5 Comments

No, I Don’t Want To Meet With Your CEO At Ad-tech

Oct 31, 2006
by

I got on the press list for the upcoming ad-tech show in NY next week. Hey, I’m not complaining, it’s a free pass. This is a rant and discussion, not a complaint.

So what happens is that the ad-tech people release the press list out to everyone exhibiting, who then, in turn unleash their PR teams with “meeting requests”. Yeah, this all makes sense, like I said, I’m not complaining.

Needlesstosay, I’m getting 20-30 calls a day now, followed up with emails that are basically the following.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for taking my call earlier…

Following up to see if you want to schedule a meeting with (company name)…

As a reminder, (company name), the industry’s (best, most qualified, unique, world leader, etc…), will be at the show. (Insert paragraph about company)

Can we schedule a time to show you a brief demo during AdTech, or to meet with our CEO/CTO/CFO/Janitor?

Thanks,
Tabitha

Tabitha Stevens
PR Agency

The problem with this letter is that it’s boring. How about learning a little bit about me first and saying something like…

“Hi Jim, XZY company will be ad-tech, and they can solve your readers problems, here’s how…”

How about being a bit more creative too? Send me something out of the ordinary. Ask me if I want to meet with your janitor. Maybe your janitor knows all the inside scoop about the company, so we decided to bring him to the show so that you could meet him and learn from him.

That… might be funny and get my interest? I would laugh at least and would probably track down the booth at the show to tell them about how it made me laugh.

If you’re going to be at ad-tech, I do want to meet with you and hear about your product, but you know what, I need a little more creative effort. Heck, I’m not even a journalist. I can’t imagine what they think when they get these calls/emails.

PR agencies… I think it’s time to start thinking out of the box here. You want my attention. Earn it.

If you’re one of those companies going to ad-tech who spent the money on a PR agency for that, I believe you’ve wasted it, with me at least.

Filed under: Internet Strategy
  • http://www.affiliate-software-review.com Peter Koning

    Our CEO IS the janitor and makes the coffee too :)

  • http://www.revenews.com Jim Kukral

    Haha, indeed Peter. Let's meet!

  • http://www.webmetricsguru.com Marshall Sponder

    Well, I have a press pass to Ad-Tech too….though I am not getting quite as many calls as you are.

    Should be fun though..

  • http://www.joshgreene.com Josh

    I'm speaking, and have found something similar. I get salespeople coming out of the woodwork. My pet peeve is the "we're the world's best ad firm/SEO firm/bid management firm/Cuisinart designer". It's 2006, I've probably already got a method to handle online advertising, it's Q4, and we're really busy; perhaps you could go into what you specialize in, and why I'd like to drop my existing firms to work with you?

  • http://www.AdOnNetwork.com Kory Kredit

    Jim,

    Guilty! I have sent out emails to the press this week asking to set up a meeting with our CEO. While it may not be completely original, I did provide a top 5 list for why you should stop by our booth (#1818):

    1. No other booth will be giving away cool flashing pens with the AdOn Network logo.

    2. When we changed our name to AdOn Network, you never had a chance to say goodbye to myGeek, and this will help provide closure.

    3. All of our staff members at the booth will be wearing Speedos (not really, just seeing if you are still reading this).

    4. You want to find out what "Advertising Innovated" really means.

    5. What else is there to do in New York?

    If you can't make it to the booth, maybe you can stop by my blog (www.adon-blog.com) to tell me how annoyed you get dealing with marketing and pr people like me at trade shows.