Donna's Promo Talk

PMA's Summit this Week Defines Shopper Marketing as a Key to Growth in Current Economy

The Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) is hosting a Shopper Marketing Summit at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, TX, this week, Wed. & Thurs. May 6-7th. The conference will provide attendees a comprehensive look at how shopper marketing can drive business, how it is a key factor to growth in this economy and how to use it effectively to communicate to the shopper in tough economic times.

From shelf design and the in-store environment to special promotions, shopper marketing influences a shopper’s decision-making process in purchasing a product once they step foot in the store. Understanding the shopper is more important than ever as marketers and retailers need to focus on shopping behavior, and concentrate on meeting the demands and needs of the buyer in this economy

A keynote speaker at this year's conference is Dr. Brian Harris, the founder of category management and Founder & Chairman of The Partnering Group who will deliver a powerful and beneficial keynote about why shopper marketing is destined to become the next generation of category management. Chris Brandiwie of Best Buy will talk about how they are creating a winning store experience and how their merchandising solutions keep them as a key player in the market. PMA recently added a new luncheon keynote speaker for day one which is Al Meyer, Senior VP of Retail Forward, who will give an especially timely presentation on "How Retailers Compete in Recessionary Times".

The second day keynote will be given by David R. Bell, Associate Professor of The Wharton School, and Dave Katz of Client One, who will speak about measuring the impact of shopper marketing in CPG/Retail with the Shopper Marketing Lab. Attendees of the Shopper Marketing Summit will also benefit from fresh new data on changing shopper behavior based on the Shopper Scape survey which was conducted with over 150 grocery, mass, and convenience store retailers.

New this year is an on-site guided tour of leading edge concept stores in the Dallas area including Wal-Mart’s “Green” and “Upscale” stores, new stores targeting the Hispanic consumer such as Fiesta Mart and more.

Other speakers include Rita Bargerhuff, VP of Marketing, 7-Eleven; Dick Blatt, President & CEO, POPAI, The Global Association for Marketing at Retail; Noemi Ricalo, Promociones Panavista; Craig Elston, SVP, The Integer Group; Anne Howe, SVP of Market Intelligence, MARS Advertising; Jesse Spungin, VP of Customer Marketing, ConAgra; Linda Crowder, Senior Director, SC Johnson; and Steve Beckham, Miller Coors.

“Shopper marketing is a critical practice in the industry and now more than ever it is important for every marketer to understand the shopper in the context of their decision process at retail,” said Bonnie Carlson, president of the PMA. “Shoppers are more selective now as they want to be able to get what they need at a great value. This conference will explore the layers of shopper marketing and focus on strategic solutions to build and drive sales, and engage and understand the shopper in challenging economic times.”

I'm sorry that I'm going to have to miss this conference since shopper marketing, or account-specific marketing as it was previously coined, is a discipline that I have many years of experience with. I worked with the Kodak-Wal-Mart team for over 15 years and we won a couple of PRO Awards in the account specific category. So, I know how important it is to communicate effectively in-store.

Those that do attend please share you're experience here with us and we'll also be sure to check out the updates on the new and improved PMA Blog.

PMA '09 Wrap Up - The UK's Give a Few Bob Campaign

With being out of town last weekend and most of this past week I'm just now getting caught up around the house. I always enjoy visiting Chicago, however, I do regret that I didn't get a chance to do any shopping at all. I usually at least make it to Nordstrom's on Michigan Ave. and purchase a new pair of shoes. So I'm sorry I didn't do my part to help the economy. With hotel prices still high you can't afford to spend that extra night to have a little downtime.

Anyhow, I thought the PMA and the team did a good job of putting together this year's two-day conference. It had a little bit of everything for both the brands and the agencies. Yes, the number of attendees was certainly down from previous years, but that's to be expected. Having a smaller number of people though really made for a more intimate gathering and a good opportunity to meet those that where there and have some interesting discussions. I met some really great people who we've already found each other on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The keynote luncheon on Day 2 of the conference was very interesting. It was a tribute to the Globes and featured three different speakers that enlightened us Americans that yes, marketing does go on outside of the U.S. I wanted to take a moment here to tell you about the "Bob" phenomenon, which was a great example of an integrated marketing campaign which won quite a few awards. It was created by The Communications Agency from the UK and was presented to us by Robert Prevezer.

