MSN profile data mixed with adwords

From AdAge, this is the next logical step in pay per click.  Although it is hard to tell from the article if this actually is PPC or if it is more targeted marketing based on demographics.  So here is the quote and commentary below.

MSN LINKS KEYWORD SEARCH TO DEMOGRAPHIC DATABASE
New Feature Enables Marketers to Target Search Engine Ads at Specific Groups
September 26, 2005
By Kris Oser

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In a effort to technologically outflank Yahoo and Google, Microsoft Corp. will launch a new U.S. keyword paid-search program that enables marketers to target their keyword buys at specific consumer segments.  The new feature links keyword search techniques to MSN.com’s demographic database of 400 million registered users.
…
AdCenter allows advertisers to draw from MSN’s 400 million users worldwide who have registered for MSN’s Passport, Hotmail or Messenger services.
…
AdCenter allows advertisers to draw from MSN’s 400 million users worldwide who have registered for MSN’s Passport, Hotmail or Messenger services. Based on the demographic information those users provided, the advertiser can then target commercial messages based on geographic location, gender, age range, time of day and day of week. MSN can then also overlay additional data rented from database marketing companies, such as wealth index and psychographic information, to target more specifically.
…
(full article)

I added the emphasis and underlining.  Here is the deal, the web responds like direct marketing in PPC and SEO *because* the user *at that moment* typed in a specific term.  They have told you two things; first what they are interested in (dishes, BMW, etc) and second WHEN they are interested in it (RIGHT NOW!). 

The challenge with classic direct marketing is that repetition is key because there is only so much you can do to predict the timing but you can characterize that this group is likely to buy this object or service.  With direct mail you just keep hitting them with letters or cards or whatever trying to reach them WHEN they become interested buyers.  Let them buy when they are predisposed buyers.  The genius of search marketing is both questions are answered.  You know what the buyer is interested in and when they are interested.  So the program above from MSM is cool but classic DM.  It won’t be the surprise hit that search engine marketing has been with targeted buyers and a pay as you go pricing model that small business can afford.  It will be added value in the marketing mix.

Crisis Communications – we have a little experience down here in the gulf coast these days

One of our clients is a public relations firm out of Dallas called DPK Public Relations. (disclosure: We are also their client.)  Dan Keeney of DPK just posted a great article on crisis communication lessons learned called "Ten Crisis Communications Principles That Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita Taught Us"

B2B Marketing Trends running my article on SEO and qualified marketing leads

*self plug warning* – B2B Marketing Trends is running an article from our team:

How Much Is a Qualified, Interested Lead Worth to You?
Ed Schipul

Many organizations grow frustrated that their Web site never seems to be included among the top listings on Google or Yahoo. To help organizations move up the search engine listings, an entire industry has emerged, full of specialists who stay on top of changes made to the arcane inner workings of search engine algorithms. However, this takes time, and they may be tempted to use some of the trickery that is tainting the search engine marketing field.

    One alternative that can immediately show results is search engine advertising. (more)

Definition of Television

Shelly Palmer posed an interesting question to his NYC Emmy New Media list.  Define Television. 

Television: A tube that shows stuff. 

Damn, he probably wants something deeper than that.  On Shelly’s blog he gets all deep on this new media stuff so my bet is he really wants an answer to the question of "what is television?"  I found that I could not define television in just one way because what it is is NOT what it soon will be.  I had to first say what it is, and then what it will be.  Standing on the mountain preaching down to the viewers, telling them when to arrive and what they will see and that they will like it; those days are gone.  Even interactive television is still one main editor and content provider, or at least an elite group, talking to the masses.  It is not a conversation, and that is the fundamental problem.  So this is my response to the question:

What is television?

Right now we understand Television to be: An advertising supported mass entertainment medium that sends video, pictures and audio to a remote viewing box.   It is a one way medium providing edited content utilizing limited resources for transmission (radio waves or cable) which makes scarcity a problem.  The competition economics of the medium lead it to sensational but highly professional content to attract advertisers.  Advertisers and content owners attempt to maintain ownership and control of their content.
 
What Television will be:
 
A user driven method of displaying videos, recorded from the past, happening real time, or scheduled to be recorded in the future and displayed on demand for an end user based on their time table.   Television becomes one of many possible portals to view video.  Video remains primarily an entertainment medium but with unlimited resources for transmission (the Internet in addition to radio waves or cable) the democracy of content creation reduces the demand for high dollar advertisers.   Television production as we know it becomes more pay per click and branding focused.   TV and video become part of the conversation that is the blogosphere.   It evolves into a conversation and the one way communication “down” from broadcast stations to the public falls away into antiquity.

NYT on improving students through school integration by income in North Carolina

The New York Times has a story that makes you go "duh" but nonetheless is something that should be part of the dialog on education in America. 

As Test Scores Jump, Raleigh Credits Integration by Income (reg required of course)

RALEIGH, N.C. – Over the last decade, black and Hispanic students here in Wake County have made such dramatic strides in standardized reading and math tests that it has caught the attention of education experts around the country.

The main reason for the students’ dramatic improvement, say officials and parents in the county, which includes Raleigh and its sprawling suburbs, is that the district has made a concerted effort to integrate the schools economically. (more) By ALAN FINDER

Racial segregation in America required integration to recover, but mostly because at the time race had a high correlation with economic capability.  The very success of desegregation has created diverse economic groups within racial groups so it only makes sense that integration based on economics will produce the same positive results that desegregation did.  They are the same thing, with an acknowledgement that times have changed.