There must be something in the air, because in the last month I was invited to three events, and pitched for a gazillion others.
I think the internet is coming down with a case of mom marketing mania.
I’m not complaining here. It’s actually quite funny for me. Someone out there thinks I’m influential enough to send me to Disney for the weekend (FREE!?) with Steph and Amy? I’m not even in the same sphere as these ladies. Unfortunately, I had to pass it up because the event falls over everybody’s favorite Jewish holiday, Passover. (An aside: I did mention this to the conference organizer, and she seemed taken aback and apologized for the unfortunate oversight. It’s a bummer, but as I told Devra, I am not sure the general population considers the sacred act of hiding the afikoman when planning fun events that include riding Space Mountain. A cop out? Perhaps, but I try never to take the “forgetting the Jewish holidays thing” too personally.) I wish I could pass over eating matzah in favor of some cotton candy and chocolate Mickey Mouse ears, but alas, I’ll have to wait on that.
I was also invited (coincidentally a former client of mine when I was working) to Johnson’s Camp Baby in lovely New Jersey. The whole conference sounds pretty swank, and again, unfortunately I can’t attend. Something about my son’s birthday and a long-awaited vacation with my husband interfering. Damn families. Too bad, because I wanted to catch up some with Kim. How many e-mails have been wasted on me? I’m a mom marketing flunkie.
I was, however, lucky enough to get to go to a fab luncheon last week, courtesy of the lovely Charlene. The luncheon was in honor of Yahoo!’s new website for women, Shine. We got to have lunch at a swank hotel and get a sneak peek into the brilliant minds of some very creative women. Plus, I got to gab with M.J., Leah, Jessica, Danielle, Amy and Erin. I’m eagerly awaiting the site’s launch. Oh, and another round of that salmon with fingerling potatoes wouldn’t be bad, either.
I’m a little late to this one (see? I’m not that influential, people!), but have you all checked out the site, Mom Logic, yet? The site’s layout is compelling and they write on everything from Halle’s new baby, to fashion and beauty. If only I had more time to sit and read it.
I can’t even get into all the pitches I’ve received lately as well. I’m seriously not writing all this to say “look at me, I get pitched,” but rather to question some of the PR and marketing folks supposed interest in my blog. Does someone really think that I’m going to write about a “Caribbean Escape contest courtesy of Bahama Breeze?” Because I’ve written so much on my blog about my love for the islands, mon? I sometimes feel like with all the e-mails I get we are degrading the value of how word-of-mouth on blogs can really work.
But I know why everyone in the marketing industry is desperately hunting mom bloggers. This article (thanks, Emily), states that “more than 40 percent of all women who go online have children under 18 at home and that internet usage rate of females who are expecting to have first or second child in the next year is at 94 percent.” (Translated: 94 percent of you suckers actually think the internet has the information you need to raise a child. Muwaahahah. Just kidding.)
While these studies and statistics spout off incredibly high numbers of moms online, marketers need to remember to pay attention to online behavior of moms, not just their usage rate. Just because I tried out and liked a Land’s End diaper bag, doesn’t necessarily mean I want to hawk meal plans or life coaching on my site.Â
But a weekend away with the girls? Maybe if I wasn’t a mom with a family to tend to, I could swing it. Then again, it probably means I wouldn’t have received the invite in the first place.
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Update to this post: Clearly I’m so NOT influential because I haven’t been keeping up on some serious backlash surrounding these events. Devra recaps it all here… Oy Vey is right, D. Sorry, Julie and Stefania. Wow, this disappoints me big time. Here’s a link to the response from J&J on the issue.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Those stats on Internet useage by moms are amazing! I’m going to Camp Baby and really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to any type of “big” blog event before. It definitely gets easier to travel when your kids are older. Frankly, I’m looking forward to being able to sleep without the prospect of someone crying out “MOMMY!” in the night for water or a pee break.
p.s. Ohhhhh that Disney trip sounds awesome. Maybe next year?
Yah know, if Disney weren’t such a media giant, I’d give em a “pass” on not realizing it was Passover, but in their line of work, they really should have a decent calender, and if they don’t recognize a holiday listed on their calender, they should take the extra 5 minutes to Google it and find out if it’s a big deal or not.
Disney is too big of a company not to have caught this unfortunate oversight. IMO. I’m glad you brought it to their attention and hope they will learn that these kind of oversights can be avoided fairly easily.
Interesting post! I was invited to the Disney event, and I’m going, and my boys are seriously upset that they can’t come too. I also get “pitched” for all kinds of weird stuff, and the problem I have is that it’s hard to say no. However, I recently decided to take the month of April “off” as far as accepting any new solicitations. I need to catch up, and catch my breath!
Thanks Sara. And I love your point here: “marketers need to remember to pay attention to online behavior of moms, not just their usage rate.”
If firms put in the time to do their homework, they could avoid so much of our mommyblogger backlash.
I’m glad you blogged about the Disney thing (I was not invited and like you, would not be able to attend during Passover). Now I don’t feel as guilty about going to Camp Baby
I don’t never get to go to no Disney.
