Month: October 2014

I will be headed back to Chicago next week to attend the Annual BAA/PMA Marketing Law Conference which has been taking place there each November since I can remember.  This year’s conference is titled Navigating the Marketing Law Maze and runs November 5-7.  The conference includes over 50 sessions and 120 different speakers who will share their knowledge and provide a unique educational experience on marketing law not found any where else.

This year’s agenda will again bring major brand marketers, senior inside and outside counsel along with top government regulators together to present legal guidance and give their practical advice. The conference will address a broad array of legal regulations and guidelines facing the industry today on subjects such as: social media, digital media, online behavior advertising, domestic and international promotion, sweepstakes, contests and games, BIG DATA, data security/breach, privacy, intellectual property and litigation. It makes your head start to spin just by mentioning all those subjects in one sentence!

The conference kicks off with a pre-conference networking reception on Nov. 5th that includes a welcome cocktail party not to be missed, along with another party the following evening. They are both great networking opportunities like nowhere else to meet with hundreds of legal experts and those in similar businesses as myself. The first general session on Thursday morning will again feature Linda Goldstein from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, who will cover Key Legal Developments in Marketing/Advertising Law Affecting Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Disclosure & Digital/Social Media. Linda’s presentation is always extremely informative and highly entertaining as well.  What she shares in this session is thought of as the bible that we in the industry will follow till the next time she presents.

Here is a video that the BAA created that includes some footage from last year’s conference and features some words from Linda Goldstein.

A special keynote presentation on Friday morning will include Carine Roman who is Head of Global Advertising at LinkedIn. Carine’s presentation is titled Demystifying the Advertising Landscape: Programmatic Buying, Data/Privacy, Targeting and the “Fortune Cookie” World of On-Line & Mobile Space. So that should be a highly interesting session as well.

We’ll all be at the Downtown Chicago Marriott right on Michigan Ave. It is located right next to Nordstrom so I will just have to make my annual shopping visit to their shoe department on the first floor! Hope to see some of you in Chicago. You can register here.

On November 4th Americans will be going to the polls to vote for the 2014 midterm elections. This is where we get to make our choices for members of the Senate, House of Representatives, governors and other elected positions around the country, accept for the office of the President. All 435 House members are up for re-election, while there are 36 Senate races and 36 governors’ races.

The past few weeks we’ve been working with the team that represents Why Tuesday?, a non-partisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2005 with a goal to help find solutions to increase voter turnout and participation in elections. In hopes of getting the word out that our voting system is broken and to increase this year’s voter turnout they have just launched the Let’s Fix It Challenge for a chance at winning $64,000!

Voter turnout for midterm elections are always lower than during a Presidential election. How low will they be this year is the $64,000 question. The Why Tuesday? 2014 Challenge invites participants to predict what percentage of the voting eligible population will vote this Election Day. The promotional website  includes these hints from past years: 2002, 39.5%, 2006, 40.4% and 2010. 41.0%. As a tie-breaker, participants are also required to predict the number of Americans who will vote (Hint: 2002 – 80,295,249; 2006 – 85,769,132; 2010 – 90,745,3989. The source for these numbers can be found at www.electproject.org.

Once participants make their predictions they also have to fill in their name and contact information and submit all the required information. They are encouraged to share the Let’s Fix It Challenge on their social platforms and to spread the word about our broken election system. Participants can then also visit fixit.whytuesday.org and sign up to help do something about it!

If by chance that there is still a tie as to both the Turnout Prediction and the Total Vote, then the $64,000 Grand Prize will be divided among the tying eligible Participants. So take the challenge, include your best prediction and help get the word out. Don’t forget to vote on November 4th!. Maybe we can get more people to the polls this year than in 2010.

The pink ribbon symbols can be seen in many promotions during October since it is breast cancer awareness month when many marketers and brands tie their products and services to the cause. I usually dedicate a least one “PINK” post to highlight some of the brands and organizations that have been supporting the cause. So this year I have a special program to share with you.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month the Avon Foundation for Women recently launched a powerful PSA featuring an exciting new music video created with and by Paula Abdul. The daughter of Gene Cairo, the President of American Sweepstakes Company,  was heavily involved in the production of this music video. Alex Cairo, who is a young and up and coming copywriter at an agency working with Avon, wrote the lyrics which were chosen for the song Check Yourself, part of the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade.

The Avon #CheckYourself campaign focuses on these four ways that women can participate:

1. Watch the video and support the global movement by sharing on Facebook and Twitter and here on their Facebook page.

2.  Educate friends about breast cancer by creating your own dance video, sharing it on Facebook with the #CheckYourself hashtag, and challenging three friends!  Women can learn some dance moves from Paul Abdul here on this Pinterest board created to help them copy the movies in the video.

3. Donate to the Avon Foundation or purchase an Avon Pink Ribbon product here.