The task at hand was to raise awareness of prostate cancer in the UK and drive donations to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. The challenges were that there was a tiny budget, not an easy topic to talk about among the reserved Brits and they were to integrate into the campaign a dead comedian, Bob Monkhouse, who died of the cancer.

The big idea the agency came up with was to bring Bob back to life in a TV ad and integrate him into all the communications of the ‘give a few bob’ campaign. They planned to have Bob himself tell the story for us. So they created this amazing film called ‘bring Bob back’ in which they used archive footage, a body double and voice artist to basically bring Bob back to life.

Next they developed an exclusive media partnership with The Sun that included articles in the printed newspaper, ads online along with premiere rights of the film. The TV exposure and news coverage the campaign received from all the press was incredible and an online donation website, www.giveafewbob.org, went viral with over 4000 targeted applicants.

Retailer WHSmith got all of their 723 nationwide locations involved displaying posters and badges. A direct mail piece was also created that included Bob on the envelope with a "Direct Male" label that was sent to a targeted list. Newspaper ads were placed and movie theaters were integrated into the campaign with screening of the film in all Vuecinemas, plus POS in their foyers, ads online at the Vue website and an email blast that was sent to Vue’s 280,000 database.

Outdoor ads were donated by both Clear Channel and JCDecaux. Other out-of-home media channels were utilized such as taxis that included exterior messages as well as tip-up seat posters with a donation mechanic in the interiors of 250 London taxis. The London Underground featured 4,000 tube cards and Ambient  Media donated the truck advertising and provided this funny bumper sticker.

This truly integrated campaign resulted in the following:

• £3.5million media value from a total budget of less than £50,000
• An estimated 83% of the UK population has seen the campaign an average of 4 times
• There was a 228% increase in the charity’s donor base
• A rise in the number of regularly monthly donors by 580% 
• Traffic to the charity’s website increased by 2000%
• The PCRF annual income shows an increase of 70% year on year - $1 million donations

But much more importantly, Mark Emberton MD FRCS (Urol.) Senior Lecturer in Oncological Urology at the Institute of Urology, a Trustee of the Charity commented "I have seen a marked increase in patients being tested and diagnosed with the disease as a consequence of having seen the Bob campaign…it’s saving lives”

The campaign won numerous awards. The top lesson from ‘Bob’ to pass on is: make it simple for the consumer...get one great idea and then execute it consistently through every available communications medium using one message, one look. Thanks Bob for reminding us all and thanks again to the PMA for inviting me.

Super Reggie Award Goes to Kraft and their DSRL Campaign

Day 2 of PMA ’09 is just getting under way this morning. Yesterday was quite a full day that started off with Tony Palmer from Kimberly-Clark who shared with us some Aussie humor with a few down-under TV spots. Then we had Penry Price from Google as our luncheon keynote at mid-day who have us a great quick overview of today’s digital world. A look at Harley-Davidson’s creativity from Mark-Hans Richer, the current CMO was the afternoon highlight. Then we wrapped up the day with a dinner to celebrate the 26th Annual Reggie Awards.

After a dinner that consisted of filet migon and what looked and tasted like sweet mashed potatoes, they announced the winner of this year’s Super Reggie. Kraft Foods took home the big cash register this year with their Oreo Double Stuf Racing League (DSRL) campaign. As the headline of PMA’s special Reggie Awards supplement says, they “licked the competition”. The agency partners behind this successful campaign included Draftfcb (general and promotional advertising), Razorfish (digital), Digitas (online media), MediaVest (media), IMG (experiential) and Weber Shandwick (PR).

