There were more sessions to go to than anyone could manage. That's a nice problem to have. The fact that the presentations are already up in the WOMMA Member Center eases that pain a bit. I wanted to share the session highlights from the event for me. I was surprised. I knew the conference would be great yet I thought so because of the wall-to-wall brand cases. We had those. The WOMMY Award Winners were particularly compelling. Still, the keynotes and general sessions were so strong that I would have gone just for those.
Here are my hightlights:
Keynote - Emanuel Rosen did an inspirational job and also just had a well-structured presentation with stories at the center and take-away points that were meangful.Those of us who speak often could learn a lot from his simplicity. He told us what we could learn from non-profits nd the lessons really were relevant. Everyone really liked his presentation.
Keynote - Rob BonDurant from Patagonia was the right mix of culture and marketing detail. Here's a guy who totally understands the power of brand, where it comes from and just how to drive folks to conversion at the same time. Too many CMO-types become disconnnected with the nuts and bolts of how marketing works. That won't fly in the social media age.
Keynote - Sugarland, Kristian Bush was terrific. (above: Gayle, his manager, Kristian and Ted Wright/Fizz) More than one person told me after that they had never listened to them before but were now complete fans just because of Kristian's enthusiasm and genuiness (and the kickass song they played/showed from their Christmas album.) I had the opportunity to speak with him offline and he shared even more detail about the WOM marketing activity that he does to remain genuinely connected to fans. I loved that he went into Walmarts and secretly hid concert tix, captured it all on a Flip Video cam to post online for fans. What he didn't share onstage about that whole Walmart integration was a simple tactic where he called up Walmart store managers the day the promotion (a DVD) broke to leave them a personal vmail about it. Imagine how that fueled their enthusiasm. His insight about how moments in time become key memories and stories. That led them to create concert-specific posters and t-shirts. I told him how I often use "tell everyone a favorite concert" as a tremendous ice-breaker for groups. (The Cult at Felt Forum in 198x with Rick Rubin on the sound board) Ted Wright from Fizz deserves all our gratitude for connecting Kristian with all of us.
Keynote - FTC and social media with Chuck Harwood/FTC, Tony DiResta/legal counsel for WOMMA, Jory DesJardins/BlogHer, Sean Corcoran/Forrester and led by Paul Rand/ the next President of the Board at WOMMA (above: Tony, Jory, Sean and Chuck). All the panelists contributed a great POV and it was especially valuable to get such a thorough walk-through from Chuck Harwood. Our WOMMA work with the FTC has paid off in such a strong relationship. Ethics will expand again as a key issue and WOMMA's Legal Affairs Group will help protect a lot of brands with our best practices.
General Session - Customer Service with Levis, Bunn, Comcast and Best Buy's Twelpforce. I predict that customer service will become a bigger part of WOMMA in the future. Frank's work at Comcast and John's at Twelpforce/Best Buy have developed pretty sophisticated procedures and teams. Still, I was struck by the genuiness of Tom Asher from Levi Strauss. he had buttons made up for his team with their primary purpose - "I live to make your butt look great" (paraphrasing from memory). His team wants to deliver one level of service for everybody. He shared an anecdote about shipping an urgent package of black jeans to Thailand that only later they learned were for Steven Seagal on set for a movie. Customer Service sits at the heart of word of mouth. Time and time again, we head from customer service experts who see their job as creating vocal advocates for their brands.
General Session - Academic Panel with Wharton, Tel Aviv University, Fordham, our own Walter Carl from ChatThreads and Brad Fey. Heavy stuff. I was not able to see the whole session but hard lots of the more advanced marketers in the room appreciated its heft and substance.
Breakout Sessions
I got to as many sessions as possible. Only one truly disappointed. If I were to point our three sessions that had special relevance for me amidst all of the great ones. I would call out:
HP's Kari Homan shared not only about a simple metric they created around the revenue generated by postive word of mouth (and the loss from negative WOM), but she also shared about how they are organized internally. Their Digital Strategy group is a federation of marketers with program managers in 5 segments including mobile and social media. Rather than create a separate social media task force or center of excellence, they have opted for a model where social media is integrated with marketing (is this at the expense of "communications" integration?).
Ogilvy's Kaitlyn Wilkins and Blogher's Jory Des Jardins shared their case for Tropicana whcih was complex and highly integrated. I am obviously connected to this project and therefore biased. Still, this is a great case and both are passionate, insightful presenters.
Yvonne Nava from iTunes oulined how they had used Vitrue's Facebook management software to really optimze how they were using Facbook overall. her presentation ratified a lot of our own embrace of the "conversation calendar" model for engaging fans. ("Conversation Calendar" is a term that Facebook uses to describe the plan of differnt interactions delivered continuously through a brand page.). In iTunes case they have a spectacular well of content (music, videos, et al). Other brands may not have such an obviously valuable content asset but will find that they can program a rich calendar of interactions from media, offers, conversation starters, applications and events.
Lot of lessons learned over the past week. I returned completely energized (okay, a bit tired) with fresh ways of looking at things. That's what you want from a conference experience.
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