October 2008

Thanks again to U.S. Olympic Committee CMO Rick Burton and Gordon Kane of Victory Sports Marketing for a mesmerizing Sept. 5 luncheon presentation.

The 240 members and guests in attendance gave Rick and Gordon very high marks in the post-lunch survey, with 95% saying they would both attend future BMA luncheons and recommend them to colleagues.

Thanks to all for their feedback (we’re listening!), and please continue to fill out and return these post-lunch email surveys every month.

Targeting and staying in touch with C-level executives.

A very hot topic in b-to-b marketing today. And one BMA is proud to be exploring on Oct. 2 with the help of Steve Pacheco, who heads advertising for all brands at FedEx.

And what a challenge for FedEx, given its need to stay connected with c-level executives at companies of every size, from the CEOs of GE and AT&T to the country’s millions of small business owners who fix the copiers, rush off to Kinko’s and make the coffee.

Techniques to target and reach c-level execs are changing. Until recently, conventional wisdom was you could only reach them in the pages of national business dailies and weeklies, via televised sporting events and through PR and high-level business events.

Recently, Forbes, which has equally strong print and online properties, published a study saying 67% of c-level execs cite online media as their single most important source of business information.

You can download the Forbes c-level media study here.

Other studies confirm the growing reachability of c-level execs through online media. A 2007 study by Ipsos Media concluded that 38% of c-level execs use a publication web site daily and that they spend 10% more time online than do non-c-level execs.

The Ipsos study also found that many advertisers make creative use of mass media to reach c-level execs because it helps their high-level messages slip through when their audiences’ “guard” is likely to be down.

FedEx no doubt uses many techniques and communications pathways to get through to c-level execs, and BMA is thrilled to be bringing Steve and Fedex’s extensive experience in this arena to you!

LinkedIn’s Patrick Crane on Nov. 6

LinkedIn is an incredible success story...and one we’re going to hear more and more about in the months and years ahead.

Now boasting 25 million profiles—with one million being voluntarily added every month—LinkedIn is on track to host 30-35 million profiles by the end of the year and possibly reach 70 million by the end of 2009!

Not a social network (they really eschew that term), but a professional network, LinkedIn is the Google (or maybe, better put, the YouTube) of this space.

With people voluntarily and constantly uploading more and more information about themselves, LinkedIn singlehandedly has brought un unprecedented level of transparency to the business and professional world.

Formerly with Yahoo!, LinkedIn CMO Patrick Crane will take the BMA podium Nov. 6 to tell the story of how LinkedIn has gotten to where it is today, describe how b-to-b marketers are using and can use LinkedIn to better target and reach very granular b-to-b audiences and answer your questions.

Many of you may have noticed that BMA is using LinkedIn to target Chicago-area marketers with information about our luncheons. What have begun as text ads will soon morph into flash-banner ads keyed visually to our full-page Aug. 25 Crain’s ad. It’s still an experiment, but we will report on our metrics to date on Nov. 6, too.

Spencer Stuart’s Greg Welch on Dec. 3

Thanks to our decision to move our monthly luncheons earlier in the month, we’ve added December and June luncheons, bringing the yearly total to 10.

On Wednesday, Dec. 3 (just one of three months when our luncheon is not on the first Thursday), SpencerStuart’s Greg Welch—widely known as one of the nation’s top senior-marketer recruiters—will speak on the subject of “How to Get and Keep a Senior-Level Marketing Job.”

As always, the BMA board of directors and I look forward to seeing you at many BMA events over the course of the year!

If you are not already a member of BMA, please consider joining today. You can join or register for BMA programs through the BMA Web site.

BMA members get the exclusive ability to download the PowerPoint deck and/or an audiocast from our monthly luncheon seminars in the first BMAIL of the following month.

Other exclusive members-only benefits include:

• The BMA/Chicago Directory
• Publications and white papers from the national BMA
• Member rates for guests joining you at BMA events
• Free postings to BMA/Chicago CareerLink listings

All the best,