DC Lottery Says Third Time's
a Charm

MDB Wins 5-Year, $10 Million, Full Service Advertising Contract

The DC Lottery has selected MDB to provide full service advertising support across the Lottery's complete product line, including POWERBALL®. The contract, valued at up to $10 million, is for five years. This is the third time MDB has won the DC Lottery contract during the last decade.

The contract was awarded on a competitive basis and begins immediately. MDB will provide account planning and strategy, creative services and media buying. Executions will include television, radio, print, out-of-home and special events.

"To be selected from such a tough competitive field is an honor," said Cary Hatch, president and CEO, MDB. "Having clients select us time and again always reinforces the importance of living a culture that holds integrity and quality among its highest values."

Issue 35
MAY 2004

THE KEYWORD AD GAME
Winning with Search Engine Marketing

In case you haven't noticed, keyword marketing has exploded over the last 18 months—driven by the continuing growth of Internet users. Consider, by the end of 2004, Jupiter Research projects that there will be 185 million Internet users in the U.S., representing 63 percent of the population. Cable TV penetration is approximately 66 percent.

Searches Get Buyers Started

Research shows that 76 percent of online users have made at least one purchase in the last six months. The first destination for most Internet shoppers—whether it's for a new office printer or a diamond bracelet—is a search engine. Search is the number two application on the Internet, behind email, with approximately 84 percent of Web surfers accessing Internet content via a search engine. Google alone performs more than 200 million searches daily.

In most cases search engine marketing, specifically keyword sponsorships, makes a solid foundation for an Internet marketing campaign. In fact nearly 35 percent of online ad spending is now allocated to paid keyword search marketing.

Google and Overture

Whether the goal is to increase sales or simply to drive site traffic, advertisers should seek to sponsor as many Web searches as possible. To do this, start the buy with two of the largest search engine marketing companies—Google and Overture. Google sells keyword placements—its service is called AdWords—that run above, and adjacent to, search engine results. When a purchased keyword is searched, the ad's text appears with a link to a specific page within a Web site, presenting the searcher with an opportunity to buy or obtain additional information.

With AdWords, the advertiser pays nothing unless the searcher clicks on the link, providing maximum budget control and enabling the advertiser to set a maximum per-day spend. If the click-through rate is higher than anticipated, Google controls when the ad appears to ensure the daily budget is not exceeded. Google will also place the top three AdWord listings on other search engines, including AOL's search engine, Ask Jeeves and Earthlink.

Several variables can affect the average click-through rate as well as the total number of clicks for a search engine keyword campaign:

Overture has a similar system, although its rankings are based exclusively on the bid cost. The highest bid gets the top listing. Overture sponsors keyword listings on both Yahoo and MSN as well as several other smaller search engines.

It's important, especially during the beginning of your campaign, to test different creative copy for the listings to maximize click-through rates. You can make adjustments to the buy in real time, adding new keywords, removing ineffective keywords or changing the creative. This testing helps ensure maximum ROI.

Looking Ahead

With the growing success of search engine marketing, more and more search engine options are becoming available. Two high-profile Internet brands—Microsoft and Amazon—are preparing to launch new search engines. Amazon's new service will integrate search results with data from customer profiles to deliver highly personalized information. In the meantime, Google continues to expand its capabilities with enhanced local search features. Marketers too can purchase keywords at the local level.

In fact just this past March, Google announced the ability to perform searches based at the city and regional level. Recently, it also introduced a price comparison search engine.

So stay tuned!

Trust Key to Customer Retention

Fear of inadequate protection of personal data has compelled half of consumers to reject or cancel doing business with a company, according to a recent study conducted by Accenture. Other key findings include: