast-moving internet world, you want the user to be able to find what they are looking for, without adding in any “extracurricular clicking”. 

A simplified example is something that I encountered recently on a website I was reviewing.  First I had to navigate from the homepage to the list of services page.  One click.  The list of services page was nicely laid out.  Each service was hyperlinked.  Great!  I click on the hyperlinked service of my choice and was brought to a one-paragraph description that was anchored text, below the list of services (i.e. I could’ve just kept scrolling and there it was, on the same page).  Two clicks.  After reading that paragraph, I clicked on the “click here for more information. . .”.  Three clicks.  And then I was brought to the robust page full of information about the service which included the FAQs and had pictures and video too.  Voila!  This is where I want to be! 

Eliminating that second click, and taking your users directly to the robust information page, may possibly make or break whether or not you get the sale (or capture your audience, whatever the case may be).  We made these changes on the abovementioned example and it took less than an hour.  And it made the website user experience an easier experience.

How does that ol’ quote go?  “It’s the small things that make a big difference”.  You get it!

Now repeat after me, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh”. (And exhale)

See how fast this world is moving with computers, iPods, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter and more.  If you haven’t jumped on the Web Marketing Therapy wagon for your business, now is the time! And the following data, displayed about two and half minutes into the video,  is one great reason why:

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million:
Radio 38 years
TV 13 years
Internet 4 years
iPod 3 years
Facebook 2 years

Watch the Did You Know? Video