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Search Engine Strategies Chicago starts in four weeks on Dec. 8, 2008. Since SES Chicago is the only SEM conference in the Midwest, it is expect to attract more than 2,000 attendees, or “delegates.”

But as Butch Cassidy frequently asked the Sundance Kid, “Who are those guys?”

In the past, there was anecdotal information about the quality of attendees who came to Search Engine Strategies Chicago. And as a frequent speaker, I would often ask for a show of hands to get a sense of the percentage of first time attendees and SES veterans.

But now, there is survey data that provides a clearer picture of the demographics of delegates from last year’s event. And I suspect it’s the kind of information that exhibitors and sponsors of the SES expo have been asking for:
• 87% of delegates are new to SES, 13% are alumni;
• 85% of delegates approve or recommend purchasing decisions;
• 52% of delegates have a high level of experience within search marketing;
• 36% of delegates are from a company of 100+ employees;
• Nearly 1,300 unique companies attended SES Chicago 2007, 27% of these companies sent two or more staff.

In addition, 41% of the attendees are in marketing or management; 27% are in web design or e-commerce; 23% are in corporate management or owners; and 9% are non-marketing professionals. And 57% approve or specify purchases, 28% make recommendations, and only 15% have no involvement in purchases.

That’s why you’ll see 40 sponsors and exhibitors at the Search Engine Strategies Expo. Savvy search engine marketers understand the value of quality attendance.

As Bill Muller, the VP Marketing for iProspect, has said, “SES is a terrific event series, one that we plan to be at in New York, San Jose, and Chicago.” Or as Ginny Redgate, VP Marketing for Hitwise, has said, “SES provides us great brand visibility within the search marketing community as well as quality leads. It is a great place for us to connect with our clients.”

I don’t think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid could have said it better.

AzoogleAds, a division of Epic Advertising, today announced the beta launch of an iPhone publisher reporting platform, iMobilePublisher. The platform will be available as an iPhone and iPod Touch application.

Users will be able to payment history, leads, stats, clicks and effective CPCs. Publishers will also be able to sort by offers and a variety of date ranges, with a user-interface that can display data in graphical format.

“We have found that our publishers increasingly use iPhones, and so this product was born out of marketplace opportunity,” said Greg Bayer, Senior Director of Product Management for Epic Advertising. “We wanted to build something that makes life even easier for the publishers that work with us, and we strive to deliver innovative tools to them which set us apart from other networks.”

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Clients often ask where they should spend their marketing dollars: online or offline, search or display? The problem with these questions: they assume there’s one or only a few sources for all local sales leads. In today’s vertical search column, “Making the Most of Your Local Search Marketing Dollars,” local search expert Gregg Stewart explains that the question isn’t “either/or;” it’s about how much of each.

» Full story

One of the most outspoken investors during the Microsoft-tries-to-buy-Yahoo debacle was Eric Jackson. Mr. Jackson leads a group 146 shareholders that owned a collective 3.2 million Yahoo shares. Those shares were sold last month.

Though Mr. Jackson did approve of the Yahoo-Icahn agreement that expanded Yahoo’s board by 3 members, including Carl Icahn, it apparently was not enough.

Jackson, it turns out, has been right about Yahoo all along. He was one of the first to vocalize fears that Yahoo shares would drop significantly without a Microsoft buy. I, myself, was skeptical. But Jackson was right.

While Yahoo is the number 2 search engine, number 1 in email and the owner of several strong web properties, it’s still not enough. Jackson identifies why when he said, “Leadership matters.”

Writing at SeekingAlpha.com, Jackson explained: “I believed that with better oversight from a new board and management, Yahoo could finally capitalize on its many strengths. We’ve had no significant changes at either level. The company is still muddling ahead with just as many priorities, just as many staff and just as many boxes on the organizational chart. I came to the conclusion that this company is doomed to failure with the current board and leadership.”

YHOO was trading at $12.34 at the time of this post.

I don’t know if everyone is in a bad mood over the economy or what, but web content is having the worst week ever.

First, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the internet was a cesspool. Then, Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm said that certain social sites are ruining the whole social networking industry because their nicheiness has gone just a little too far in his not-so-humble opinion. Finally, David Cowan decided that the “internet sucks” meme was a good idea for a marketing campaign to push MashLogic, including the tagline “Take back the web.”

