We figured that inviting the attendees at this year’s OMMA New York event to come on down to the Reprise Media Wi-Fi lounge to play the hit video game Rock Band would attract some interest. What we didn’t expect were the throngs of folks lining up to click the sticks, strum the guitar and even to sing their hearts out. This was especially true around cocktail hour when inhibitions were low and the need to belt out “Living on a Prayer” were at a peak.
Overall it was a great event and we saw a lot of old friends and made a bunch of new ones. I also discovered my inner Joey Ramone on “Rockaway Beach” – several times. However there was one question that turned up a few times over the two days. It came in several different forms such as –“ Reprise Media huh? So you guys created Rock Band?” “Rock Band? What does that have to do with search engine marketing?”
Here’s what I told people:
The obvious answer was right in front of everyone’s faces – Rock band drew traffic to our booth just as Reprise Media draws traffic to our client’s websites. We’ve been to a trillion of these shows, as have most of the other attendees. Rather than the squeezy balls, pens and t-shirts that littered booth after booth we chose something that would break through the clutter and bring people in – often from the other side of the floor. The online world is very much the same – you really have to do something different and compelling to draw people in. If it’s something interactive like a widget, a game, or a discussion forum so much the better.
Watching my colleague Anthony Iaffaldano flail on the drums while a quite excellent guitarist from an ad syndicator wailed away and a woman from an online publisher warbled the words to a Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s song brought to mind another equally fitting analogy. Search marketing does not exist in a vacuum. On many campaigns Reprise Media deals with paid search, SEO, and social media and just like in Rock Band they all have to play along in unison to get the most points. The client often has their existing offline campaigns (print, TV) to think about as well, and this has to sync up properly. Every piece has to work together.
There were times when a group of four strangers would hop up on our makeshift stage and lock into a groove, executing the Rock Band version of “Roxanne” by The Police perfectly. Sometimes we are asked by a client to only handle one aspect of search marketing in conjunction with their in-house efforts or with another agency and the end result of an engagement like that has to be the same – everyone playing towards the same goal and making sweet music together.
No matter whether a search campaign is entirely in our hands or whether we are asked to add our expertise to an existing mix, it all has to harmonize with the clients goals and the offline message they send. Do it right and the points rack up and everyone is left grinning and backslapping. Do it wrong and “Fail” flashes across the screen, the music stops, and there are some sheepish red faces indeed.
