SES NYC expo center a joke?

[Elisabeth]

Originally Posted by FeldBum

I don't see what the big deal is.

Compared to the Ad:Tech New York Show and parties (1,2 - SNSFW*) and the DMA in New Orleans, the SEO Inc girls looked like nuns.

*Somewhat Not Safe For Work

Afterparties are NOT EQUAL to the conference show floor.

[Voodoo Buddha]

I thought the whole idea was to find a company that could make you lots of money, then if you're really that hard-up you could buy a harem rather than having to settle for oggling one.

Besides, hiring the right SEO company will make you richer and smarter, which will in turn make you sexier as well (well, hopefully, if your BO ain't too bad). So which would you prefer: hire a company that wastes their marketing budget on skinny waifs, or a company with real substance and puts their marketing budget towards people with a vocubulary more than "Giggle?"

Maybe the next thing we'll see is topless dancers during an actual speaker's presentation. (That would make for quite a keynote.)

[Joseph Morin]

Hmmmm......I just noticed that the exhibitor in question here...is no longer in the Google index.

Perhaps a high ranking female executive at Google walked by their booth and was not amused....

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

Maybe they are just using (new) off site parameters ... Try with adult filtering off

[andrewgoodman]

I'm just glad I now know what a "delt" is. Scottie, I was just bugging you. For some reason probably linked to excessive TV-watching in the early 90's (do the names "Rick, Kiana, and Kendall" ring a bell?) I know what a delt is. And frankly with the NHL strike, I don't really know what to do with myself, so I write these idiotic posts.

Come to think of it, maybe hiring a few out-of-work NHL'ers as booth cretins would help us drum up a little business... hmmm.... anyone have Darcy Tucker's phone number?

But seriously...

[Chris Boggs]

Originally Posted by Joseph Morin

Hmmmm......I just noticed that the exhibitor in question here...is no longer in the Google index.

Perhaps a high ranking female executive at Google walked by their booth and was not amused....

They certainly did something to piss someone off at Google...they are completely banned, it looks like to me. Not even their URL in the search box works. Could this also be symptomatic to sandboxing or no? I did notice they are still #1 in Yahoo and MSN for "seo inc"

so, can we wonder why in here? Too many links (see this thread)? Spamming? Any guesses?

[Mel]

What an interesting thread, so many strong opinions!

It has been said that there is no such thing as bad publicity and if this seven page thread is any indication, SEOinc must have gotten thier moneys worth.

I was not present, but would nevertheless like to offer an opinion:

I think all of us are used to much more suggestive advertising (and movies and TV and Billboards....) than that, but IMO it seems that the real point is being missed - the girls were not there to sell SEO services but to attract attention to the SEOinc booth where according to reports, compentent individuals were on hand to make presentations and answer questions.

While it may not be a popular opinion, IMO if a customer is not smart enough to cut through the schmaltz to the heart of the business, he's not worth having as a customer.

BTW I wonder if the thousands of emails sent out recently (supposedly on behalf of SEOinc) to webmasters offering to participate in a three way link trade, had anything to do with thier Google problems?

[Voodoo Buddha]

So its the customer's job to cut through the schmaltz, and just simply take it as an acceptable (albeit desparate) means of getting attention and making false insinuations? (Offer for sex as a means of initial enticement, then expecting the customer to accept the joke and now be captivated by an SEM company who considers a sensible use of their marketing budget should be spent on sterotypical hot chicks.)

There's a good way and a bad way of appealing the our baser instincts. At least the Web Analytics company, ClickTracks, did a good job by having an Elvis Impersonator roam the expo a few conferences back in San Jose, handing out Enquirer-style newspapers of him with the ClickTracks "Alien" icon. Titilating but never pretending to be something its not.

[mcanerin]

At the end of the day, I guess it boils down to two questions:

1. Did it work? I imagine only SEOInc would know the answer to this. I suspect the rest of us will know when we see their next booth staff

2. Is the industry prepared to accept it? There is a difference between accepting and embracing, of course. Personally, I would never use booth babes, but I might use local help to provide a presence at a booth when I could not be there (I can't be everywhere at once).

They would be dressed professionally and actually know something about the company, but that's just me - I tend to have conservative clients, and I'm conservative myself.

If my clients were all adult or beer companies and that was my target market, I might have a very different opinion as to the acceptability of booth babes, and they may be quite effective for my target audience.

The question then would be whether or not the industry would accept it. There can be things that are effective yet unacceptable, and that's pretty much an industry issue.

Canadian lawyers, for example, have determined that TV ads that sell legal services in the same way and manner as used cars, and offering free gifts for new clients, are unacceptable. It's not illegal, and might even be effective, but it's considered bad for the industry as a whole, for example. This is not true in some other countries, where anything goes, as long as it's legal.

I'm not sure we are at the point where we have an "industry" in the sense that it could come to an enforcable consensus yet. Some groups are trying , but I think it will be a while yet. So it would be up to Jupiter Media and the venue/hotel in question for now, I imagine.

No answers, just some thoughts.

Ian

[Mel]

Originally Posted by Voodoo Buddha

So its the customer's job to cut through the schmaltz, and just simply take it as an acceptable (albeit desparate) means of getting attention and making false insinuations? (Offer for sex as a means of initial enticement, then expecting the customer to accept the joke and now be captivated by an SEM company who considers a sensible use of their marketing budget should be spent on sterotypical hot chicks.)

