How Can You Create Holiday Joy?

Marketing Lesson of The Week

► SantaCon Comes To NYC!

Starting in Times Square last Saturday morning, packs of Santas filled the streets of New York.

Why?
To participate in SantaCon, an annual holiday celebration event with a touch of flash mob sensibility. Started in San Francisco in 1994, the event attracts crowds of people dressed in Santa outfits and other Christmas garb. Since then, it’s spread across American cities and beyond.

According to its website:

“SantaCon is a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy.”

It’s a combination of costume party and bar crawl. Everywhere across the city, people sport ill-fitting Santa suits, act silly, and take lots of photos of each other.

In New York City, SantaCon participants need to register and pay $15, which is divided among a variety of local charities. In return, they receive:

• A Super Duper “Santa Badge” that shows everyone you’re Ho, Ho, Ho–ing for the Claus!
• Secret info about where Santa is headed before anyone else knows about it!
• Immediate access to all SantaCon clubs, venues and holiday happenings.

If you have a bar or other venue along Santa’s Route, you can participate in SantaCon by filling out a special form.

Whether you participate or not, it’s easy to spot packs of people dressed in a variety of different holiday costumes going from one venue to another all day long.

What do these large Santa crowds mean to marketers?
After being shut in due to the pandemic, people want to get out and celebrate.

Here’s the SantaCon.NYC map to show people where events are. In addition, there’s an app.

From a marketing perspective, while many Manhattanites dread the weekend, SantaCon provides an example of how to get your community involved in something bigger than your brand or business.

For example, when I worked for a weekly Queens newspaper, it involved the local businesses to create a “Sidewalk Sale.” In addition to driving advertising spend, the sale got customers to purchase during an otherwise slow summer shopping period.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Create an in-person or virtual event around a special theme that your community can relate to. Add a fun aspect to your event where possible.
• Work with related businesses to expand participation and to promote the event more broadly.

Content Communicates

► Editing Needed: No Matter How Good Your Writing Is

While many writers, me included, consider ourselves good editors, it’s not surprising to find glaring mistakes in printed content. And, that includes when we use one or more editing tools.

Why?
No matter how good a writer you are or the editing tools you use, you miss things because you’ve looked at the material multiple times.

So it improves your finished piece to have an experienced, formal editor examine it.

This year’s Orbit Media Blogging Survey found that bloggers who worked with professional editors were 90% more likely to report strong results. YIKES!

The work between a writer and an editor was hit home on Monday night by a panel at the New York Public Library (NYPL). It featured Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses, and The Years of Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Gottlieb, the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster and later Alfred A. Knopf, whose work shaped the writings of many of the great authors of our time.

As an author, Caro did detailed research. He outlined the entire book before he started writing and pinned the pages in order on a corkboard. As he finished writing a section, he crossed it out. (Note: Caro’s writing process was on display at the New York Historical Society.)

To write these lengthy books, Caro set himself a daily word count of 1,000 words. Further, he manually recorded his daily production. This approach provides a visual record of your work and helps to show the progress you’re making.

If you’re a writer, you’ll appreciate the message Caro pinned above his desk:
The Only Thing That Matters Is What Is On This Page.

According to Gottlieb, a lifelong reader, the goal of the editor was to make the work better than it would have been. He viewed the relationship between writer and editor to be intensely private.

What stood out from this discussion was the 50 years of dedicated research and diligent editing that Caro and Gottlieb put into these award-winning books. One of the biggest points of disagreement across their 50-year relationship was Caro’s use of semicolons.

Like a good content marketer who uses existing content to inspire new content, Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb, created a documentary film, Turn Every Page, about the relationship between the author and his editor.

Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv3CRojrbeE

Actionable Content Marketing Tip

• Use a professional editor whenever possible. Also, take advantage of editing tools like Grammarly and Hemingway.

New York Marketing Minute

► How New York City Got Branded As The Hub Of Modern Art

Last weekend, my husband and I saw New York: 1962 – 1964, an exhibit at The Jewish Museum. Before going, I thought that this would be an exhibit like the Pop Art my mother took us to see in New York City during school vacations. (BTW, my mother was ahead of her time in terms of staycations.)

Instead, the exhibit focused on what happened during these years and how it informed the art. Major historical events included the Cuban Missile Crisis, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the death of President Kennedy. At the same time, consumers had access to a broader array of consumer goods and an expanding media network.

The exhibit was arranged in a series of locations. Each had a different focus in terms of consumer goods, media and the selected works of art. As a result, the visitor experienced what was happening at the time and how it related to the arts. In turn, these new voices discussed race, class and gender.

One of the forces that made this period critical was the Jewish Museum’s director, Alan Solomon. He organized exhibitions of what he called “New Art”. In the process, he made the museum into a key cultural hub of New York.

Most importantly, Solomon arranged the selection of American artists for the 32nd Venice Biennale in 1964. Representing American Pop-Art, Robert Rauschenberg’s silkscreen paintings won the show’s Golden Lion prize. The pieces incorporated the social, cultural and political symbols of the time including American products.

This signaled a major transition and focus to the American arts across painting, sculpture, dance, filmmaking, and poetry inspired by New York City’s urban context. In Solomon’s words, “The whole world recognizes that the work art center has moved from Paris to New York”.

From a marketing perspective, transforming how your location is perceived by your intended audience can happen by design or by circumstance. Focus on your organization’s location or extend your activities to the broader community.

For example, Chattanooga transformed itself from being the dirtiest city in the US in the late 1960s into a clean city, offering strong fiber networks ready-made for remote and gig workers.  In addition, it has access to great outdoor activities.

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Assess how you can transform your organization’s location into a brand asset. For example, Benco Dental, America’s largest privately-owned dental distributor, has created a dental museum at their Benco Dental CenterPoint East distribution center. (Hat tip: Dan Gingliss. Check his AMG
  Author Interview – The Experience Maker.)

Old dental items on display at Benco Dental Museum

Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar

► Live Review: Webpages, Keywords and Contents — December 14, 2022, 5-6 PM CT

An Orbit Media presentation with Andy Crestodina. Virtual and free with registration.
(BTW–You can submit your own material for review!)

► Become an eCommerce Marketing Rockstar! — December 15, 2022 10 am to 5 pm ET

Free Virtual Conference Presented by Agorapulse

► Digital Book World – January 16-18 in New York City

The annual gathering of the publishing industry returns to New York City after six years.

► Are you hosting an event that you’d like us to add to the Marketing Calendar?

If so, let us know by using our Contact Form with the Subject Line:
Event For AMG Newsletter Calendar.

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Happy Marketing,
Heidi

P.S.: Want Heidi Cohen to contribute a quote or other commentary to your next article, presentation, video, research, or book? Then hit reply to this email and ask.

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