Last week I had the great pleasure of attending PromaxBDA – The Conference 2010, which happened last week in downtown Los Angeles. For those who don’t know, PromaxBDA is the annual gathering of television promotions and marketing executives. It was a fantastic event.
Waterfall Mobile provided mobile messaging services for PromaxBDA, and thus alerted the eclectic group of industry creatives about news and special offers. As a result, Waterfall’s Msgme platform was able to make the conference more interactive and engaging.
For example, the PromaxBDA organizers declared an impromptu “flash party” via text on Wednesday night – and backed it up with a $5,000 bar tab!
Within moments the previously empty bar was swarmed with conference-goers, all of whom had either gotten a text or heard about the open bar from somebody in the know.
Elsewhere during the conference, I was in a client lunch when another text came through with a special offer for PromaxBDA mobile subscribers. Sugar Ray Leonard, who was being honored at PromaxBDA, was available for an exclusive meet and greet with those attendees who had joined the mobile list! I couldn’t get away to rub elbows with the champ – but I certainly appreciated the opportunity.
Other things I especially liked about PromaxBDA:
- Learning. Attendees at PromaxBDA were actually there to learn – about social media, about new promotional and marketing tactics, about what’s next. It made for a genuinely interesting and even (dare I say) inspirational event.
- Honesty. JD Roth, executive producer of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC (and winner of a PromaxBDA Brand Builder award) admitted during a panel that the show has taken product integration a step too far. He also said brand visibility would be scaled back when the show returns next fall. Always refreshing to hear people tell it like it is!
- Icons. Larry King interviewed with PromaxBDA Lifetime Award honoree Hugh Hefner, and it was something to see: two legends taking the stage and talking shop. Also notable: Hef mentioned Twitter twice! If an 82 year old knows about digital messaging and social media, I’d say that’s pervasive, wouldn’t you?
- Foresight. I was extremely impressed by incoming PromaxBDA co-chairman Lisa Gregorian (Warner Bros. Television Group) and her panel on the changing face of the television viewing audience. Killer data point: 70% of the TV audience will be comprised of millenials by 2014. That means delivering content to users not just over the airwaves but online, mobile, DVR, and all the rest. Extremely refreshing to hear so-called “old media” leaders with such a command of what’s coming next, and the fact that those people have a business strategy to reflect our changing times.
Here’s one obvious thing that PromaxBDA can improve for next year. Despite all the digital initiatives happening throughout the event, comment cards in the session rooms stick out like a sore thumb. In an effort to go green, Promax has phased out bottled water – but getting rid of all that paper would be greener still, not to mention more efficient. Mobile messaging does a superior job, and can power commenting in real-time. Maybe next year…
Oh, and I have to give a shout out to our new friends at Wiredrive. They interviewed yours truly for a video compilation site the company is putting together featuring other PromaxBDA speakers and presenters. We’ll link to that video here as soon as it’s posted.