An open letter to DeMaurice Smith, Kevin Mawae and all National Football League Players Association Executive Committee Members:

Dear Sirs,

At a time when every one of your association’s members is unemployed, we applaud your intense efforts to get them back to work. Add to that trade negotiations, a new CBA and getting the ’11-’12 NFL season on track, and yours is an extraordinary situation indeed – particularly for trade association leadership.

As such, we understand completely if one of the primary reasons for the NFLPA’s certification as a trade association may not be receiving the attention it deserves: organizing conferences and conventions.

As one of the thousands of associations headquartered in Washington, DC, we’re sure the NFLPA understands the value of bringing like-minded individuals together, to share ideas, explore new products and innovations, and discuss industry trends.

But did you realize properly marketed conferences can generate a high percentage of an association’s operating budget? In fact, a large number of associations find between 50% and 75% of their annual operating budgets are derived from hosting conferences and conventions.

Profitable events put less pressure on raising revenue via member dues, and while your members are out of work, a break in their dues could help alleviate any of the financial hardships the lock out may be causing.

For nearly two decades, we’ve been experts in helping some of the country’s largest and most productive trade associations generate operating revenue through successfully marketed events. In fact, we’re the region’s only agency whose primary focus is the marketing of association conferences, events and conventions.

As Creative Director at Fixation, I’d like to offer our services to you. And in these tough times, with unemployment rates still hovering around record levels, I’d like to offer you our creative services free of charge until your members are gainfully employed once again.

Top trade associations and non-profits have relied on Fixation to achieve a diverse set of objectives that include: increasing tradeshow attendance, enhancing issue awareness, promoting special programs, boosting membership, raising funds and much more.

We can help the NFLPA, too. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if we can assist your trade association in any way possible.

Sincerely,

Mike Gallagher
Creative Director
Fixation Marketing
mike@fixation.com

As you may know Facebook is the world’s largest social network. Over 500 million users have joined and somehow they have all agreed to share information such as location, age, interest, and much more, without serious privacy concerns. Otherwise, they would have cancelled their accounts, right?

Facebook is taking advantage of all this data to make Facebook Ads a very powerful platform that allows for highly targeted advertising.

Facebook is often referred to as a personal network, a place where you communicate with friends and family. Many have questioned its business efficacy. However, more and more companies have joined Facebook and added Facebook Pages, Groups and Events. One can find all kinds of associations, organizations and groups. And many now are taking advantage of Facebook Ads.

The platform is very flexible, with the potential of being very powerful, and you can set your ads in a few minutes. A few things to keep in mind:

1. Creating an engaging ad is not that difficult. All you need is a graphic, title, body copy and URL
   
   
2. Choose your audience by targeting users based on their location, demographics, interest and other options. This is probably the most powerful part of Facebook Ads. You will be amazed at all the options you have to target a group of people that have joined Facebook pages and groups of competitors, media and associations that cater to your audience.
   
   
3. Create a schedule and budget for your campaign. You will be able to choose the time you want to run your ads and set a daily budget. You can also choose to pay per click (CPP) or pay per mille of views (CPM)
   
   
4. Facebook gives you access to analytics, make sure you analyze them and keep improving your ads to make them more effective

Give it a try by going to facebook.com/ads/create. Let us know if you need any help with the strategy, design or interactive efforts to add this to your marketing mix.

I am a sports guy. It’s just the way it is. In fact, in the marketing world, all too often I find myself in situations where it’s all I can do NOT to talk about sports – looking at logos all day, wondering about the latest and greatest sports team logos – but I guess not everybody is like me. However, there are those out there who do enjoy athletics as much as I do. Some even enjoy it more, but few of them enter my daily work routine. Which is why it was refreshing for me when the Washington Wizards recently revealed their new uniforms.

Really, I couldn’t care much less about the Wizards changing the way they look. If you ask me, I’d rather focus on how many wins the team gains throughout the season. However, to the credit of those involved, it did seem that the Capitals’ popularity grew after they changed their colors back to red and blue. Granted, a certain Alexander Ovechkin may have also had something to do with the popularity, but you can’t escape the fact that the Capitals were more pleasing to watch on a fundamental, eye-catching level, post color change.

So ultimately, when I saw the new Wizards uniforms, I was just glad that Ted Leonsis understood why this city would feel better about seeing their team in the right colors, but wasn’t super excited in any regard. What surprised me, was that I actually got to talk about it. Suddenly, sports commentators, casual fans, fashionistas, and marketing professionals alike all had something to say. For once, they entered my world (weird as it may be). Whether it was a comment on the multiple disorganized-but-still-intriguing small logos the Wizards have developed as a part of the new uniforms. Or if it was an overall statement from someone older than me on how they enjoy reminiscing about the days when Washington actually was a force to be reckoned with in the professional sports realm. Either way I was just excited to have the conversation.

In one quick turn of events, radio personalities became graphic designers. Graphic designers became sports talk-show hosts. Casual fans turned into... nope, they’re still bandwagoners. And I just sat in the middle, enjoying a special moment when I didn’t feel like a total nerd for spending my morning commute debating in my head whether or not I like the Redskins logo and colors.

