Combining Search Calls-To-Action in offline marketing and a smart search engine marketing campaign online can bring in big results, and major Search Engines have begun to push its advertisers to give it a try.

After Orange launched offline campaigns that encouraged viewers to remember and make a search online it saw big jumps in traffic, and Google wants others to mimic Orange’s success.

Nick Gill, head of account management at Yahoo UK, said, “As search is most people’s starting point on the web, it makes sense to encourage them to search for a particular phrase or term. It’s easier for consumers to remember a search call to action than a phone number or specific URL.”

Spencer McHugh, head of brand communications at Orange, said it intends to increase its use of search prompts in advertising in 2009 after it saw an uplift in online traffic from its I Am campaign.

The campaign, which included TV ads featuring the prompt ‘Search online for I Am online’, exceeded expectations in driving users to search for the phrase.

“Our reporting shows a 15% increase in web traffic as a direct result of the I Am campaign and the ‘Search for’ prompt,” McHugh said. “The next stage is adding more creative elements to it.”

Of course, for the ad to work, an optimization campaign on their web properties was also required. Hotels looking to drive more traffic that are currently utilizing offline media in tandem with online efforts would do well to making their efforts a concerted and more profitable effort.

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