March 26th, 2010
3:50 pm
Events
Okay, here’s a month for you coming up. It starts with April Fool’s Day – followed immediately by Good Friday. Thirteen days later, it’s you and the IRS, mano a mano. So looking ahead, the end of April may seem like a long way off. It isn’t.
By the time April 30 rolls up and the vernal equinox 40+ days in the past, you’ll want put the Spring back in your step. Get it via AMAHouston’s Professional Development SIG seminar that very day.
The SIG people are calling it “Defying Gravity” because there are some marketers who overcome every challenge: They get themselves on the scoreboard and stay there. They constantly rack up points in categories like on-the-job performance, better relationships with the bosses, more influence and even bigger marketing budgets. They’re energized and on top of things full-time.
The SIG is thinking, “How can we get some of that for AMAHouston members?” Its secret weapon is Becky Robbins who is Partner and Senior Consultant with Houston-based Mark Kamin & Associates. She’ll be the star of the SIG show and bringing her passionate coaching methods with her.
Robbins is all about generating peak performance, about growing personal fulfillment, more revenue and stronger, more rewarding organizational relationships. She’s also strangely fond of marketing communicators and PR people. “There’s plenty of cynicism in some industries,” she says, “but marketers are more buoyant – imaginative, hard-working, loving what they’re doing. Marketers have to be pretty positive and companies with optimistic marketers can produce the things that will drive greater success.
The Professional Development SIG and its co-chairs, Brenda Bramhill and Kerry Fellers, are staging this event so you can take home the benefits*. Robbins will help you set “stretch goals” for a fulfilling future and even embrace unexpected change (‘cause who knows what will really happen after April 30?).
Most years, the month ahead starts with loud cries about “April Fools” and ends with shouts of “May Day! May Day!” This year you can discover how to defy gravity instead – a reserved seat is required for liftoff. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
*Stop (Word)Press. Mark Kamin & Associates is offering SIG attendees two great giveaways. You’ll have a chance to win either two free hours of one-on-one coaching with Becky Robbins – an $800 value; or one ticket to Robbins’s May event in Houston, “The Secrets of High-Powered Professional Sales People,” worth $300.
Events / by
Richard Laurence Baron
Brock Wagner arrived casual, his aloha shirt laid way back. He spoke about guerrilla-marketing St Arnold beer as anticipated below. In the energy-packed crowd, though, what caught my eye and ear were the small, blue-covered tubes placed by each place-setting by Colin Hageney of sponsor Bullpen Marketing.
As you can see – this secret photo carefully taken for me by Bullpen CD Suzi Senna – each of these tubes advertises the upcoming AMA Crystal Awards. But when I picked one up and idly asked about it, one of my table-mates said, “Oh! ChapStick!”
I replied that I didn’t think this tube was actually ChapStick – one of America’s best-planted brands. Then someone else (Kerri Ryan, I think, of Kryanoutloud Marketing) pointed us all in the right direction: “Lip balm.”
Later, one of the luncheon program presenters drew the crowd’s attention to the promotional item, calling it…ChapStick.
Now part of Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, the ChapStick brand is 100 this year. Its website offers a shallow look at the product’s history – a visitor from outer space would be hard-pressed to figure out why ChapStick is so widely used and well-known. But we know, don’t we? A simple, always-useful product that’s as close as our pocket or purse, with a consistent trade dress that today’s company continues even through a gazillion product line extensions.
Then there’s Colin’s lip balm with its own purpose-designed label. For him, it is a extremely effective brand vehicle: “Be the name on everybody’s lips,” as he says on the Bullpen blog. I suspect that, as long as users think its ChapStick, everyone will be happy. The product and the brand are effectively the same.
My tube is kiwi-strawberry flavor. Thanks to everyone for the great luncheon program – a nooner filled with beer and lip balm. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
Events, Sponsors, Volunteers / by
Richard Laurence Baron
The President of St Arnold Brewing Company is speaking at the AMAHouston monthly luncheon next week. You can still register here.
It’s always a pleasure to be reminded that there’s great beer in Houston – and fresh too. The brewery’s Spring Bock label is shown here because I had a taste (or two) of it a couple of weeks back at the terrific new brewery location. It’s good stuff, Maynard.
I know Brock Wagner won’t be rolling out the barrels next week, if for no other reason than it’s a middle-of-the-day event and most marketers won’t want to return to work with beer on their breath.
Nevertheless, come to this lunch if [a] you believe in beer; [b] take an interest in beverage marketing; [c] want to learn more about creating a fan base using nothing but natural ingredients and personal energy; [d] want to network intensively.
