Good to see search being used as a call to action
Posted in Web by Oscar on July 28th 2008 | Comment?
The latest campaign from Orange ('I am') caught my eye on the tube this weekend. First of all, the long copy format gave me something interesting to read on the sweltering underground. But the call to action is what got me thinking.
Most poster executions you see on the tube strategically paste a web address at the bottom of the creative with the hope you'll look it up later. Except most people will forget the exact address and give up (assuming they got as far as trying). So it still surprises me that so few campaigns use search terms to make it easy for punters to load up their favourite search engine and find that website.
Orange uses this technique elegantly in their poster campaign. They want you to search for 'I am' to find their microsite http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk which is relevant as the campaign is hinged around "I am who I am because of everyone." idea.
So of course I tried it. Not surprisingly they have the sponsored links covered but no listings in the organic search. This makes sense for short campaigns for which the paid route is the only feasible option of grabbing the relevant terms. But there is a weakness in the lack of any organic listings in the first few pages of the results - I myself scanned those first of all before I came back to inspect the sponsored links.
It does make me think that the terms chosen for a search driven call to action need to be carefully chosen and considered in terms of the success of both organic and paid for listings.
I can't help thinking that they may have missed a trick. 'I am' after all is almost as generic as you can get and even a long running campaign would have difficulty getting into the listings.