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StumbleUponThis past weekend I took a personal trip to San Francisco to attend the inaugural BlogHer Food conference. This is BlogHer's first topic-specific conference and all-in-all I would label it a huge success. I came home smarter, full of inspiration about how to make my blog better, and having made a host of new connections, three things I look for in any conference. However, there was one pretty significant blemish on the event that I truly believe was the result of a brand thinking only about themselves and not at all about the audience who also happen to be their potential customers and more importantly, advocates. Based on this brand debacle, I offer a cautionary tale of what can go very wrong when a brand fails to put its audience first in social media marketing activities.
- BlogHer works with sponsors to make their conferences accessible to as many people as possible. The folks at BlogHer are amazing advocates for bloggers, particularly women bloggers, and they put together great conferences. I am one of their biggest fans. They realize that blogging is a hobby for most bloggers and that conferences represent a big out-of-pocket expense, so they work to make the conferences as affordable as possible. The cost for this conference was only $99 (plus travel and lodging) because 67% of the total conference cost was subsidized by sponsors.
- In the food world, the sad/harsh/unfortunate reality is that most of the big marketing dollars needed to sponsor an event like this one lives with the big brands that make packaged foods. To make this conference possible, BlogHer had to work with brands that might not necessarily be in complete synch with the food blogging audience. This meant BlogHer had to carefully balance the wants and needs of the audience with the reality of finding the funds needed to create the conference for them. However, a really savvy sponsor would have seen this event as opportunity to introduce themselves to this large group of food influencers in a way that would make these influencers advocates. Sadly, savvy sponsors were few and far between, limited largely to Scharffenberger Chocolate who did a great job of understanding the audience and tweaking their approach specifically for us.
- This was a first time event for BlogHer. While BlogHer has run many successful blogger conferences, this was their first attempt at a niche-focused conference, and to be honest, they didn't start with the easiest group of bloggers. As a group, food bloggers are opinionated, vocal, and hard to please. If I'm honest with myself, we can move beyond knowledgeable to be snobby about food, sometimes detrimentally. I think this conference was a learning experience for everyone, including BlogHer, and they now understand food bloggers better than they did and I'm fully confident that future events will overcome some of the challenges of this first one. If they announced BlogHer Food 2010 today I would be first in line to buy a ticket.
- @userealbutter: @manggy u certainly don't have to be jealous of our lunch (travesty and p*nishment at same time) #blogherfood09
- @cooklocal: So why am I so upset re: lunch? Hotel states that all food they make is local/sustainable. So I thought lunch would be good. #blogherfood09
- @runwithtweezers: This lunch is beyond words. Frozen food at a conference of "food bloggers"? Hayle no. #blogherfood09
- @KitchenParade: @marketingmommy Ha. Rubber chicken would have been improvement over actual #blogherfood lunch.
- @jonesabi: Bertolli Frozen Meal Lunch. This is NOT enough wine. Oh, just kidding! Or am I?#blogherfood http://twitpic.com/j8naj
- @CarrotsNCake: Salad was delish! Not so sure about the frozen pasta. #blogherfood09
- Ideally, Bertolli would have leveraged their relationship with Rocco to create an amazing foodie-worthy menu that highlighted the best ingredients available in San Francisco. We did see a bit of this in the chocolate panna cotta that Rocco made that received rave reviews. From what I can tell about the smaller event on Friday night at the winery, this is the approach they took, so I'm unclear why they were unable to carry it over to lunch on Saturday. If they had served us an amazing lunch, we would have tweeted about it, posted pictures on Facebook, and written blog posts all extolling the virtues of the brand that created such an amazing experience for us. They would have turned us into advocates for their brand as a whole and generated positive buzz among our readership.
- As an alternative, or preferably in combination with a largely fresh and special menu, they could have served us a dish that offers a unique twist on their frozen food offerings. This approach would have paid homage to us as bloggers interested in cooking techniques that go beyond heat-and-eat and further given us a creative jumping off point for our own variation recipes. Campbell's took this approach with the food at the cocktail party they sponsored and it was a big improvement over the food at lunch.
- They could have provided us with the recipes from the lunch, and possibly more, to use at will on our blogs, giving content to use on our blogs after the conference. If even just a few of us had posted the recipes, or our own versions of them, they would have achieved what I assume were their goals of building advocacy among bloggers and building awareness of their products among our readership.
