The Puget Sound Chapter of the American Marketing Association (PSAMA) is proud to announce MarketMix 2012. Held at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on Tuesday, March 20, the day-long conference will be hosted by nationally renowned marketing strategists Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger; Ted Rubin, Chief Social Marketing Officer at Collective Bias and Social Media Strategist for MARS Advertising; and Allison Watson, Corporate VP of US Marketing & Operations Group, Microsoft.  

Through a series of panels and presentations from national speakers as well as some of Seattle’s top business leaders, seminars will explore top trending subjects in today’s digital marketplace, such as earned media and trust marketing.  From social media to lead generation, and brand perception to mobile marketing, this year’s conference will highlight the conversations that enable a company, brand or person to strengthen connections with its target audience.

“To win in today’s fast moving business environment, you have to keep one step ahead of your competition and be armed with the latest knowledge” said Kathy Cox, PSAMA President. “We are thrilled to be hosting the sixth annual MarketMix Conference, which brings industry leaders together to share practical tips and best practices in digital marketing, brand affinity and content marketing.”

The PSAMA is partnering with nearby AMA chapters and several local professional marketing organizations to share marketing expertise. Partner organizations include:

• Word of Mouth Marketing Organization (WOMMA)
• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
• Northwest Entrepreneur Network (NWEN)
• Seattle SEO Network
• Portland American Marketing Association
• British Columbia American Marketing Association

MarketMix 2012 topics include:

• Content Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Community Management
• Driving Results with Data
• Gamification
• 2012 Marketing Trends to Watch For
• Marketing With Video
• Changing Customer Brand Perceptions
• New Ways to Look at TV
• Unleash Your Employees with Internal Social Networks
• Word of Mouth Marketing

About the speakers:

Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger:

Ben Huh did something remarkable. As the founder and CEO of what has become known as “the Cheezburger network” he created an online experience that has mesmerized, entertained and created millions of laughs. Ben joins MarketMix 2012 to tell his story of how an online experience with cute animals and failed images has become a crowd-sourced mini empire.

Ted Rubin, MARS Advertising:

Ted Rubin is the Chief Social Marketing Officer at Collective Bias and a Social Marketing Strategist for MARS Advertising. Ted coined the term ROR (Return on Relationship), a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database for your brand.

Allison Watson, Corporate VP of US Marketing & Operations Group, Microsoft:

As corporate vice president of the US Marketing & Operations Group, Watson leads marketing and strategic business development for Microsoft’s largest geographic market. In this role, Watson is responsible for all marketing activities for Microsoft’s products, including Microsoft’s commercial cloud offerings.

Participating MarketMix 2012 speakers include:

Gus Swanson             Clear Channel – Seattle

Jeff Hasen                   Hipcricket

Rod Brooks                 Pemco Insurance

David Preston                         RideWest BMW

Dave Mangone                        WattsMedia

Whitney Joly                Comcast Spotlight

Michelle Flandreau     Tommy Bahama

Russell Sparkman        Fusionspark Media

Marty Roberts                         thePlatform

Vicky Tamaru              Plexipixel

To register for this event, or find out more information, visit:  http://marketmix2012.com/

I have helped both the PR company and the marketing association many times over the past 5 years, but am unable to recall one time that either of them did anything nice for me – or even invited me to an event without a price tag.

Still the same, I kept an open mind and asked if they would be willing to give me a media pass to the event so that I could report on it.  The person said she’d have to check with her boss and then the next day said that would not be giving media passes, but that they could offer me their ‘special’ student rate of $99.

Evidently, they don’t place much value on the work they continue ask me to do to help them – and don’t realize that most of media types do not make much money – especially considering the huge number of hours committed each week.  I usually alternate between the emotions of anger and amusement when someone asks to pay so I can help them out.

What was my reaction to this situation?  I asked to be immediately removed from all their media lists and stated that I would never be helping them or their client ever again.  What would you have done?

I love to help people, businesses and organizations, but eventually, as in every successful long term relationship, it eventually has to come back around.  All parties must be willing to help each other.  My suggestions for engaging the media:

1) Invite them to the events you ask them to promote.  They might even give you post event publicity too.

2) Don’t attach a price tag (you probably don’t like to pay to work and the media doesn’t either).

3) If the event includes a meal or food for attendees, don’t withhold it from your media guests – we are people too.  If your budget does not allow for cost of having media attend, simply don’t ask them to – or to promote it.

4) You might want to consider ‘the media” as your partner – and treating them as you’d treat a partner.

5) Go out of your way to connect and develop relationships with media. Do something nice for them – introduce them to someone who can help them, invite them to special events.  Don’t just use them – nobody likes to be used.

Feedback?  I’d love to hear it.