Hungarian internet service providers, train companies and take-away businesses all slipped in Google search rankings last week after Speed headed to Budapest for its annual planning session.

During the course of the trip the Speed crew was set a challenge that set boys against girls, in a one-day bid to test the ability of public relations techniques to influence search planning and delivery.

The brief was simple:  the two teams were required to create content and links in such a way that it appeared as high as possible on Google for the search term Speed Budapest.

Each team had a very distinct strategy.

The girls deployed a social strategy and aimed to climb up the rankings by generating conversation and links on Speed’s blog, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter around a single piece of content.

The boys used a content and link strategy generating and optimising editorial and building links via a series of blogs posts.

Both teams used the #speedbudapest hashtag to report on the challenge.

The girls approach generated the largest amount of conversation but the boys snagged the top five results on Google.com as a result of the volume of text, image and video content that they created (since dropped back). Inbound links from sites such as WSJ.com also helped, acting as authority signals.

Special mentions to Neil Carter for his Reservoir Blogs photo (edited via Picnik) and Dan Howe for a wonderful animated GIF for his #SpeedBudapest: How to business travel without any luggage post.

Speed has a history of unique training days.

The Digital Apprentice challenge saw staff challenged to do public relations differently using only digital media, enabling consultants to apply techniques that hadn’t previously been possible. Meanwhile the Speed Creative Apprentice challenge took things further by applying brainpower to creating influence through all the media at our disposal: conventional, social and branded.

This time we learned to use search marketing to meet a set challenge and had to think quick and adapt their strategies in an competitive and time-constrained environment. While a PR brief wouldn’t necessarily call for such a specific challenge, the skills can be adapted to making PR content work harder for clients.

Why would you build a web site as a means of engaging with your audience if it is elsewhere on the social web?

This year we’ve started to see the demise of the campaign web site. Instead brands are investing in a presence on social networks such as Facebook pages in a bid to capture the attention of consumers.

Facebook is home to more than 800 million active users more than half of which log on in any given day.

But there is a risk in investing your marketing effort and reputation in building a presence on a third party platform; you’re beholden to the third-party.

Last week we learnt of a cautionary tale from German drug maker Merck KGaA. It lost control of its Facebook page to US rival Merck & Co in October.

Both firms originate from a pharmacy set up in Darmstadt, Germany in 1668. The business split after World War I.

Facebook apologised yesterday saying that it was a mistake to let Merck & Co take over the page. The www.facebook.com/merck URL currently redirects to the Facebook home page and will continue to be unavailable for use by either company.

Facebook’s quick and apparently fair response is a clear indication that it is sensitive to the issue of being gatekeeper to a brand’s community and marketing assets.

In the debate about the future of media, journalism is under assault from reduced production budgets and user generated content, yet professional journalism has never been more important.

Proponents of social media are excited by its potential to disrupt the news process, but for every story broken via Twitter I’ll show you ten that are exaggerated, plainly incorrect, or pure propaganda.

As PR Week reports today we’re chuffed to bits to announce that the Associated Press (AP) has hired Speed to deliver a retained brand campaign for its international operations outside North America to assert the value of professional journalism.

The campaign will aim to build the AP brand. It will focus on issues-led, thought leadership and corporate programmes. To deliver the campaign, the four-person account team will integrate itself within the AP news centre in Camden, London.

The AP is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from the AP. It is a story of global exclusives, award-winning journalism and resolute trust.

“Speed’s role will be to help AP tell its own story,” said Julia Howe, Marketing Director, EMEA & Asia, AP.

“AP does what it takes to get the story for its customers, even in the world’s most dangerous and challenging places,” said Scott McLean, director, Speed.

Speed will deliver the programme in each of AP’s primary markets outside the US, namely the UK, Germany and Japan. The account will be led by Speed’s McLean reporting to AP’s Howe.

Here’s an article that I’ve written for Fresh Business Thinking continuing my thesis that search will give way to social search and recommendation via social networks.

It’s a topic that I’m picking up in a pitch at Reputation Online’s Live event ‘Where social meets search and PR’ event on Friday in London.

There’s a cracking line-up of speakers including Sony Ericsson’s Ben Padley, Punch Communications’ Pete Goold, Browser Media’s Joe Friedlein and O2’s Alex Pearmain.

My relationship with coupon business GroupOn flips between love and hate. Here’s the issue: its sales teams have to work hard to seek out fresh deals that appeal to registered users.

London’s deals on Monday were a Chocolate Massage or Colonic Hydrotherapy. As a bloke in my 40s I almost certainly fall outside the golden 18-to-34 year old demographic. I haven’t taken up a deal since January.

GroupOn’s model is based on brokering volume deals with retailers that are prepared to discount their sale price by at least 50 per cent. GroupOn then takes 50 per cent of the sale price as commission and credits a retailer when a voucher is redeemed.

Mixed retailer results
There is no doubt that it is a model that drives business for retailers and is a good way to generate interest in a new business or sell used inventory providing that the retailer is prepared to take the discount as a marketing cost.

Not all retailers that have used GroupOn have been happy with the results, claiming to have been overwhelmed with customers seeking discounts, and that the promotions haven’t resulted in repeat business. GroupOn campaigns clearly need to be well planned as part of broader marketing effort.

Publishers ready coupon businesses
Meanwhile, newspaper publishers have spotted both the opportunity and threat that voucher-businesses offer to display advertising. Why would a high street retailer advertise in a newspaper when it could drive footfall via a voucher mechanic?

Telegraph Selected is the Daily Telegraph’s new daily deals site for London readers and Peter Kirwan writing in Journalism.co.uk last week says that the Daily Mail is preparing to launch a GroupOn-like proposition.

Facebook Deals
But the real threat to GroupOn is Facebook. Yesterday it started testing a new social buying service that enables interested users to subscribe to coupon-like check-in deals.

Facebook Deals is currently limited to Altanta, Austin, Dallas, San Francisco and San Diego, but if and when the social network decides take the initiative international and harness its user data and social sharing via the site it could be a real threat to GroupOn.