DMAW Marketing AdVents—June 2015
- 1. 3 MARKETINGADVENTSJUNE2015 DMAW Executive Committee & Board of Directors 2015 Executive Committee President—Jamie Natelson Avalon Consulting Group 202-429-6080 ext. 106 jamien@avalonconsulting.net Vice President/President Elect—Cheryl Keedy Production Solutions, Inc. 703-734-5700, ckeedy@psmail.com Treasurer—Kathy Calta Barton Cotton, 410-565-5040 kathy.calta@bartoncotton.com Secretary—Alan Rich, Nova Label Co. 301-386-4433, alan@novalabel.com Immediate Past President—Peter Carter Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey 703-248-0025, pcarter@ccah.com Board of Directors Dennis Ashcraft, Colortree Group 804-358-4245, dashcraft@colortreeva.com Samantha Brown, Fundraising Professional 215–287-9222, samanthabrown528@gmail.com Kate Carr, Silver Marketing 301-652-3691, kcarr@silvermarketing.com Jim Chmielewski, Public Interest Communications 703-847-8300, jim@pic1.com Mike DeFlavia Lautman Maska Neill & Company 202-296-9660 ext. 211 mdeflavia@lautmandc.com Melissa Ford, Mal Warwick | Donordigital 202-332-3124, melissa@malwarwick.com Sherene Kelly, Wiland 510-332-2477, skelly@wiland.com Liz Kincheloe, Infogroup 202-973-5400, liz.kincheloe@infogroup.com Mikaela King, Defenders of Wildlife 202-682-9400, mking@defenders.org Peter Maaseide, L&E Meridian 703-913-1654, pmaaseide@l-e.com Shira Mitchell, Special Olympics 202-715-1156, smitchell@specialolympics.org Eric Rardin, Care2 703-473-2825, ericr@care2team.com Jeff Thomas, ProList 301-924-4545 ext. 1022, jthomas@prolist.com DMAW Educational Foundation Liaison— Syma Mendelsohn, 301-351-4863, symamendelsohn@verizon.net DMAW Educational Foundation Carrie Schweikart, President carrie.schweikart@qg.com DMAW Executive Director Donna Tschiffely donna@dmaw.org 703-689-DMAW, fax 703-481-DMAW PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE DMAW Marketing AdVents: (ISSN 0896-4742) is published monthly by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, Inc., 11709 Bowman Green Drive, Reston, VA 20190-3501. Periodicals postage paid at Herndon VA and at additional mailing offices. BY JAMIE NATELSON Postmaster: Send address changes to DMAW Marketing AdVents, 11709 Bowman Green Drive, Reston, VA 20190-3501; email info@dmaw.org • website www.dmaw.org Above is a picture and of me and cats. It is hard to avoid these kinds of pictures that blanket social media (unless you are a committed Luddite). There are cats that look like Hit- ler, Dog Shaming, a Dramatic Chipmunk, a Cat on a Roomba...yes, I can go on and on and on. There is even a list of Internet phenomena on Wikipedia. Google it. The number of sites, posts, memes, and videos are staggering. Here are some bor- rowed, simplified factoids: 1. Dogs are more often searched on You- Tube, Facebook, and Google. 2. However, cats, especially famous cats —ala grumpy ones—are more likely to go viral. 3. During the Ebola crisis, the story of one child dying was more powerful that reporting the drastic number of daily deaths. 4. Political news is shared and online ac- tivity increases during election years… especially a presidential. 5. The longer the content, the more shares. 6. Images help. 7. People respond to things that awe them, amuse them, or make them laugh...they are less likely to respond to things that make them sad or anger them. (Of course this one can flip, de- pending on the study.) But if we do not have a critter or one of the other top four elements—a disaster, a political campaign/issue, a child—how do we get our target audience's attention on social media? I keep looking for this promising new frontier to replace other channels, even though I still cannot quantify the ROI. But let’s face it, we would be foolish at this point not to invest, test, and assess all that social media has to offer. Eyeballs matter. Name recognition and positive association can go a longer way than straightforward advertising these days in building a brand — IF it is mean- ingful, memorable, or entertaining. This is the trick, however...finding a meaningful, memorable, or entertaining way to get those eyeballs focused on you. Big events like the Ice Bucket Challenge were not planned, they were truly viral (if you at- tended our Annual Meeting in January you already know this) and it is hard to create or recreate. So grab a cat, rent a kid, latch onto a trend...but make it yours and make it matter, lest we all get swept up by the Roomba. GN&GL, Jamie