The promotion was first launched back in 2007 that I wrote about here since it was the first time we got to see the Manning brothers together endorsing a product. DSRL has now gained its position as an actual “professional sport”. Kraft claims that Double Stuf has enjoyed 16 consecutive months of sales growth since the program debuted and a 7% sales jump at the height of the promotion.

The objective they all started with was to differentiate the Double Stuf Oreo cookie from its older brother. “The spark came as we were thinking about fun new ways to engage consumers with Oreo,” explained John Ghingo, marketing director for Oreo at Kraft Foods. “Lots of people partake in the rituals of twisting, licking and dunking Oreo cookies in milk. Double Stuf Racing League focuses on the ‘lick’ aspect and takes Oreo to a new place in an unexpected way.”

As I noted, the campaign first started with the Manning Brothers, the two NFL quarterback stars Payton and Eli, competing against each other for the DSRL title. Next up were the Williams sisters, tennis champs Venus and Serena, who were challenging the guys in this “second sport” through a national TV ad. Viewers were encouraged to go online at whatsthesecondsport.com and create avatars that enabled them to participate in games, blogs and fan discussion groups.

Sweepstakes and instant-win prizes were also featured that gave the DSRL fans a chance to win a trip to New Orleans to participate in a “lick race” with the Manning Brothers for a $10,000 grand prize, A father/son team from Dayton, Ohio won the race in 27 seconds.

A spring contest is scheduled for this year that will include both the Mannings and the Williamses, so the program continues. Kraft is looking to bring on new talent, so who knows what sports celebrities they’ll bring on board next.

Back to the conference for now. We have Nazz Nichols from Nokia (say that 3'x fast) on next.

Google's Penry Price "6 Truths in Today's Digital Age"

I'm here in Chicago at PMA'09, their annual conference on Integrated Marketing being held at the Fairmont Hotel this year. We have had a full agenda today packed with speakers from both brands as well as agencies. We were treated to lunch in the Imperial Ballroom and then got to hear Penry Price, Google's VP of Advertising Sales. Here are the 6 Truths in Today’s Digital Age that he shared with us.

1. We’re not in Kansas Anymore – The digital migration has happened:

• 53% of consumers use search more to research purchases
• 54% spend more time researching products online before they buy them in--store
• 39% buy more products online (rather than in-store)
• And yes, we’re in a recession and the way we market and do business is not the same. Search queries that rose significantly over the past year are terms such as coupons, discount, percent off, and free shipping. “Coupon” has surpassed Britney Spears as the most searched query.

2. Online Video and Display are Here to Stay 
   

• 36% of online users turned to search after seeing a display ad for more information
• If YouTube were a country it would be the 3^rd largest
• Top Super Bowl ads that were viewed on YouTube:
  • Doritos – 1.97M 
  • Career Builder – 1.85M 
  • Cars.com – 1.65M
  • Pepsi – 1.58

3. Fragmentation Exists to Benefit You - Offline channels drive online search

• In reviewing Super Bowl advertisers, the following saw significant lift in search queries:
  • Denny’s     +4,100%
  • Castrol      + 280%
  • Kelloggs     + 200%
  • Budweiser  +110%
  • HR Block    + 80%
  • GE             + 60%
    

4.    If You Build it They Won’t Come –

• There is a significant rise in the number of registered web domains
  

• Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean you will have visitors (i.e. BudTV).

5.    Every Action has a < Reaction -

• There are more and more digital platforms today with a significant rise in social media
• “Social is not a destination, it is a feature.”

6.    Don’t be Shy! Your Consumers Aren’t –

• Amazon - Let consumers leave recommendations on their site and it increased sale
• Dell’s “What Does Green Mean to You” campaign allowed consumers to talk directly with product developers to let them know what features they’d like to see.

It was a great overview to what’s happening today. However, Penry did say that who knows what the 6 truths will be tomorrow.

Have to go now, we have Mark-Hans Richer, CMO from Harley-Davidson up next.

