Yes thats 3:33 of hamster spots. They made seven spots. SEVEN. What do you think the hamster day rate is for being on set? Do I get a cut if they come from my HamsterFarm (see all one word)?

I’m not entirely sure this makes me want to run out a buy a lotto ticket so much as I want to go buy hamsters, but maybe I’d buy a hamster and then buy it a lotto ticket, so I guess ultimately they’ve convinced me to buy into the lotto.

Of those who searched for a product or company 39% ended up buying from the brand that motivated their search (via). What happened to the other 61% and how do you keep your share (and steal some of your competitors)? How do you use those search trends to improve both your online and traditional media placement? How do you make sure your online and traditional efforts are cohesively working together?

Well I’d love to say follow a few simple steps and you’re golden, it’s not that easy. As web is almost all in real time these days, you have to consistently monitor, adjust and analyze. These are the top five things I would recommend –

1) Use the keywords, phrases and terminology that are incorporated in your traditional media. If your TV says you are having a “Spectacular Sale” then buy that search term. People might not remember everything about your ad, but hopefully they catch on to the most important messages. People will then go online to try and fill in the missing pieces of your message to find you.

2) Know what your competitors are doing and buy into those search terms. If you’re trying to steal market share and especially if you’re trying to steal that 61%, then use their traditional and online keywords to build into your search terms. If your competitor is running a direct mail campaign on “anniversary tennis bracelets”- buy those keywords!

3) If you are a local store, dealership or a franchise, then piggy back on the investment of national whenever possible. We do it all the time in traditional media; flighting schedules, adding in stations and mimicking parts of their message to make the dollars stretch. Do the same online but geo-target (down to the zip code if possible). Don’t work to spend more than national and try to buy 1-3 sponsored spots, but put enough money down to be above the fold to build the association with national within your DMAs.

3) Monitor your website and search analytics throughout your traditional media placement. Figure out how long after your TV campaign starts, does the audience turn online and search for you and when do you see a spike in sales. Use that information to strategically flight your media placement for the best efficiencies. Follow your analytics and sales to determine what media drives your targets online, in store, to the phones or not at all. Some traditional media is hard to track, so tie all you efforts together to figure out how the audience responds to you message and placements.

4) Anticipate the trends and be proactive.

5) Track the offline results as well. Not all of those who moved to online search complete their transaction online so make sure you have a system in place to track the in-store visits. Printable coupons, vanity phone numbers, special deals, text campaigns, and surveys can all be put to use .

At first glance its easy to assume that this means that internet banner ads are most ignored and television ads are the most effective. But the study fails to take into account several important factors.

1) Most people fail to recognize what is actually advertising online. When I teach clients and co-workers about search engine marketing, most people are surprised to learn that the sponsored links section at the top and right hand sidebar on search ads are paid ads. There are countless studies about visitors not realizing when they’re on a blog vs. a website. I’m sure a lot of people in this survey couldn’t accurately pick out all the ads on a website, but I’m sure they all recognize commercials on TV and radio.

2) ROI is king right now. Most people might say TV is an effective way to reach them, but who really watches a TV spot and immediately goes out to buy that item. On the advertiser side TV is an excellent reach medium but you can’t really measure and you can’t really target.

3) Mass reach and online ads serve different functions. TV and radio are to get the message out to everyone, if sales occur because of it, fantastic. But these days most people go online to find out more information and shop competitors. TV, radio and newspaper are step 1; online advertising is closer to the end of the funnel (even for offline channels).

I hate reports that just spew out numbers and stats without context.  You can read more here.

Fact: Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin is performing “My Country Tis of Thee”
(This was displayed as the Aretha Franklin is on screen singing the song)

They also include now, “now, next, later” graphics with such riveting announcements as
Now: Presidential Inauguration
Next: Vice President Sworn
Later: President

In addition to being incredibly vauge and obvious, they were pretty much just a waste of space on the screen. CNN can make holograms and crazy election maps but they can’t even get make simple graphics relevant.