As a marketer dedicated to helping brands communicate with women, going to the BlogHer conference each year is akin to the largest and smartest focus group I could ever imagine. Besides the thousands of women, in attendance are many of the largest brands in the world. Official sponsors list here. And of course there are many smaller brands too – from bloggers making just a few dollars each month by running Google Adsense, to mom & pop shops looking for ways to grow their budget strapped businesses, to people with just an idea they are trying to vet.
There are some many interesting marketing elements to observe and critique. Here are a few brands that stood out for me on the show’s exhibit floor.
There was food to sample have 10-steps you took, but the Jimmy Dean brand stood out for their promotion and support of the No Kid Hungry program. They collected over 1,100 pledges, providing 10,000 children in need with up to 10 breakfasts each.
Twizzler’s built the Statue of Liberty, Seattle Space Needle and Golden Gate Bridge, OUT OF TWIZZLERS! Ok, not that exciting for marketing, but visually impressive.
Dr Scholl’s was giving out custom fit orthotic inserts. Smart! Considering all of the walking and high heels in attendance. The line was enormous.
P&G constructed a house walk-through with different product line in each room. Only something P&G can do.
T-Mobile ran an ongoing Twitter tweets quiz with the #blogher11 hashtag with prizes for the right answers.
It was impressive to see how brands have come to recognize and respect the attendees of the conference, and not just ‘home’ or ‘family’ brands. Chase, Ford, Intel, Samsung, and Google+ among others were also exhibiting.
Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico and #5 on Forbe’s Most Powerful Women list, was interviewed by Willow Bay. When Bay asked why she would spend her Saturday to come talk at BlogHer, Nooyi responded,
“I think my future, the future of society is being written and I’ll tell you why because women today represent 70 percent of all the buying decisions made around the world. Over 50 percent of graduates around the United States from colleges and graduate schools are women. So I think the future of the world rests with women. That’s one side.”
“ There’s a more important reason why I’m here. Women are important to the future of the world, but more importantly, with the maturation of blogging and Tweeting and all of the conversations that happen in the digital space, I think we have democratized information and dissemination and given women power and an ability to influence the world from the confines of their home. Which means we have now taken this incredible force called women and empowered them to go off and change the world. When you see these two factors coming together, people like me would be crazy not to be here. I’m surprised more CEOs are not here.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Blogher returns to New York City on 2012. See you there.
