I returned from Las Vegas today via the red-eye flight, therefore I'm a bit sluggish and fully realize now why they call it "red-eye". So, I won't be going into any detail today regarding a specific topic or speaker from the Interactive Promotion Summit. Instead I'll just provide a top line summary and promise to follow up in the days ahead with some details.
ePrize is the lead sponsor and originator of this event and I have to say they are quite THE host. They appear to have found the right balance of providing valuable content along with enough free time to network, relax and party. Yesterday morning for example while I was having my coffee and danish, Dave, a bartender at Caesar's Palace, offered me a Bloody Mary as part of the networking breakfast session. Dave said he normally doesn't work the morning shift, and I said, we normally don't get offered Vodka in the morning at marketing conferences, but hey this is Vegas!
What we heard as an overarching theme throughout the event was that interactive promotions (mostly online today) are now a main part of an integrated marketing mix. They are no longer an afterthought just to spike sales for a short term gain. But rather they help to motivate consumer behavior and build both brands and brand loyalty. PROMO Magazine's Industry Study results echo these statements.
More consumers and brands today are embracing the digital revolution. Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize, summed it up at the event's conclusion by saying "Now is the time to make a difference and to make history". With ePrize producing roughly 2500 interactive promotions to date for 73 of the top 100 brands, I can see why this especially makes Josh very happy...along of course with the rest of us in this business as well.
The highlight of the speakers was Marcus Buckingham who motivated us all to follow a strengths-based model...not only in our organizations, but also in our everyday lives with our families and children. And BTW, the majority of us woman just love listening to a good looking guy with an English accent. I started reading his book while sitting in the airport, Go Put Your Strengths to Work. I need to visit simplystrengths.com and take the Strengths Engagement Track in order to measure the current level of engagement of my own strengths...will let you know on this.
Unfortunately ZeFrank wasn't able to join us. Instead we were introduced to a really "Serious" gamer...Jane McGonigal. Jane previously was head designer at 42 Entertainment, the company that invented the genre of alternate reality games and who has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies, UC Berkeley. Her theory is that we can change consumer behavior by making them happier. Well from what the buzz was at the conference, she would have made us all happier if her presentation was a little briefer. However, everyone appeared to be very intrigued by her work and interested in discussing the examples she shared...more to come on this.
So, I thank the folks at ePrize as well as the rest of the sponsors for putting on a successful and memorable event. I met some really nice and interesting people who I hope to hear from and continue the dialog. I plan on doing new posts in this blog on the different topics, so please check back daily. In the meantime those that were there please feel free to post any of your comments here for discussion and share with us what your most relevant take-away is.
It was a great conference, with great speakers and even better networking. Kudos to ePrize for a fantastic event!
Posted by: Matt | May 26, 2007 at 11:04 AM