Young people in headset listening to music flat vector illustration. Youth in radio studio recording podcast cartoon characters. Sound recording equipment, microphone, headset isolated design element

‘I Compare Never Failing With Not Having Ambition’; Failure Fuels Yagan’s Success

by Media

Rob Ristagno of the Sterling Woods Group has started a cool feature he’s calling CEO Campfire Chats. A couple weeks ago, I rsvped to be part of his audience (of around 20) speaking with entrepreneur Sam Yagan, vice chairman of Match.com and co-founder of OkCupid, Tinder and SparkNotes.

After short introductions, Ristagno likes to break the audience up into groups of 3-4 for a 5-7 minute get-to-know-you chat. So before I knew it, just by chance it was myself and two others in that small Zoom window with Yagan. Fortunately, my journalist self quickly took over from my, Wow-this-guy-is-incredibly-successful self.

What was one of the first things you did when you became CEO? “When I took over Match, I realized that they use data, but the expectation—which was always data-driven—was that tests will all succeed,” Yagan said. “It wasn’t built in a culture of failure. For me, that failure was a requirement of learning, a corollary of ambition. ‘What is this? That’s the failed SpaceX launch.’ Is [something great] realistic without failing along the way?

“I compare never failing with not having ambition,” Yagan continued. “[So the question became,] How do we let ourselves test out our intuition? The intuition has to inform what data you get.”

He said that one of the keys to OKCupid’s success was the level of trust that they built with their audience. That reminded me of something Tim Hartman, CEO of Government Executive Media Group, once told us. “Create a culture to build trust and collaboration, and breaking down silos. Think ambitious experiments and trust each other. If you look around and don’t see that, you have a problem.”

Despite his allegiance to intuition, Yagan wanted to gather all the intel they could possibly get. “We quantified what your match percentage was with someone,” he said. “The powerful thing was that before you answered any questions, your match percentage with someone is zero. We wanted to show people that we knew what’s going on. If you didn’t give us any data, then it’s zero. Importantly, the matches got better as you answered more questions. So we were able to gather more information.”

Another key was that Yagan “wanted every single interaction on my website—when this person sends a message to this person. Imagine a video camera in every bar in America. What would you do with that data? For instance, we found that when the price of gas goes up people narrow their search [geographically].”

So the question becomes, amidst all the data we’re getting now, is there still a place for failure and intuition? Absolutely.

“I tell everybody that works for me that I’d rather have them try and fail than not try,” Rajeev Kapur, CEO of 1105 Media, told us a couple years ago. “And that I want them to make a decision. We can fix a bad decision; we can’t fix a no-decision. No one will ever get fired for trying something new or for failing at something they tried to do. I reward people who try, people who think outside the box. I am doing everything I can to empower my team all the way down the chain to say, ‘Look, this is what we need to do for the customer.'”

Kate Lucey, a former digital editor for Cosmopolitan UK, agrees with Kapur, that there are advantages to both success and failure. “If something [messes] up, you can look at your stats and figure out what went wrong,” she said. “Try new ideas—if they work, how can you expand them? If they fail, why did they fail and what have you learnt about your audience that you can apply to future work? It’s constant learning, constant adapting—and a constant headache… but it’s FUN.”

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes is known for creating “a safe room.”  “Sam makes the room embracing, warm,” producer Scott Rudin said. “People are free to have a bad idea. Frequently the bad idea illuminates where the great idea is. He’s very open about what he perceives to be his own mistakes. If he doesn’t know something, he’s entirely comfortable asking the questions. That makes people feel incredibly well protected.”

Finally, there’s actually a Museum of Failure in Helsingborg, Sweden. Dr. Samuel West said he started the museum “to encourage organizations to be better at learning from failures—not just ignoring them and pretending they never happened.” And where did the idea come to him from? When he visited the Museum of Broken Relationships, of course. (Yes, it realy exists; there are branches in Los Angeles and Zagreb.)

Woman connecting with her computer at home and following online courses, distance learning concept

‘It Helps You Understand Your Audience’; the Data and Connectedness From Virtual Events Give Them Value

by COVID 19Media

It has become a bit too easy to undersell the value of virtual events. People still want to be connected. One media company, Winsight, went as far as not doing them, turning instead to online sponsored communities. (Still emphasizing connection, however.) While it works for them, virtual events can still be successful with the right expectations—on both sides. And even when in-person comes back, virtual will remain vital because we will not want to lose that audience. So may be worth it to get them right.

In a recent webinar hosted by exhibitions association UFI, Liz Irving, EVP, head of marketing, technology and customer experience, Clarion North America said that the need for connection—yes, digitally—has never been stronger than it is now. Her company has spent a lot of time conversing with its markets.

“We found new ways to take our markets forward by helping them address their needs today and connect in new ways digitally,” she said. One virtual event they did offered a series of live product demonstrations from people’s homes. “It doesn’t replace face-to-face, but it allowed those connections to be made further upstream.”

