we came, we met, we blogged. rachel (pr manager) and i (community manager) attended this year’s blogher conference in chicago. we showed up, wide-eyed and fairly overwhelmed, along with 1,500 women bloggers, and a few humble goals in mind:
· connect irl (in real life) with blogger friends of method
· attend conference sessions to catch up on the latest within the blogging communities that relate to our brand (moms, foodies, eco-bloggers, design-focused, to name a few)
· check out how other brands are engaging with bloggers, what’s resonating, and what’s obnoxious
· explore new ways to interact with bloggers and their audiences to help get the word out about method’s mission and make a positive impact on the blogging community
· throw a party, of course
as brand representatives, we weren’t quite sure how attendees would react to us mingling at parties, attending sessions and speaking up during q&a sessions to offer our perspective. after all, we are not daily bloggers, per se. although blogging is part of how we communicate from inside our company, it’s not a huge part of our day-to-day at method. would we be the kids who crashed another school’s prom?
lucky for us, bloggers love method, and they even applauded (yay!) when anna got up to ask a question during one panel discussion. but we chose to fly under the radar at the conference this year.
in a word, we chose to not ‘overbrand’ our brand. as first-time attendees, we wanted to soak it all up and decide if/how our presence would make sense for future blogher conferences. and although we missed out on the opportunity to have hundreds of influential women at the leading edge of trends go home with a bottle of beautiful method hand wash in their gift bag, we stayed true to who we are as a brand. that felt good.
that’s not to say we wouldn’t consider blogher sponsorship opportunities in the future. after all, major sponsors (with major budgets!) are the ones that keep conference fees low for attendees, making it accessible for so many. as a brand, it really is a fantastic opportunity to show support and to validate the importance of bloggers and the power of their voices.
and of course you know how much method likes a party so we threw a casual get-together in our hotel suite on friday night. whole foods catered organic snacks, and our method mojitos were a huge hit among thirsty bloggesses. we even had danny seo on hand to teach a ‘detox your purse’ session.
all in all, i’m really happy with how we participated in blogher ’09. we connected with some incredible women, and learned valuable lessons about how to work in a respectful and mutually beneficial way with this influential crowd.
in closing, a few blogs/bloggers that inspire us:
tell us – did you attend blogher ’09? what are your thoughts on how brands should participate in the conference?
we can’t wait for blogher ‘10 in nyc!
Oh, wow. I just saw this link to me. Thanks so much! I still adore Method products and will never go back to toxic chemicals in my home. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Mocha | November 06, 2009 at 01:42 PM