Sounding all too familiar

I’m getting a little worried about the state of marketing and social media conferences being held in Toronto. On any given week, I get at least one announcement about a “Must Register” conference I shouldn’t miss. I read each conference outline carefully looking for new information, new case studies and, yes, some new and refreshing speakers. But I keep seeing same old, same old. For such a burgeoning sector like marketing and social media, I’m surprised we aren’t seeing a slew of new best practices and case studies that the players are willing to share.

Our agency is earmarking a lot of dollars to attend these conferences and the last thing we want to come away with is: “I’ve heard it before.” I have two staffers at Mesh this week, so I hope to hear about some original new ideas they picked up.

Recently I received two conference overviews from the CMA. One was a word-of-mouth conference called From Mass to Grass and the other was a branding conference entitled Brand Navigation. Both conferences offer up some fine speakers, but frankly I’ve heard a number of the speakers before and not sure I would spend $745 to hear them preach the same gospel.

Here’s my suggestion. Maybe organizers can start implementing a “pay as you go” model. Let’s say you just want to attend the luncheon keynote and one plenary session. Well, you just pay for a pass for those sessions. I would probably attend more events this way. Case in point, there are two individual sessions at the aforementioned conferences that suit my needs. The closing keynote at the WOM conference by Douglas Rushkoff looks very promising and original, while Chris Staples is also giving a fascinating closing keynote at the branding conference. Actually, I could listen to Staples recite the phone book for $745 – he’s simply brilliant!

Right now there’s an insatiable appetite to learn and glean as much information and best practices from leaders who are pioneering social media against marketing, branding and PR. But I hope conference organizers don’t keep retreading the same solutions and faces just to sell tickets. After all, shouldn’t conference organizers be guided by the fact that they should produce great conferences with compelling content, than just use these events as a license to print money?

I do live in Wonderland, don’t I?

No Spin PR

Richard Edelman was in town last week at the Mesh 07 conference and he made it loud and clear he vehemently hates the word “spin.” In fact, his agency is essentially a spin-free zone. In his blog this week he writes:

There is no place in PR for spin. To be deemed a spinmeister is the ultimate insult. We are in the business of presenting reality, both to clients’ stakeholders but also to the client. We advise, develop strategy and listen, so that we help to shape the reality.

He says PR is about storytelling, but clearly only storytelling the truth. If PR professionals are not up to the task of telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth in everything we do, he said, it’s basically malpractice.

I agree with him wholeheartedly. We always tell the truth in our releases and as he puts it "shape the reality." So if we are telling a bullet-proof story, with no extra toppings, why do journalists pick apart our clients’ news and approach our releases with a certain degree of skepticism?

Let’s look at our truthful releases. Let’s take a typical product launch. Let’s say a new grocery product launch. Here’s how reality is shaped:

New product hits the shelves from ABC company**

Nutritionist positively comments on this great new product and advises Canadians the critical importance of this product. She is, of course, acting as a neutral commentator, but really has been paid an honorarium to say nice things about the grocery product.

A Canada-wide survey accompanies the product launch – Canadian release reveals consumers have always wanted a product like this. Survey questions have been designed to illicit the exact response to use in the media release. Outcome was pre-destined.

Grocery product President is quoted as saying that this product “is the first of its kind in Canada.” Well, it’s the first of its kind in new packaging. However, product is essentially a “me too.”

Product is scientifically proven to be better. Well, at least one of the ingredients is scientifically proven. Good enough for me.

Yup, you’re right Richard … no spinning going on around here … just shaped and molded to give the perfect reality effect.

** Based on actual releases distributed in Canada.

Meshing Around

I attended my very first Mesh Conference today in Toronto… It was very exciting and money well spent. I did walk away however feeling a bit like the Village Idiot. I have loads to learn in the Social Media space, but at least I was there soaking it all in …. Here’s what I learned today:

Mark Evans of b5 Media is still a consummate professional and has the most awesome cheek bones a girl would kill for!

Jack Kapica of the Globe & Mail is less of a curmudgeon in person than in his emails – he wanted to know why I don’t email him anymore.. basically because he stopped answering me back!

I was probably the only person in the audience who didn’t know who Michael Arrington was … he’s the guy you read like gospel every morning, noon and night on TechCrunch …. Sorry Mr. Arrington, I still tune into Perez Hilton on the breaking news front …

The WIKI session I attended should have been given by a woman … she would have used more colourful slides and less jargon … I’m still confused …

I sat at lunch next to the guy who founded and sold Bubbleshare to Kaboose … Amazing fellow, millionaire before he was 20 ... but he still looked 20 so later that afternoon I booked a Botox appointment for myself.

Sitting next to Joe Thornley of Thornely Fallis was just a pleasure … he put things in layman’s terms for me through the entire opening keynote (he’ll no doubt be avoiding me tomorrow morning). At least I know what Twitter is now.

Content is KING! No question, this conference was yet another reminder that no matter what the social medium – Podcasts, Blogs, YouTube, WIKIs … content is paramount – throw in a good dose of credibility and pedigree, you’ve got yourself an audience … and some advertisers to boot.

Two guys named Hill and Williams made millions before they turned 30 and now are devoting their lives to self actualization in the charity arena in the Web 2.0 space. I felt like a complete amoeba at that point and walked away from that session with a renewed sense of purpose.

Traditional media is still here to stay … a number of presenters including Rachel Sklar of the Huffington Post, made it loud and clear, newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcast media aren’t going anywhere and that’s good news for us PR folks … whew … we’re still alive …

Last but not least, I learned that that PR professionals are some of the nicest and down to earth people I know … Joe, Julia, Michael, Chris, Donna (she’s not really PR per se … but that I still like her tons), Elynn, Andrew … great to have run into you all … see you tomorrow, save me a seat next to Joe!