Apologies for those who were waiting more “real time” IEG Sponsorship Conference updates from me last week… I got delinquent after two posts!
Which is too bad, because on Tuesday there were two amazing presentations which deserved recognition. One from Ogilvy Brazil about “Immortal Fans”… an organ donor card campaign featuring Brazilian soccer team, Sport Club Recife. If you haven’t seen this magic before your eyes… search it out.
The other, by Hugh Evans of the Global Poverty Project, was even more impressive due to its global impact and scale. Evans too is worth a search on the w-w-w-dot.
But beyond some great presentations, there is an underlying itch I need to scratch about many of the contributors. It appears that conference speaking circa 2014 has been reduced to slides filled with social media logos (do you really think I don’t know what the Twitter logo is?) and self-congratulatory case study videos (hosting kids in your corporate lobby now constitutes community service?).
Every presenter seems to think they are somehow unique by telling us they are in the content business. Every brand thinks they are the only company doing storytelling. Every marketer somehow thinks their grassroots campaign is more grassroots than the next grassroots marketer.
But what’s missing for me is some reference to strategy, some identification of the challenges they faced, and some acknowledgment of results. Those presenters at IEG who addressed these points were the most memorable, and I would suspect, the most successful in the real world!