April 30, 2001
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MarketingtoWebMarketers From MarketingSherpa.com
======================= April 30, 2001 - Vol. II, Issue 16
Subscribe free at http://www.MarketingtoWebMarketers.com
NEWS:
- Show Review: Smart Marketing 2001, Eugene Oregon
- Show Review: Thunder Lizard WebAdvertising 2001, NYC
- Show Review: Internet Healthcare 2001
- Mistrust Growing Between Affiliates & Merchants
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* Show Review: Smart Marketing 2001, Eugene Oregon
Just because a trade show is in the boonies, doesn't mean it
can't be an excellent one. In fact, Eugene Oregon's Smart
Marketing show held last week attracted at least 50% more
attendees than New York's ThunderLizard show (see review below.)
Plus the speakers, including Nike's VP Global Strategic Planning
Curt Roberts and TechRepublic's Marketing Director Amy Phoenix,
were definitely on par with the quality we've come to expect from
"bigger" events.
Smart Marketing 2001 had almost 20 sponsors - including local
agencies and media outlets - but no national Internet marketing
vendors bothered to show. However, attendees were definitely
hungry for information on the topic. In fact one Internet
marketing speaker was interrupted repeatedly by audience
questions.
So, if you are targeting small-medium businesses, we highly
recommend that you consider sponsoring and attending local shows
in 2nd and 3rd tier cities such as Eugene over the next year. In
fact, you could make a huge impact at say 10 smaller shows for
the cost of a booth at one @d:tech. (The Eugene Hilton's room
rate is just $67 a night!)
How do you find out about these local events? Contact the
national associations such as the American Marketing Association
and the Public Relations Society of America, which often support
events at the local level. For info on next year's Eugene show
email Jane Scheidecker at scheideckerj@lanecc.edu
Useful links:
"Should You Exhibit at Small Regional Shows? Six Factors to
Consider First" Article from 2/6/2001 MarketingtoWebMarketers
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1418
http://www.prsa.org
http://www.ama.org
* Show Review: Thunder Lizard's WebAdvertising 2001, NYC
Ouch! In days of yore, Thunder Lizard shows averaged 300
attendees or more. But last week only about 100 people attended
Thunder Lizard's WebAdvertising show in New York, and several
told us they paid half or less of the nominal ticket price of
$1395.
Why did the show do so badly? Some attendees said the location
was too expensive. Special show prices for hotel rooms were
$300ish a night. Others said the line-up was too "broad" with
speeches ranging from wireless advertising to ecommerce site
design. (In fact conference chair Nick Usborne reportedly
remarked he's considering a tighter "smaller" focus next time.)
Exhibitors and sponsors, including ValueClick, MyPoints and Red
Herring were reportedly "unobtrusive," perhaps because the
smaller turnout wasn't worth sending throngs of biz dev reps to
schmooze.
Reflecting the Web marketing profession's increased cost-
consciousness, attendees told us their two favorite speakers were
eMarketer's Geoff Ramsey on campaign metrics and "WebMama"
Barbara Coll on low-cost search engine optimization.
One note for the brighter side: about 20% of attendees appeared
to be from outside the US, where despite economic woes, interest
in online marketing isn't slacking off.
http://www.thunderlizard.com
* Show Review: Internet Healthcare 2001
There was lots of power-networking going on at Internet
Healthcare 2001 last week; but as is the case with all national
events we’ve seen so far this year, attendance was down and the
number of exhibitors was down, too. Organizer iHealthCareWeekly
(part of the Silicon Alley Reporter family) attempted to get more
people in the door by offering free admission to students in the
field and by offering a free day’s attendance to members on the
American Journal of Nursing Listserve ™.
Unlike events on this topic in the past when attendees were a
mixed bag of consumer health content sites, tech to create
individual doctor sites, online drugstores and some
pharmaceutical firms, most attendees this time were from
pharmaceuticals. Was it because they're the about only ones left
with ready spending money these days?
Networking was greatly facilitated by the show’s reception,
featuring an open bar and maybe the most exquisite sushi we’ve
ever seen. You could tell in an instant who was seeking funding
(or clients) by the speed with which they circulated their
business card. We clocked one guy at less than a second – before
our tuchuss even touched the chair.
Our recommendation -- this type of highly targeted show can still
be a good investment for sponsors. However, check out the
session topics and pre-sold ticket list before making your
investment decision.
Note: this review contributed by our NY Correspondent, Claudia
Levine who can be reached at claudial@rcn.com
http://www.internethealthcare.com
http://www.risingtidestudios.com
* A Chasm of Mistrust Growing Between Affiliates & Merchants
The affiliate marketing model has been proven successful, with
many of the approximately 3,500 online merchants with affiliate
programs reporting 10-30% of traffic and 5-20% of sales from
them. According to ReveNews Producer Brian Clark, the top 100
"super-affiliates" are responsible for driving almost $100
million in ecommerce sales a month. But is this well being
poisoned?
Clark, expressing the viewpoint of many affiliates, says,
"Merchants routinely screw affiliates." In the past month
alone, Barnes & Noble.com's Gifts and Software, NBCi and
CompuBank have abruptly terminated affiliate programs without
appropriate forewarning; and in the case of the last two, without
paying all owed commissions. Clark remarks, "Every time
merchants change agreements suddenly, affiliates doubt every
affiliate program. Merchants have to re-establish trust or this
thing is going to blow up."
His advice to merchants -- never promise anything you can't
guarantee to deliver (such as "lifetime commissions"); focus your
acquisition programs on a manageable number of "super-affiliates"
rather than thousands of small fry who may cost you more to
handle than they bring in; communicate, communicate, communicate;
and, remember that you work for the multi-million dollar "super-
affiliates" -- and not the other way around.
http://www.revenews.com
COMING NEXT WEEK: In next week's issue, you'll find a Case Study
on the clever, low-cost marketing tactics one email newsletter
vendor uses to get $20,000 corporate accounts. If you're not
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