When you stop and think about the amount of time and money this country invests in professional sports, it only makes sense that the marketing world would notice the change in style the Wizards have adopted. But at least I got to talk about it, meshing together my professional and casual life in a way that I always hoped could happen, but never really knew would.

Check out the Leonsis blog to hear from an owner who actually understands this city: www.tedstake.com.

Last week’s Ad Club ‘Best of DC’ event at Google’s DC headquarters was pretty fascinating. The rise of mobile is something every marketer needs to be aware of, and be able to do right. The numbers thrown around regarding website hits via mobile vs. desktop were eye opening. I didn’t get the exact numbers down, but something like 17+% of all financial sites were visited via mobile in the last year. And around a quarter of all restaurant sites. And these numbers are only growing.

A big thanks to Google for hosting the event. Dan Taylor, Director, Google Display Network and Brian McDevitt, Google’s Director of Mobile Display did an admirable job of answering every question thrown their way – marketing and techie alike.

However, as one who’s been on the delivery end of many a computer-based, multi-media presentation, only to see them go awry when the imbedded video content doesn’t play as desired, I was encouraged (happy?) to see that Google is, in fact, as fallible as the rest of us. That’s right. Both Dan and Brian gave multi-media presentations, broadcast on large screens to an audience of 50+. And wouldn’t you know it – the imbedded video in both presentations failed to play. Even after the uncomfortable re-start-look-for-the-original-video-file exercise we’ve all found ourselves in before, the videos still didn’t play.

Refreshing, isn’t it? Even with all that brainpower, all that technology, all those algorithms, turns out even Google can’t take the human out of the Google.

btw, if you want to see those videos, they’re posted here on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleTV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=eteucIGSaYI

I’ve been hearing a lot about QR Codes (the QR stands for Quick Response) and how to use them in event marketing. This is a definite trend for 2011 and there’s a slew of ways they can be used. Everywhere I go I feel like I see them now—on signs, in direct mail pieces, emails, print ads, consumer products, museum displays, etc. QR codes can be scanned by downloading a QR reader application to a smartphone. Once scanned, they automatically pull up text, photos, videos or URLs. I think there are a lot of ways that they can be applied for trade show marketing and promotions, depending on the audience. Most will need to be educated on what a QR code is, what application is needed for scanning them, and why you have them. That’s all relatively simple to explain.

QR codes can be added to an event marketing plan. I recommend using them to lead people to a landing page with a white paper, a promotion (e.g., discount), exclusive content, special video, biz card, chance to win an iPad, etc., so there’s a payoff for the person going through the trouble of scanning the QR code. Also, by making it an interactive experience, there are ways to measure the response. If you’re interested in learning about who’s scanning QR codes, what kinds of devices they’re using and what brands are running QR code campaigns, Mashable recently published a very cool infographic about QR codes. I’d love to hear about your experience with QR codes – good and bad. Scan the QR code to email your comments.

Fixation proudly continues with our sponsorship of Sam Lippman's Large Show Roundtable (LSR). The latest event was held in St. Louis and included cocktails with the Budweiser Clydesdales. As promised, we're sharing the second installment of our 10 for '10 marketing tips (distributed as a handout to the St. Louis LSR participants).

We've offered some sound advice and tactics in response to the anxiety-producing trend of prospective attendees waiting to register until only a few weeks out from the event. Fear not! End-of-campaign strategies can boost both exhibit and attendance numbers in the final weeks before your show.

From time to time, business owners are asked to throw their proverbial hat into the ring for various graphic design awards, Best Places to Work lists, Smart CEO honors and the like. So, it was no big deal when earlier this year we received a Top Agency nomination from BtoB, the magazine for marketing strategists, and were asked to complete a survey. All in a day’s work; answer their questions and move on.

Imagine our surprise a few weeks ago when we learned that Fixation had been named to BtoB’s (www.btobonline.com) 150 Leading Agencies list in their March 2010 issue. This particular honor stands out because a) it’s a national recognition that finds us listed among some of the nation’s biggest and best “name brand” agencies; and b) the questions took into consideration not just our personality or number of employees, but some deeper questions about year-over-year growth and how we were helping our clients deal with a fragile economy.

Look, we know this business is not all about awards. But as a small agency, we rarely get consideration in the rarefied company of the “big boys” like BBDO and Ogilvy & Mather North America. Let’s hear it for the little guy! And let me take this opportunity to first thank a great small-and-smart staff here at Fixation who work hard and produce terrific stuff that is sometimes unheralded. Second, let me honor our clients—many of them long-standing—who hire us to provide creative strategy, design and interactive marketing solutions that help keep them successful and help keep us on top of our game.

Congratulations to all. I’m so proud of this company.

Fixation Marketing was a sponsor of Sam Lippman's Large Show Roundtable (LSR) in Anaheim, California on January 22, 2010. Not content just slapping our name on this industry-leading executive forum and sitting on the sidelines, we produced an informative value-added leave behind for all LSR participants called 10 for '10-10 marketing tips to enhance their 2010 events. Now, we'd like to share it with you! This first installment focuses on fresh ideas to attract returning and new attendees and exhibitors, from direct mail database management to utilizing Smartphones effectively.