I am bummed you don’t get to go! I did want to learn more about Passover and saw that Disney does offer Passover meals at their restaurants during Passover. That is about as far as I got with it, figuring you had very good reasons to miss out on hanging out with me… : )
Steph
Ha, I wouldn’t call yourself not influential for not picking up on the Baby Camp issue the moment it happened. I wrote my post on Baby Camp around 5 last night and it just sort of “exploded” between last night and this morning. ‘Tis the nature of the beast, I suppose. Thanks for visiting/linking, in any case
Cheers,
Melanie
It doesn’t suprise me that I didn’t get an invite to the Disney event. After all, I was the
only SV Moms Blogger that went on the record saying that I wasn’t all that impressed
with the event that they put on for us in Palo Alto. We were told that the event was to get to
know mommy bloggers. But not a single Disney staffer ever spoke a word to me except to herd us from
one room to another. Whateves… Apparently since I didn’t gush my love for Disney, I’m now excluded.
Sorry about the Passover thing. Idiots.
I was wondering if you were going to the Disney thing! Although it being over Passover did make me think about it (for about 5 minutes), I didn’t pass it up. Maybe next time
hi! i just found your blog by accident + it looks like the place to be. you have lots of great buttons on your side bar, a great name + lots of writing room + you have a nice writing style.
Holy comments, Batman! Steph- great to know that Disney does offer meals- it’s more about the traditional Seder dinner though… oh well.
I didn’t know about the Disney event until today. Now I’m sad I didn’t get invited to it. Especially since I blog for one of their websites. Sorry that it falls on Passover and you can’t go. I’d be happy to go, just to avoid my husband’s extended family at Passover.
I’m going to the Camp Baby event, but I hope the mess over the past few days will be a good teaching moment for them. It only takes a little bit of consideration and a little forethought to lay out all of the details ahead of time.
Wow Christina, that’s crappy… in other news, I just got two terrible pitches in the last minute! Good thing PR people really keep up with my blog…
Hey Robyn, I gushed and gushed, and didn’t even know about the event
Don’t think
it’s just that. Perhaps I need to actually write more posts
I don’t mind getting “pitched” to review a product or site, but what I dont like is when PR people that send me “ad” emails. You know… Hey my company is making sports themed potty seats just in time for the super bowl (real email).Please let me know if you have any questions…..
WTH? Yes I have questions. There is no ask, etc. What do you want from me….? It’s like they are just emailing me an advertisement.
so true. i’ve been getting emails from PR firms left and right. “Do you want to try out
construction toy sets for boys ages 5 -7 ?” Um, that would be great if my kids weren’t both
GIRLS under that age of FOUR. But I guess you’d have to ACTUALLY read my blog for 5 seconds
to know that.
Oh and the Johnson’s folks left me with a bad taste in my mouth – I got the invite for the
Baby Camp at 2:45pm one day, replied “yes” by 6pm and was told I was too late, there were
no more spots. Way to get this vacation-deprived mom’s hopes up and stomp them flat!
Maybe I am just jaded because as a magazine writer I get endless PR pitches, but I have a hard time getting up in arms about any of this stuff. Well, scheduling the Disney trip over Passover was definitely an amazing show of nitwittery, but the fact that the J&J trip filled up fast, or wasn’t open to babies, or the fact that people get PR pitches not suited to them…well, it’s annoying for sure, but I’m always curious why these things blow up to such a huge proportion? I always know that if I get a pitch from a PR company or get invited to a press event, that their number one priority is placement, exposure, and yes, $$$ for their client. Their job is not to make me happy or even be particularly sensitive to my needs or desires (beyond the obvious: be polite, be respectful and don’t do something REALLY stupid). My job as a journalist/writer is to get good information for my readers, which may or may not align with the PR person’s goals to promote their client. Is the line getting blurred somehow in the blogging world, maybe because people aren’t always blogging as a job and need more incentive than just good information? I don’t know. I’m honestly befuddled by the whole thing.
p.s….I DO think you have to understand your audience, and that bad PR pitches, or pitches that have nothing to do with me or my audience, are just bad PR. But I have no problem just deleting and moving on. It’s not personal–is it?
I didn’t get invited to Disney either. The emails I get are usually to review DVDs.
Meagan – Yes, PR is PR is PR. I totally agree with you there. My issue is this. If you are going to use the internet as a marketing tool in a way that makes you look personally interested in us, do not make a fool of yourself and your company by not knowing anything about who you are making a “personal” pitch to. I too receive countless advertisement emails which I simply read or delete depending on my interest level and available time at the moment. However, when something is worded in a way that is supposed to draw me personally and they obviously know nothing about me, it is offensive. I do not blast them or get angry but I feel the right to point out the error of their ways so they may learn more about me and what I might actually be interested in. Phil was respectful enough to acknowledge my point, apologize for his error and we both moved on in good spirit. As for Disney, I don’t know because I haven’t heard anything from them – I don’t really expect to until I contact them directly. I am not angry at them for holding an event during a major holiday. I would just like them to respect the error, apologize for the oversight, and make a note of it for future planning. Our country was built on freedom of religion – any religion or no religion. This means we show mutual respect for all, not mutual lack of understanding for all.