March Madness - Conferences that is... PMA's Annual and SES New York

Well I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning wondering what to do today without any more football (yeah the NFL's Pro Bowl is on, but so what?) So I thought I'd do a little bit of housekeeping and update the sidebars in my blog which still had some old events posted.

I've also been trying to plan out what I'm doing the rest of this first quarter and where my travels will take me. Besides trying to slip in an extended weekend to see my parents in Myrtle Beach (and play some golf and feel some warmer air), there are a couple of conferences that I'm planning on attending.

First is PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference that's always in Chicago and this year it's on March 10th and 11th at the Fairmont Hotel. I've been blogging about  PMA events for the past two years since I started this blog and I wouldn't miss this event. Last year's was great and this year with a theme of "The Integrated Marketing Revolution: Change the Way You Think" it should be extremely relevant.

PMA will focus this event on integrated marketing planning as a discipline which is changing at cyber speed.  With new categories, new media, new retail formats, and new social networks, the question they will try to answer is how do marketers plan for the new frontier?

Jackie Stone, SVP Promotions at Digitas, is back as conference co-chair along with Angie Bleck, Integrated Marketing Manager for Kimberly Clark. They have planned out a great balance from both the agency and the brand perspectives. So check out the agenda that has some great speakers from companies such as Dunkin Donuts, Nokia, Harley Davidson, Mindshare, Conagra Foods and more. Topics are diverse, which they should be if we're talking integrated marketing. So I hope to see you there.

Then a couple of weeks from this event is the Annual SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference in New York which is again at the NY Hilton. I attended last year and now that I'm managing PPC search advertising campaigns for a wide variety of clients I'm really looking forward to this year's event. I won't be attending the basic sessions that I did last year, but now looking to take my knowledge to the next level.

This conference is all about how to generate traffic to your website through the search engines whether its through free "organic" traffic or through the paid "sponsored" search ads. It's hard to keep up with what's next in the constantly evolving world of web search, and this is one place to help you do that.

The conference takes place over a full week beginning on March 23 with workshops on Monday and Friday and sessions on Tuesday - Thursday. We get started with Tuesday morning's keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki talking about Twitter as a Tool for Social Media and then on Thursday we have John Gerzema from Young & Rubicam and best-selling author of The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It. And of course representatives from Google will be there as well as Yahoo. Check out the agenda and I hope to see you in New York!

So March is looking pretty busy. I better get down to Myrtle Beach before then! Let me know if any of you will be at either of these conferences. I would love to try and meet up.

It's Time again for PMA's Annual Promotional Marketing Law Conference

Tomorrow starts the beginning of PMA’s 30th Promotion Marketing Law Conference whose focus this year will be on promotions and regulations in a challenging economy. This is normally one of my must attend conferences which I've been honored to be a guest of PMA's for the past several years. However this year unfortunately I am not able to attend. With my new responsibilities at Butler/Till and the fact that it falls right before the Thanksgiving Holiday has made it extremely difficult to get away.

The Conference will again feature renowned experts, policymakers and business leaders from some of the world's major brands. It will be taking place across two days, Nov. 20th and 21st, again at the Marriott Downtown on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. So not only will I be missing out of what's new in the promotional law arena and catching up with some of my fellow associates in the industry that I've known for years, but I won't be able to partake in some pre-Christmas shopping on Michigan Ave!!!

“The Message is the Medium: Consumer Marketing in the Age of Ubiquity,” is this year's theme and will cover the increased importance of creating successful and lawful promotions in a challenging economy. Visit PMA's website and you can listen to an audio interview with Marketing Law Conference Co-Chair Nancy Felsten ESQ, Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine given by Rob Fields, PMA Director of Member Development, which gives a great prelude to the conference.

Marketing executives, in-house counsel and firm attorneys will benefit from keynote speeches by William E. Kovacic, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Deborah Taylor Tate, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission; and Mark Kroese, General Manager of Microsoft Advertising who's pictured here to the left.

