How do you run a search campaign for a solution nobody knows exists?

by Carlos Menezes

TeamBug, one of our newest clients, is essentially an online team management application. The offering for amateur sports teams is simple but incredibly effective – through a host of features TeamBug lets managers create sites for their own teams where they can organise fixtures, decide on line-ups based on player profiles and communicate directly with their players.

Text messages or emails are sent to players with the individuals replying whether they are available for the fixture or not. Any details that they could then be interested in are supplied on the site itself – the position that each player will be in, kickoff time, a map to the game and match reports.

There are a number of other features available that I won’t go into detail about here, but at the end of the day it’s a great offering at a very affordable price.

The problem that we face when marketing it is that TeamBug is somewhat a victim of its own success. Being the first on the market (that we can see), not a lot of people are aware of the offering and hence won’t even know to search for it.

So how do we go about running a SEM campaign for it? First up, of course, is the extensive keyword research. Optimising for generic sports terms is out of the window given the competitive nature of the sector and the scope of the project. Long-tail keywords more directly related to TeamBug’s offering are probably not popular enough, so a compromise needs to be reached and keywords are chosen that will display our results contextually.

For our PPC ads this isn’t too much of an issue – clearly written adverts that cut to the chase are enough to ensure that no clicks (read: media budget) are wasted. True, there were Quality Score issues to be taken into account if we were to face a low click-through rate, but we were confident that this wouldn’t be the case. The offering is solid enough to attract significant attention and simple enough to have its core communicated by a PPC ad’s short character count.

Facebook CPC ads are even simpler – targeting interests and activities ensures that we are reaching the right target audience. Chances are that if someone has football listed as an activity he belongs to an amateur team, or knows someone who does.

Of course there are a number of other tactics that need to be used, but the above are probably the most straightforward ‘push tactics’ that are employed.

And then came the news that Nike had released a competitor product – Playmaker.

Strangely enough, this wasn’t a reason for panic. Quite the opposite in fact. Despite the fact that Nike is one of the world’s largest brands, has a great ad and an enormous budget to showcase Playmaker, ultimately it has an inferior product. If TeamBug occupies the same space and is positioned accordingly, it should come out quite well, and with more and more attention being generated due to Nike’s involvement, the little guys suddenly find themselves in a great position.

Tweaking our PPC, SEO and Facebook campaigns to react to Nike’s emergence is simple enough, but how best to capitalise on all of the social media buzz that the giant’s involvement will inevitably generate? The answer – BrandsEye.

Although most obviously an Online Reputation Management tool, BrandsEye has a host of other functions and I have long believed that one of the most powerful is that of a lead generating mechanism.

By identifying conversations surrounding Playmaker and the like, around people frustrated with its limitations and looking for something more comprehensive, BrandsEye brings TeamBug right to the people who are asking for it.

Of course it doesn’t end there – how TeamBug interacts and positions itself with these individuals and communities is probably going to be the single greatest determining factor in its online success – but it does give the brand the chance it needs to compete with a global giant whose daily marketing budget is probably enough to sponsor the Quirk cricket team's drinking habits for life.

2008/11/27 | permalink | comments (1) | trackbacks (0)

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Recent Comments

Kat on Engaging as a Company

I agree with you. There are some things that should ideally not be discussed by an employee in the public sphere.
Would a communications policy have stopped the said journo from speaking out? He/she must have known a huge risk was being taken? I suppose it's also an incredibly difficult thing to predict. The lack of control can be alarming.
I'm definitely interested in seeing a more specific list, so if you find it do share.
Thank you for your comments :). Here's hoping there's a good coffee shop close to you..
vincent on Engaging as a Company

I guess the mark of a well crafted brand starts at HR policy for new recruits - ensuring that they fit the brand's/corporate's persona. So in that sense yes you could argue that left to their own devices employees would, regardless of an online communications policy, communicate in a style the sponsor would approve of. Not sure if that's always the case but I'm inclined to agree with this generalization.
I think what is also important is that the individual writing within the bounds of a sponsor's site does so in a restricted locale. You can police your own domain if you're a corporate, you can't necessarily control the individuals mouth outside of it. For instance on twitter, personal blogs and forums. Owing to the nature of niche stardom you could argue that the employee comes to represent the brand, more so than that personifies the brand in organic conversation with consumers and would carry significant weight both within corporate sites and externally. Making some individuals very wary to write for their companies at all.
For instance in our not too distant past a prominent journo got the boot for publishing his gripes with his employers and their professional ability - he was promptly fired...He would no doubt have been policed on a company blog but owing to the fact that he chose to represent the company elsewhere he took his brand and the papers brand with him - dragging both through the mud as traipsed on towards epic-failuredom...
So to come back to a point, there is definitely a sense that the policies as listed above are quite ambiguous. Even you yourself suggest that requisite legalese is absent, and I have to assume that such legalese would include a fairly long list of do's and dont's. I have a list somewhere laying about which dictates in a very bland corporate fashion how to represent the brand in public - if I find it I will share it with you.
Perhaps its worthwhile to enforce points like "don't tell secrets" and my own favourite, "for the love of god don't gripe about the boss who you've publicly named online"...
That's my mental-riff for the day, I'm afraid I veered rather uncharitably off course but such is the nature of thought.
Now if only the company I worked for had some decent coffee!!
Kat on Engaging as a Company

Transparency is a key issue - as is allowing people to carve their own niche.
My thinking is that people engage with a personality - an individual personality - in conversation more than with a collective. It's just easier. A company personality surely reflects the people who work there as well as a crafted (constructed?) image that the stakeholders choose to present. While you want engagement it's not the same as speaking to an individual.
There are definite risks involved - but I would lean towards allowing people to carve a niche.
vincent on Engaging as a Company

Couldn't have said it better. Nice post, it is most certainly something corporates are going to struggle with. How much transparency is too much? Who should be allowed to represent a brand and to what extent should the individual be given the opportunity to carve their own niche rather than extol the virtues of the mother - brand?
Who knows. We shall soon see as this year pans out and we find out how the big media players tackle the rise of the cost effective digital media channel.
Kat on Engaging as a Company

It is a tough issue, and I can understand why you've never published. I would encourage you to do so though - you probably have a feeling for when your writing reflects your voice and when it doesn't - and the rewards are worth it.
Thanks for reading Wendy. :)

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How do you run a search campaign for a solution nobody knows exists?

by Carlos Menezes

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