Stay tuned for the next 10 for '10, which will offer tips on how to boost registration numbers eight weeks out from the big event!

Maddie Grant is the chief social media strategist and co-founder of SocialFish, a consultancy firm that teaches association professionals how to effectively use social media. Maddie and her SocialFish business partner, Lindy Dreyer provide social media strategy, marketing and training to clients like ASAE and the Center and the National Association for the Self-Employed. Maddie and Lindy provided valuable social media training to our team at Fixation last year, for which we remain incredibly grateful.

I often get the question "what's the ROI for using social media?" How would you answer this question?
This is actually the "big question" that seems to be top of mind for everyone now that a lot of organizations have started using social media. In one sense, it's like saying, "what's the ROI of building relationships?" or "What's the ROI of email?"--because social media is a way of communicating and interacting with stakeholders. Having said that, there can be defined and measurable results--but those results need to be directly tied to business and strategic goals. There needs to be a starting benchmark and deliberate tracking--as well as factoring in of indirect costs (staff time, overhead and resources) in order to really measure ROI--which I would say many organizations don't do a great job of in general, not just for social media efforts.

I've heard several folks in the industry say that Twitter's relevance to business is dwindling. How would you respond?
We believe that the core purpose of social media (including, of course, Twitter) is to build relationships and we've seen that work very successfully. If business strategies involve an understanding of that core principle, then Twitter is a fantastic way to reach people in an organization's "ecosystem" and get to know them and what their needs are. If, on the other hand, Twitter is used merely to spam people with marketing messages without a care to fostering that community, then it's not going to work for that business for very long.

What are 5 initial steps that an association professional can take to begin using social media tools right now?
The first step is always to "listen" on the social web--which means start using Google Alerts to search for brand mentions, industry terms, key people, etc. -- to see what people are saying about you or your industry. You can do this, to some extent, without actually having social media profiles at all. Step two is to focus on the places where your people are, and start building a presence there. Step three is to begin building relationships by responding when appropriate to relevant questions, following discussions, answering feedback. Step four, start providing value by posting information people need. Step five, identify those champions (influencers in those spaces who care about what you care about) to help you grow your presence and community and take things to the next level.

Do you see practical applications for associations to use video and mobile applications? Do you agree that video and mobile will grow exponentially in the next year or so?
Ab-so-lutely!! Mobile is becoming huge across all industries--not just because of geolocation, which empowers local connections between people and businesses, but more fundamentally because devices like the iPhone are revolutionary in terms of changing how we want and expect to get what we need, in a very individualized way (e.g. each individual user downloads the apps that they want to use, so every individual phone is different. The Long Tail thrives on mobile!) And if we consider the Millennial generation (now entering the workforce in substantial numbers) and younger, these are people who do all of their communicating through mobile phones, which is changing the landscape of how we work (not tethered to a desktop, which means not tied to 9-5...) With regard to video, associations are definitely starting to see just how valuable it can be to add video to their arsenal of ways of communicating with members--it's easy and attractive, and it's humanizing, in terms of potentially giving some much needed personality to the "brand" they want to promote to their members.

Is there an association that in your opinion has done a really good job of using social media? If so, how and why?
Honestly we've seen many associations doing fabulous things. If I had to pick one, we often show the International Society for Technology in Education as a great example of an association conference home base site that aggregates lots of different social media activities--but really I think the beauty of social media is that much of it is all out in the open for everyone to find. I'd love your readers to check out the Association Social Media Wiki if they are looking for specific examples. I also had a really great series of interviews with association social media managers on the SocialFish blog, where people working for all types and sizes of organizations told us how they internally managed the social media management work.

Recently, Fixation’s Megan Campbell contributed to an article by Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Tracy Krughoff  called “Listen to Members for Meeting Success” in ASAE’s publication Association Now. The article addresses a number of key strategies that BIO has employed in the last few years to optimize their annual convention’s value to attendees and exhibitors. One of those key strategies is a shift in their promotional communication so that constituents began hearing more from industry leaders and less from BIO staff in advance of the convention. BIO did not shy away from asking the tough questions, and they certainly were not afraid of the answers they found – one of them being that members of the biotechnology community wanted to know that the annual convention had strong industry leaders endorsing it, excited about it and encouraging attendance. In so doing, BIO has strengthened their event.

In reading this article, that theme struck a chord with me – attendees want to hear from other industry leaders, not just from their association. At Fixation, we see this phenomenon with almost all of our clients. There is no question that the association plays a vital role as the producer of the tradeshow. As former exhibit sales director for the Food Marketing Institute, I’ve been on the front lines and have seen firsthand how a powerful tradeshow staff is essential to raising the tradeshow experience to new levels. BIO has proven that the association’s true power as the producer of a successful industry tradeshow is in creating consistent and new opportunities for industry leaders to connect and reconnect with each other. Kudos to BIO for sharing these insights.