MarketingProfs Cinco de Mayo Fiesta: A Case Study on Being Memorable (#mpb2b)

Disclosure: In this post, among other things, I celebrate Cinco de Mayo, my MarketingProfs Pro Membership, and year anniversary, as a Contributing Writer for MarketingProfs Get to the Po!nt newsletters. I also offer my personal reflections on six ways to get—and keep—our attention, at tradeshows, such as the one I recently attended, at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum, in Boston, MA.

I celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style this year, at the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, held Tuesday night, at the Seaport World Trade Center, in Boston, MA.  The occasion was the conclusion of day one, at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2010. Though it was only May 4th, no one at the busy fiesta dinner seemed to mind starting their Cinco de Mayo celebration a bit early this year, especially when we received such warm hospitality, including mariachi music, Mexican cuisine, and refreshments—all courtesy of Bridgeline Digital.

The fiesta provided the perfect opportunity not only for some great food and entertainment, but also for visiting the some thirty sponsor exhibits, located in the Seaport’s spacious lobby.

Later on, as I sorted through the business cards and marketing materials I received, it was difficult to narrow down so many worthy bids for my attention, to the confines of a single blog post.

In the end, I decided to write about those vendors who even in our brief exchange at the fiesta captured for me “the feel” of MarketingProfs’ Business-to-Business Marketing Forum, including and perhaps most of all, the creativity, connection to others, and joie de vivre of the Cinco de Mayo celebration, which to me is in the best spirit of social media.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, sponsored by Bridgeline Digital

Here is a sampling of just some of the vendors who got and kept my attention at the B2B Forum, and the different ways they engaged me:

Involving Me:

Aprimo’s exhibit stood out right away, with an opportunity for its visitors to show their support for a Marketing Revolution. Joel P. Reuter, Director of Global Communications, asked visitors to tape business cards to a display board and to note on the display how we’re using social media in our businesses.

By the end of the conference, the display was full of contact names and ideas—an impromptu community growing up before our eyes…By involving me in so direct a way, I felt invested in the display’s progress, and by extension, the company that was maintaining it. I was also curious to see others’ contributions and swung by the table more than once.

Along the way, I learned about Aprimo’s interactive marketing software, which Reuter explained helps eliminate internal silos with streamlined workflows, through multichannel campaigns designed to improve ROI for B2B and B2C customers.

Intriguing Me:

Hands down, Sigma Marketing Group, a marketing database firm, provided the best swag—one which my three kids are still squabbling over. I saw fellow attendees—men and women alike—walking by with an adorable stuffed animal, a blue-eyed husky, tucked under their arms, or peaking out from their conference bags. When I saw it, I thought to myself, “What’s the story on that?,” and of course wanting to pick one up for my kids, I went on a quest to find out.

I soon learned from Kyle Milko, Vice President of Sigma Marketing Group, that the husky is affectionately known as R.O.I. His gold dog tag tells his story: R.O.I. is never lost with Sigma Marketing Group. Please call 1-888-277-9837.

What a clever way for Sigma Marketing Group to spread the word about its data management and marketing analytics solutions, which Milko explained includes advanced profiling, multi-segment marketing, and predictive modeling.

Informing Me:

Reward those who stop by your table with the opportunity to learn something new…That’s what the email marketing folks, including Brooks Alford, did at the Emma exhibit, when they explained that “Email & Social Media are friends.” After our conversation, the Emma associates provided a quick reference, with a list of eight tips for “making the most of email’s prevalence and social media’s reach.” About the size of a postcard, Emma’s tips were easy to scan when I was back at home, and reinforced for me Emma’s earlier message. Simple, but effective.

Instructing Me:

The writer in me had a near religious experience, over the quality of the marketing materials, available at the Marketo table. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”—the visual presentation of the Lead Nurturing and Marketing Automation cheat sheets was first-rate. The content was just as fine.

And then there was The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing and The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media—what according to Marketing Coordinator Shonal Narayan, many consider as the bibles on these subjects. I can believe it—the acknowledgements of contributors for the B2B Guide read like a Whose Who of Social Media (including, I can’t help but note with a bit of partisan pride, MarketingProfs!)

Marketo took their engagement with me to the next level—from informing, to instruction. There wasn’t a question about his marketing automation and sales solutions that Shonal didn’t take the time to answer for me. He further tied lead nurturing principles and process into all his comments. It was in this way that Shonal established Marketo as a thought leader in the B2B niche. As a result, I’ll be checking in frequently for more great content and lessons, at the Marketo blog.

Fiesta Moves

Interacting with Me:

Sponsors of the MarketingProfs Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, Bridgeline Digital gets kudos here for making the festive bash possible, and also for a very natural and engaging interaction. Simply put—Vice President Brian Bolton talked to me about his product—giving me his full attention, building on points of common interest, answering any questions I had, directing me to literature—having just a plain old-fashioned conversation. That was neat—and memorable, maybe because sometimes we all need a reminder that it’s still about the relationships.

It also bodes well for Bridgeline Digital, which specializes in interactive technology solutions, including web design/web development, information architecture, search engine optimization, and a suite of web-based applications that Bolton was particularly excited about (iAPPS Content Manager, iAPPS Marketier, iAPPS Commerce, iAPPS Analyzer, iAPPS Analyzer Reports, and iAPPS Rapid Site).

Inspiring Me:

MarketingProfs Exhibit: Business-to-Business Forum 2010

In all the scenarios above, the vendors somehow inspired me—and that carried over from the entire experience at the Business-to-Business Forum, hosted by MarketingProfs.

At the MarketingProfs exhibit, there was a bowl of sweets (candy is always inspirational, under any circumstances…and made it extra inviting to drop by and say “Hello” to Corey Tarne from Marketing Profs Sales and Founder Allen Weiss), as well as literature, on all that MarketingProfs offers: marketing resources, online seminars, conferences, videos, and research.

The ways that MarketingProfs inspired me at the tradeshow, and at the wider B2B forum, are further captured in the cross-section of all the sponsors, the richness of the program, and the array of actionable advice.

Of particular inspiration that first day was lunch-time keynote by David Weinberger, author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, on ‘The Power of the New Digital Disorder.’  That and the anticipation of the next day’s keynote, ‘How B2B Connects in a Connected World,’ by Six Pixels of Separation‘s Mitch Joel, supplied plenty of momentum at the Cinco de Mayo event.

Finally, the calibre and engagement-level of the attendees, speakers, and MarketingProfs staff still stand out in my mind, as the source of much collective inspiration. MarketingProfs did a great job, bringing the right people together.

Conclusion:

The MarketingProfs Cinco de Mayo Fiesta was a memorable time, not least of all because of these key ingredients to connecting: Involvement, Intrigue, Information, Instruction, Interaction, and Inspiration. The next time you want to engage, in person or online, or have an opportunity to tell someone your story, think about ways you can use these “fiesta moves” to make a lasting impression.

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