Attendees will also hear from a diverse group of decision makers and top outside and inside legal counsel from leading law firms and companies such as American Express, Microsoft, Facebook, Burger King, Nike, Google, G.E., Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Target, GlaxoSmithKline, Visa, Sprint Nextel, Toyota, Yahoo! and Coca-Cola, among many others.

The 35 different sessions will cover topics on what marketers need to know to comply with the fast changing world of promotion laws, regulations and government enforcement policies. Special focus will be devoted to new rules and developments in marketing law nationally and globally with emphasis on incentive marketing, green marketing, mobile marketing with a concentration on wireless and text messaging, user-generated content, social networking, product integration, celebrities/talent/brand marketing, in-depth regulatory enforcement, and all forms of intellectual property.

“For the past thirty years, attendees have found PMA's Promotion Marketing Law Conference an invaluable resource to access the leading minds in the industry,” said Edward Kabak, Chief Legal Executive of PMA. “This year’s remodeled conference shows the breadth and depth of expertise and cutting-edge content that makes the Promotion Marketing Law Conference especially in this tough economic environment a ‘must-attend’ event for legal and advertising/marketing professionals.”

So even though I won't be there, I know many people that will be and I hope to catch up with them when they return and get their insight from the confernence and what their major take-aways were. Plus, PMA will be updating me on what was covered at the conference as well. PMA always puts on a great event. So please stay tuned. And if you're reading this post and you were there, please add your comments. Thanks.

McDonald's Lost Ring is Big Idea at PMA's Digital Marketing Summit

Here's a continuation of my report on PMA's first annual Digital Marketing Summit which was held last week at the Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport in downtown NYC. After Rob Master, North American Media Director for Unilever, got us started off we then heard from the McDonald's brand/agency team, Kim Lloyd, Sr. Director of McDonald's Global Marketing and Julie Channing, Sr. Account Director with AKQA, with a presentation titled "Going Global with a Big Idea".

The big idea was the Lost Ring which I first wrote about here back in April after I attended PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference where I got to hear Neil Golden, CMO of McDonald’s USA, give us a first look at this innovative program. The ultimate goal of this marketing campaign was to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic Games. McDonald's gave their agency, AKQA, a very brief, brief which stated this goal as well as it should also tie-in with Beijing as well as build the McDonald's brand on a global level.

Holly Cow! 7-Eleven and FreshWorks Win The Super Reggie Award

Day two of PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference wrapped up on Wednesday night at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile hotel with the 25^th Annual REGGIE live Awards Ceremony that featured 25 years of the best promotion and integrated marketing campaigns. 7-Eleven along with their agency, FreshWorks, took home the coveted Supper Reggie award this year for their Simpson’s Kwik E-Mart campaign. In celebration of the 25th Anniversary they were presented with a 72 lb. antique cash register.

Featured in this picture left to right are: Bobbi Merkel, director of convergence at FreshWorks; Rita Bargerhuff, VP marketing, 7-Eleven, Inc.; Lynda Oliver, GM of FreshWorks; Rita Drucker, VP of domestic theatrical promotions at Twentieth Century FOX. Rita spoke about this campaign during a entertainment marketing session at the conference the day before. I had the pleasure of sitting with these women at lunch on day one of the conference and got to learn a little more about how their team works. Congratulations to all of you for a great job.

Back in July when The Simpsons Movie was just released in theaters I wrote this post describing the marketing partners that got on board with different promotions associated with this release. 7-Eleven and their agency FreshWorks worked with Fox Studios and Gracie Films to create what would become this award-wining campaign.

Twelve 7-Eleven stores were converted into Kwik-E-Marts (the fictional convenience store from The Simpsons for those that may not know). The Slurpee beverage was temporarily changed to “Squishee,” and new Sprinklicious Donuts filled bakery cases. Manufacturing partners were enlisted to create products like Buzz cola, KrustyO’s brand cereal and Radioactive Man comic books (Issue No. 711). Consumers were finally able to live like a Simpson at 7-Eleven.