There's a good way and a bad way of appealing the our baser instincts. At least the Web Analytics company, ClickTracks, did a good job by having an Elvis Impersonator roam the expo a few conferences back in San Jose, handing out Enquirer-style newspapers of him with the ClickTracks "Alien" icon. Titilating but never pretending to be something its not.

Thats not an assumption voodoo thats an opinion, and if you will take the trouble to read and understand the thread you will see that there was no sex involved anywhere but in your mind.

Personally If I have my choice of looking at Elvis impersonators or attrative women I'll take the women evey time.

Personally If I have my choice of looking at Elvis impersonators or attrative women I'll take the women evey time.

Me too. (...this is a me too post )

[James Liddell]

There is a very obvious reaction to PC building in this nation and, frankly, elsewhere in the world. People want to get back to having fun, kidding with each other--kidding each other, being naughty and just plain being human again, instead of cheeks-sucked-in puritans.

The age of the whine is ending and I, for one, am glad to see it go.

Let's have fun again is the coming new rule.

Get used to it.

Jim

[dannysullivan]

It's actually probably nearing time to close off this thread, so I'll do a call for last orders on commenting.

I actually contacted SEO Inc. a few weeks ago, because I was curious to know what exactly they thought. Was going to make it into a blog post, but since the thread has reawakened, I'll dump here. Here are the questions sent to their PR company answers:

Question: Did they find in the end that it was worthwhile to have these women in the booth?

Answer: SEO, Inc.'s purpose at SES was to raise brand awareness for our company and overall interest in Search Engine Optimization as an important and growing segment of Search Engine Marketing. We feel these goals were accomplished, and done so within boundries approved by Jupiter Media for this trade show.

Question: Any reaction to some of those who said is was demeaning to women?

Answer: The models at our booth were professionals with expertise in trade show promotion. Our employees, including the female employees, were all wearing suits, and we also received negative comments regarding their attire.

Question (follow up to the above): On the negative comments, you mean people were saying they didn't want the female employees in suits? What did they want them to be wearing? Did they object to the men being in suits?

Answer: SEO Inc employees, including both male and female, were criticized by their attire by a variety of negative comments – some of which are listed in the discussion on SearchEngineWatch.com.


Question: Any thought on whether they might have men in the same capacity?

Answer:
Simply, our purpose is to raise brand awareness, not gender politics!

So back to Ian -- yes, I think they felt it worked, but the real answer will be if they or someone else repeats it.

Is the industry ready to accept it? I think the debate certainly says not entirely. In the end, I suspect it's going to be up to each company to make a decision.

[rankforsales]

Personally, I think its inappropriate and out of context. I do understand if some women in our industry would have been offended by this.

If SEO Inc. needs to revert to 'booth babes' to convince clients 'to be on top', maybe they are missing the point.

[mcanerin]

It's probably also important to realize that usually the people posting on the "yay" or "nay" side of this type of thread are vocal and opinionated, which is why they post (not me, of course - I'm merely a humble servant of fora with no opinions whatsoever! )

For example, SEW Forums is rapidly coming up to it's 5000th member and 1st year anniversary, yet I suspect less than 5% of it's members actually post. The rest lurk and learn.

We don't know if their opinions are mirrored here or not. It would be interesting to find out what the silent majority think about all of this.

Perhaps they have strong feelings but think that their viewpoint has been adequately presented by some of the posters, or perhaps they simply consider it a non-issue.

It would be interesting to find out which. Until then, I agree that this thread has pretty much run out of steam and that all the major opinions and sides have been represented, and represented well.

Ian

Neither Yay or Nay here. I could care less (I still get 2 tickets for free beer right?).

I am just amazed it has raised so much attention.

[SanDiegoSEO]

Originally Posted by nightingale

Marcia,
I do not see any messages from SeoInc on this forum! Guess why!!!!
They do not have time for this.
They working probably on thousand leads from SES NY expo!
And that was the whole point!
What I saw they had triple traffic by their both that had searchenginewatch ))

Enjoy, be happy for them and have a great Day.
Nightingale

TMunny is an SEO Inc employee

[SanDiegoSEO]

Like htme or hate them, the purpose of having a booth at a trade show is to attract people to it. If their booth was busy then they did what they set out to do. You cannot ban booth girls. The pictures I've seen were not unexceptable.

You will always offend some people. Theres no point in trying to avoid it. SEO Inc needed a way to attract people to their booth. If they hadn't had any people come by, what would be the point? I work in a casual work environment, and the attire I've seen the booth girls wear is similar to what I see in my office. Who is to say having slack and a tanktop is inappropriate, when many women at the SES shows wear tight skirts?

Would it have made a difference if the girls knew anything about SEO??? Seems the female employees that SEO Inc brought were dressed professionally. So they used the "do what it takes to get them here, then use our experience to keep them here" tactic. Seems the majority of people that are complaining about it, are those that wouldnt have ended up using SEO for their services anyway.

[dannysullivan]

Thanks -- hadn't actually realized this thread was still open. I'd mentioned earlier I'd be closing it, since the debate all around seemed to have run its course. So actually making that closure now.