News

Conference Us In
An article about sessions and speakers for an upcoming SIPA conference.

IdeaSlam I Ready to Show the Way

I once watched this incredible German film where the protagonist had to travel to a small city in the Arctic Circle to compete in a Jeopardy-like game show that focused on trains and the fastest way to get from place to place. (If you’re in Europe, you understand. If you’re in the U.S., many jokes are popping into your head.)

In other words, their Alex Trebek would ask, “Barcelona to St. Petersburg,” and a contestant would ring in, “take the 6:11 to Paris, then the 11:40 to Frankfurt” and so on. At the time, it seemed a bit preposterous, though now, that word may not even exist--this from someone who grew up on the “Jersey Shore.”

The point here is that the film actually did portray this game show in the end, in all its bells, whistles and departure boards. And it was amazing to see! Our protagonist won and left with his new girlfriend to some frigid outpost pub in the snowbound wilderness.

Flash forward to the warmth of Miami Beach and the brainpower that will be in attendance at SIPA’s 27th Annual Marketing Conference, Nov. 10-12 at the Ritz-Carlton. We’ve been hard at work organizing an event that I will call IdeaSlam I because it will undoubtedly be the first of many.

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Whirled Power
...on staying current with the latest marketing trends

Marketing to a Diverse Audience, Part 1

I wrote an article a few years ago about a newspaper in San Angelo, Texas, that scripted a series of house ads starring their very own employees. The series was called “Get Connected Every Day with the San Angelo Standard-Times” and was part of the paper’s “Passion Campaign” that let readers see a bit of themselves in the paper every day.

“It fit into this whole philosophy of improving our relationship with the community,” the marketing director said. “It was an important first step in the process.”

At that time, 2004, a community was still mostly measured in physical terms. Today, of course, an online community is probably more appropriate for our marketing directives. But that doesn’t mean strategies have to change all that much. Improving your relationship with your online community should remain a major goal.

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SIPA’s 10 for ’10
An ongoing series of valuable lists for 2010.

Aim, Shoot, Post. But First Get Some Equipment

Last week, 3D, the DMA Daily Digest, led us to a website called Target Marketing that published a nice piece on “Creating and Promoting a Viral Video.” (More on that below.)

Fortunately—since you definitely need some equipment before undertaking these videos—SIPA’s June Hotline published an article by Alan Prochoroff, editor and publisher of Insurance Compliance Insight for ProBusiness Publishing LLC, to help get you started in the video realm. The article compared the Flip Ultra HD camcorder and the Kodak vi8 (now available as the zi8 HD).
Here were some of his findings:

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The Road Taken
An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead.

Karen Piontkowski, Founder and President, Direct Answer, Inc.
Katie Rogers, Vice President, Direct Answer, Inc.

Editor’s Note: We give you a pre-Labor Day special today of two-for-the-price-of-one.

SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
Karen Piontkowski: Printing broker...doesn't everyone in direct marketing start in printing? Once the ink is in your blood and the feel of the different paper textures, you cannot get it out so it seems! Throughout the years, I find most of my colleagues who began with me in the late ’70s and early ’80s are connected to printing in some sort of fashion...however, I fear we may be losing those wonderful smells of a web press running at full speed!

Katie Rogers: I was being recruited to work for a certain three-letter government agency, but when I found out that I could and would be called at a moment’s notice to head overseas for an undetermined amount of time, I and my soon-to-be husband, decided it might not be the best environment to raise a family. As for how I got into this business, I don’t think I ever was NOT in this business. I started folding T-shirts for premiums and doing data entry before I was legally allowed to work: my friends are still impressed with my 100 wpm! Growing up surrounded by this industry, I swore I would never work in it when I “grew up”—I wanted to break the mold. Do something different! However, the passion must run in my blood as I kept being drawn back to it—it seemed to come naturally. After completing my EMBA, I realized this was what I was made to do and haven’t looked back since.

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Meeting of the Minds
An article about sessions and speakers for an upcoming SIPA conference

Tips From SIPA UK Conference Become
Session Starters for Miami Meeting

by Ronn Levine

David Foster, CEO of BVR in Portland, Ore., sat in on the marketing directors' roundtable at July’s SIPA UK Conference in London, and sent back some thoughts from the participants. We've now added interesting tie-ins to sessions at the Annual Marketing Conference in Miami. It’s exciting when Conferences build off each other.

1. When hiring, be sure to check the prospective staff member’s use of social media.

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Meeting of the Minds
An article about a session or speaker from a SIPA conference.

Londesborough Proves Popular With
His Sales Habits and Best Practices

At the last session of the SIPA 2010 Conference—Best Ideas From SIPA 2010—host Andy McLaughlin did a wonderful job of keeping the pace moving and getting a lot of people to give their ideas. But one name seemed to come up more than others when it came to best ideas. Richard Londesborough, CEO of Business Monitor International.

Londesborough’s session was titled Building a Killer Sales Force. First he talked about the impact of sales on BMI.

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SIPA’s 10 for ’10
An ongoing series of valuable lists for 2010.

New-Product Ideas Range From
a Relaunching to a Repurposing

Here are 10 new-product development ideas to put on your gold-seeking plate (from SIPA 2010).

From Torry Burdick, senior vice president, Marketing, Mortgage Success Source

1. Webinars are not new, but they have taken on a new flavor at MSS. We have used free webinars in the past to provide content to our audience, but recently we began using them in our marketing. They are proving to be an excellent way for us to showcase our expertise to our prospect audience as well as cross sell our existing subscribers new products.(Examples: Legislative updates and trial promotions.)

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The Road Taken
An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead.

Amir A. Khosrodad, President, Cranium Softworks, Silver Spring, Maryland

SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
KHOSRODAD: My first job out of college was with a small local publisher called AKA publishing that produced a foreign-language weekly dealing with political events in the Middle East. I initially started as a lowly programmer building “green-screen” applications to help manage subscribers but soon got involved with setting up elaborate ways to gather and compile news and information from reporters abroad using dial-up networks.

Has there been a defining moment in your career? Perhaps when you knew you were on the right road.
The one that clearly stands out occurred in 2001 when Hitachi acquired Virtual Logic (the company I was working for at the time) and started breaking it up into smaller pieces. My team and I separated away and started Cranium Softworks that year.

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