“Each year, the PMA REGGIE Awards honors some of the most creative, well-executed, results-driven integrated marketing campaigns,” said Bonnie Carlson, president of the PMA. “FreshWorks and 7-Eleven delivered the largest-scale promotion to hit the convenience retail channel, and the first ever, real life Simpsons experience.  It is fitting that they got to take home the 72 lb cash register Super REGGIE Award for a campaign that made the cash registers ring.”

Gold, Silver and Bronze REGGIE Award-winning campaigns were announced in 16 categories.  Other multi-REGGIE Award-winning campaigns included: The Sopranos A&E Connection (two Gold REGGIES); McDonald's Shrek (one Gold REGGIE, one Silver REGGIE); SPIDER-MAN WEEK IN NYC (one Gold REGGIE, one Silver REGGIE); and My GRAMMY Moment (one Silver REGGIE, one Bronze REGGIE).

The Gold, Silver and Bronze REGGIE Award winners in each of the 16 categories are as follows:

National Consumer - Budget over $5 million
Gold: The Starter Wife Campaign (Client: USA Network; Agency: In-House)
Silver: McDonald's Shrek (Client: McDonald’s; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Bronze: Bee Movie Theatrical Program (Client: DreamWorks Animation; Agency: In-House)

National Consumer - Budget between $1 million and $5 million
Gold:  Welcome to Stacy's (Client: Stacy's Pita Chip Company; Agency: TracyLocke)
Silver: The Sopranos A&E Connection Game (Client: A&E; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Bronze: My GRAMMY Moment (Client: The Recording Academy; Agency: In-House)

National Consumer - Budget under $1 million
Gold: The Sopranos A&E Connection (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Silver: HOP Across America (Client:Hooked On Phonics; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group and Engage Marketing)
Bronze: Silk Soymilk "Green Caps for Green Energy" (Client: WhiteWave Foods; Agency: The Integer Group)
Bronze: Night At The Museum TREX TREK (Client: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment; Agency: The Borden Agency)

Local, Regional Market - Budget over $1 million
Gold: 7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven; Agency: FreshWorks)
Silver:  Maxwell House Brew Some Good (Client: Maxwell House; Agency: OgilvyAction)
Bronze: Charmin NYC Restroom Experience (Client: Procter & Gamble;
Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)

Local, Regional Market  - Budget under $1 million
Gold:  SPIDER-MAN WEEK IN NYC (Client: Columbia Tristar  Marketing Group; Agency: NYC & Company)
Silver: Free Food on Your Phone! (Client: Hardee’s; Agency: CellFire, Inc.)
Bronze:  Inspire Change (Client: Seeds of Change; Agency: Alcone Marketing Group)

Multi-Partner Promotion - three or more partners (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: The world is going yellow in celebration of the Simpsons movie (Client:  20th Century Fox; Agency: In-House)
Silver: 7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven Agency: FreshWorks)
Bronze:  The Starter Wife multi-partner campaign (Client: USA Network;
Agency: In-House)

Business-to-Business (includes trade promotion) (No budgetary parameters)
Gold:  Gatorade/ All-Stars VPI Program (Client: The Gatorade Company;  Agency: TPN)
Silver: Chase the Extraordinary (Client: InterContinental Hotels Group/Hotel Management Group; Agency: US Concepts)
Bronze: Girls Gone Wired (B2B) (Client: Oxygen Media; Agency: GEM Group, Inc.)

Multi-cultural/Ethnic (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: Scott Dichonario (Client: Kimberly-Clark; Agency: MASS Hispanic Marketing)
Silver: WonkaArte "Dia de los Muertos" Program (Client: Wonka;
Agency: Bromley Communications)
Bronze: Herbal Essences RBD (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: Leo Burnett, Arc Worldwide & SMG)

Digital (No budgetary parameters)
Gold:  The Sopranos A&E Connection (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)
Silver: My GRAMMY Moment (Client: The Recording Company; Agency: In-House)
Bronze: Degree / 24 (Client: Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising; Agency: MindShare)

