Dear Brand & Brand Reps,
Despite my transparent green leaning… I couldn’t help myself – I got excited by some of great swag that was swirling through the parties and suites at blogher this year. Thank you for your part in making it an unbelievable experience.
Many of the items I received will be well loved and used, but for this note… I want to talk about everything else.
Brands Please – when you are preparing to come to a conference like this – put yourselves in our shoes.
Shipping
We have to either pay to ship or cram EVERYTHING into a small suitcases to get it home. So will the item you are thinking of introducing make the cut? It better be pretty special or it’s going home with the maid.
Consider taking our information and shipping the item to us directly. Or take Rock On Mommies suggestion and give us a gift card or certificate good for the item you want to introduce.
As you plan keep in mind that free product comes our way like fruit flies swarming abandoned fruit – if free stuff is our goal. I think I speak for most bloggers when I say that we don’t blog for free stuff, we value ourselves and what we have to offer is far more than that.
Paper & Brochures
I hate to break it to you – when we are packing up, we go through all “the stuff”. All the paper, brochures, leaflets are discarded – ALL OF IT. Hopefully, it ends up in the recycling bin – more likely it’s going in the trash. Think about all the time and money spent on copy writing, printing – all to end up in a landfill without more than a glance.
Directly to the Recycling Bin - Use the Crayola Box for Scale - Worth noting this pile is over 4" deep.
Even if you have the best information – we don’t have time to read paper literature while we’re at a conference and no one is going to pay to ship it home nor are we giving up precious luggage space for information we can get online.
Instead invest your resources in a way to communicate with us after the conference, invest in compensating us to do what we do – generate exceptional exposure for well matched brands, and invest in ensuring you can deliver information to us digitally.
Final Thoughts
- Please don’t treat is like we’re a potential consumer – we can be so much more than that.
- Sending us a discount code and asking us to share it with our readers is a promotion. We can’t pay for groceries with a bottle of shampoo, nor can you. Please don’t ask us to do this kind of work for free.
- Please don’t add us to your general email list – if you do – I promise you are missing the boat.
- I know you are busy and doing the very best you can within the constrains of your time and budget.
If you are hoping bloggers are going to cover your brand or product because it was given to us at the conference – I think you’ll be disappointed. Instead consider it an opportunity for a great date – if the dating goes well – we might consider getting into a relationship.
I don’t know why, but I have the feeling Brands are approaching Blogher like it’s the prom. The work is done – now it’s time for the party.
From my perspective Blogher is the wedding, a party, and a celebration of the beginning of a partnership.
Think worthwhile, satisfying, long term. Don’t be tempted by the shortcut of a one night stand. It might seem fun and easy, but it probably won’t last and usually isn’t worth it.
I’m really interested to hear from you – the brands and brand reps met at blogher – so please take a minute to respond to a few questions I have for brands & bloggers.
Brands are you wondering what Pure Natural Diva can do for you?
Our focus is living a simple, healthier, greener life – with flair. We bring an audience to your brand with the same interest & focus. We only work with brands that fits naturally with our content – if we’re not a match there’s a site on the web that is perfect for you!
Pure Natural Diva gets an average of 10,000 monthly pageviews and 5000 unique monthly visitors. We’ve also created a network of Eco Savvy Bloggers – our combined monthly pageviews – over 200,000.
@PureNaturalDiva has over 26,000 followers on Twitter & 1950 fans on facebook. To learn more about our social media status – click here. It’s not just about our numbers – it’s about our engagement and the quality of our relationship with our followers.
Pure Natural Diva is ranked in the top 250 of all Los Angeles Twitter Users! When we send out 50 tweets it has a reach of over 63,000 people.
{ 12 comments… add one }
Very well said. I went to visit my parents after the conference and I gave so much of the stuff to my parents and my brother’s girlfriend because it’s brands that I simply won’t touch. There are a few brands that I am trying for longer term projects (like the Align probiotic to see how it stacks up to my regular probiotic – so far, way more waste, which I don’t like). Otherwise, a lot got tossed to the side. And that sort of waste just kills me. Shipping the products directly to us would be blissful. (Although next year I will be in good shape since I can drive to San Diego.)
next time decline the swag to their face.. its like declining plastic utensils with a to-go order. the look on their faces is classic. Definitely makes a statement
I declined everything I wouldn’t use when it was being handed to me, including paper.
There were so many bags with things you’d want, mixed with all the other stuff.
I couldn’t agree more! I think I paid more for the over weight bag than the actual value of what was in the bag! I left so much “crap” for housekeeping. I bagged up 4 bags worth of brochures! Such a waste!
I just gave a lot to the swag exchange. I am single without kids so all the baby and kid stuff went there. Do I need more mouse pads? No but the coupon with it is very easy to carry. Luckily, I guess, I wasn’t invited to any private parties.
I left Boston with 2 bags and brought 6 home on the bus and I really didn’t keep a lot.
I send bags of stuff with friends of mine who drove into the city too… One party even had mayonnaise and macaroni in the gift bag.
I loved the idea of the swag exchange – but by the time my roommates and I had sorted through ours it was LONG closed.
Oh lord, I tried to turn down items I didn’t want and one vendor got downright snippy with me. I used to be in event mgmt and I was THRILLED when people were honest and said they didn’t want items-meant I could save them for another event.
I took home NO paper or brochures.
When I was doing event mgmt, we had a system where people could select which brochures they wanted and input their email address and they’d receive an electronic copy-easier, cheaper, and greener.
I went and wondered through the recycle room and thought that the marketing people for all of the brands that were there need to pay attention to what gets rejected. Poor Jimmy Dean thought that the alarm clocks were such a cute idea – yet they were SO poorly received. I noticed a lot of the notebooks and most of the brochures and a bunch of the actual bags from the swag gifts.The brands really do need to pay attention to the bloggers and what they need/want. I hope they learn the potential we bring to them. I will say, the Hershey suite was the coolest. I just received in the mail a box full s’more makings and marshmallow roasting sticks. Very thoughtful and very fun.
Great thoughts! I hope that companies read and take heed. I haven’t been to a blog conf, but I often wondered about how people got all the stuff home. Gift cards are a great idea for that situation.
Nicely said Tania, I wish ALL conferences would take steps to clearing the “clutter” of the giveaways!More importantly though, I hope they get your message to start putting their money where their consumers go and start paying for branded content from us bloggers! I would love to share a recent post I wrote in support of this on my site LifeAfterKids: http://lifeafterkids.tv/?p=636 .
Great post and your site rocks!
This post was so right on. I completely agree with all your points, and I too got weird looks when I declined free stuff. Especially the Timex people, who just wanted to give brochures. The seemed irritated when I said I didn’t wear or like watches.Anyway, thanks for compiling these thoughts!
Last year at Blogher my schedule kept me so busy I missed the swag recycling suite. This year I made it a point to go through the items I got and send them to the recycling suite – including the paper flyers I couldn’t take with me.I’m having a Remake Your Swag link party August 22nd. I invite you to link up this post!