Marketing to Mom Mania Month, lots of links and PR rants
posted in Mom Marketing, Blogging Rants |There must be something in the air, because in the last month I was invited to three events, and pitched for a gazillion others.
I think the internet is coming down with a case of mom marketing mania.
I’m not complaining here. It’s actually quite funny for me. Someone out there thinks I’m influential enough to send me to Disney for the weekend (FREE!?) with Steph and Amy? I’m not even in the same sphere as these ladies. Unfortunately, I had to pass it up because the event falls over everybody’s favorite Jewish holiday, Passover. (An aside: I did mention this to the conference organizer, and she seemed taken aback and apologized for the unfortunate oversight. It’s a bummer, but as I told Devra, I am not sure the general population considers the sacred act of hiding the afikoman when planning fun events that include riding Space Mountain. A cop out? Perhaps, but I try never to take the “forgetting the Jewish holidays thing” too personally.) I wish I could pass over eating matzah in favor of some cotton candy and chocolate Mickey Mouse ears, but alas, I’ll have to wait on that.
I was also invited (coincidentally a former client of mine when I was working) to Johnson’s Camp Baby in lovely New Jersey. The whole conference sounds pretty swank, and again, unfortunately I can’t attend. Something about my son’s birthday and a long-awaited vacation with my husband interfering. Damn families. Too bad, because I wanted to catch up some with Kim. How many e-mails have been wasted on me? I’m a mom marketing flunkie.
I was, however, lucky enough to get to go to a fab luncheon last week, courtesy of the lovely Charlene. The luncheon was in honor of Yahoo!’s new website for women, Shine. We got to have lunch at a swank hotel and get a sneak peek into the brilliant minds of some very creative women. Plus, I got to gab with M.J., Leah, Jessica, Danielle, Amy and Erin. I’m eagerly awaiting the site’s launch. Oh, and another round of that salmon with fingerling potatoes wouldn’t be bad, either.
I’m a little late to this one (see? I’m not that influential, people!), but have you all checked out the site, Mom Logic, yet? The site’s layout is compelling and they write on everything from Halle’s new baby, to fashion and beauty. If only I had more time to sit and read it.
I can’t even get into all the pitches I’ve received lately as well. I’m seriously not writing all this to say “look at me, I get pitched,” but rather to question some of the PR and marketing folks supposed interest in my blog. Does someone really think that I’m going to write about a “Caribbean Escape contest courtesy of Bahama Breeze?” Because I’ve written so much on my blog about my love for the islands, mon? I sometimes feel like with all the e-mails I get we are degrading the value of how word-of-mouth on blogs can really work.
But I know why everyone in the marketing industry is desperately hunting mom bloggers. This article (thanks, Emily), states that “more than 40 percent of all women who go online have children under 18 at home and that internet usage rate of females who are expecting to have first or second child in the next year is at 94 percent.” (Translated: 94 percent of you suckers actually think the internet has the information you need to raise a child. Muwaahahah. Just kidding.)
While these studies and statistics spout off incredibly high numbers of moms online, marketers need to remember to pay attention to online behavior of moms, not just their usage rate. Just because I tried out and liked a Land’s End diaper bag, doesn’t necessarily mean I want to hawk meal plans or life coaching on my site.
But a weekend away with the girls? Maybe if I wasn’t a mom with a family to tend to, I could swing it. Then again, it probably means I wouldn’t have received the invite in the first place.
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Update to this post: Clearly I’m so NOT influential because I haven’t been keeping up on some serious backlash surrounding these events. Devra recaps it all here… Oy Vey is right, D. Sorry, Julie and Stefania. Wow, this disappoints me big time. Here’s a link to the response from J&J on the issue.
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