Who's Your Data?
By Rio Longacre
About Rio
Who’s Your Data? is a blog that aims to disseminate thought-provoking tips and techniques involving the use of data and database marketing to direct marketing professionals. Why should you care? Because implementing data best practices has been shown to lift response rates, improve analytics and enhance overall customer experience. Reader participation is encouraged!
Rio Longacre is a Sales & Marketing Professional with more than 10 years of experience in the direct marketing trenches. He has worked closely with businesses across many different vertical markets, helping them effectively leverage the use of data, personalization technologies and tracking platforms. Longacre is currently employed as a Managing Consultant, Marketing, Sales & Service Consulting at Capgemini Consulting, a premier management consulting firm. He is based in the company's New York City office, which is located in Midtown Manhattan. He has also previously worked as an online media buyer and digital marketing strategist.
Email Longacre below, or you can follow him on Twitter at @RioLongacre. Any opinions expressed are his own.
Marketing Sustainably
Calling Any Ideas for a Postal Service Future!
Jun 17, 2013I read a review of a recently published biography of President Calvin Coolidge by Amity Schlaes, and it was the...
Yblog
Why Advertisers Need to Think Native
Jun 12, 2013Native advertising is the latest buzzword. Even venerable publishers such as The New York Times, The Atlantic and Forbes, are...
The Integrated Email
5 Things to Do Now to Prepare for the Next Stage of Email Marketing
Jun 10, 2013The email channel is well known for being a low cost high performance marketing machine. Generating revenue requires little more...
Making Social Sell
Stop Measuring Content Marketing
Jun 7, 2013Why are most sales people and small businesses struggling to generate leads online? Because they invest heavily in social media...
Ruthless B-to-B Marketing
5 Essentials for Every B-to-B Website
Jun 6, 2013"If you don't have a website, you don't have a business." By now, this maxim is well understood. But what...
Online Video Marketing Deep Dive
Online Video Advertising for Direct Marketers
Jun 5, 2013If you're among the 182 million or so who watch an online video each month, then you've seen a pre-roll,...
Muscle Marketing
My 9 Insider Tips to Build Your Email List For Low or No Cost!
Jun 3, 2013Whether you're an entrepreneur, corporation or online publisher, the power of the lead is critical in growing your business …...
The Power Punch
Packaging: A Conspiracy Among Dentists?
May 31, 2013Regardless of what I buy lately, getting inside the package to the actual product is like breaking into Fort Knox....
Triple Venti Dolce Data...
5 Reasons for ‘Why Now?’
May 29, 2013With the lingering, precarious feelings about the state of the economy, along with plenty of concerns about the business climate...
Think Mobility
3 Questions Before Implementing Any Mobile Solution
May 20, 2013I often get super excited when I see other businesses doing cool and innovative things in mobile. You read an...
The Whole Magilla
What Marketers Can Learn From Maine's Political Email Idiocy
Feb 24, 2012It finally happened. Politicians' idiotic email practices had a measurable negative effect. "Maine Republican Party chairman Charlie Webster has admitted...
Denny Hatch's Blog
The Internet Can Make You a Chump—Forever!
Sep 25, 2010Trouble is, the Internet is rife with misinformation and if you get caught advertently or inadvertently propagating this nonsense in...
SEO & Content Marketing Revue
5 Tips for Top Positioning (And Converting) Page Titles
Aug 11, 2010Wondering about a SEO content strategy that offers the biggest impact in the shortest time? Try tweaking your page titles....
The Marketer’s Code of Conduct for Disasters
|
I'm also a big runner. To my disappointment, the City of New York decided to cancel this year's NYC Marathon. No, I wasn't going to be running in the race this year—I didn't run enough local races to qualify automatically and didn't win the race lottery. But I do know that the race provides nearly half of the New York Road Runner's annual budget and generates millions of dollars in charitable donations ($30.8 million this year). Plus, for a city still recuperating from the storm, the event would have generated boatloads of business for companies large and small across the city. One study by the consulting firm AECOM estimated this number to be in the neighborhood of $340 million a year.
Although he wanted to let the race go on, Mayor Bloomberg caved in to public pressure and pulled the plug just two days before big day. A major reason for his decision was the large public outcry that took place in the days following the storm. News coverage and the social networks were buzzing about the race, the tone overwhelmingly in favor of canceling it. I even received emails from friends excoriating the mayor and asking me to sign an online petition to cancel it. I checked the poll a couple days ago and saw that more than 15,000 people had already signed it.
On Facebook, I got involved in some conversations and asked some people why they felt the way they did, and did my best to change their minds. I easily debunked the argument that resources that could be used for recovery would somehow be diverted, because NYRR and the sponsors were going to foot the entire bill for the race, including paying for generators and security. I also explained how much money the race generates for charities and businesses in the city, to no avail. I even brought up the amazing role baseball played in the healing process for the city following 9/11 … All I got back was the snarky reply: "That was after 9/11!"
What it came down to for many was the issue of respect. "How can the city run a race when bodies are still being pulled from Staten Island?" one friend wrote me. For many New Yorkers, the thought of us dedicating any resources to something as trivial as a race during such tough times was simply beyond the pale. Now I may not agree with this rationale, but I suppose the people have spoken and the mayor has listened. No race this year.
But the issue of respect made me think about our role as marketers. What effect should tragedies and national disasters have on the way we ply our trade? Following a tragedy, is it safe—or even right—to market at all? Moreover, is there an appropriate waiting period—a specific amount of time we need to let pass—before we can again try to convince people to drink the Kool-Aid, so to speak?
I'm not sure if you saw the coverage, but a handful of firms were absolutely blasted for trying to profit from the storm. In case you missed it, there was a great post on Business Insider titled "The 9 Biggest Brand Fails Exploiting Hurricane Sandy" that gives some great examples. This one by Urban Outfitters is a personal fave: "This storm blows (but free shipping doesn't)!" How crass can you get, right? People are cowering in their homes in fear and you're trying to shill your products with an unfunny pun? I'm all for edgy marketing, but give me a break—all the jokers in these examples more than deserved all the bad press they received.
But tasteless ads aside, obviously there's a right way to do things. So with that being said, I've done my best to come up with a Marketers Code of Conduct for use following an event like Hurricane Sandy.
- Don't ever try to profit off of the tragedy
- Go the extra mile to be sensitive regarding people's feelings
- Save the jokes for after it's over
- Don't mix commerce with condolences
- Use your network and marketing skills for good, not to push your products
- If you decide to help, don't use it to toot your own horn
- If you screw up, apologize at once
I think that list is a pretty good place to start. If you have any other ideas or items you'd like to add to the list, please let me know.
Finally, I'm curious to see what others think about Bloomberg's decision to cancel this year's NYC Marathon. To get your feedback, I've created a LinkedIn poll. Please click on this link to vote today: lnkd.in/yFtmDi.
—Rio
Sections:
 |
|
