Here is a great video that I found.

It was done by Michael Wesch,
Assistant Professor Cultural Anthropology
Kansas State University

This was a terrific job on his part.

According to Yahoo’s Buzz Index, the most popular searched terms for the current week is “Pet Food Recall”. Yet, not a single pet food company thought to purchase a paid ad to address these concerns.

Obviously, there is a large concern in the public for the recalls on specific dog food. However, not a single company saw a need to address the public with these concerns. Yes, I am sure there were press releases and announcements, but if there was really a need to reach people then paid search marketing would have been the quickest way to reach customers.

Every major pet food company should have gone straight to pay per click to answer consumers’ questions. Even companies that were not affected, especially these companies. What better way to let your customers know that everything is fine and you are not affected?

Paid search marketing would have allowed companies to control the message and the brand and ultimately relaxed customers’ worries. Instead customers were forced to read news bites and stories, without getting a full grasp of the details and who is affected.

It amazes me how many larger corporations still do not seem to get the power behind search engine marketing.

However, I should point that one company did “GET IT” recently.

Taco Bell, in order to provide answers to people concerned about E. Coli, turned to paid search marketing. Not only did Taco Bell’s ppc campaign answer questions, but it eliminated the amount of clicks going to non-official websites. This prevented bad information from polluting the customer. Using PPC advertising allowed Taco Bell to control the message and ultimately the brand.

The pet food companies need to learn from the marketing experts at Taco Bell.

Okay, being new to town I will assume there was a memo just before I arrived in 2006 that stated the following:

“Attention all drivers of I-65, pay no attention to the HOV lanes. A minimum of 2 drivers is NOT needed. Feel free to drive wherever you want”

The High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane is the far left lane of the Nashville interstates. The HOV is clearly marked, and the signs note if drivers are heading towards Nashville, the left lane is for cars with 2 or more people only, from 7am-9am. If drivers are heading away from Nashville, the left lane is for cars with 2 or more people only, from 4pm-6pm.

Almost every car in the Nashville area High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes is a single passenger ride. There doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of this. You would think it would be a great idea to encourage car-pooling in our latest media cyclical attention on global warming.

Now, I am not a particular fan of the entire HOV concept myself, but nevertheless if we are going to have the Nashville area HOV lanes then we need to have them enforced. It’s very frustrating in the morning, to see Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) pass me.