There's a new blog called Tribble Ad Agency, spoofing ad agency (lack of) knowledge of search engine optimization that has SEO community chuckling and traditional advertising types fuming. http://www.tribbleagency.com The spoof site takes on ad execs by suggesting they are wasteful of client money with the tag line, "We look cute, but boy do we consume resources!"
The reference, for non-trekkies, is to a classic Star Trek episode about furry little adorable aliens that reproduce at an unbelievable rate and threaten to destroy the crew of the Starship Enterprise. More at:
http://www.badmovies.org/tvshows/startrek/tribbles/
The Tribble Agency site takes a jab at traditional advertising by suggesting that the industry is clueless when it comes to the web and especially organic search engine visibility and ranking. The following quote comes from the main page of the new site:
"Our Business Model is simple, never build something that could really help your company without our billable fees ... Tribble Ad Agency got the rug swept out from under us and we never realized it until it was too late. The entire planet moved to Google, Yahoo and MSN organic results and we were making print ads for magazines and our online marketing efforts yielded 100% unspiderable Flash websites that generated no traffic."
A traditional advertising and branding apologist has posted a rant on the comment section of the Tribble Ad Agency blog. The post featured two jabs from the advertising supporter showing precisely the lack of understanding of SEO the spoof site is poking fun at when he says, "The only thing you SEO/SEM clowns know is how to add text to web documents." Which is true at the end of the day. This is clear proof he doesn't understand the value of text. He downplays the importance of search with the comment, "Search engines are pretty much a big generic network hub that focus on keywords, not branding."
Showing no understanding of the value of text in web pages, nor any clue about the importance of search engines, er "generic network hubs", (which do billions in business each) he amplifies the schism between advertising and search oriented minds. He clearly doesn't understand the value of ranking well at search engines for generic keywords, which can't be achieved by traditional print or broadcast advertising. People search for keywords online, and if a business web site ranks well for generic keywords which describe the brand, they'll sell more products, both online and offline.