SFIMA Celebrates 7 Years Next Week!

SFIMA is celebrating 7 years of interactive marketing excellence in South Florida!

At next week's educational event, SFIMA will be celebrating its 7th birthday! This is a don't miss event for many reasons. The education about online advertising will be top notch. The networking is some of the best in South Florida and you will also be entertained too!

Make sure to arrive at The W Hotel Ft. Lauderdale early for networking and entertainment by singer Ghaleb of Musica Records: Singer/composer/guitarist Ghaleb is widely recognized as one of the most gifted, contemporary singers. Ghaleb brings an all new sound, mixing his arabic and spanish influences. At Ghaleb.net, you'll find all the latest news, updates, gallery and products from the work of this talented artist!

And two words that everybody likes: Birthday Cake!

Register for the event at http://www.sfima.com/

SFIMA wants to know what you are reading?

What marketing books do you recommend? We would like to put together a list of books that our members consider a "must read". Please send your marketing and business book recommendations to: president@sfima.com

Join SFIMA Along with AOL, Yahoo!, Fox & Kontera for a Panel Discussion on Advertising

UPDATED PANEL LINE UP!

Thursday, 9-10-2009
Join AOL, Yahoo, Fox Audience Network and Kontera for a panel discussion on advertising.

It's all about results: Are pay for performance ad networks the future of digital advertising?

Panelists:

Mark Papia - Fox Interactive Media Senior Vice President, Performance Marketing

Brent Herd - AOL Advertising Regional Director of Sales

Caitlin Borgman - Yahoo Account Director

Joseph DeRario - Kontera Southeast Regional Sales Manager

Moderator: Mark Evans - Former SFIMA President Mark Evens will moderate this session where you can ask questions of the panel or provide your insight on other member's questions.

This month our panel of experts will bring a wealth of knowledge and real life CPA model experiences to share including:
Why more people are using CPA networks today.
Why CPA networks work better in tight economies.
What companies are doing well with ad networks.
Does CPA advertising make sense for your company?
How to transition to a pay-for-performance CPA model.

Mark Papia oversees all performance sales for FAN's network of sites including MySpace.com, AmericanIdol.com, IGN.com, among others. Additionally, Mark is heading the sales initiative for the recently launched FAN Audience Network. Mark conceives and constructs advertising programs to drive acquisitions for performance-oriented, Fortune 1000 companies. Mark also works with Direct Response and Lead Gen advertisers, as well as Ad Network partners.
Mark has worked twenty-five years in the media business including the last 10 at Fox Interactive Media, Intermix Media Corp, Monster and Yahoo. Mark worked with Intermix Media during the incubation of MySpace.com and Monster Worldwide during the acquisition of Tickle.com. Previously, Mark worked with Yahoo's network sales team to sell and execute integrated sports promotions to marketers in the western U.S., including Visa, Nike and Toyota. Between 1999 and 2003, Mark managed key Yahoo partnerships in NY, including Yahoo's strategic alliances with Pepsi and Warner Bros. Mark was the driving sales-and-marketing force behind many high-profile Yahoo initiatives -- including PepsiStuff.com, Britney Spears' Academy Awards and Super Bowl promos and Pepsi's Billionaire program. Mark spent several years as magazine publisher/editor at Cahners Business Information. Positions included...Group Publisher, Travel Age magazine group; Publishing Director, TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) and Group Publisher of Variety's video magazine group.

Brent Herd is the Regional Director of Sales for AOL Advertising Brent came to AOL from Advertising.com, where he started in 2005 in Sales for the Southeast Region. Prior to Advertising.com, Brent held positions at Bolt.com, Moxie Interactive and Yahoo.

Caitlin Borgman oversees search and graphical media programs across the Yahoo Network for travel, cpg, and restaurant clients based in the Southeast. She began her digital media career in 1999 at The Weather Channel where she led Ad Product development for weather.com. In this role she helped define ad strategy for the site and establish industry standards for interactive media measurement and ad products. In 2004, Caitlin moved into media sales at weather.com where she worked with advertisers and agencies based in the Mid-Atlantic. She joined Yahoo in 2006 as a Senior Account Executive. In 2009, Caitlin was named as one of the top 17 digital media sales people in the U.S. by a Jack Meyers/IAB survey.

Dave Bird is responsible for leading a team of Targeting Specialists at Microsoft Advertising. There they offer a broad array of targeting solutions to advertisers and agencies in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and South Florida. Dave began his career in television advertising and moved into online advertising in 1996 and co-founded the Dallas, Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association in 1998.