You may not want to join a social network dedicated to the admiration of David Hasselhoff, but that doesn’t mean social media is doomed.

You may enjoy half the videos on YouTube, but perhaps they weren’t all created for you.

In a modern day world of customization and the web making things more immediate, we’ve come to expect what we want when we want it.

But now that’s leading to self-important decisions about what should be on the internet in the first place.

The problem with declaring the web as full of junk is that such elitist thinking generally leads to a social form of censorship.

The world wide interwebs thrive off of openness and access for as many people as possible. But if we begin to reign it in because some CEOs, bloggers, and startups decide that what they think is good is the only thing that matters, then the web will truly become a garbage dump of narrow, upper crust excogitation.

After two weeks of political conventions, comScore is releasing data regarding activity for the candidates of the two major political parties in the U.S.

comScore has analyzed the online display ad views, website video views, and searches conducted for Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

Obama leads McCain in online display ad spending and searches conducted. McCain may want to look into competing better in online display ads - if they’re working for the Senator from Illinois, something perhaps only his campaign knows. Both numbers probably speaks to Obama being less known as well as his popularity over McCain, which has been demonstrated in the polls.

McCain did begin outspending Obama in search advertising in May and June. Subsequently, the race tightened according to polls. Google has attributed both candidates’ primary wins to their search advertising spends.

Here’s are the charts from today’s comScore release:

At noon in Mountain View, Google will announce the launch of face recognition software in their latest version of Picasa, according to Cnet.com.

The software will help people tag names to their photographs - handy for that odd face in a group shot you are not sure of. Now I wonder how long it will be before one of the crime shows makes use of it in the field when they do not have access to their lab!

Hey it may not have access to police records yet… but knowing Google a collaboration no doubt will eventually come. Versions for small police departments would make sense and further ingrain the brand.

Online marketing company AdEx has announced the acquisition of Bay Harbor, an online lead generation firm. Bay Harbor uses a proprietary software platform to perform behavioral targeting which identifies marketers’ best prospects in several financial services and other consumer interest segments.

“Bay Harbor’s lead generation platform allows us to capitalize on the ever-growing online financial services sector,” said Scott Rewick, Chief Executive Officer of AdEx Media. “This acquisition is synergistic with our existing business and will further enable us to meet the needs of our large customer base of advertisers, publishers, distributors, online retailers and consumers.”

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The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads

Though the housing sector has been in turmoil for about a year now, last month showed a glimmer of hope with new home sales up 2.4% month over month in July.

Real estate search site Realtor.com is reaping the benefit of the little good news there is out there for the real estate industry. In July, Realtor.com saw increases in searches for certain local markets around the country, and they are:

• Stockton-Lodi, CA 140.9%
• Las Vegas, NV 93.9%
• Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL 69.5%
• Detroit, MI 51.8%
• Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV, VA 49.1%

As a result, traffic to the site is up 9.5% year-over-year, despite an overall industry traffic slump declining 1% year-over-year.

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More retailers are turning to social media as part of their back-to-school marketing campaigns, according to Jupiter Research. From Facebook to widgets, from virtual worlds to online video, retailers are targeting youth, who may not share the same feelings as their parents about a tough economy.

“The back-to-school season has grown in importance for retailers and leads into the all important fourth quarter sales period,” explained Patti Freeman Evans, Research Director and Online Retail Analyst at JupiterResearch. “With the shaky economy expected to impact the amount of money consumers spend on back-to-school shopping, retailers are using social media to capture the attention of younger consumers.”

Examples of social media back-to-school implementation are JC Penny and Sears. Both retailers used integrated marketing campaigns, using tv ads to drive youth online where they can view tips on getting the same looks seen in the campaigns.

To promote its two new clothing lines, department store J.C.Penney created an online game called “DorkDodge” in which a girl has to navigate through a number of undesirable boyfriends to find her dream date. The retailer also launched an integrated marketing campaign showing teens how they can “get that look” with an array of clothing brands sold at J.C.Penney stores, featuring the theme of “The Breakfast Club.”

According to David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch, “Retailers experimenting with Web 2.0 experiences will largely find benefit from them in the form of branding and awareness building rather than direct sales as social media has shown little direct impact on actual online retail sales.”

What do you think of using social media in your seasonal campaigns? Let us know in the comments.

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