Networking [d] is ever-important. Wagner will be talking about [c]: “Houston’s Home Brewed Beer: How Saint Arnold Built its Brand through Guerilla Marketing.” Check [b] if you got a big lift out of the Simply Orange presentation by Allison Barrett last November. (I did.)
Or throw up your hands and admit to [a].
Next Wednesday you can have ‘em all. (I will.) And I hope to [d] with you there. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
Events, General, Uncategorized / by
Richard Laurence Baron
There’s a special place in heaven for sponsors. Yes – the Healthcare SIG collected around 75 people for the extra-special “Outside-the-box Healthcare Marketing” seminar on Friday morning. Combined with the three top-grade speakers – Partha Krishnamurthy, Cara Zorzi and Steve McKee – there was a lot of energy and even laughter in the room…for more than three hours. The volunteers all were volunteery, the Houston Technology Center folks were great.
I’m going to drop more names, though, because a SIG seminar is fueled by more than elbow grease, bagels and coffee. (Okay – not altogether an attractive metaphorical collection.)
The sponsors Friday are supportive and involved. In no particular order, special sunny Sunday appreciation goes to Alleen Mitchener and Ana Rodarte of Gelb Consulting. Julie Laguarta and HALO/Lee Wayne. The people of Inn at the Ballpark.
There’s Karen Kershner and Communications Plus. Emily Bernard, Erin Lehr and Jen Pearsall of Pierpont. Susan Saurage-Altenloh and Richard Cisneros and Saurage Marketing Research. Randy Rigdon of Signature Media Group. Winnie Hart and The H Agency.
Author Unknown (not a SIG sponsor) said, “Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.” Thanks again to all our sponsors for keeping us raveled. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
Events, Sponsors, Volunteers / by
Richard Laurence Baron
The early birds get the worms. The early risers find the extra time they’re looking for every day. The raw recruits get kicked out of bed by the drill sergeant before the crack of dawn.
We all noted that “crack of dawn” thing immediately when we showed up for the AMAHouston SIG boot camp yesterday. Good news for us, though: We got croissants and fresh fruit instead of worms. This get-together is your AMA chapter at work, a room full of volunteers teaching and learning how to make the Houston Special Interest Groups – the SIGs – better, smarter, more valuable to our members.
This isn’t a recap. My first “official” post to the AMAHouston blog is more about attitude and amplitude. I’m glad for the chance to make just four points.
Volunteerism is not dead. It’s not even sleeping. The 30+ people at Frank and Jo-Anne White’s photography studio early Friday AM are our colleagues, our co-workers, our fellow marketing and advertising professionals. Every one’s a chapter member. Every one’s a volunteer. So it’s really all of us (or a lot of us) that make the chapter go and grow. There’s even a certain amount of cheerleading built in.
Chapter programming is strategic but simple. The chapter’s monthly luncheons focus on broad-ranging speakers and subjects. It’s in the SIGs where the specific how-we-did-its get passed along to other professionals. SIG committees aim to deliver two out of three objectives every time there’s a special-interest seminar – hot topic, hot speaker, hot company. The more meaning there is in the presentations, the more value AMAHouston gives (and gets).
There is no “i” in “Team.” Alright, that’s awful (and trite) but it’s super Bowl weekend, c’mon. Even though every SIG committee has co-chairs, they don’t get everything done by themselves and they aren’t supposed to. We have to pitch in. In other words, even though they have the fancy club title and the key to the executive punchbowl, they need help from…the rest of us on their committees. You know, the other volunteers. “We” is the people who make the SIGs pay off. (Hmmm. There’s no “I” in that word, either.)
With 900+ members, “we” don’t have to do it all by ourselves, either. Right – you may hear from us when a SIG event needs attendance, or someone to help lay out the bagels and juice or even set up chairs. Remember, we’re the colleagues and the co-workers and the friends and it’s not a bad thing to ask for a hand. Also, help someone join us. AMAHouston was over 1,000 members a few months ago but you know what happened. (Think market crash, etc., absolutely not in any way connected with the Toyota recalls.) So the more the merrier.
MaryJane Mudd, President-Elect of AMAHouston, never actually referred to the early morning hour at all. She reinforced the fact that our SIG programs are what make our chapter unique among all the other AMA groups nationwide. MaryJane also posted more pictures – and larger – on Facebook and even added amusing captions. Like she doesn’t have enough to do already.
I can also reveal that there appears to be no snooze button on any of these board members. So even starting at 7AM, we had fun. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, an AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
PS: Brenda Bramhill was merely visiting the teapot you see her holding. It was still at the White Photography studio when I left. RLB.
Board Leadership, Volunteers / by
Richard Laurence Baron
