Marketing WilesUsing Wiles to Market Your Brand

Are Memphis Marketers up to the Adwords Challenge?

In my last post I discussed an idea I used to showcase my own personal brand using Google Adwords.  This got the wheels in my brain turning on a great guerrilla marketing initiative that businesses could apply to their own branding campaigns to take advantage of search engine white space and add to their user experience.  Let’s think about Google Adwords and its application for businesses…

1. At some point, an existing or prospective client is going to Google your company’s name.
2. In most cases, no one will bid on your company’s brand name.
3. If no one is bidding, the ad impression is free and cost per click could be as little as $.10.
4. Why not take advantage of all the empty white space to the right of your organic search to create an eye catching ad?

Having Fun with Adwords. What a Novel Idea!

The idea is pure gold!  It’s cheap, it fills up the search page with your brand name, it’s one more place to lead people back to your website, and it’s just plain fun.  But I cannot be the only person to have thought of applying this to a business.  After all, I am a lowly freelance marketer.  There are hundreds of Marketing firms who are paid big bucks every day to manage brands of ginourmous companies, not to mention their own personal business brands.  Surely, they have already applied this seriously awesome idea to bid on their own brand name?

Many have Seriously not…and don’t call me Shirley.

I tested my idea by Googling the company names of some of the biggest marketing firms in my hometown, Memphis, Tennessee.  I was shocked that only two of the 12 firms listed below had taken the time to create an Adwords campaign with their brand name as a keyword.  I know each and every marketing professional has a fun side and loves to think outside the box.  So why aren’t they having more fun with people who search their brand name to create an ad?  Beats me.  As everyone knows, something that is cheap and catches the attention and interest of a prospective client is a way-bad idea (sarcasm).

The Challenge

I started an Adwords campaign today and placed bids on the company names of some of the top Memphis marketing firms.  The ads contain a link to this post.

I challenge each of these firms to:

1. Take advantage of your unused search engine white space.
2. Create a Google ad for keywords of your own business brand.
3. Have some fun with this ad! Make it eye catching.  Have it showcase what makes you different from the other agencies or use it to enhance experience with current or potential clients.

I will regularly monitor each keyword search for the next few weeks (until June 11, 2010) and update this post as each firm takes the plunge to make that $.10 bid!  Feel free to also let me know in the comments section if you have posted your ad. Oh, and just in case you are worried about a bidding war, don’t be.   I have no where near the funds you probably have at your disposal (working on a newly graduated student budget here!).

Let’s see what Memphis Marketers come up with…

Memphis Marketing Firms

I want to make is perfectly clear that this challenge is just in fun and that I respect each of your firms and all the work you and your employees do.  If at any point my ads cause offense, send me an email I will gladly remove it at your company’s request.

Archer Malmo

Brainwoo (Thompson)

CS2 Advertising

Howell Marketing

Inferno - Great Job!  They already had an ad before I made this post!

Lokion - Great Job!  They already had an ad before I made this post!

LunaWeb

Oden

Red Deluxe*

Red Rover - Red Rover get’s a pass from this challenge if they wish.  Even though no one is bidding on their brand name keyword, the minimum bid is a whopping $1 per click!  Way outside my $.10 CPC budget.

Rocket Fuel*

Valeo Marketing

* These companies have other bidders on their brand name keywords so my $.10 CPC ad is third in Google searches and may not be as visually or cost effective as with other firms.

Tags: google, guerrilla marketing, memphis