So, here is part two of my WOMMA Summit recap.
I have to admit… I had a conference call at 8:30… and missed a bit of the early portion of day two. I did go out “sightseeing” the night before, however, being the father of a four-year-old and leading the agency lifestyle (9-10 hour work days then more work at home after dinner) has my tolerance for sleeping <6 hours pretty high.
The first full session I attended was called Building Brand Evangelists through Engaging Communities. The two brands who spoke were Verizon and Caterpillar (they both incidentally use Lithium as their community platforms).
Becky Carroll from Verizon had the usual things to share about her company’s social media and community forays: Initially Verizon saw mostly complaints by customers in social media monitoring… until they opened up their own channels and platforms (which was a little risky according to some inside Verizon). Now customers can find answers themselves and help each other out… and “red flag” people can be caught eary before they reach the boiling point and use social/Twitter as their breaking point/soap box. She cited some nice examples from the Verizon Idea Exchange. She said their most fruitful social platform is the Idea Exchange… but that will soon be less of a competitive advantage as it’s out in the open for all competitors to snoop (and I bet if they track domains, they KNOW AT&T, Sprint, etc. have been poking around).
Kevin Espinosa, eBusiness Platform Manager, from Catepillar was humorous in his delivery.. and definitely has had to walk the edge of upper managements’ comfort zones in the building of Cat’s social media presence. Now, through their communities online, they have direct conversations and work with their most valuable heavy equipment buyers and can help fuel the passion that CAT users have about their products… getting insights, early feedback on new products and info about dealerships.
Next up was lunch and the WOMMY Awards… a nice chance to network and see some great sizzle videos by some of the contenders. Check out the 2009 winners here. And a press release about the 2010 winners here. Best Buy’s Twelpforce (Congrats to Best Buy and their agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky) won the Grand Prix award (as voted by the attendees).
Then I attended a session with USAA… one of the most admired financial services/insurance brands in social media. Their secret: Having a kickass product with strong emotional ties (the military)… and having a ton of social hooks to allow customers to shout their praises. No secret sauce. Just good blocking and tackling. Another innovation in financial services: Just Ask Scott.
The day wound down with a nice keynote by Lois C. Greisman from the FTC’s division of Marketing Practices in their Bureau of Consumer Protection. It was really great to literally hear it straight from the Feds: They have rooms full of people (some undercover, some not) essentially monitoring the Internet for unfair acts and scams. They generally do use complaints directly to the FTC…but also troll boards and other online media for clues of abuse/misuse. She also gave one interesting cocktail party convo topic for us all to use: DO YOU EVER LOOK AT YOUR PHONE BILL? She said less than 15% of people read their paper phone bills. Less than 10% of us who use online-only/paperless billing read our bills. Phone bills are one of the biggest sources of complaints fielded by her office: Over charges, hidden fees, direct bill to phone, etc.
See a graphic designer’s interpretation of Lois Greisman’s Presentation here.
After a disco nap and dinner… was the “Style Your Sole” party brought to us by AmEx among others. It featured a talk from the head of marketing from TOM’S shoes and AmEx and also featured some pretty amazing swag: Water bottles from AmEx Members Project, a $25 voucher to a charity of our choice from AmEx, a pair of TOM’S shoes to decorate with lots of craft supplies donated by Fiskars and more. Great, fun, interactive idea (but most of us are marketers and not designers! Not a lot of award-winning shoe designs…ha).
See some of the wacky photos from the event here compliments of NING (sans the ones of @lalalula and me… what gives?)
The and last day (Friday) was a partial day. The kick-off was a great panel discussion lead by Jeremy Jeremiah Owyang, Partner of Customer Strategy at Altimeter Group. Two of the most noteworthy anecdotes:
“Most people only call an 800 # if a website is truly awful… especially if you are under 30!”
“Social ROI research is possible… just need to pay for it!”
The next full session I caught featured Comblu… yet another community platform company (I had never heard of them before… glad to have found them! They shared a bit from case studies with Dell, Discovery Channel, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation… and how they have helped these brands create online discussion and focus groups — with many of the participants getting nothing but praise and virtual points!
The final keynote was by Jeremiah Owyang, Partner of Customer Strategy at Altimeter Group and also author of the blog named Web Strategy. He shared a study with us, outlining social media strategists/marketers in the industry and the salary, experience and demographic traits of we social folks. I will try to find a link to his exact preso… but looks like the nice folks at AmEx have harnessed his study for a post on their Open Forum (which, I love).
After the closing remarks, we all went on our merry ways.
All-in-all, a great conference. Loved the 45 minute sessions (forced presenters to get to their points), the fact that the expo/exhibits were open all three days, the progam/notebook adhesion, quality level of speakers and the general vibe.
Didn’t love: Weird conference tote bags (not so attractive), plastic ware/Styrofoam used in catering (I am a bit of a tree hugger), lack of organized networking/matching events. Also, most of the presenters said “these decks will be posted online after the conference… anyone know where?
Those minor issues can all be remedied. I had to say something constructive 😉
Until next time…
ps: Check out a nice bullet-pointed recap of the conference here by Ekaterina from Intel.
The Lord of Marketing 