Natanya Anderson's bio
As Vice President of Content Strategy and Delivery, Natanya Anderson guides the development and delivery of creative content to Powered's clients, including HP, Sony, iVillage, Atkins and RadioShack. With her extensive background in education, web technologies, account management and creative delivery, Ms. Anderson is uniquely qualified to integrate Powered's content services into all of Powered's programs. Natanya brings over 15 years of experience developing strategic online content for leading brands, and most recently served as Executive Creative Director at Powered, Inc. Since joining Powered in 2000, Ms. Anderson has worked in all areas of creative delivery, from integration of content and technology to development of creative strategies in support of client marketing programs. Under her leadership, the Creative team has grown 200% and taken on key responsibilities for driving client programs forward into the Web 2.0 space. Her team provides engaging knowledge experiences in all formats, from video and rich Flash-based user environments to in-depth courses and engaging web content. Ms. Anderson and her team have years of experience creating robust learning centers and social marketing offerings that accelerate purchase, build customer loyalty and create meaningful online community. Prior to joining Powered, Natanya led the customer training content development team at Pervasive Software. Her team was responsible for developing classroom and online training programs that covered the entire suite of Pervasive software offerings. Ms. Anderson has authored more than a dozen books on web technologies and has been on the faculty of several national conferences: including HP World, Mac World, and HP + Interop. Ms. Anderson is certified as a secondary school teacher in Texas; she holds a B.A. in Latin from the University of Texas, Austin.
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I also attended IFBC (with Amy) and we left that conference absolutely RAVING about the food. It was gourmet food for people who prepare & write about food every day.
I actually had to leave the lunch early to go set up my panel, so I only got a little of the first penne option before having to run out, but I admit...I was groaning inwardly and out at having to eat that stuff twice in the same 18-hour period. Especially when I was steps from the Ferry Building.
Had more than one conversation with fellow bloggers, trying to understand why the Almond board, Apple board etc weren't there. Maybe it was just short notice to get the $$ into this years budget. I loved the event overall and would go again in a heartbeat, simply because of the bloggers. But I got to admit, the food fed to us this past weekend was a real surprise.
The good part about getting having the gluten-free/vegan option was that we got less food and it was prepared for us and passable -- a fresh salad, mushroom risotto and berries in syrup for dessert. Certainly not a great meal but it wasn't frozen pasta.
Sometimes it's hard to get out of your own head when trying to get a point across.
I am, however, always thankful that sponsors help defray costs.
My sense is that the BlogHer people owe Bertolli an apology and a check. They were the matchmaker; accepting a sponsor who will not be accepted by attendees is a major blunder. The lunch was destined to fail, giving BlogHer an undeserved (except in this case) bad reputation with future sponsors.
That said, my sense too is that Bertolli owes the attendees an apology (no check :-)) for not "getting" / understanding / researching their audience, for failing to understand who food bloggers are. It was just all so incredibly awkward, from the huge platters in the center of the table (forcing someone to have to lean over the table to fill plates for the table) to the three glasses of wine for lunch. Lunch was also one of the primary 'get to know your fellow food blogger' moments, I was sorry that Rocco kept interrupting the chance for real conversation with a small group of food blogger friends.
In contrast, Ragu was sponsored a BlogHer lunch at the main conference in July. I feared the worst, instead it was brilliant. They built an artistic masterpiece - a 7 foot "jar" of Ragu made entirely from vegetables. It was incredible - even more, it fit Ragu's message that their pasta sauce is full of vegetables. They "got" their audience (a handful of food people amid what felt like a ba-zillion mommy bloggers) and it worked. Kudos to Ragu.
Thanks for stating this all so well, for creating a thoughtful "let's not bash Bertolli" environment.
Thank you for providing your insight.
I really think that Bertolli could have possibly showcased their products using fresh ingredients with their jarred sauces versus the frozen meals. I think that may have left a better impression than the frozen dinners.
I've also been to other sponsored events that had a foodie focus. Generally they leave lunch free, and have an area with multiple demonstrations and for people to puruse at their leisure. This would have been a much better approach - and even more sponsors could participate.
You might not know that as my mic was having issues, so not many people heard me or even knew I was there talking about the wines.
If the mic HAD been working, you would have heard something about how our wines are made to compliment food, not overpower it. We weren't an official sponsor for Blogher, but donated some of the wines. We'd like a chance to really show why our wines pair with food in a better setting with appropriate stem ware.
If any of you would like to learn more about our vineyards, the french family who founded us, biodiversity or any of those other things, I'd be happy to make myself available via Skype. We also provide all sorts of educational material on our Facebook page.
Like many of you, I'm a food blogger (that's how I got hired). I'm a fan of eating local with fresh ingredients. My site is rickbakas.com. It would be good to get to know some of you better, which is what I was hoping would've happened last Saturday.
Cheers,
Rick
I also was an attendee at Friday night's dinner at St. Supery. I've never heard of your wine until now but I enjoyed every glass, especially the ELU and will sure to be looking for it in the stores.
I collected the wine tags from dinner to put in my scrapbook but if I may, I'd like to suggest that you blog about the pairing offered for that special event. Thanks!
I'm not complaining about the lunch—and not terribly surprised, given the realities of conferences—but I was shaking my head over Rocco's presentation (which isn't much his fault, he's a talking head for the company). If you read between the lines, he was encouraging food bloggers to make their readers feel better about using frozen products because people don't always have the time to cook. Talk about wrong message for this audience! I had to keep myself from laughing.