Joe DeRario heads up Kontera's Advertising Sales in the Telecom vertical and across the Southeast region, including Texas. Based in Atlanta, DeRario built close relationships and custom applications for the leading Telecom service providers, developing some of Kontera's largest client partnerships. Prior to joining Kontera in October 2007, DeRario was Regional Sales Manager for Hoover's focused on B2B Advertising opportunities and custom integrated solutions. He refined his digital advertising and sales expertise while an Account Manager at Winstar Interactive Media and Interep National Radio Sales.

Networking Hour 6:30-7:30pm: Enjoy the musical entertainment of American Idol star Ghaleb.

Post-event Party Third Floor at the Living Room Bar, 9 PM: Help us celebrate SFIMA's 7th Anniversary at a post-event party!

Event Details -

Time/Date: 6:30 - 8:30 pmThursday, 9-10-2009

Place: W Hotel 401 N Fort Lauderdale Beach BlvdFort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Contact: Membership@sfima.com

Cost: Free For Members $39 for non members.

Register early to avoid the $10 walk up fee.

http://sfima.com/event_details.asp?eventID=59

Captchas Are Bad For Business

This is a pet peeve of mine. I always recommend the conversion process to be as simple as possible. When I see a site with a complicated captcha, I recommend that it be removed. It can impede the conversion process. Captchas are used to prevent form spam and make our lives as marketers easier. What if you found out that you were loosing 7% or more of your conversions due to your spam prevention tactic? If your leads only cost a few dollars, then maybe that is acceptable. If your leads are $20.00+, that is certainly not acceptable.



This article shows some great real world case study information performed by SEOmoz on this subject: http://www.zurb.com/article/285/its-official-captchas-are-bad-for-busines

Message from the President of SFIMA on the Importance of Sponsorship

Time is flying by and August is already here. It will be my 3rd meeting as President of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA). So far things have been great. I want to thank all of you for the positive energy and support. I love getting your feedback.

We have our SFIMA calendar planned for the year, attendance is up, membership is up and we even added a few "day" events and webinars. The BGT Partners and Omniture Nautical Networking Event promises to be sold out - it will be the sixth year in a row for a sold-out NNE. This is great news in a down economy.

At SFIMA, we plan to accomplish a lot this year and we are reaching out to the business community for sponsorships. We use sponsorship funds to provide additional member and community benefits. Sponsoring SFIMA programs is also great way to promote your company and bring in new business. I want to introduce to you the following opportunities that fit every budget.

Sponsorship is also great way to get your company name in front of the public and bring in new business. I want to introduce to you the opportunities of sponsoring events, as we added a few things to accommodate nearly every budget.

Below are just a few of the types of sponsorship that are available:

Monthly Meetings:
Dessert Sponsor: $350
Entertainment Sponsor: $400
Drink Sponsor: $1,000
Evening Meeting Sponsor: $2,000
Day Meeting Sponsor: $1,000

Workshop Sponsor:
Lunch Sponsor: $500
Workshop Sponsor: $1,000
Networking-Only Breakfast Sponsor: $600+
Networking-Only Luncheon Sponsor: $1,500+
Nautical Networking Sponsor: Everything from $1,000 and up
Collegiate Scholarship Sponsor: $500 - $5,000
Webinar Sponsor: $750+
Event Video Sponsor: $750+
Chapter Sponsor: $5,000+
Newsletter Sponsor: $750
Monthly Event Postcard Sponsor: $500

Services In-Kind Sponsorships: Talk to us!

If you would like a sponsor information packet which goes more in-depth into the benefits received from each of the opportunities above, please send me an email at president@sfima.com and let me know. Can't wait for a reply? Then feel free to give either of our Sponsorship Committee Chairs a call:

Michele Scott 561-687-3339
Stephen Burks 954-662-3912.

You may also email them at sponsorship@sfima.com. If you don't see something above that you have an idea for, please let us know. For example, maybe you would like to give away a $500 BestBuy gift certificate during Super Bowl season. Just let us know.

I thank you for your time today and thank all of the past sponsors who have supported SFIMA. We could not have come this far without them and our members. And lastly, I would like you to know that as President, I am always eager and open to hear your comments, complaints, suggestions and compliments. This information is invaluable so that we may better serve you and our local community. Feel free to contact me at president@sfima.com.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you, or meeting you in person at a monthly meeting.

In gratitude and appreciation,

Taigh White
President@SFIMA.com

P.S. When I said attendance is up... Our July Social Media Workshop sold out, We are averaging so far 180+ attendees, 18 new members per month, and this August I am looking forward to some 350-500 attendees at our meeting. Last August, we had nearly 375 attendees.