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Reaching out to small businesses via offline marketing is smart for Microsoft adCenter.

The weekend mail brought an eight page mailing from Microsoft. Heavy paper stock. First class indicia. The campaign features “Search Master Steve”, announcing he’s “here to help.” Search Master Steve is wearing a blue sweater, jeans, heavy black specs. He offers $100 in free clicks for new advertisers, and three tips: (1) Choose keywords wisely. (2) Write good copy. and (3) Put your ad where the buyers are. (Tip 3 doesn’t explicitly name MS adCenter… hmmm.) Steve also appears on p. 37 of the December issue of Inc. magazine. Full page ad. Same outfit. Hand on chin, Steve suggests “Clicks don’t make you successful. Customers do.”

Does personalizing this B2B print campaign via a “Search Master” character make the creative stronger or weaker?

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  1. Michael Streko, January 24, 2008:

    i happily tossed my packet in the trash.

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  1. Pingback: Wake up Search Master Steve « SEOSOS on January 31, 2008

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Recent Comments

  • George Michie: Sorry Jim, this post was written in 2007. Apparently some of those products are gone.
  • Jim: Hey, I checked two products like dimdim and cutepdf but none is free. What are you talking about free and open source?
  • George Michie: If they keep hearing the same message, and seeing evidence in the data to back it up, something will have to give. There is hope on...
  • Tomas: I’ve been having the same argument with Google for months now and in the end there does seem to be a feature in the algorithm that...
  • George Michie: Doesn’t have to be, it can be intra-adgroup as well.
  • Josh: George – I take it you’re referencing a scenario where your exact-match keywords are not listed as negative exact match keywords...
  • George Michie: Melissa, you’re right, it’s always happened to varying degrees, particularly since the advent of extended broad match....
  • Mel66: I don’t think this is a bug. It’s been happening for years. It *is* impossible to manage, and I can’t help but wonder if...
  • George Michie: Thanks Matt, Sometimes humor serves a purpose.
  • George Michie: Ken, sadly, as Jim stated above, too few people look under the hood and raise Cain. We’re very fortunate to have great reps on...
  • Matt: This is great! I started out reading this with the same anger that I feel everyday I spend unnecessary amounts of time optimizing to get...
  • Ken Truman: Right on, George. This is yet another one of the vagaries of broad matching that continues to drive smart advertisers mad. Your post...
  • George Michie: Interesting idea, Mark. The question might be: would advertisers know someone’s Twitter handle? Most require an email, but I...
  • @markthijssen: What if you would ask a consumer about his experience with the product some days/weeks/months after the sale via twitter. This might...
  • George Michie: Thanks Kenny, Another particularly annoying variation on the theme involves flashing the brand ads around on general searches. The...

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