Search for the next Big Brother winner

Posted on May 30, 2007
Filed Under big brother |

A summer of debauchery is nearly upon us with tonight's launch of Big Brother 8. Yet another opportunity for the British nation to shame itself on the international media stage. But whatever you think of Big Brother, it does generate massive search volumes, so I've had a quick look on Google to see who's ready to pick this traffic up.

	The obvious advertisers. Big Brother is massive for the tabloid press during the traditionally slow summer. BB ensures that there always something to write about.
	"Heatworld.com - from those Heat magazine people…" says the web site. They need to watch out if the revolution comes. However, perhaps the second most obvious advertiser. I don't know what Heat would do without BB.
	Here is a lesson in reviving stuff you did from the previous year. Advertising is about communicating to the right person, at the right time, with the right message. Guess which one of those three is wrong. The destination web site is "…a unique and exciting new service for people just like you wanting to become famous." More people who need to be wary if the revolution is just around the corner.
	Hold on to your referrer logs folks, because here's Google's Extended Broad Match! I'm at a loss as to why this ad is showing; surely they aren't bidding on the keyword 'big brother'. They offer outsourced IT management solutions. I'm struggling to see the connection. Answers on a postcard please.

It should be said that other advertisers did show when I took my highly unscientific sample (including Domino's Pizza, which I thought was interesting), but campaign budgets meant only the above were regular ads.

The contestants are announced tonight, so I'll have a look tomorrow to see who's really sharp and is bidding on those too. The real prize goes to the advertiser who can monitor search volumes on contestant names and try to predict the weekly evictions. Those efforts would no doubt be handsomely rewarded by a Mr W. Hill.

Update: Respect to The Sun. I just did a search for 'Shabnam', 'Chanelle' and 'Sam and Amanda'. Top marks to The Sun, they had an AdWords listing for each one:

I've also just had a look on Yahoo to see what's happening there. None of the advertisers above were listed. Hopefully the launch of the Panama platform, with its Fast Ad Activation, will help advertisers respond more quickly on Yahoo as well as Google.