Nashville American Marketing Association

Thursday, February 16, 2012
eSPACES – 1550 West McEwen Drive, Ste. 300, Franklin, TN
6:00 p.m. Registration and Networking
6:30 – 7:45 Event
Cost: $20 NAMA members, $25 non-members

Enter your website for the smackdown (But don’t forget to register, too!)

You asked for it and we heard you. Mark your calendar for NAMA’s eSIG Website Smackdown at eSpaces and its new facility in Cool Springs.

Our panel of experts represents several perspectives: website design, development, management and user experience. Our panelists will include Laurie Kalmanson, Request Marketing, Inc.; Laura Creekmore, Creek Content; Ryan Dunlap, digital creative at redpepper and Elin Mulron, Digital Nashville, moderator. You can submit your website for a Smackdown review by our panel. (Click here). It’s a great way to network and see how your website stands up to critical review.

Hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine and soda will be served.

Join us for a truly special event for Nashville’s marketing community.

Allison Watson

On February 2nd, Allison Watson, the Corporate Vice President of Marketing and Operations for Microsoft in the U.S., will discuss the new world of marketing–how digitally immersive, customer-centric, analytically driven marketing is changing the way Microsoft delights its customers and how the digital revolution is sweeping through the marketing field.  Central to this talk is the notion that in order for today’s CMO to succeed, they must successfully bridge the gap that has traditionally existed between IT and marketing.  Our speaker will impart her lessons learned on ways to:

• Better reach your customer and make their experience more magical,
• Determine what customers need using cutting-edge analytics,
• Convert marketing into a revenue generator,
• Run a truly social organization, and
• How to work effectively with IT to make this all happen.

As corporate vice president of the US Marketing & Operations Group, Watson leads marketing and strategic business development for Microsoft’s largest geographic market. Prior to assuming her current role in 2010, Watson spent eight years as head of the Worldwide Partner Group. A recipient of many accolades–Business Week named Watson as one of the top people to watch to gauge the economic recovery.

Be sure to tell your friends as they won’t want to miss this rare event. We recommend registering early as we expect a sold-out crowd.

Hilton Garden Inn, 1715 Broadway, Networking begins at 11:00

How Zappos created a company that employees love and service that makes customers rave.

Robert Richman

Marketing isn’t just to your external audiences, but also to your company’s employees. How do you help create a culture that keeps employees engaged and customers coming back? Join NAMA on Thursday, March 1^st for a lunch filled with networking and knowledge from Robert Richman, Product Manager of Zappos Insights, the Zappos family company dedicated to helping businesses with their cultures. This presentation will not only interest marketing professionals, but also HR managers as Richman will describe how Zappos builds a culture that consistently is ranked one of the best places to work in the U.S. As part of Zappos, Richman’s group Zappos Insights helps 1000 people every month to discover how a workplace can help people grow, inspire amazing service and ultimately, drive revenue.

Richman started Zappos Insights while working at the parent company, building the model from a proof-of-concept web site, to a robust business. Previous to joining Zappos, Robert developed digital marketing strategies for brands including Tony Robbins, Sony, Billboard and best-selling business authors. Robert co-founded the Affinity Lab, a collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs that continues to graduate more than 150 businesses in Washington, DC.

  A bonus! All attendees receive 20% off at Zappos.com.

Join us Thursday, March 1st at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1715 Broadway, 37203

Members and non-members invited.

Networking starts at 11:00

I founded my company three years ago, but I struggled for a long time with the name. Part of the reason I struggled was that in the beginning, I had the same angst that many freelancers do — I was convinced I would have a hard time finding clients [particularly in the economy in late 2008], so I didn’t want to rule out any kind of work that I might be capable of doing. I felt it was best to keep my options open.

Since I couldn’t narrow my focus, the name was particularly difficult for me. I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to say…so it wasn’t easy to come up with a name that said nothing yet sounded amazing.

In fact, I actually named the firm one day while I was over at Centresource, one of Nashville’s great web design and development shops. Now-CEO Evan Owens was introducing me to someone and he said, “What’s the name of your company again?” And thus, of desperation, Creekmore Consulting was born!

Well, whether I knew it or not, we did have a great specialization, and we quickly built a nice portfolio of content strategy and information architecture work. I hired some employees, and we’d talk from time to time about the name of the company. “Creekmore Consulting” could be an accounting firm…or almost anything else. We did consult, but all our consultations focused on content strategy specifically. So it seemed silly to keep such a generic name.

Then the crazy-making began. We came up with name…after name…after name…after name. We really liked several, but every time we came up with one we liked, we discovered the URL was not available.

A couple of words on URLs:

• Even though we’re in 2012, we still believe that you need to own the URL that is your company name. Yes, it’s hard to find a URL that is available, but it really makes a difference. The more stuff you have to append to your name, the harder it is for people to remember.
• And all of you out there sitting on URLs and not using them? A pox on you! We had several great names and the URLs were taken, but not in use. Just maddening. Of course, you can always try to buy an unused URL, but you don’t have any way to know in advance if the person who owns it is crazy or not. While we came up with some good names, we never hit on one that we felt we’d just die without, so we kept searching.

In the end, our new name [Creek Content] happened by accident. Last year at South by Southwest, I decided we really should start tweeting. [An effort at which we're still only sporadically good.] So I created an account while eating lunch one day, and I named it CreekContent. I meant to name it CreekConsult, but I didn’t realize my mistake until I’d finished creating the account. And I thought, Hey! I’m on to something there! I discovered the URL was available and I bought it right there at the bar at P.F. Chang’s in Austin, on my phone.

We didn’t officially decide to rename the company until the summer, however. We spent a day with fabulous business consultant, David Baker, and one of the first things he said to us was, “Rename this company!” It pushed us over the edge.

We got the website rebranded, a new logo, new business cards, and off we went. Of course, the administrativia continued for months — renaming the bank account, filing the name change with the city, the state, our insurance company, the IRS….getting our ongoing clients to update our billing information. But it was absolutely worth it.

While no name can completely explain what a company does, our new name plants us in the right universe before we even start talking to a prospective client. It is easy to remember and spell, and — I still think this matters — it’s shorter than our old URL.