Search Marketing World 2008 Highlights

By Michael Finnegan

Interactive Return's second annual Search Marketing World Conference took place on April 3rd in the Crowne Plaza Conference Centre in Santry. The conference was attended by approximately 250 delegates and a host of international experts in search engine marketing.

This year's conference kicked off with a keynote speech from Chris Sherman, Executive Editor at Search Engine Land. Chris predicted a duopoly between the major players, stating that it is just a matter of time before Microhoo! (the much discussed acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft) happens. He also highlighted recent developments such as Google Universal Search and the need for advertisers to take advantage of the opportunities presented by such developments rather than seeing them as a threat.

Controversially, Chris suggested that Social Media may just be a fad that in the short term is great for links but that you shouldn't "waste your time for long term campaign effectiveness". This caused a few raised eyebrows, not least with the speakers at the Social Media Session, Vannessa Fox and Per Jacobsson. In her speach, Vannessa highlighted the benefits of using social media to develop a deeper engagement with customers and to gain valuable insights that you wouldn't get elsewhere. Meanwhile, Per stressed the targeting advantages (mainly demographic and geographic) offered by the various social media.

Other hot topics covered on the day included online PR, integrating search with offline marketing efforts and the Irish search engine market.

With the continued success of Search Marketing World 2008, plans for next years conference are already in the pipelines.