Market Research Industry
Search Marketing Firm Rides Wave of Success
Monday, 26, April 2010
Russ Mann recalls the sultry Friday afternoon in August about five years ago when he joined several others at the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla to talk about search engine marketing.In the room were top marketing executives from some of the largest companies in the world, including Disney, IBM, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.“The light went off that it was the third wave. The big companies were just waking up,” said Mann, chief executive officer and co-founder of Covario Inc., a Carmel Valley-based search marketing firm.
A veteran of several major software businesses, including HNC Software Inc., Fair Isaac Corp. and Peregrine Systems Inc., Mann was well acquainted with the evolution of marketing via the Internet. The first wave of firms to capitalize on the PC revolution were e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc., quickly followed by large retailers such as The Home Depot and Best Buy, which were intent on retaining their consumer bases.