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Contents : C MO MEMO Pencils & Towels Put the marketing into event marketing and help make CMOs brand heroes again. MMBY N C HA R L IE TA R Z I A NMM COAC T IVE MARKET ING GROUP othing from my marketer s past could have prepared me for this meeting. Fresh from having run a large publicly traded interactive agency I was in my second month as president/ceo of a midsize independent experiential/promotional agency. Earlier in my career I had been embedded in the fact-based data-driven world of direct marketing. Sitting around the table were some very smart guys with great energy. They were responsible for out tting brands that get involved with NASCAR s three race circuits (Nextel Cup Busch Series and Craftsman) with the actual teams needed to race across the entire country for 36 weeks. They were in our of ces because we were convinced that one of our clients would bene t greatly from making the leap into this large segment of the market. Eventually we got around to cost: What does it actually cost to become part of such an iconic and de nitively American pastime Well the head of business development and partnerships began there s $14 million to own the paint (so your brand s name appears across the hood) and depending on the quality of the team $18-$20 million locked-and-loaded for the sponsorship and nally about $12 $15 million for activation. Activation I thought. Hmm this is where it would get most interesting for me. If you have been in nancial services activation means someone has not only applied for your credit card they have actually started using it. If you talk about brand activation to a data-driven marketer you are basically saying yes we have had an exchange of value. That usually means that you have created something relevant that the individual gave you some personal information. Hopefully a successful dialogue breaks out. Not so in event/experiential marketing. In event/ experiential activation means we re talking about giving away pencils and towels. Yup that s right. We are approximately $50 million in and we are activating a brand s presence and developing criteria for success by putting up a tent and giving away pencils and towels! A C M O S N I G H T M A R E I began to think about 1997-98 when advertising types hijacked the discussion about what the web could be and brought us banner ads gross reach and CPM s. It was only later that we applied directresponse science and data and the real nature of the medium emerged. A marriage of both was not only realized it was demanded. And so sitting there it all began to come clear to me. After two months on the job I realized there really was very little marketing going on in event marketing. There were a lot of arms and legs a lot of logistics and a helluva a lot of tee-shirts key chains loud music and swarms of people. But where was the marketing This was more like a living tableau of a brand billboard a sort of daydream of all the fun things that a brand could do for you. After $50 million you would hope someone was having fun and maybe someone will. It just won t be anyone on the sales staff. If you were to compare this scenario with the function of an event in the B-to-B world and you as the head of events were being reviewed by your boss would be red. Where were the leads MAY/JUNE 2007 THE HUB 43 Where were the insights What were the followups the proposals the visits to the of ce and the inevitable start of the long road to a sale Oh I can just hear the guffaws of the veterans of consumer event marketing: That s not our gig leads that s not our job. These are people who came up through an industry rich in concert promoters and logistical producers (this is a business with more moving parts than a game of Twister). But it s not a business with a lot of marketers who live and die with data results tweaking conversions of leads etc So as this meeting (it was really a revelation complete with angels cherubs choruses of bad singers ) came to a conclusion it dawned on me that there was a great opportunity to talk to senior marketers whose organizations spend so much and yet expect so little. This is a part of the industry that needs to grow up a little and live side-by-side with the scrutiny and ROI expectations many of us live with every day. This is why there is crisis in American marketing personi ed by the declining tenure of CMOs currently at 18 23 months (depending on which study you follow). It s not getting any better. Helping CMOs by optimizing and integrating everything that is done showing value to the sales function and upper management by creating success criteria that can help manage expectations is all a part of our jobs. NEXT- GENERATION EVENTS At the risk of being less relevant to event marketers but hopefully instructive to marketers who would love

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