What I Learned From Observing Corporate (Canada) America?
So I attended my first ever ‘offline marketing’ event this past week and wow, it’s a whole lot different from the online marketing seminars I’m used to. One thing about this event that really stuck out is that people aren’t as relaxed compared to the online ones. At the online events, everyone is smiling, laughing and well, drinking…A lot.
This event while it was only 8 hours long, didn’t have the same feel where people that attended it had a vested interest in meeting others in their field. This was very corporate and while the presenters were GREAT, I think the crowd was a bit too…Up tight.
And the strangest thing, these were young professionals too. Mostly around my age or even younger but well, looks to me like they have fallen into the 9 to 5 trap already.
As for content? This DESTROYED the online events though. In the online world, you are usually given about 10 minutes of content and then the rest of the presentation is the speaker trying to pitch you on some over priced consulting gig. This past event had loads of content and the message was clear…Adapt or die!
Adapting. Change. It’s hard, it’s not easy but the speakers, particularly Gary Vaynerchuk (the MAN!) and Mitch Joel, really showed people how to do it in this day and age. I had to laugh though, their message was hidden behind comments and questions like ‘How do you see an ROI for spending an hour a day on Twitter’?
The message didn’t get to that attendee then. You see folks, in this day and age we are living in the era of engaging the customer. It’s critical and instead of pitching people left right and center we need to engage them, ask questions, listen, develop relationships and THEN you won’t even need to worry about ROI. The ROI on customer loyalty really doesn’t have a price tag, it’s what we should all be aiming for. And with the tools available for us to use, it’s easier than ever before.
That message, like I said, I think didn’t fall in favor of the ’suits’. They wanted to figure out how to spend their next advertising budget on television spots and radio ads. Ahhh well, they lose, we win.
So what did I take away from the seminar? Engaging the customer is even more important than before. We need to adapt and embrace the changing market place and above all else, there is a lot of people who DON’T see the power of these messages…Your competition WON’T engage, they won’t adapt and they won’t build customer loyalty.
Can anyone say HUGE OPPORTUNITY =)
Stephen Whittle
I’ve been one of those corporate people before…hopefully I’ll never have to do that again!
Thanks,
Stephen Whittle (swhomebiz)
Jon Olson
Stephen – Amen to that. Ya man, it’s not so much the new ideas that scared them, it was the thought that their present ideas no longer worked.
Martin Webster
Great post Jon, makes sense. Things have certainly changed from the 80’s when I was a young man. The challenge is always how to respond to the next generation and be open to new ideas and challenges. I know with how I coach my aths group (that’s running on grass and roads) now is completely different to what I did in the 90’s and how I interact with 18-25 year olds is very different to how I go about it with ppl of my generation (40’s). As with anything where there is a challenge only those that can think and reason and adapt will make something successful come out of it.
Cheers
Martin
Jon Olson
Yeah Martin, for sure. I know change is hard and people get worried when they see it. But I mean it was such a shock to see people even younger than me that were ‘fighting’ the change.