Forsman & Bodenfors Understand The Game + A Free Idea

Every now and then I’m criticized for being too hard on the Swedish advertising business. And sure, I have criticized agencies here for not understanding search marketing, for being ten years behind when it comes to web development and for being so blinded by YouTube views that they forget relevance and the client’s bottom line. I do, however, never say these things out of malice. I always engage in these discussions with one clear purpose – to create direction in this rapidly changing business and to make us all better. Criticism is a gift, so bring it on.

Forsman & Bodenfors Understand The Game

Some people understand this, and here I would like to give extra kudos to Forsman & Bodenfors who I think have taken this criticism very well and actually still talk to me. (We even have an occasional beer together). They understand that this is about playing hard out there on the court to make us all better. They also seem to remember that it is a court, and that it is a game. Off the court, we laugh and hug (well, almost).

Anyway, to show my appreciation for F&B’s constructive attitude, I will give away a free idea for fb.se at the end of this post. Stay tuned!

Results from the SEO-Debacle?

And what about the results of discussions like the one around SEO? I think that we are all getting better! At Honesty, we know most people in the SEO-business, and thus hear all about how ad agencies are now running around trying to recruit SEO-experts. This is great for our industry, even though I think most agencies still have a really hard time finding good people to recruit. Nevertheless, it shows that agencies are now starting to take search marketing seriously. I think that people will also starting to question if YouTube-views is really a good measurement of success.

On a side note, I find it funny that those agencies who will not find people to recruit, will have to look for suppliers elsewhere, and when consulting Internet World’s list of Sweden’s most important SEO-companies they will find… Honesty! (Click to enlarge the picture).

So. Back to my promise. Here comes the free idea for Forsman & Bodenfors

Free Idea for Forsman & Bodenfors

Hi F&B!
I don’t know if you realize exactly how good and potentially useful your URL is? Fb.se is extremely short, shorter than most URL shorteners like bit.ly. Why not use that creatively? Start your own URL-shortener service using your URL to promote good content.

A specialized URL-shortener focused on, say, advertising and communication would be a perfect platform for creating a portal for “top-shared-ads-of-sweden” or even “…the world”. (Now, DDB, don’t steal this. It’s a gift for F&B).

So why, you ask, would people use this one instead of j.mp or bit.ly? Well – when using a specialized shortener for ad nerds a lot of quality traffic to the shared links will be generated. Trackbacks and relevant followers to Twitter accounts used would also be a benefit. And like I said, this would not be just any ol’ traffic, but quality traffic from people interested in your specific area of business. It’s win-win.

And how is this good for you? Need I even answer this question?
Your URL is rare. Use it. Happy coding!