The Online Media Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) Conference and Exposition/East dates have changed from September 24 to September 24 - 25, 2007. Program focuses on best practices for online marketing and advertising, addresses such topics as emerging markets and trends; visions for distributed content on the Web; and expanding revenue options. Event will take place in New York.

Registration is required.

Bookmark to:
         

On January 18 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, the Financial Communications Society (FCS) is holding their monthly luncheon. This month’s guest speaker is Barbara Glasser, Managing Director, Director of Marketing for Smith Barney.

The location of the luncheon is the New York Yacht Club, 37 West 44th Street
(b/t 5th and 6th Avenues).

To book a reservation online, visit the FCS website at http://www.fcsinteractive.com/events/reservations.aspx?eventID=1116

Bookmark to:
         

Last week a press release came across my desk announcing the IAB Elects 10 New Board Members.

It piqued my interest. After all, I’m the type of individual who likes to keep up with old colleagues. You know, do the networking thing and “don’t burn any bridges.” And I did notice a few familiar names. Riley McDonough from WebMD for example.

But what really made me laugh, I do that a lot when the IAB and PwC issue their Internet advertising figures, was not who the newly elected members are, but the number of Board members. It now stands at a larger than life 33.

“According to A Snapshot of America’s Nonprofit Boards, published by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, the average number of board meetings per year is eight, the majority of boards have meetings lasting two hours or less, and the average board member attendance is 71 percent.”

Talk about bloated and ineffective. Anybody know how long it takes to hold an IAB Board meeting with 33 members?
How can the 300 leading interactive companies who are members of the IAB, let the Board get so bloated? Hard to fathom.

Anyway, to put this into perspective we did some research and here is a list of randomly selected non-profits and their Board members.

American Society of Media Photographers: 15 members
The British Wool Marketing Board: 11 members
Mozilla Foundation: 5 members
Schwab Charitable Trust: 5 members

If anybody can find a non-profit with more than 33 members, please let me know and you’ll get a Starbucks $25.00 gift certificate courtesy of BlinnPR.

Bookmark to:
         

The 11th Annual Webby Awards is seeking entries for the year’s most outstanding Web sites in more than 100 categories, including beauty, fashion, retail, real estate, restaurant and television.

In addition, this year The Webby Awards have unveiled 15 new categories honoring interactive advertising and The Webby Film and Video Awards, the world’s first awards honoring film and video premiering on the Internet.

The early-bird deadline for entries is Oct. 27. For submission guidelines and entry details, visit http://www.webbyawards.com/entries/index.php.

Bookmark to:
         

Just returned from this year’s Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

Overall, I must say the ANA meeting provided a glimpse into changing times.

New technology garnered the most attention. Attendees agreed that new technology posses a chaotic challenge to the marketing world, but the industry for its part is adapting.

By most indications, the 1,000 marketers in attendance (half of which were senior brand managers from member companies) are navigating the nontraditional landscape with renewed vigor. The upbeat mood of the event was in sharp contrast to last year’s, held in Phoenix, where marketers were under siege battling critics on everything from obesity to their dependence on television advertising.

This year, it seemed that the industry has indeed embraced the idea of reinvention.

Brandweek’s Marketer of the Year event kicked off the conference on Thursday night. Toyota’s Jim Farley, group vp-marketing, was named Grand Marketer of the Year.

Procter & Gamble chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley, who keynoted Friday’s general session, contended that although media has changed, basic human needs haven’t. “What’s different is how people are using media and technology choices to meet their needs.”

Lafley cited, putting mirrored ads in women’s bathrooms asking, “Is your lipstick still on?” and running targeted five-second TV spots with the same theme helped P&G increase sales of its Cover Girl Outlast lipstick by 25%.

Hit consumers when they don’t expect it and offer a positive solution, he advised: “It’s not about being at all the touchpoints, it’s about being at the right touchpoint when the consumer is open to it.”

If there is any company struggling with reinvention right now, it is Wal-Mart. Stephen Quinn, svp-marketing, told the story of how the retailer’s namesake brand became threatened by the din of its critics and its dependence on one type of consumer: regular discount shoppers.

Global concerns came to the forefront numerous times. Lafley emphasized that in this age of the Gates Foundation and the Bono-driven Red effort to fight AIDS in Africa, it doesn’t hurt to trumpet your company’s charitable efforts. Hence, there was some mention of P&G’s laudable campaign to use its PUR technology to purify water in poor areas of Africa.

Sadly, said Lafley, some 5,000 babies die every day from drinking fouled water on the continent.

Still, there were numerous times during the event that it seemed marketers should not be brimming with confidence amidst this new world order.

Missteps weren’t hard to come by during presentations in which ANA president/CEO Bob Liodice cited scandal-marred Hewlett-Packard as an example of corporate accountability. The Partnership for a Drug Free America was credited with creating a 30% drop in drug use, even though a recent Government Accountability Office report blasted the $1.4 billion effort as ineffective. The capper was perhaps Linda Kaplan Thaler showing a spoof video that skewered Wal-Mart with footage of goose-stepping soldiers taking over the U.S., just minutes before Quinn took the stage to talk about reinvention.

Most stories of reinvention, heard from many speakers, seemed to require abolishing or diminishing the use of the 30-second television spot. However, marketers seem to have trouble doing so as nearly every presentation began, ended or heavily spotlighted big-spending brands’ 30-second TV ads.

Kaplan Thaler, head of her eponymous New York ad agency, offered a more lighthearted variation on the theme of tech-driven change with a whimsical theory. She said that the 30-second TV spot might resume its rightful place in the media hierarchy in 2016 after people stop using the Internet and decide they want big media companies to once again tell them what to watch.

Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to email or post your comments.

Bookmark to:
         

The American Assn. of Advertising Agencies has hired GolinHarris for an image campaign as the industry’s “Advertising Week” salute kicks off this week.

The PR effort, according to Advertising Age, is to burnish the industry’s image and “stave off negative headlines.” Good luck.

Unfortunately, there’s a larger problem at play here, and that’s the advertising industry’s realization that its future is in doubt in the wake of technological and media breakthroughs.

Having GolinHarris pitch trend stories and putting on a back slapping event like Advertising Week is not going to change the fact that people are watching less television and agencies are creating mediocre advertising at best. When was the last time an agency created a kick ass advertising campaign?

No, what the advertising industry really needs are smart, sharp people who get it.

Agree, disagree? Email me your thoughts.

Cheers,

Steven

Bookmark to: