Responsys Interact 2011


A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Responsys Interact 2011 in San Francisco. Responsys is a leading provider of on-demand marketing software and professional services that enable companies to engage in relationship marketing across the interactive channels that consumers are embracing today—email, mobile, social and the web (1).  In my role at Thomson Reuters, I currently use Responsys and I was asked to speak on some keyword and email opt-in strategies at the event. 


My session was geared toward  businesses with a considered purchase cycle...for example: if you sell automobiles, it's unlikely that the email you send today will result in a sale tomorrow. So, the goal is to capture permission and have a conversation.  I had the fortune of presenting with Mike Hotz, a strategic consultant with Responsys. Mike is the author of this recent article on ClickZ: 3 Tactics for Effective B2B E-mail Segmentation




The first day, Responsys offered training for users of their platform. Anytime you use some tool or workflow solution, its been my experience, that you use it in a narrow band of its capability. Periodic training such as this, can help you realize much of the functionality that you're probably not leveraging. Think about Microsoft Excel...how much functionality is there that is under-utilized by, say, 90% of all users? 

After the training, the conference got underway, and the schedule was jam-packed and included keynotes from leading figures in the world of online marketing.

- William Morris from Gatorade's Mission Control spoke about some of the things Pepsi and Gatorade are doing to connect with customers.
Blake Mycoskie founder of TOM'S shoes spoke about his inspirational journey of founding TOM'S after a trip to South America. Responsys followed the speech up by dispatching a small army of people dressed in TOM's shirts to distribute gift cards good for $25 to the audience, the entire audience. After that, Cyndi Lauper came on stage and signed a pair of TOM'S that are available now on eBay - and Responsys added a sizable donation to Cyndi's True Colors foundation. Cyndi later gave an amazing private concert to all attendees.
Alexis Ohanian co-founder of Reddit and now of Hipmunk (a favorite of mine) fame, talked about who owns 'the conversation' - it's not companies or marketers.
Chad White, from Responsys, presented with representatives from Facebook and Orbitz about the future of the email marketing environment. Facebook had a lot to say on the matter. Chad writes the Retail Email Blog.
Greg Adams of Burton Snowboards introduced the audience to their foundation: Chill.  It does a lot of good work helping underprivileged kids get out on the slopes.  Responsys followed that up by donating to that cause as well.
Shar VanBoskirk and Julie Ask presented from Forrester Research. You know them...they write all those white papers that you download.

And of course there was the breakout sessions, 28 to be exact, covering 4 main topics: direct purchase, considered purchase, new school marketing strategies, and tactics for users of their platform. Sessions I attended were led by clients such as the NBA, Verizon, Harley Davidson, Dollar Thrifty, FKQ, Adobe, Team Detroit, Build.com, and experts at Responsys.  I also had the opportunity to speak with Lucy Handley of MarketingWeek.

The entire event concluded with an awesome wine tasting at Press Club, a really nice wine bar in the Union Square area of San Francisco. I got the feeling that Responsys really surprised everyone to the upside with their execution of the event.  It was flawless - I have to say.  On a slight side note, they do an amazing job with branding as a company.  And, when they go public, the ticker symbol will be MKTG (Yahoo! Finance).

I found there to be two main themes from this event: One - engage with people, absolutely crush their expectations, and be generous (you can never give away more than you will receive). Two - Responsys is doing a good job promoting the New School of Marketing.  It basically challenges all marketers to think about where they are in the lifecycle of an ever-changing industry.  Read more about the New School of Marketing on their website.


Footnotes
Responsys Interact 2011 website
Read the press release from the event
Photos from this event on the Responsys Facebook page

(1) - Responsys investor relations

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