M2Moms™, The Marketing to Moms Conference

M2Moms™
The Marketing to Moms Conference
October 23 & 24, 2006
Chicago cultural Center

By John King

As I have said before, PME Enterprises’ Nan and Jim McAnn run a great show. And this year, special recognition goes out to Elizabeth Barton-Fongemie who was promoted on stage during the opening comments to Vice President. We all knew it was “Liz” that did all the real work…just kidding. The whole cast is excellent and makes you feel special for attending.

Highlights? Plenty. But the mentions go to …

Draft FCB, Reaching the Embedded Woman in Every Woman
Nancy Leibig, Elizabeth Maher and Gig Carroll gave an insightful look at “women with children” and the admiration given to those women that exhibit command of multiple dimensions. Often, marketers forget that moms are women and Draft’s research yielded good perspective into how we can appeal to both.

Unilever, Dove Calming Night Wash & Campaign for Real Beauty
Rob Master and Babs Rangaiah are lucky and good. With a budget that would be admired by any marketer, Rob and Babs recognize that there is a significant challenge for today’s 30 second spot and are not complacent to do anything less than create a cultural phenomena in every campaign. Hence, “Real Beauty” has inspired a whole new look at women’s perceptions about themselves through the eyes of young girls. The “Makeover” video has sparked a world of buzz without any significant media expense and a mature product line has managed to become part of the fabric of conversation in every day life. Great presentation. Awe-inspiring. And beneath the surface, a very telling challenge of fighting traditional marketing concepts to present a brand in new light.

Curves, Connecting with the Woman Inside Mom to Create Success, Mary Dean – Publicis
Are we seeing a trend here? Even with Mary’s sharp attitude towards men in the business of marketing to women with kids (moms for you traditionalists), her telling of the story for taking Curves from a “gym” franchise to one that caters to women on the “wrong side of 35” was motivating. Early concepts of mission and value propositions were dispelled to make way for groundbreaking messages to women who hate the gym, but crave personal accomplishment. This is a simple story, once it’s told, but getting there was no less than dramatic.

Publicis, Engaging the New Main Street Mom
Stephanie Ouyoumijian is usually someone I will line up to listen to. But, her description of Middle America moms seemed to be doomed to contradictions from the beginning of the dialog. There is an interesting concept here, but I don’t know if there is enough behind it to warrant conviction, yet. Knowing that Stephanie is sound in her research, I am confident that this will develop into a cohesive story. I’m holding hope out for the future of her work in this area. I believe we exempt Middle America from much of what we hold valuable as marketers. However, we sell ourselves short and forget where our values are centered.

Just Ask A Woman, Live On-Stage Mom Consumer Panel, M2Moms Town Hall Meeting
Tracy Chapman led a group of candid (understatement) women through telling questions with much more humor than the name of this presentation would ever imply. Real insights into how moms view incentives, where they shop, what motivates them and more was presented in “focus group gone wild” format with some special people. As always, live stage integrates moments of “ah HA” with “yawns” but this was a stunning performance. Anyone tells you they didn’t learn anything was outside making cell phone calls during this one.

I’ve lavished praise for how well run this conference was in the past and nothing would change my praise for the staff, principals and venue. Two hundred and twenty five registered, probably 200+/- in attendance and a solid representation of brands made the event and nightlife worthwhile. Nan even converted the men’s bathroom to a women’s facility to make up for lines experienced in a past show. Now, if that isn’t attention to detail, what is? More importantly, there is new material and insights that are now transcending the earlier stats-upon-stats presentations that used to make up this conference. Heavy emphasis on application and successful case studies was intriguing. Direct access to the people who make it happen every day was valuable and fun. A great conference. Thanks to all who worked so hard to bring it to life.