06|2018SYSTEM SEARCH系统化搜索Published byBLINK_System Search2MediaCom is “The Content + Connections Agency”, working on behalf of its clients to leverage their brands entire system of communications across paid, owned and earned channels to deliver a step change in their business outcomes. MediaCom is one of the worlds leading media communications specialists, with billings near us$33 billion (source: ReCMA June 2017), employing 7,000 people in 125 offices across 100 countries. its global client roster includes dell, Mars, P if you want to find out about a product or get the best price (without having to fear fraud) you can go directly to Tmall, Jd or Amazon; if you are looking for specific content, a hashtag is usually a good place to start.As consumers are becoming more and more literate in using the internet it simply is more convenient to search directly on the most appropriate platform. eliminating the number of clicks shortens the path to purchase or to entertainment or information, whatever the case may be.And as the relationship between consumer and platforms is always both push and pull eCommerce sites such as Tmall and social networks such as Weibo have significantly improved their search functionalities. This, in turn, increases the convenience even further and draws more and more consumers to social search and to eComm search.The result is that overall search queries on baidu are down, while they are up significantly on social and eCommerce. it is difficult to say this in absolute numbers (as the platforms do not publish this for obvious reasons) but at MediaCom we estimate that overall search on baidu has dropped 10% for product keywords. On the other hand, we know for certain that 65% of all product searches now happen on eCommerce direct, and in social the increase in celebrity content search is even more dramatic.it is said that consumers lead the way in marketing: where they go, budgets must follow. As consumers have changed their search behavior significantly, budget allocation in search needs to be revisited.How SEARCH bEHAvioR HAS CHAngEd ever since Google really kicked off back in the early 2000s with baidu following later in China search engines were the go-to destination for all and any question a consumer might have had. however, as the digital landscape changed over the years so did search behavior. BLINK_System Search5On social platforms, brands can influence both the non-organic and the organic ranking, much like they can in traditional search engines. For the non-organic ranking in WeChat, brands can create a mini-program which will automatically move the brand to the top of any search results page when the query includes the brand name. To improve the organic results, brands should produce “organic content” that includes the brand name. The most common type of searches on social platforms are for KOls, diy content and peer recommendations, and this type of content allows brands to rank higher because the search algorithms prefer it.in short, search in social is very much about content: KOls showboating themselves with a product in the context of their celebrity lifestyle; peer group influencers discussing the merits of a certain brand; entertainment content; brand activations that are hashtagged; or simply lifestyle brands, for example in luxury or fashion, producing their own sharable content.in eCommerce, on the other hand, search is much more product focused. Consumers go directly to eComm search if they are interested in the technical specifications of a brand or a product; if they are looking for reviews or want to know the best price they use eComm search. Quite often they are using this type of online search when they are in an offline store to decide which brand to buy at what price. eCommerce search on both Alibaba and Jingdong operates very similar to a traditional search listing in regard to its mechanism. however, the big difference being people will usually be searching for either the category or a brand directly. They typically already know their consideration set or what they want and are checking to see what price they can get it for.The rapid growth of Alibaba and Jing dong means that for most people in the country both platforms are now being used daily. in other words, every day close to 100m Chinese are visiting one of these two platforms to look for something. This is a massive opportunity for brands and a fast growing search listing ad market on those platforms has been built to accommodate this demand.China takes 60% of the worlds eCommerce revenue share.SEARCH in SoCiAl And ECoMMERCE: sAMe-sAMe, buT diFFeReNTin 2017, Chinas largest social media platforms, sina Weibo and Tencents WeChat, launched their search platforms. both platforms allow users to enter a search query and receive a detailed listing of algorithmically ranked results. And on eCommerce, product searches have always been possible but they now happen on a daily basis. in FMCG and hair care, 70% of searches start with category keywords such as “shampoo”.35b usd worth of sales in 1 day across Chinas singles day: November 11 2017.BLINK_System Search6As the search paradigm changes so must the way we plan search Marketing and how we integrate it with the rest of brands communication ecosystems. We need an approach that looks at search across the multiple channels: seM, eCommerce and social. The new paradigm demands that we approach search quite differently. We need to better plan what content is developed for each platform, given the type of content people are searching for. We need to define the budget split and how each channel should be used given the role it plays in a consumers search journey. And we need to make sure that we leverage the right keywords for each platform. To meet these challenges, we have developed a