Viva Las Vegas (again)

I'm flying to Las Vegas tomorrow (and staying at the swanky Wynn!) where I'm going to be on the Mom Blogger Panel at the CPG Summit. I'll be in the company of three top bloggers, Liz from Mom-101, Lynnae from Being Frugal and Christine of From Dates to Diapers, as we tell 750 men (and yes, they're mostly men) why consumer packaged goods companies would be wise to pay attention to mom bloggers. Just like other mothers, we buy breakfast cereal, detergent, crackers and juice--but we talk about it more than anyone else and our conversations are linked to, Twittered and forever Googleable.

Beware the brand that pisses off a blogging parent. We can use our power for good (Z Recs raised awareness of BPA in baby bottles and now they're going bye-bye for good) and for bad (the ongoing hysteria regarding vaccines and autism), but you can't ignore us. Make that shouldn't. Portillo's continues to ignore me even as my old blog post gets 50 hits a day from folks looking for nutrition information.

Incidentally, I logged into Southwest's website to print out my boarding pass just 6 minutes after the check-in process opened this morning and I'm 22 bodies into Group B for my flight. I know my fellow SWA flyers are a pushy lot, but 82 of them set their alarms for 9:40?

A very, very good hair day

I'll probably never again replicate my hair stylist's meticulous flat-ironing, but I sure feel glamorous today!

And, I got some very exciting news...I'm going to be on a panel of mommybloggers
before an audience of retail and CPG (that's consumer packaged goods) bigwigs so I can help them understand what moms want from brands and stores. It's the perfect opportunity for me since I've been on both sides of the shopping cart, so to speak.

Motrin pisses of a whole mess of moms

Myself included.

Aside from wondering what bullshit agency put together an ad this moronic (hello, there are working moms in the ad world; you could hire one), I don't have anything to add to this momversation that hasn't been tweeted or blogged ad nauseum. I didn't check Twitter once this weekend, so I'm a little late to the game.

So read this from Her Bad Mother, this from Mom-101 (also an ad creative) and this from Ms. Adventures in Babywearing herself.

By the way, Motrin, I'd need a whole lot more headache pills if I didn't keep wearing Baby A. Half the time she on my hip or in the Ergo, it's because she'd started throwing an ear-piercing "up" tantrum at my feet!

Day one of the M2Moms Conference: who we're NOT marketing to

Everyone's marketing to moms, but three key groups of mothers are being ignored: moms of special needs kids, second-time moms and grandmas.

Nadine Vogel of Springboard Consulting emphasized that reaching mothers of special needs kids requires sensitivity and etiquette (i.e. don't kneel or stand when you're talking to someone in a wheelchair; sit down next to them), but they're fiercely loyal to the companies that reach out to them with solutions and communications that demonstrate compassion and an understanding of their and their children's particular needs. She was followed by Gianna Locasto, Sephora's Director of Store Marketing, who shared with us the beauty emporium's outreach to the disabled community. They gave the moms of special needs kids some much deserved pampering and treated disabled teens and adults to make-up lessons and beauty consultations in a private, supportive environment. What they got, in addition to the warm fuzzies, was new, loyal customers.

Norma Blatto of American Baby talked about second-time moms. Even though they're spending big bucks on cars, home improvements, home electronics and additional baby gear (double strollers, clothes for a child of a different gender) and their established status in the mommy community means they're responsible for generating a lot of word of mouth, most brands are so wrapped up in their efforts to reach the first-time mom that they miss out on the opportunity to make a connection with this bigger community of women pregnant for the second, third or fourth time.

The award for most memorable speaker of the day (at least in my book) goes to Jerry Shereshewsky. The CEO of Grandparents.com, he made the point (which I can anecdotally support) that today's Boomer grandmas and grandpas are healthy, wealthy and very generous with their grandkids. They're funding 529 college savings plans and helping their children furnish nurseries and buy clothes for the babies. Not only that, they're buying high chairs, pack n plays (even Wiis!) for their own homes to make the grandkids feel welcome. Yet aside from a handful of companies who are embracing this demographic (one standout example was Pepsi, who encouraged Grandparents.com members to give their free Pepsi song downloads to their grandkids) -- most marketers leave this group to the drug manufacturers. And that's a shame since, unlike Gen X and Gen Y moms, they're easy to connect with: just address them as grandparents.

The American Dairy Association loves mommybloggers

On Wednesday night, the folks behind dairy's 3-A-Day campaign romanced me and about dozen other mommybloggers with drinks, dinner and dairy swag.

Make that dinners. The American Dairy Council's 3-A-Day event for mommybloggers was held Wednesday night at Super Suppers in Northbrook, one of those dinner assembly joints where you can throw together a "real meal" with pre-chopped ingredients and store it in your freezer for future enjoyment.

We sipped wine, nibbled on cheese slices and sampled some cucumber-yogurt dip with veggies. I got to reconnect with some of my fellow Chicago Moms Blog contributors, women I hadn't seen since BlogHer.

Then we assembled our "dairy-friendly" dinners. Six healthy entrees made slightly less healthy as the friendly Super Suppers foodies encouraged us to "go ahead and double the sour cream" or "throw a little more cheese on there!"

I actually walked out with 11 nights' worth of dinners since I was able to split all but one of the meals into half portions (three servings instead of six). I'm most looking forward to trying the Meatless (Spinach) Lasagna and Pan-Fried Ravioli with Tomato Cream Sauce. I couldn't bear the idea of warming up all of the tomato-cream sauce ingredients together, so I convinced the Super Suppers guys to let me individually bag the diced onion and red wine so I could saute the onions and create a red wine reduction before adding the tomatoes, seasonings and sour cream.

