Six Tips to Get the Most From Vendor and Agency Meetings
A Carnegie Mellon University professor, before he died of cancer, provided inspiration for better time management. Second in a two-part series.
A Carnegie Mellon University professor, before he died of cancer, provided inspiration for better time management. Second in a two-part series.
Last time, I discussed the importance of setting up productive meetings that have clearly defined objectives and goals. Since then, I’ve watched Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Randy Pausch‘s lecture on time management, which he gave at the University of Virginia. I strongly recommend you watch it, too. Pausch passed away from pancreatic cancer in July 2008 at the age of 48. Between his diagnosis and his untimely death, he coauthored the book “The Last Lecture,” which was modeled on a lecture he delivered in September 2007, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”
With limited time to live, Pausch became an authority on time management, and in his lecture he discusses ways to make one’s life and, consequently, meetings more productive. He reminds everyone that Disneyland was built in 366 days, from groundbreaking to opening day for the public. He offers the following advice that I thought pertinent to our vendor/agency meetings. How do the following compare to your meetings?
Let me add the following tips:
Vendor Spotlight: acerno
There are several behavioral targeting properties worth getting to know, and I’ll be spotlighting them throughout the year. If time doesn’t permit, have one person on your team meet with them and fill out the media evaluation form I mentioned last time (Drop me a line if you need the form). Please note, I’m not making a recommendation that the company belongs on your plan, because I personally haven’t worked with all of them. I’m only recommending they should be on your consideration list.
For this month, I recommend connecting with acerno. It has the ability to target consumers based on their actual shopping and purchase data as well as shopping activity across more than 450 e-commerce sites. If handled properly, the possibilities are endless. For example, a diaper advertiser can target parents who just purchased formula or even diapers online. In October 2008, acerno was acquired by Akamai, which reportedly hosts the world’s largest distributed computing platform. The merger is supposed to further enforce each company’s position as a digital powerhouse.