new approach to search. One that is bound to radically change the industry (or at least this aspect of the industry). We call this approach, system search. by precisely analyzing what consumers are searching for on what platform we are able to predict search patterns across the 3 pillars and define a holistic, systematic search strategy.Our system search approach consists of 8 distinct steps from a comprehensive audit to ongoing tracking and optimization:A PARAdigM SHifT: FROM seARCh TO sysTeM seARChConnECTEd CATEgoRY AudiTA thorough analysis of what consumers are searching for across all search platforms: content, formats, platforms, keywords. A cluster analysis helps us to determine search patterns and category search dynamics.PlATfoRM AnAlYSiSA deep dive across each pillar and each platform to understand keyword distribution. This allows us to gain insight into the role each platform plays in the search universe of our consumers.21SYSTEM SEARCH inSigHTSAggregating the findings to identify patterns: seasonality, consumer segmentations and category insights. A semantic deep dive helps us to understand the real meaning behind the most common keywords and informs our key-word buying strategy.SYSTEM STRATEgYA combination of keyword strategy and budget allocation. using an iterative scenario optimization algorithm, we define the optimum balance between platforms and keywords.43ConTEnT dEfiniTionMaking sure the content fits the search pattern. using our Format Optimizer matrix, we define the type and format that will best fit the search behavior of the different consumer segments.5BLINK_System Search7dYnAMiC ConTEnT CREATionleveraging our content engines to create the right content at the right time. Our 40 system search experts at MediaCom connect across search, social, and eCommerce determining the right content for each. The content is responsive to signals people let off; e.g., searching for a product in eComm will trigger a product/price/promotion message.ConTEnT diSTRibuTionJust-in-time, programmatic distribution of the right content to the right people on the right platform. Content is programmatically distributed across WeChat and Weibo using their dsP tools: GdT and Fanzitong; on eComm Alibaba and Jingdongs RTb targeting features are used; and keyword buying is done through traditional search engines.76MEASuREMEnT Google is great as a search platform, for finding videos and for maps but is not connected to commerce or social; and Facebook or Twitter have also specialized on what they do best. This is very much a vertical approach: deep specialism in one thing but almost no integration.in China, however, the digital world is structured horizontally. specifically, Alibaba and Tencent offer a multitude of apps and services that are all connected with each other. Consumers can go seamlessly from social interaction to content to shopping without ever leaving the ecosystem theyre in.interestingly, it is the once-dominant search expert, baidu, who has fallen behind in this game of integration and does not offer integrated social or commerce services. Alibaba and Tencent, however, are fully furnished:CHinAS ConnECTEd ECoSYSTEMS nECESSiTATE A ConnECTEd APPRoACHThis probably explains why in terms of market cap, baidu is lagging behind Alibaba and Tencent:bAidu AlibAbA TEnCEnT471buSdSEARCHECoMMERCE n/ASoCiAl n/AOne of the key reasons we developed systems search is because as system Thinkers we obsess about breaking down the silos between seM, social and eCommerce. There is, however, another structural reason why we had to develop a systematic approach to search: the ecosystem gardens of the bAT.553buSd88buSdThe bAT ecosystems: baidu falling behind.BLINK_System Search10Another dominant player in Chinas digital landscape has emerged as a significant contender in todays convergent world: Jingdong. Much like Alibaba and Tencent, Jd is attempting to create a fully integrated ecosystem of content and commerce which opens up entirely new possibilities. Over the last year, Jd has launched black dragon and JingX, their answer to Alibabas uni desk. both tools offer advertisers a way to match users of other media platforms for example Toutiao (news), iQiyi (video) or baidu News with Jing dong eCommerce data. While black dragon then takes the user to a website outside of Jing dong, JingX always lands on the brands Jing dong page. As a consequence, both eCommerce giants are now able to assign single-user ids to their shoppers in order to follow, track and target them on almost every digital platform in China uni desk within the Alibaba ecosystem and black dragon almost everywhere else.This enables what we call “ecosystem Commerce”: targeting consumers based on their eCommerce buying history as well as their content preferences, their social interests and their digital behavior.Traditionally, brands only targeted consumers “inside” the shopping platforms to drive traffic to the brands store and to increase conversion. but in ecosystem Commerce it becomes possible to seamlessly connect the point of engagement and the point of transaction.ecosystem Commerce leads to a much bigger scale for brands, even for China standards. For example, Jingdong gets around 35m daily visitors to its website. however, once you start targeting across its new partners this grows rapidly. Toutiao has around 100m daily visitors and iQiyi close to 200m daily visitors and we are now able to communicate with all of these people based on their purchase behavior in Jing dong.THE nExT fRonTiER: sysTeM COMMeRCeAlibabainSidE CoMMERCEECoSYSTEM CoMMERCEouTSidE CoMMERCEJdTencent (via Jd)uni deskJing x & black dragonJingteng (via Jd)ling Shou Tong & HemaJd franchise Stores & 7freshSmart Retail SolutionsSYSTEM CoMMERCEsystem Commerce: highly sophisticated opportunities to target shoppers.