Search Lately: Issue 156

ISSUE 156 – 17th October 2014

Starcom MediaVest Nominated for ‘UK Search Awards' With the ‘UK Search Awards’ shortlist released earlier this month, Starcom MediaVest Group have 3 nominations this year for Best Location Campaign and Innovation Campaign for Europcar, Honda and Samsung. Best Local Campaign – Europcar: No Strike on the Streets Innovation – Campaign – Honda: Taking Honda off The Beaten Track Innovation – Campaign – Samsung: Keep Calm & Switch to Samsung

Shared By Kevin Ting See the full shortlist for the UK Search Awards: http://thedigitalsawards.com/shortlist

Starcom MediaVest Nominated for ‘The Digitals Awards’ Earlier this week Starcom MediaVest Group was nominated for 2 awards in ‘The Digitals Awards’ for Best Use of Search Marketing and Best Use of Data & Digital for Europcar Best Use of Search Marketing – Europcar: Driven To Success Best Use of Data & Digital – Europcar: Achieving ROI Equilibrium

Shared By Kevin Ting See the full shortlist for The Digitals Awards: http://searchawards.co.uk/shortlist

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‘Deceptive’ Search Ads Come Under Scrutiny The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has set its sights on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, as what they perceive to be a disregard of federal regulator direction that stipulates ads are to be clearly defined so user can distinguish them from organic results on results pages. Studies have shown that Google for example, have steadily lightened the background colour of ads on SERPs until now, where their background is white just like organic search results. This has seen clicks increase over time, but Google’s defense is the annotation ‘Ad’ above the ads at the top and side of their results pages. Microsoft and Yahoo have defended their practise of showing ads as in line with FTC regulations. That said, there are scenarios where the lines are more blurred, such as the use of ‘sponsored’ as opposed to ad; regulations stipulate that ‘ad’ specifically needs to be mentioned as this is the most commonly understand term by the general user population. Nevertheless, to date search engines appear unconcerned about the warnings as they’ve not lead to any action on the part of the FTC, so it’s expected they’ll continue to walk the line between what is and isn’t technically permissible. For more information, follow the link below.