I’ve been saying this for quite sometime, that you cannot be half pregnant when it comes to marketing – if you do search, you must do branding, and vice versa. Here’s yet more proof:
Display and search are directly correlated, judging by a Specific Media study of comScore data. Brand- and segment-related searches (for cars, automakers and vehicle classes) jumped by more than 100% in several categories after consumers were exposed to display ads for those brands. …Search clickers exposed to display advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those who were not exposed, according to a September 2008 study of Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping system by Atlas Solutions.
In these hard times, advertisers often focus on DR – direct response – the harvesting of demand. But if they don’t sow seeds, well, no more demand can grow.