I DID start laughing when he said of the (awful) frozen penne with shrimp and lemon, "You can prepare the Bertolli version in 15 minutes, or you can slave away over the stove ALL DAY making this from scratch." Riiight...
As a relative newbie to blogging, I stayed (and left hungry) because I wanted to connect with other food bloggers and the lunch was a good opportunity to do that. Alas, the flacking from the sponsors was so deafening it was almost impossible to do.
Like everyone else, I am grateful BlogHer threw this event and got it right in so many other ways, including the classy hosted cocktail party on the rooftop deck on a fabulously balmy night.
Another alternative - how about preparing their same "frozen meals" with the twist of using all fresh ingredients. Some of the names for their frozen meals actually sound quite good and if made fresh/homemade using real ingredients they'd probably taste quite good.
Life is about balance, which is also how I approach food. I prefer excellent, well-prepared, fresh ingredients, but I do not ever want to become a food snob.
A better balance of the fit between sponsorship and conference audience was needed.
A better balance of time spent listening to a lunchtime presentation and interesting and meaningful table conversation would have been appreciated at our table.
And a better balance of my significant personal investment for a "food" trip to the stellar food city of San Francisco, in the celebrated food state of California, with the actual food I was served at the food blogger conference was critical.
If I had not enjoyed the conversation we worked so hard to carry on at our table, I also would have sought out a more appealing lunch option!
Natanya, I echo your highly constructive criticism and thank you for putting it out there as food for thought.
I was about to send you an email about my trip to Austin and then I read your posting. I actually sent it to some friends of mine in PR as a good reminder.
You wrote a very brave, balanced and smart review. I have a background in marketing/PR, and am used to many of these same debacles at other "food" conferences including IACP, so it did not phase me as much as it phased others.
That still doesn't excuse Bertolli's poor strategy and it was, obviously, the worst PR they could do. But, I am sure their intensions were good. Bertolli has other "whole" foods that they should have showcased even if it was only their olive oil, letting their goodwill trickle down to the frozen food--or not!
That said, I do think that we all need to be respectful of the sponsors and the sponsors need to be respectful of us. It works best if PR folks/key influencers (media: old and new) work side-by-side in a symbiotic relationship. We can't discount PR people and sponsors as a rule, and they should be more focused with their messages and pitches, and how they deliver them. I know that every conference that I attend relies on sponsorship to exist. I have also relied on PR people to help me on a number of different kinds of projects, all at no expense to me, and I am grateful for their support. If we all think of this as a team sport, and work together, it'll be win-win for everyone!
I don't always have time to cook a meal from scratch, but when I do choose something off the shelf, I still try to maintain a healthy option. I didn't get a chance to check out the nutrition info on a bag of Bertolli, but I will soon. Maybe they could made a product that was ready to go - just add pasta. I just hope that the reps from Bertolli heard and listened to the valuable feedback resulting from this conference of food-focused attendees.
I chalk it up to being the first BlogHerFood conference. I'm sure the next sponsor will knock it out of the park.
Overall, it was a great day.
Personally, I would've paid more for a lunch featuring local foods and a local chef, and hope BlogHer will consider that next year. Or even an organized dine-around lunch at local restaurants, so we can experience good food without missing out on the blogger fellowship.
In addition to the frozen pasta, I found Rocco D.'s endless pitch ("I keep frozen pasta in my freezer at home...")annoying. After a while, no one listened. We just wanted to talk with each other.
I was at IACP for the infamous Kraft lunch of packaged alfredo sauce, faux grated Parmesan, and a Jello dessert, served to a group of discerning eaters and cooks. Now I have a good story for next year's conference.
I mean, was that for REAL?!
I too was one that skipped out early and hightailed it to the Ferry Building. Had a perfectly satisfying take-out lunch from The Slanted Door while watching a chef demo prepare beautiful swedish food, fresh from the market. In fact I brought some of my spring rolls back with me and shared them with a fellow blogger who suffered through the frozen lunch.
I thought BlogHer missed the mark completely when it came to food.
The demo hall was a major disappointment, except for those chocolate goody bags.
1) you were well-balanced in your criticism thus making your argument that much more credible
2) you connected your passion (food) with your work (Powered) and were able to share a lesson learned. this is rarely ever an easy thing to do.
Great job!
Aaron | @aaronstrout
Such feedback is essential to us. We listen on-site, and of course to everyone's tweets and blog posts, but we will also send out our usual post-conference survey link to every attendee in the next couple of days. In addition to this post, I hope you will take 15 minutes to help us quantify your responses...which can be anonymous btw :)
We'll send you the survey link in our final BlogHer Food '09 attendee newsletter. We're excited to read everyone's suggestions to make BlogHer Food '10 better! (And yes, that means there will be a "next year".)
Thanks again for being part of the inaugural BlogHer Food Conference.
Best,
Elisa, for the BlogHer Team
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