Here are more reasons and ideas for keeping and boosting your virtual events:

Create sub-communities. Irving said you can really “home in on specific customers that sellers are looking for, “just on a smaller scale rather than one massive event every one or two years.

Be proactive about managing customer expectations. Emphasize the positive outcomes that attendees can expect—how-to lists, video examples immediate surveys and polls. “It’s really important to manage those expectations and show them that the value of virtual events lies in the reach of the data,” said Laura McCartney, head of exhibitor experience, EMEA, Informa Markets.

Consider the data you can collect virtually. “When you overlay it, every click, every video they watch, every interaction they have, it’s all trackable,” said John Capano, SVP at Impact XM, on an EventBuzz podcast last week. (There’s a transcript.) “And that really helps you understand your audience and develop your next meeting and prove your ROI to your bosses and all those things that you want to do with an event.” That’s a similar advantage to something in my article yesterday, where Sam Yagan who founded OKCupid wanted every interaction to happen on his site where they can track it.

Smaller audiences can reap bigger rewards. “The key is to really understand the different markets you serve and develop strategies specific to each of those markets, panelists agreed,” Sue Pelletier wrote in Trade Show Executive. “Also, digital events can extend the reach of those audiences beyond just the scheduled day of the show by keeping the community and connections going year-round.”

Look at your virtual attendees as an opportunity to market for future in-person. FOMO is a real thing. Capano offered the words you’re looking to hear: “Hey, I went last year online, and it was awesome and I saw how much fun people had on site, I gotta go this year.”

There is incentive to stay with virtual events in some form to stay connected. “I’m going to spend the extra time and effort to get through this year because there’s a lot of value in that live [aspect],” Capano said. “If you asked anyone about trade shows two years ago, or even some live events that weren’t highly engaging… everyone’s like, ‘oh, trade shows are so old school, nobody wants to go to them.’ And now all of a sudden, people are dying to get to trade shows, like ‘I miss it so much. I want to see my friends, I want to be there.’ So really it’s kind of a snap back to realize that virtual well done, and hybrid well done is going to drive the heck out of your success for live going forward.”

Sustainability is a thing—young people especially have indicated in surveys that it affects their decision-making. “Live events take a lot and have a big carbon footprint,” Capano said. “And so doing an event where maybe it’s a smaller live portion, but a much larger online portion, you can get the same benefit and the same engagement for a much smaller carbon footprint. And obviously, that is important and should be important to many of the folks that we work with. So this is really a ton of benefits there. Your cost per attendee, all that stuff is better when it’s hybrid over just live.”

As Irving said, “We do have to educate folks on the value of digital and how it looks different than face-to-face. But Clarion’s business model now will have digital, and it will have face-to-face. You can take some or all of it to help reach the suite of folks you want to find in your industry.“

barbkaplowitz2

‘Barb Embodied the Very Best’; We Mourn the Passing of Barbara Kaplowitz

by Media

“I first met Barbara when I was just out of college attending SIPA meetings for the first time. She was hosting a marketing roundtable, and I very quickly realized that she was someone I should get to know. Over the nearly 30 years that I knew her, she was always generous with her time and expertise. We had many laughs at dinners as well as serious conversations about work. I sought her out when we lost Margie Weiner to cancer, and she was strong when I was weak. I will miss her very much and know that I am much better having known her.”
—Denise Elliott, CEO, Kiplinger

Barbara Weckstein Kaplowitz, owner of Big Huge Ideas and an even bigger heart and mind, passed peacefully Saturday in the comfort of her home, surrounded by family. “In September 2019, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer,” wrote her husband Brett Kaplowitz yesterday. “She was keeping her diagnosis very private… Barb left this world the way she lived in it—fiercely determined, proud and compassionate towards her family and friends, and loved and cherished by all who knew her.”

Barb was one of the first people I met when I joined SIPA in 2009. If everyone is like this, I thought—generous, smart, dedicated, funny, opinionated—I’m going to stay with this group for a while. They were and I did. A couple memories jump out at me: Barb, Helen Hoart and I sorting out the SIPAwards in a small room during a time when everything came by mail, of course. I was so thankful to have them by my side. Barb had a way of being business-like and fun at the same time.

It was that same combination and energy that drove her to host so many SIPA BrainTrust Dinners over the years. No matter the number of people—from four to 20—Barb would have everyone engaging with each other in the back of this old-school Italian restaurant, La Panetteria, in Bethesda. Her themes were always right on. One of the best dinners that I remember focused on Ideas That Didn’t Work, well before the fail-first mentality took center stage.

“Barb embodied the very best of the SIPA community,” Meg Hargreaves, COO of Industry Dive, wrote to me. “She was always willing to share her experiences and mentor those coming up the ranks. She also served on the SIPA board for many years as a way of giving back and advancing our industry. She will be deeply missed.”

