SES, Munich - March 2007

This post comes exactly two months after SES, Munich 07 - where I had my first real taste of the SEM business in Germany.
My comments -
1. Given the penetration levels of the internet, I had expected greater sophistication from the SEM Agencies. I would estimate that the agencies are still - on an average - a year to a year and half behind US
2. Some very unique mathematical work is in progress in some top universities on multi-lingual search especially on areas like personalization, behavioral targeting, etc
3. I was a speaker in a panel of international experts that discussed the future of search. We juggled around mostly standard topics like potential Google beaters, usability, mobile search, etc. I added an outside US and UK dimension to the discussion. Indeed, search would have arrived when there is a certain degree of searching homogeneity and usage across the globe. Thankfully, the time lag between the most advanced internet nation (Korea? USA? Japan?) and the others is not too large- 4 years?.
4. For the agencies: In Germany "Performance Marketing Agencies" are in vogue - there are very few pure play PPC management firms (actually, I don't know if there are any)

5. German online advertising market is poised to "explode" - and the smart early movers would win significant amount of business here with adequate focus

-Udayan Bose