Cause/Community Outreach (No Budgetary parameters)
Gold: Tide CleanStart Mobile Laundromat (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)
Silver:  Yahoo! Be A Better Planet (Client: Yahoo!; Agency: In-House)
Bronze: The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center 9/11 Tribute Exhibition (Client: National 9/11 Memorial & Museum; Agency: Octagon, Jack Morton & Weber Shandwick PR)

Experiential Marketing - Budget under $1 million
Gold: Godiva "Decadence Goes Mobile" (Client: Godiva Chocolatier; Agency: Eastwest Marketing Group)
Silver: SPIDER-MAN WEEK IN NYC (Client: Columbia Tristar Marketing Group; Agency: NYC & Company)
Bronze:  Take Off and Tune In (Client: A&E Television Network; Agency: Civic Entertainment Group)

Experiential Marketing - Budget over $1 million
Gold:  7-Eleven/ Simpsons and Kwik-E-Mart (Client: 7-Eleven; Agency: FreshWorks)
Silver: Sony (Alpha) DSLR Tour (Client: Sony; Agency: Gigunda Group, Inc.)
Bronze:  World Vision Experience: Aids  (Client: World Vision Organization; Agency: The Brand Experience)

Shopper Marketing (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: It's a "Tween Thing" at Toys "R" Us (Client: Disney Consumer Products;
Agency: In-House)
Silver: Sony HD Test Drive (Client: Sony; Agency: PowerPact, LLC)
Bronze:  Bounty Re-launch (Client: Procter & Gamble; Agency: The Integer Group)

Age Specific (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: Rescuing Recess (Client: Cartoon Network; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Gold: McDonald's Shrek (Client: McDonald’s; Agency: Arc Worldwide)
Silver: Hannah Montana MyConcert Memory Book Presented by HP (Client: Disney Online/Hollywood Records/HP; Agency: Disney Online In-House)
Bronze: AT&T World's Loudest Pep Rally (Client: AT&T; Agency: The Marketing Arm)

Small Budget - Budget less than $100,000
Gold: Early Times Reel in a Million (Client: Brown Forman; Agency: PriceWeber)
Silver: Bon Appetite and Bon Voyage; Lactalis USA, the Official Cheese of Ratatouille (Client: Lactalis, USA; Agency: Eric Mower and Associates)
Bronze: Kellogg's Pop-tarts Splitz Create Your Own Webisode (Client: Cartoon Network; Agency: In-House)

New Product Launch (No budgetary parameters)
Gold: GlaxoSmithKline alli Product Launch (Client: GlaxoSmithKline; Agency: Draftfcb Chicago)
Silver: alli U - Hispanic Grass Roots Initiative (Client: GlaxoSmithKline; Agency: Casanova Pendrill)
Bronze: Volkswagen Touareg 2 Launch: The Bourne Ultimatum (Client: Volkswagen; Agency: In-House)

Full campaign summaries are available here on the PMA Website. Congratulations to all the winners.

PMA's Integrated Marketing Conference - Day 1

It's been a very exciting and fully packed day here in Chicago at PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference. I caught a 6:40 flight out of Buffalo and arrived here at the Marriott Downtown in time to check into my room and grab a cup of coffee before the opening remarks kicked off the conference. We went pretty much non-stop all day until after the networking reception which I left at 7:30pm when it was supposed to be wrapping up, but there were still quite a few people mingling around the Grand Ballroom.

It was really good to see again some old friends (like the ladies from SCA Promotions who are the Gold Sponsors of the conference this year), a few other business acquaintances as well as to meet several new people. It appeared to me that most people here really wanted to meet you, talk with you and find out more about what you do. It did seem to be a bit smaller crowd than were at last year's conference, but maybe that's what made it feel a little more personal.

Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, did kick us off as the opening keynote speaker...I wrote about his background in my previous post. He admitted that he wasn't a business expert at all and he really didn't talk to us much about marketing, but nonetheless he was very engaging as well as funny. I promised in my last post to be accountable, since accountability is the theme of this year's conference, and share with you some of Steven's insights, so here's a few on how I interrupted them.

