Plushies in Action

Last week, Marketers’ Marketplace hosted by The Direct Marketing Association of Singapore (DMAS) seemed like a regular networking event – Free flow of drinks, finger food, keynote speeches, and a room full of marketers networking with each other. But this seemingly humble event has scored a glowing review for their personlisation department, at least with me. Here’s why:

Item 1. Name magnets
This magnet was NOT suppose to read ‘WELCOME’, it should have my name ‘JASMINE’ (instead of ‘WELCOME’) printed in it. It was unfortunate that I had registered to attend only a day before the actual event, so it was too late to get my name printed on it. Oh well.

Item 2. Photos of you
Throughout the event, a photographer went around snapping photos for groups of people. The photos were then projected on screen minutes after they were being taken. The organisers then went around identifying people among the masses and personally handed pocket size photos of you. View photo gallery.

Item 3. Immortalised on Singapore Post stamps
This was sponsored by Singapore Post MyStamp. It was real quick and easy, they snapped a photo and we had our very own photo stamps within 5 minutes!

Item 4. Star Networker of the Evening
(After the event) 2 days later I received this email ….

A “glamour” shot photo plus becoming the Star Networker of the Evening… just like everyone else. Still, it was good enough.

All I can say is, full marks for personalisation efforts DMAS!

Extra bonus points for famous desserts sponsored by Hilton Hotel’s Checkers Deli and Royal Plaza on Scott’s Carousel. Plus very attractive free resort stays as lucky draw prizes (albeit I didn’t win a single prize). 

Hmmm…. maybe I should consider dropping my entire box of name cards for lucky draw the next time?

Like all Sales people have sales funnels, should B2B Marketers have marketing funnels too?

YES according to Brian Carroll, one of the most well respected thought leaders in the field of lead generation. Read his blog entry on Building a Marketing Funnel and More Lead Management Tips.

Plus my favourite folks from Marketing Experiments held yet another insightful webinar. With Brian Carroll! A Proven Playbook For Growing Your Leads. View the Complete Version (slides and audio).

A great piece of work once again by Marketing Experiments. Their webinars are just *speechless* awesome.

Yes, that’s right, we can’t leave you alone even in public toilets.

Check out these creative ads in public toilets. It’s advertisements in every possible place, even on your toilet paper. Hilarious! And my favourite ad happens to be a freaky one…

Schizophrenia Awareness
Source: Ads of The World

Can you imagine being alone, in a quiet, dimly lit public toilet, caught unaware by this ad? SCARY!

Next up, a bizarre toilet theme restaurant in Taiwan makes you eat out of a toilet bowl. They serve your food in mini shaped toilet seats, all while you enjoy the meal sitting on actual toilet bowls and looking at urinals turned into lamps.

Hmmm… I wonder how their employees will react when asked “Where’s your bathroom?”

Source: Fun Fever

Don’t get it?

Well, you’ll first have to watch Avinish Kaushik’s video – Measuring Micro and Macro Reactions.

In case you are wondering how a presentation on web analytics is going to be exciting, well I watched the video twice. Seriously. This guy is definitely worth 50 mins of your time, especially if you are a B2B (or B2C) marketer. What an excellent presenter!

Never knew web analytics could be fun, and simple too. Thanks to Avinash and Google.

My top 3 Avinash humour from the video:

1. The B2B people fundamentally believe that robots visit their website… and that’s why most B2B websites suck.

2. Bounce rate = I came, I puke, I left

3. Most people on the web do business as if they are having One Night Stands (reminded me of my previous blog entry on Sex and Social Media)

As a B2B marketer for 6 years, I am embarrassed to say that I’ve not been diligent with web analytics until recently. With our 2009 marketing objectives heavily focused on online initiatives, this video came in just in time. I’m learning that my next year’s web projects need to be more data-driven rather than faith-based, which previously had been the latter.

Now I can’t wait to get my hands on Avinash’s book titled Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.  Never in a million years would I have imagined that someday, I’ll be reading a book on web analytics (traditionally such books are my best bed time stories, they put me to sleep).

According to reviews on Amazon, his book is Accessible and Marketing Driven. That’s good, exactly what I’m looking for. But it’s over 400 pages!!! It sounds worse than a marathon to me, with a 50/50 chance of survival. Oh well, we’ll see how it goes.

Avinash’s book is available in Singapore at major bookstores.

The sick rat is a marketer, and that marketer is me. Being unwell recently had resulted in my lack of blog entries for almost 2 weeks. Definitely a cardinal sin for a new blogger.

Even a wordless picture-only post proved to be a challenge, as the trusty home NAS crashed!

Anyway, I am looking forward to a virus free serious blogging Sunday!