How to Avoid Being the Next Victim of Brand Conquest By Tad Miller

@marketingmojo | #smx | marketing-mojo.com

How to Avoid Being the Next Victim of Brand Conquest

#SMX •  Presented by Tad Miller of Marketing Mojo


PRESENTER

TAD MILLER Vice President of Accounts Marketing Mojo

@jstatad + Tad Miller

MARKETING MOJO Twitter: @MarketingMojo Facebook: facebook.com/MarketingMojoAgency Google+: +Marketing Mojo


ABOUT MARKETING MOJO •  Originally founded as Search Mojo •  Demand generation marketing firm founded in 2005

›  Search engine optimization (SEO)

›  Paid media management »  Pay-per-click advertising management (PPC) »  Social media advertising

›  Content marketing

›  Marketing automation

›  Analytics consulting

•  Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA

›  Office in Charleston, SC

•  Featured in the Washington Post, B2B Magazine, MarketingSherpa, Visibility Magazine and many blogs

•  Speakers at SMX Advanced, MarketingProfs, PubCon and more


Conquesting With PPC


WHAT IS “CONQUESTING” ? •  A means to deploy an advertisement for one’s

products or services adjacent to editorial content relating to the competitor or the competitors’ products.


YOU CAN ADVERTISE


SO CAN YOUR COMPETITION


ALL OF YOUR COMPETITION CAN…


YOU CAN CONQUEST WITH PPC


THE PROBLEM WITH PPC CONQUESTING

•  You can advertise on the trademarked keywords

•  You can’t use competitor trademarked words in your ad copy

›  No bold ad text

•  Usually 1 or 2 Quality Score out of 10


YOU REALLY PAY A PREMIUM PRICE


REALLY LOW IMPRESSION SHARE

•  It can be a struggle to get impression share


KNOWLEDGE GRAPH MAKES IT HARDER


THE BIGGEST PROBLEM •  Sometimes the best you can hope for is that

nobody wins the customer •  Usually the lowest conversion rates of all

online marketing tactics

Like sitting through a 100 minute zero to zero tie soccer game…


SO WHY DO IT ?

•  Terrible Quality Score •  Exponentially higher bids than TM owner •  Difficult to Get Impressions •  Worst Conversion Rates of all tactics

???


THE MENTALITY

•  Won’t spend a dime to improve their company…But will spend a fortune to try to destroy their competition


THE LONG HAUL •  Conquesting probably isn’t hurting your

advertising that much over the long haul ›  Provided the competition can’t use your trademark in

their ad copy


BUT…

•  What if you allow others to use your brand in PPC ad copy?


THE MAZDA 3 TIERED NIGHTMARE

Tier I - Corporate

Tier II – Regional Dealer Association

Tier III – Local Dealer


3 TIERS – SAME BRANDED KEYWORDS •  A guideline was in place that suggested which

positions each tier should try for on each branded keyword

•  Tier 1 OEM – Corporate would be #1 for: ›  Mazda, MAZDA3, Mazda Cars, etc.

›  Tier 3 Dealers would try to be #2 for the same

›  Tier 2 Dealer Associations would trail Tier 2 ad positions


DIDN’T GET THE MEMO…

•  The new agency managing Tier 2 bids didn’t use the guidelines.

•  Tier 1 CPCs immediately shot up on brand keywords:

›  Up $0.15 to $0.70 in some areas

›  Potential to drive branded spend up millions $


I MADE THEM CHANGE BACK

Change of Strategy


LOWER POSITION DIDN’T MATTER

•  Tier 2 bid lower to be in the 3 or 4 spot and got the same amount of conversions as the 2 spot

Same !


COMPETITOR CONQUESTING, NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT? RIGHT?


READ THE ART OF WAR

•  Sun Tzu wrote all about when to attack, where to attack, how to attack, what kind of ground to fight on, planning for your battle exit…

•  It is THE strategy book for battle, business and PPC


SUSCEPTIBLE IN THE SHORT TERM •  Conquesting is a terrible long term marketing

strategy in PPC •  But it can still ruin your day…and you might

have some special days planned





IF YOU HAVE BIG BUZZ EVENTS, BEWARE


REMEMBER THIS?


LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE •  Mazda had unspent media funds combined with the Super

Bowl event opportunity created the possibility of the Conquest


THE AUDIENCE WAS THERE


THEY HAD FAVORABLY COMPARABLE ALTERNATIVE – MAZDA CX-5


IT’S A MEDIA STACKING WORLD


HONDA SOCIAL MEDIA SPILLED THE BEANS

•  Jalopnik reported the leak •  Honda then released a 10 second teaser video –

confirmed it

•  Honda started the whole process of leaking the video early to get more eyes on it (Now everyone does it)

•  They also told the world it would happen in the third quarter


WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW •  Honda gave us every detail we needed to

attack: ›  Who: Honda CRV

›  What: Ferris Bueller Themed TV Commercial

›  Where: The most watched TV event in history

›  When: 3rd Quarter of the Super Bowl

›  How: Choose the ground to attack on - Ignore expensive advertising on TV – Steal the natural next step (Going online)


CAMPAIGN SET UP •  Bid on every possible Ferris

Bueller search keyword – AdWords & Bing Ads

•  Bid on “Honda” and “Honda CRV”

•  Same for Keywords Contextual Display

•  Same for YouTube

•  Plan for Max bidding in 3rd Quarter during the commercial’s release


ADS WERE FUN Save Ferris How can he possibly drive that other SUV. Mazda CX-5 is coming. MazdaUSA.com Ferris Didn't Know The All-New Mazda CX-5 with SKYACTIV technology is coming. MazdaUSA.com It's a Fun Commercial But we have a better option. The all-new Mazda CX-5 with SKYACTIV. MazdaUSA.com Save Ferris How can he possibly drive that other SUV. Mazda CX-5 is coming. MazdaUSA.com


•  Average Ad Position of 1

•  Dominated every device type (desktop, mobile & tablets)

•  Over 4 days of advertising about 13,000,000 impressions at position 1

•  Record Conversion Day

•  Record Vehicle Feature Views

•  Record CX-5 traffic

•  Dominated YouTube

LIKE A TRAFFIC BOMB WENT OFF


A TINY FRACTION OF THE PRICE •  Super Bowl Ads = $3.5 Million

for 30 seconds ›  Honda had a 60 second ad

(possibly $7 Million) •  Mazda stole the next natural

step that ad viewers now do (search for it)

•  Did it for a very tiny fraction of $7 Million


IT’S NOT JUST ME…


HOW TO PROTECT YOUR BRAND •  Don’t be the next brand conquest victim


BE PREPARED TO SPEND

•  Bid and Budget heavy (online) for the special events


CLOSE THE LOOP

•  Close all of the loops with offline marketing

›  Bid on “Bueller”

Offline

TV

Online


LEGAL STUFF •  File your trademarks with Google to prevent

use in competitor ads


DON’T SPILL THE BEANS •  Don’t give away all the details in advance

›  Social Media metrics can wait


BEWARE CONTEXTUAL CONQUESTS

•  Ensure your ads are along side all possible articles about your new products or special events (contextual display ads)


IT WILL ALL BE OVER SOON •  Wait for the buzz to wear off


TAD MILLER Vice President of Accounts Marketing Mojo

@jstatad + Tad Miller

MARKETING MOJO Twitter: @MarketingMojo Facebook: facebook.com/MarketingMojoAgency Google+: +Marketing Mojo

THAT’S ALL…