Folks, it’s been over five weeks since I lambasted the big Superbowl ad spenders at companies like – oh, let’s see, what was the name of that advertiser’s brand? Oh, yeah, – E*Trade, for failing (or letting its agency fail) to support its very clever, and very costly, Golf Baby commercial with even a single organic search listing for the memorable and highly original coinage, “Shankapotamus” (as in “why don’t you try reading the rules, Shankapotamus?” – you might notice I’m using the word “shankapotamus” a lot in this post).
Since that post, searches for the term “shankapotamus” have generated over three hundred visits to my blog, which maintains the number four spot in Google’s organic rankings for the term, “shankapotamus.” In fact, I’m embarrassed to reveal that “shankapotamus” is by far the most common search term sending traffic to this page. I hope the shankapotamus seekers are happy with what they find.
E*Trade, which dutifully buys expensive keywords like “online trading” and “investment services,” is nowhere to be found in those search listings on Google, MSN, and Yahoo. The number one listing on Google as of this writing is for a girl’s golf blog that’s running a Try Reading the Rules Shankapotamus! T-Shirt Giveaway. No mention of E*trade there. I wonder how much traffic they’ve gotten?
Wake up, creatives! SEM branding is about controlling namespaces. It’s not just direct marketing tactics. If I can be a shankapotamus, so can you.
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