Thank you American Dairy Association for making us mommybloggers feel so special. We love you (and your adorable milk glasses), too!

Let's go with the ads that don't work

That seems to be the direction the US Government gave advertising creatives after the politically connected formula companies got wind of a startling ad campaign designed to highlight the risks associated with not breast-feeding. According to this Washington Post article:

"Officials met with dozens of focus groups before concluding that the best way to influence mothers was to delineate in graphic terms the risks of not breast-feeding, an approach in keeping with edgy Ad Council campaigns on smoking, seat belts and drunken driving. For example, an ad portraying a nipple-tipped insulin bottle said, 'Babies who aren't breastfed are 40% more likely to suffer Type 1 diabetes.'

Gina Ciagne, the office's public affairs specialist for the campaign, said, 'We were ready to go with our risk-based campaign -- making breast-feeding a real public health issue -- when the formula companies learned about it and came in to complain. Before long, we were told we had to water things down, get rid of the hard-hitting ads and generally make sure we didn't somehow offend.'"

So instead of getting mothers to sit up and take notice (and potential raise our country's dismal breast-feeding rates (estimated to be 30 percent at 6 months), we're spending lots of taxpayer dollars on ads we know will be ineffective.

Now I can see how the images in the proposed campaign might make moms who have chosen to formula feed (or tried unsuccessfully to breast-feed) feel bad about their choices. But good, effective advertising is never milquetoast--it needs to grab attention and start conversations. It's sad (but not surprising) our current administration is kowtowing to industry lobbyists on issues of women and children's health.

Click here to see the proposed campaign and let me know what you think.

Cross-posted to Chicago Moms Blog

BlogHer download

So, what was BlogHer like? It wasn't the exclusive gathering of hipper-than-thou bloggers I feared it might be. While there were a couple of celebrity mommybloggers on hand, most of the women I met were there for the same reasons I was: to meet the faces behind the writing on our favorite blogs and learn a little bit about how we can improve our game. And it was a lot more diverse than I anticipated. Instead of a bunch of hipsters with red hair and cute laptop bags, there were women from 16-65. Some were professional bloggers, some wrote crafting or cooking blogs. At least two blogged on behalf of nonprofits. Still others hadn't even started a blog yet!

I attended a few sessions on the Business of You and learned that while I'm probably not going to make a fortune from online advertising, I'm too ethically driven to head down the pay-per-post route.

But I learned about other professional opportunities available to bloggers. Some are freelancing as corporate bloggers, some are parlaying their expertise into speaking gigs, and others are expanding their blogs into books. I also heard again and again that the best bloggers--like the best brands--are micro-targeted, covering a particular subject or intersection of subjects in depth.

Which has me thinking. I started this blog as a reflection of myself: a marketer and a mommy. I didn't do it to advance my career, but it has given me insights I've been able to apply to my work and my clients. Do I continue in this line, flitting from product review to customer service rant to birth story, in spite of what I've learned at BlogHer? Do I start a more professional blog that focuses exclusively on marketing to moms and cultivate my reputation as an expert in the field?

Tough questions to wrestle with, huh? Good thing I've got great swag to distract me. Two enormous bags of swag, half from the conference and half from my connections at the Chicago Moms Blog. My favorite items? Chicago Moms Blog and VOX t-shirts (neither of which will likely fit until I quit breastfeeding), The BabyCenter Essential Guide to Your Baby's First Year, FLAVORit medicine flavoring kit, CleanWell natural hand sanitizer, Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter, Innobaby's Packin Smart baby snack stacker, the BusyBodyBook calendar/organizer and a ScrapBlog onesie for A.

Which formula company loves me best?

Those who know me well may be surprised to find I gave my name and due date to all three major formula companies. After all, I'm a dedicated supporter of breastfeeding. Heck, I returned to work with a pump over my arm and nursed Z for a full year.

But the marketer in me knows that no one's mastered direct mail and relationship marketing quite like the baby milk manufacturers. By signing up for their "clubs,' I get to see their techniques up close and personal. And I get free coupons and samples which I can pass along to friends or put to use when I eventually start supplementing!

To even the playing field, I signed up for Similac's Welcome Addition Club, Enfamil Family Beginnings and Nestle Good Start's Very Best Baby in the same manner, online. I joined each program on February 3rd, and I honestly answered their surveys (second child, breastfeeding with some supplementation, due date of July 14...)

All three programs sent me periodic emails on pregnancy and baby's development, most of which I dutifully ignored. Then the good stuff came. Nestle was first to my mailbox with a cardbox mailer containing two high-value formula checks and a DVD on baby care. I passed the checks along to a neighbor since I've never used Nestle and they didn't have generous expiration dates anyway. But my two year old likes nothing better than to watch the somewhat clinical film's chapters on diapering, bathing and soothing baby. Go figure!

A month or so later I got package from Similac containing more formula checks and two small sample cartons of Similac--regular and soy. I'm sure I'll end up giving the soy formula away since I never used it with Z.

But the best came last: today Enfamil delivered two full size canisters of Enfamil Lipil along with a formula check and the requisite pamphlet on feeding.

So I'm going to have to conclude that Enfamil loves me best. At least until I check into West Suburban Hospital, which has a contract with Similac. Meaning I'll likely get more samples and an ugly diaper bag upon checkout.

And if last go round was any indication, the love doesn't end with birth. I can expect to receive formula checks in the mail for a year!