Comments on: BlogHer 09: Does Swag Pervert the Purpose?

By: Elisa

Elisa — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:22:13 +0000

I don’t see a problem with the swag. If you don’t want it, don’t get it. And those who decided to be greedy miss out on why Blogher is really great: creating relationships with other bloggers, or finally meeting friends you’ve only met online.

I’m ok with the swag, don’t care about most of it, but it’s nice that I have something to bring back home to my family so I don’t have to get souvenirs And I really care about the tickets being affordable, so if sponsor presence does that, then fine. I really don’t see the fuss over the swag. as I said: you don’t like it? don’t get it. And if it’s about people being obnoxious and greedy… don’t let that ruin your BlogHer experience. When 1300 people meet in one place there will always be some who find a way to be annoying. Ignore it and move on.
Elisa´s last blog ..I’m awake. But it’s way too early for “’cause she’s a jolly good fellow”.

By: Condo Blues

Condo Blues — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:01:20 +0000

I think it was the RSVP, private events, and swag suites that really put SwagGate into motion. I went to the SocialLux party and I liked how the bags were given out as you left so you could talk to the sponsors and other bloggers at the party. By talking to a party sponsor and making a connection is how I got the memory card for the video camera. This floored and confused me because I wasn’t supposed to get a gift bag at that party, just entry. I think they took more RSVP’s than they had gifts or room for at most of those parties and didn’t check that at the door. Once word got out on Twitter it a few attendees in high “gotta get it all” mode which reflects badly on most of us, like myelf who was there to network and thought the gift bag was a nice gesture and way to try the products and services I was just finding out about. The swag suites and private parties also fueled this fire. It was a cheaper way for them to reach the BlogHer audience without paying to be an official sponsor. However, you already had to have some sort of relationship with that company to get an invitation. That was frustrating to me, because this was my first conference, I didn’t have those contacts. I was disappointed that I didn’t get an invitation to go to a company’s private party/suite whose customer service I admire and to thank them. I wasn’t there to get “stuff” and frankly I don’t think that their “stuff” was high on the MUST GET list. Fortunately we follow each other on Twitter and connected the next day so I was happy but it would have been nice to have that conversation in a quite suite than shouting in a noisy hallway. I agree the music in every venue was way too loud to talk/network. I lost my voice because I had to shout over the music so much!

By: Deb on the Rocks

Deb on the Rocks — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:17:54 +0000

Great perspective, especially about how private events do more harm than good. But I’m not worried about the corporations in all of this. It has and does work for them. You may not have made friends handing out Tide at the airport, but Tide, who had already made name recognition with you by giving it to you, doubled up when you turned it into a memorable experience for you and the new recipients, and then tripled, quadrupled, who-knows how many times the impact when you wrote about Tide above. Marketers are getting a great deal–much more than ads that are skipped on TIVO are doing.

By: lynn @ human, being

lynn @ human, being — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:06:31 +0000

I thought I went to a conference but wound up going to a party with much too much commercialization. How do Tide, Bounce, Michelin and Pepsi help me make my blog better? They don’t.

A problem Blogher is facing, IMO, is trying to keep the conference fee low, and therefore needing the sponsorship only huge companies can afford. I would much rather see the conference sponsored by the companies that offer bloggy products. IF I decide to go back (still on the fence, and until I see the programming for next year I won’t buy my ticket), I would be happy to pay $300 or $350 for a less-branded experience that, as you said, gets back to the core.

As for SWAGgate, I think the majority of this rests on the shoulders of the party organizers. When I have a party for my kid, I do the giveaway as people are leaving. Also, I use an RSVP list and make sure I have enough for the people who RSVP plus 10% extra, because someone always shows up unannounced.

I like conference swag. It usually means I don’t have to buy pens or notepads for a year. My favorite little bit this year is a cube mirror, which has already allowed me to escape being caught on Twitter twice since I’ve gotten back to work (ha!).

By: CV Harquail

CV Harquail — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:51:11 +0000

Mac, you pick up on another subtle element of the swag issue, which is that lots of it was ’shotgun swag’ and not ‘targeted swag’. There was so much, and so much that wasn’t meaningful to enough people, that it felt like there was even more swag than there really was. Part of the challenge is/will be to find something meaningful. Maybe that will take BlogHer and the sponsors themselves back to the mission of the conference. It makes me wonder what empowering swag might look like….. cv

By: CV Harquail

CV Harquail — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:37:32 +0000

Mom101, I’m so glad you liked my experiment… I was pretty pleased with myself for the idea, if not for the meager insights it gave me. I have been musing on the swag i got that I’m loving, like my Izzy tshirts (b/c they are women’s shirts & fit me!) and all the flash drives and such, and especially my 3 free months on Picnik– probably the only real blogging related swag I got… I have also been wondering about other reasons why swag dominated– and I think that partly is the immediacy of these objects despite the meager gratification from them, in contrast with the emails of “so glad to have met you/found your blog” that mean SO much more to me and are coming in more slowly. The swag is salient, the relationships are emergent. And the relationships are important.
Now, how I missed your Bloggers v Popular People: A Pre-BlogHer Field Guide, I don’t know. Had I read it before, my life would be different now. (grin) And you have a new subscriber! cv

By: Mac McCarthy

Mac McCarthy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Similar problems arise in prizes for promotions such as getting people to sign up for a Web subscription. As editor of a Sun programmer’s online mag, years ago, we hit on the idea of giving away a CD of *uncompiled* Unix programs in exchange for (free) subscription signups — instead of a raffle for an electronic gadget. This guaranteed that the only people signing up would be Unix programmers and IT people, because a. they’re the only people who knew how to compile and use the programs., b. they’re the only ones with Unix systems, and c. they’re the only ones who’d *care* about something like that.

One challenge is to find that rare bit of swag that *only* or *most strongly* appeals to your target audience. It helps, of course, if your target audience is narrowly drawn.

It also argues for cheap swag that is nice to have rather than swag worth standing in line for.

By: CV Harquail

CV Harquail — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:02:50 +0000

Kim, your comments really got me thinking, so thank you for that.
Here’s where I think BlogHer should go…. They/we should take a tip from Liz Lemon of 30Rock, and “Retreat to Move Forward”. i think BlogHer should focus on its mission — which is still highly relevant– and focus on enriching the core of the program. More writing, more geeking, more connecting. Kind of like Pilates for organizations– strengthen the core. Then, one can also ditch the spanx.

By: CV Harquail

CV Harquail — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:53:51 +0000

Liza, you offer a suggestion that only a momwhosebeenthere can offer…. I’ll try that, and up the sophistication level by using that new Starbucks freezedried powder stuff. It’ll be a terrific espresso kick… and I’ll make it with stoneyfield’s greek yogurt (healthier for you) as a conciliatory gesture to the brand that has spurned chococoffeeholics like me….. sigh.

By: Liza

Liza — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:30:41 +0000

I enjoyed chatting with you, too! Thanks for the interesting and thoughtful post on SwagGate.

I have a suggestion on the Mocha Latte yogurt front. My son loves coffee yogurt, and in addition to going broke feeding him 2-3 cups/day, plus 1 for me, I learned that all the then-available brands (2007) used caffeinated coffee in their yogurt.

Since that discovery, we buy the large sized containers of vanilla yogurt and stir in a heaping tablespoon of decaf instant. Delicious, less expensive, and not adding fuel to the preschool hyperactivity fire; in a reusable container, it can even be single-serving sized.