The River

The personal professional blog of Pamela Parker -- musings on marketing, advertising, media and technology.

Marketing

“Sweaty people who drink” who do “voodoo bullshit”

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I loved Kent Nichols’ (of Ask a Ninja) explanation of what we at FM — specifically our salespeople — do. Paraphrasing here, but the moderator asked how AAN has been successful courting brand advertisers. The secret, Kent said, is “sweaty people who drink” — aka hard work building real-life relationships with agencies and advertisers, sometimes with the lubricating influence of alcohol. It’s the non-engineerable aspect of advertising, he said, and it requires the sweat of people who do “voodoo bullshit” and “close deals.”

This panel has completely rocked — best of the SXSW interactive conference so far — and Kent Nichols is a great instigator. He totally gets it, and he expresses it in a laugh-out-loud hilarous way.

Going to SXSW

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After all these years, I’m finally getting the chance to re-visit one of my favorite towns — where I did my undergraduate degree — and I’m thrilled to be attending SXSW Interactive for the first time. Yippee! So, if you’ll be there, too, let me know.

PGM v. CM, Part 3

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I would be extremely remiss — and I’m already pretty darned late to the game — if I didn’t link to John Battelle’s latest musings on conversational media/marketing. It’s thinking like this, with which I heartily agree, that lured me to work at FM in the first place. But these ideas are influencing much more than my piddling career prospects. They’re really observations about a sea change in the worlds of marketing and media. (And there’s going to be a book!)

Job Opening: Author Services Account Executive, FM

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We’re growing, and adding two more positions to support our 100+ authors. These folks would work on my team in the Author Services department. We just have one job description, but are hiring two people that will do similar stuff. If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Now, without further ado, the description:

The Author Services Account Executive (ASAE) at Federated Media works with the whole Author Services team, and the rest of the company, to take care of authors. This person will institute and follow a plan to make regular contact with FM authors, checking in with them on how we are proceeding, together, toward meeting their goals. An ASAE must have excellent communications skills, as a primary responsiblity will be to communicate instructions and requests to authors, and also serve as the author’s advocate within FM. Besides proactively contacting authors, the ASAE will also respond to requests from authors — for information, technical help, advice, etc.

This person will also help search for new authors for this growing company, and respond to queries from prospective authors.

The ideal candidate needs to be organized and have an eye for talent. He or she should be able to cope with a rapidly changing amount of data from various sources. A passion for the world of blogs — in particular for the world of search, media, and technology — is required. The ability to work comfortably with a wide variety of personalities is a must. Editorial experience is critical. An understanding of the publishing and advertising worlds and a knowledge of general business operations are both important. Meticulous accuracy and attention to detail is essential, as is the ability to work on numerous projects simultaneously and under tight deadlines.

But Wait, There’s More…

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When my husband first moved to the U.S. and we got married, one of our first family inside jokes involved poking fun at direct response TV. When one of these spots aired, we’d each take a guess on the final cost (“just $19.99” or “the low low price of $29.95”) and predict the moment when the full product line had actually been laid out — when there were no “but wait, there’s more…” lines left to say. These DR techniques are an integral part of American popular culture.

The WSJ today has an obituary for Arthur Schiff (reg req), the DR genius who came up with the “but wait, there’s more…” technique and marketed the legendary Ginzu knife set. (“In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife. But this method doesn’t work with a tomato.”)

Schiff died a couple of weeks ago from lung cancer in Florida. (The SF Chronicle obit.)