Palm Beach Blues and Blueprints

It rained in Palm Beach last month. But hey, it was still Palm Beach.

The weather was a fitting analogy for the mood among the members attending the Association of Promotion Marketing Agencies Worldwide’s autumn conference. Attendees were effusively optimistic about the industry’s future — while being extremely candid about its cloudy present.

But although business hasn’t exactly been stellar this year, there’s a good chance the sun will shine tomorrow, even if tomorrow takes a little while to get here.

Translation: A lot of promotion marketing agencies in the U.S. and abroad have had a tough go of it in 2001. More than a few are concerned that prospects don’t look much better for 2002 — some fear it may get even worse.

But again, there’s always tomorrow: The need to first understand, then change consumer behavior is the key to effective marketing, and so this seasoned group of promotion professionals is comfortable about the likelihood of blue skies ahead.

You’ve never heard of APMA? That’s a fair response. Because while it has proved to be an invaluable professional resource for its 80-odd agency members, the association has by design kept its network tight and its ranks exclusive. That has fostered a reputation among those outside the organization as a boondoggle, an excuse for industry cronies to rub elbows twice a year in posh locations.

If ever warranted (and it very well may have been), that reputation is becoming unfair. The conference held in November featured stand-out keynote presentations (from marketing czar Sergio Zyman and p.r. guru George Drucker) and a variety of other informative sessions at which the insight provided by the audience equaled that delivered from the podium.

What’s more, and more important, is that APMA now has decided to make more of a name for itself — while cultivating a better “name” for the promotion industry in the process.

Part of the association’s future charter, if it follows through on suggestions presented to attendees by an ad hoc committee, will be to become active and vocal “thought leaders” for the industry. “We’re very good at developing [the positioning of] others,” said APMA president Iain Ferguson, ceo of Euro RSCG Marketing Services. “We’re not so good at developing ourselves.” He wasn’t talking about APMA’s status in the industry, but about the promotion industry’s status in the marketing world (although both do seem to apply).

The first step will be to select a new name that can move the group beyond the negative connotations so-often associated with “promotion” and reflect the diverse marketing capabilities its members now offer clients — not the least of which is strategic brand development. It’s not just that the term “promotion” carries too much baggage in the corporate boardroom (conjuring up images of Herb Tarlick-styled stress-ball salesmen and over-redeeming FSIs); it’s that the word no longer adequately reflects the full complement of skills promotion agencies deliver.

Some of the initial suggestions are cumbersome — Association of Marketing Services Agencies Worldwide, Association of Marketing Communications Agencies Worldwide — and may bring their own negative connotations. The Association of Marketing Agencies Worldwide is more palatable, and would both be an expression of the ultimate positioning goal (to be considered as strategic partners by clients) and a strong assertion of confidence. (“This is not just a ‘discipline,’ this is the whole ball of wax.”)

But more important than what APMA calls itself will be how devoted it is to the proposed mission: championing the cause of promotion to the world at large.

Should the organization expand its ranks to include not only additional promotion agencies but also p.r. firms, direct-marketing shops — even promotional suppliers? That’s yet to be decided. (Finding a way to include those much-discussed clients would probably be a good idea as well.) But it does seem clear that the association understands it must be representative of a larger portion of the marketplace before it can attempt to represent the entire industry.

The APMA consists of a wealth of talent from around the world. If that wealth is offered to the industry at large, it might help scare away some of these clouds.

Alphabet Soup

If you ask me, an association is only as good as its acronym.

PMA is good, strong. ANA has that sing-songy palindrome, as does the similar AMA. The Four A’s sounds classy, like a Dumas novel.

Dori Molitor, one of the members working on APMA’s strategic planning, rightfully says she doesn’t want the association’s message to become lost in “alphabet soup.” In that case, suggestions such as AMSAW or AMCAW (see above) probably won’t work.

AMAW doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, either — unless you lead with the global aspect to form WAMA.

My suggestion: the Worldwide Association of Marketing Partners, a name that aptly expresses the goal of establishing strong agency-client relationships while also serving up a bold acronym: WAMP.

It doesn’t so much roll off the tongue as burst from the lips. But it sure would get attention.