As I noted in this post a couple of months ago, this economy is really going to suck some wind from the sales. (Yes, I know a bad pun when I write it!) Today, I felt the first effects of it: MajorCorporateClientX just missed its quarterly earnings "by a mile" and suddenly that no-bid proposal that was a sure thing is simply gone. Another project for that client has shifted from Q2 to Q3. Buckle up.

As budgets shrink, I expect we'll see a drop in attendance at B2B events in the coming year. We'll see internal events scale down. We'll see less ostentatious consumer events. One the other end of the spectrum, I think we'll see continued growth in social media marketing -- sponsored facebook applications, blogging, influencer networks, and the YouTubing of the corporate world. There's no cheaper way to gather a crowd and engage them in conversation, and the fact that it is a conversation, with consumers self-selecting to interact with your brand, makes it not just cheap but also valuable.

We're launching a facebook application for one of our clients this week. I'll be posting more about it after launch.

I recently read a white paper from Event Marketer entitled "Portfolio Consolidation" and within this paper was a section on cost containment pertaining to 3rd party suppliers. They used a phrase I have been looking to find or "coin" myself for years. Many people (including myself) use boring descriptions like "Supplier Programs", "Vendor Management", "Preferred Suppliers" ....anyone else yawning yet? I thought so. Yes, I know "Procurement" while essential, important and powerful can be, well, a bit dry. However, I'm one of the odd ones and I'm very passionate about it. I prefer to think of a good procurement department or Director of Procurement more as the "Dr Phil" of supplier relationships. Personally I believe procurements core tenant is to create and maintain an environment in which relationships between clients, production company and suppliers can thrive. So what is that phrase that's got me so excited?

Continue reading "Procurement really is about......."

It seems like I get a request every other day for trends and ideas about how to better reach C-level audiences. They are many clients' most important customers - the ultimate decision makers who can change make a deal happen or kill it in an instant.

When targeting any audience segment I try and figure out who they are as people, through conversations with them and research and a bit of gut thinking. I often wonder how someone gets to be a CEO...

Continue reading "How do you market to CEO's? You don't..."

As someone in the event marketing profession I am regularly faced with a client challenge - how do we get more people (and the right people) to our events. It's a tough proposition...we know that people are busy and it takes something really compelling to get them to show up. We also know that they are presented with many events to choose from, and that they can't go to every conference or seminar or tradeshow that seems interesting to them.

I feel their pain. I am invited to at least one marketing industry event a week. It's daunting! Every year I try to attend one or two events that seem particularly relevant. A few weeks ago I went to the Brand Manage Camp Conference in Chicago. Really good event, some great speakers - here are some of the highlights...

Continue reading "Highlights from Brand Manage Camp in Chicago"

Production is a fast paced and dynamic environment in which many decisions and negotiations on 3rd party suppliers must be made by the production team. These teams are often under intense pressure to find the right resource within very tight time constraints which may result in little to no price negotiation. At Jack Morton, however, these situations can quite often be leveraged to maximize the level of success for our clients, through leveraging our strategic procurement process. Jack Morton has embraced the discipline of “production” procurement and one of its most important tools, the RFP, to maximize results, relationships and opportunities while minimizing the associated risks to our projects success.

A perception once prevailed in production that a procurement process and, in particular, an RFP required too much time (remember, fast-paced and dynamic!) and was only to be utilized to drive pricing down thus placing the production house in a contentious position with their supplier. JMW has proven this perception to be completely inaccurate. A properly written and conducted RFP with commodity suppliers coupled with an “air of fairness” will clearly identify needs, expectations, remedies, potential issues, and thereby save time and money in the long run. In other words, an RFP minimizes risk and maximizes results.

The purpose of an RFP as it relates to production is to clearly identify and define all aspects and expectations of a 3rd party relationship and the deliverable the supplier is to provide. It sets out concise guardrails and enables an “apples to apples” comparison of competing suppliers. A good RFP process ensures that each supplier is treated with respect, trust and equality. The RFP process is best suited to when there is a need for a very specific deliverable that will not vary in a material way from competitor to competitor.

In the end, the discipline of production procurement and the RFP process works to deliver more cost effective and efficient solutions to our clients while simultaneously strengthening supplier relationships. The RFP also works to avoid previously unrecognized challenges further maximizing savings to clients through cost avoidance! The RFP process does in fact serve all parties well in production, even when working under often extreme time constraints.

To provide perspective as to the effectiveness of the RFP process I offer this single example: $1.8 Million in direct savings to our client over a 2 year engagement and in the words of the client “The best produced show he’s ever been associated with!”

It's mid-afternoon on one of those San Francisco summer days that never seems to warm up. So a co-worker and I walk a couple of blocks down the street for a cup of Java, and on the way we encounter this:

This mobile ad space is scrolling Southwest advertising on 3 sides of the vehicle, and there's a guy (on the other side of the truck in the pic) with a bright tie-dye shirt greeting people and talking about the truck.

Turns out, he's not advertising Southwest, he's promoting the truck. The critical piece of info here is that where he is parked is kind of San Francisco's "agency row" -- McCann Worldgroup, Weber Shandwick, Golin Harris, MWW, Jack Morton, and a handful of other potential clients' offices are on this block. So this consumer advertising truck is being used experientially to market the medium to their b2b customers/prospects. Good idea.

Oh, one other thing I noticed on their website, the truck is Biodiesel.

I have my doubts about Second Life, especially for BtoB audiences. To me it seems like a place for virtual hooking up, and though I have heard of a few interesting uses for it tied to offline activities I am not yet sold on it as a venue for impactful dialog.

That said, there is a real experiential quality to Second Life that is beginning to impact our thinking. We're starting to talk with many of our clients about virtualizing their events. This doesn't necessarily mean creating an SC type environment that replicates the live event, but it does force us to think creatively about how an online experience should be accessed by event attendees and those who are unable to attend.

What should that experience feel like? We are still working through that and I am hoping to have some interesting case studies to show off in the coming months :)