The key message that Steven focused on during his hour with us this morning was that most of us marketers make major decisions based on what the customers say versus what they actually do. He shared with us some learnings that came out of several behavioral experiments that were conducted at the University of Chicago to find out what makes people do what they do. They resulted in different outcomes depending on if they were done in the lab vs. the real world. These showed that people's behavior can be greatly affected by their environment and the particular situation that they are put in. This has always been one of the major disadvantages of focus group research. Steven's advised us to try and build a feedback tool into everything that we do since we should not rely on that one time to give the real truth.

After Steven we were treated to Ann Hand who is the former SVP Global Brand Marketing and Innovation for BP. Ann shared with us a really great story of how this brand made an emotional connection with its customers on a global level by fulfilling its promise to make things "a little better" for them. The new Helios Power retail brand campaign was originally launched just a year ago and soon will be integral to BP's 25,000 retail locations worldwide. I asked Ann is she could share her presentation deck with me so that I can cover this story on its own, so I will follow up with her.

There were several other key learnings that were shared with us during the rest of the day that are worthy of their own post; some that I've asked for additional information. Those include speakers from The Coca-Cola Company, OfficeMax, Kraft, ConAgra Foods, 7-Eleven, Heineken USA, Interstate Bakeries (Hostess) and Yahoo.

Tomorrow we have another full day that gets started with keynote speaker Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. So, I'm going to try and get some sleep now since I've been up since 4 am EST today and really starting to fade. This has nothing to do with the fact that there was some pretty good, complimentary Shiraz wine served at the networking event (sorry I can't remember the name of the winery, but I believe its a brand from Pernod Ricard, one of the sponsors).

I hope all those people that I introduced this blog to today will visit and add their comments. I'm looking forward to hearing from you all as well as to tomorrow. Good Night...

Freakanomics Author, Steven Levitt, to speak at PMA's Conference

In my last post I wrote about my next upcoming trip which is a visit back to Chicago to attend PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference. It starts first thing tomorrow morning, Tues. 4/8, at the Marriott Downtown on Michigan Ave. I'm actually flying in on Southwest in the morning into Midway so I don't have to deal with O'Hare. Also since Chicago is an hour behind those of us on the East Coast, I'm hoping I can make it there in time to hear the welcoming remarks from Mark Mears, Chairman of the Board for PMA and SVP of Sales and Marketing for Universal Studios Hollywood, followed by Bonnie Carlson, President of PMA.

The opening Keynote speaker of the day will be Steven Levitt who is the best-selling author of FREAKONOMICS and currently a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. This book was originally published back in 2005, has sold over 3 million copies worldwide and has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over two years. I have to admit, however, that I haven't read it. So, I did a little bit of research online this morning to help acquaint myself more with Mr. Levitt and his book.

Freakonomics is a collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They start off with a bunch of stats and tons of data on a subject and then ask a simple question relating back to everyday life. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality (like "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?"). Thus the new term for this book: Freakonomics.

Levitt and Dubner are currently working on another book, tentatively titled SuperFreakonomics. You can keep up with them at the Freakonomics blog, which can be found on NYTimes.com. This blog is currently ranked  #59 on Wikio. Today there is a post from Levitt in which he tells the readers that he's stepped down as of April 1st as editor of the Journal of Political Economy, a position that he's held for eight years. He confesses in today's post that this position has given him quite a bit of power since he got to decide whose articles got published and whose didn't. In fact, he admits (jokingly I take it) that he will now loose a big income stream from the bribes he took from some of those writers.

The PMA conference this year is themed Accountability in Action therefore, Levitt will be speaking to us attendees about the "Freakonomics of Accountability". So, stay tuned and I promise to be accountable to my readers and share with you what some of the simple questions and freakish conclusions he discussed with us. Maybe he'll enlighten us on how to survive and market in today's economy! If you've read the book I would love to hear from you and let me know what you think of Freakonomics.