Clickable Product Used: Clickable Solutions
Industry: Public Relations
Problem Solved:
Burson-Marsteller is one of the largest public relations and advertising firms in the world, a pioneer that has been in the business for over 50 years. Its online services are provided by Proof Digital Media, one of the first groups to bring a digital component into public relations. David Brooks, director of Proof Digital Media, turned to Clickable Solutions in order to help meet his clients' growing demand for search marketing services. The result has been the best performance David has ever seen, including conversion rates as high as 25 percent. "I've been in Internet marketing for 13 years and I’ve never seen anything like it." Now, Burson-Marsteller can offer SEM to all of its existing clients. "In the case of our largest clients, it's allowed us to sell more services, which is vital in this environment," David said. "This allows us to add PPC into the mix very easily."
The Business
Burson-Marsteller is not only one of the world's largest public
relations and advertising firms. Since it was founded in 1953, it
helped create and define the entire public relations industry.
Today, it has offices across the globe, from New York to New Delhi,
and clients ranging from major corporations to national
governments.
The founders of Burson-Marsteller were pioneers when they went
into business over 50 years ago, and the agency is still on the
cutting edge today. David Brooks is the director of one of the
firm's most innovative divisions: Proof Digital Media, among the
first groups to integrate online marketing into public relations.
It creates Web sites, monitors and responds to social networking
activities, and builds user-generated media sites. And when its
client teams want to provide clients with dynamic and profitable
search marketing campaigns, they work with Clickable
Solutions.
Increased Complexity
Proof Digital Media has managed search marketing campaigns for
years, on Google AdWords and the Yahoo!-Microsoft SearchAlliance.
Recently, however, more and more Proof clients are asking for
support with pay-per-click. "Our activity got more serious," David
said. "More clients were calling for it." Many of
Burson-Marsteller's clients are conservative about their marketing,
but they no longer view SEM as optional. "About a year ago, it
really hit everybody's consciousness. We are flat out busy, so I
said, 'Let's price this first project with Clickable Solutions.'
"
A Partnership with Clickable Solutions
David was attracted to Clickable for a number of reasons. "I love
the self-service option, with an opportunity to manage the costs a
bit lower. I love the new approach of the algorithms driving what
they're doing." He also loved the fact that everything put together
by his marketing specialists and Clickable's associates would be
owned by Proof Digital Media: all of the intellectual property -
from keywords to campaign structure to ad copy - stays at the
agency.
Clickable's team impressed David right away with its ability to
grasp the important details about his clients and their goals.
"They pick up immediately on the concepts," he said, and build the
right campaigns for each client. The result? The best performance
David has ever seen.
Unprecedented Performance
"It's never half a percent, or one percent or two percent: it's
two or three or four-depending on what you are doing, five or 10 or
20!" David was talking about the click-through rates his clients
were seeing, but the same held true with an even more important
metric: conversion rates. In one case, the rates Clickable achieved
were the best David ever saw. "We got incredible results: 20 to
25 percent of the people who came in via the SEM program ended up
converting," he said. "I've been in Internet marketing for 13 years
and I've never seen that."
Offering New Services to Old Clients
Burson-Marsteller's partnership with Clickable Solutions couldn't
have come at a better time. The economic environment has made it
difficult to bring in new business, so it's important to be able to
offer more services to his existing clients. "In the case of our
largest clients, it's allowed us to sell more services, which is
vital in this environment," David said.
Despite having a fixed set of resources, David can offer search
marketing to all of Proof Digital Media's clients thanks to
Clickable Assist. "This allows us to add that into the mix very
easily," he said. "I can handle multiple clients at the same time
with a limited staff." He can also offer the service to other
clients within Burson-Marsteller. "I've evangelized and shared
Clickable within the company," he said.