Direct marketers hit NYC

Today was a big day for direct marketers in New York, and I had the chance to run into quite a few of them over at the Javits Center for DM Days and at the Marriot Marquis for OMMA's Video conference.

The highlight of DM Days was definitely being on the main floor and not down in the dungeons and I heard it relayed to me. The keynote by Ivanka Trump was insightful and her whole approach to relationship marketing, getting very personal, is something that all marketers could take home with them. Most of the booths at the show were data and list management companies, which, though not my beat, were still pretty interesting to visit and find out about how data is evolving as technology becomes more advanced.

Then onto the OMMA show, where I saw Andrew Markowitz, digital marketing and media director at Kraft, give a keynote, aided by video clips of other industry leaders (how video conference of him). He spoke about how Kraft was early to TV and now they are early to video.

For Markowitz, the key to reaching consumers via online video is all about building “engaging,” “informative” and “entertaining content,” that is “microrelevant.” He spoke about producing creative professionally, but letting consumers get involved in some ways. He spoke about targeting differently for different channels and not suffering from “incrementalitis,” aka shifting the same practices from one channel to the next, or doing it in increments. Interesting talk, and inspiring to know that online video is going to continue to grow and we get to watch and shape that evolution.

All in all a busy day on the front of direct marketing in New York.