Media: All about ... The launch of IPA Search Group

Take, for instance, the unfortunate case of BMW - hardly the worst or
most persistent offender when it comes to sharp practice in the online
world, but one that had the terrible misfortune not only to get found
out, but to have its jiggery pokery picked over in public.

In 2006, Google caught it using duplicitous "doorway pages" to boost its
search rankings and, ultimately, to deceive the public. Google responded
by downgrading BMW's website, effectively removing it from Google
searches altogether. BMW eventually apologised and promised in future to
play by the rules, but it somehow managed to compound the original
offence by insisting that it had acted with honourable intentions.

Doorway pages are text-rich areas of websites that are designed to
interact with a search engine's information-gathering and classification
technologies - but they are completely hidden from the view of the
general user. For example, you might have a phrase like "the best car
ever made" repeated on a doorway page, ensuring that when Muggins the
average web surfer types "the best car ever made" into a search engine,
he or she might end up at the website of a car manufacturer whose cars
are not universally heralded as the best ever made.

True, the BMW incident involved a "natural" or unpaid-for search. If you
want to load a search outcome in your favour, you can quite legitimately
pay to ensure you get top listing against your chosen keywords, and this
is where the likes of Google make their billions.

But even this supposedly transparent world can be subject to abuse, and
for some advertisers, especially those in the mortgage and car insurance
sectors, this is a serious issue.

Some of these companies acquire the vast majority of their custom
online, and if they fail, for whatever reason, to appear in the first
page of search results, where click-through rates are at their highest,
it can have a disastrous effect on their business.

So last week's news from the IPA will be warmly received in some
quarters of the industry. The IPA has launched Search Group to set
best-practice standards and address several contentious issues. In a
parallel move - the timing of which was not entirely coincidental - the
Internet Advertising Bureau's Search Council, whose members include
Google, Yahoo! and MSN, has set up a "best practice resource" to help
advertisers "conduct search marketing effectively and responsibly".

1. The IPA Search Group is chaired by Arjo Ghosh, the chief executive of
iCrossing. As well as iCrossing, 16 agencies will have representation on
the body. These are: The Search Works International, Zed Media, i-level,
Isobar, Universal McCann, I Spy Search, LBi, Media Planning Group, VCCP
Search, DBD Media, MediaVest Manchester, Cheeze, Profero, Steak Media,
agency.com and agenda21.

2. Search Group has already issued agency recommendations that are aimed
at guarding against the misuse of client trademarks. For example,
companies that have developed well-known branding straplines to underpin
their marketing efforts will often find rivals trying to hijack those
phrases in their search-marketing strategies. Its other aim is to
encourage search engines to tackle issues such as clarity, service
levels and advertiser protection.

3. The body will also offer advice on how a company should dovetail its
search efforts with those of organisations involved in the sale of its
product.

4. Tellingly, it will also promote the notion that paid-for search
placements are not always the most cost-effective approach. Its initial
manifesto states: "Seventy per cent of search-engine referrals are
generated via organic or natural search-engine results."

5. While doing its best to sound enthusiastic about the IPA initiative,
the IAB is clearly miffed. In announcing its scheme, Guy Phillipson, the
IAB's chief executive, said: "We listened to all different parties to
ensure that (our) new best practice resource meets the needs of the
industry in 2008. No other trade body could get this kind of
co-operation."

WHAT IT MEANS FOR ...

SEARCH ENGINES

- The likes of Google, Yahoo! and MSN will view the emergence of this
body with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is further confirmation
that search is now utterly embedded in the marketing mainstream - and
that can only hold out the promise of continued growth.- On the other
hand, it's an indication that those same mainstream advertisers and
their agencies are now minded to ask far more probing questions about
the business than have been asked before.- The search sales pitch is
arguably not as straightforward and conclusive as has been made out in
the past. So this should make life interesting, especially as, during
2008, the focus in online advertising was always likely to move slightly
away from search and onto formats more conducive to audio-visual branded
content.

AGENCIES

- According to the IPA Search Group chairman, Arjo Ghosh, the bottom
line is that standards will undoubtedly improve. He says: "This is a
good barometer of how far search has come - and it's an opportunity to
raise the bar for the search industry. We need to get to the point where
agencies feel they can approach this area in complete confidence."