Ed Coburn, president of Cabot Wealth Network, kindly sent this along: “Barb came into our industry as the marketing director for UCG and as editor of What’s Working in Direct Mail. She eventually went out on her own as a marketing consultant under her company name—Big Huge Ideas. And she had big huge ideas, a big huge heart, big huge talent, and big huge willingness to help others advance in their careers. She volunteered extensively for SIPA and the SIPA Foundation, and served on the boards of each… She leaves a big hole.”

When Lesley Ellen Harris of copyrightlaws.com needed marketing help for her business a couple years ago, she asked for recommendations and one name kept coming up: Barb Kaplowitz. “Barb always had her heart in the right place and will be missed by everyone,” Lesley wrote. “As a consultant, she was intelligent and wise and led me through a turning point in the publication of my newsletter. I’ll always appreciate what she did for me—with intelligence, warmth and wisdom.”

Phil Binkow, CEO, and Patti Wysocki, COO, of Financial Operations Networks worked closely with Barb through the years at SIPA and the SIPA Foundation. “Barbara was in all ways a champion supporter of SIPA,” Binkow wrote. “Through easy times and hard she brought her great creativity, tremendous sense of humor, genuine kindness and strong intellect to the numerous SIPA boards on which she served and the SIPA projects in which she was involved. We will all dearly miss her.”

“Barb was very giving of her time and talents to SIPA and was always willing to do anything asked of her to help the association…” wrote Wysocki. “Barb was brave, and her spirits were always good as she battled cancer over the past months. We will miss her smiling face at meetings, her passion and her readiness to lend a helping hand whenever anyone needed advice. I will miss my friend of more than 30 years.”

In looking through old conference photos today trying to find one that captured her best, I found that Barb was always in the middle of something good—be it a discussion with other members, presenting a session, smiling and conversing at a luncheon or dinner, or simply, as this photo shows, listening happily and intently to another speaker.

“Barbara was a friend, neighbor and colleague for close to 30 years,” wrote Adam Goldstein, publisher, Business Management Daily. “When I became a consultant many years ago, rather than treating me as competition she took me to lunch and showed me the ropes. In addition to her SIPA work, she was a tireless volunteer and fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association. We’ve lost a giant. Hug your loved ones.”

When I last got takeout at La Panatteria back in June with a good friend, I was so excited about the good food and wonderful memories that I had to email Barb right away and tell her. She wrote right back, of course. “Glad you enjoyed. Miss that place.”

We will all miss you, Barb. Thank you.

Barb is survived by Brett and their sons Maxwell and Scott. In lieu of flowers, they ask that you donate in Barb’s memory and name to either the American Diabetes Association, the University of Virginia General Fund, or the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority Chapter at the University of Virginia.

‘How Has Your Job Changed?’ May Be the Right Lead-in for 2021 Sales Conversations

by Media

“A lot of times, media salespeople feel like they don’t want to talk about their clients,” top sales consultant Ryan Dohrn wrote late last year in Editor & Publisher. “But you have to. In the land of COVID, stranger danger is real. People are more likely to buy from you if you’ve helped other people be successful.” And you ask the right questions.

Of course, Dohrn does not want salespeople to violate any trusts. But he does want them to “scream from the mountaintops” how much they love their clients. “Don’t be afraid. Tell them how much you love your customers and how much they love you, and that they’re going to love working with you, as well.”

If ever there was a time to show some love, it’s now. I remember interviewing Kevin Turpin, president of the National Journal, a couple years ago. He didn’t go quite as far as Dohrn, but he did want his staff to get closer to their customers.

“When businesses are trying to recreate themselves and change, they spend too much time inside, in strategy meetings, batting around ideas that they think will work. We don’t spend enough time going around. How are [our customers’] jobs changing? What are they thinking about? What are they investing in this year? This will give you solutions.”

While “going around” means something totally different in February 2021—phone, Zoom, social media, Slack—the idea of asking important questions of your customers has become even more paramount. I recall another sales consultant who liked to visit her customers’ ofices and observe their desks—that would tell what projects they were working on. While that can’t happen now, of course, a Zoom call can allow you to ask.

“’What keeps you up at night?’ just isn’t good enough anymore,” Dohrn went on. “Your questions simply have to be better. One of your main questions that makes me nuts and that I hear in my ad sales training is this: ‘Tell me more about your business.’ C’mon, you’re better than that… And then, ‘What’s your budget?’ You can do better than that. Those are three questions we do need to ask, but maybe ask them in a more vibrant kind of way.”

It’s interesting that Dohrn brings up training. While 70% of sales leaders report they have outlined a clear sales process for sales reps to follow, they are not confident that sales reps consistently (or ever) follow the process with prospects. And almost 90% of salespeople report they have no formal sales coaching program. So it’s all a bit muddled right now.

Here are some ways I’ve come across lately to surmount these issues:

Get everyone together in the same (virtual) room. Try to bridge these disconnects. Where are the sales calls falling short? Where might more training help most?

Have more conversations with your customers. Pick up the phone. “How are you?” should still be the lead question. “Any summer vacation plans?” It’s a great time to be human and lead with empathy and understanding. And then transition. “What do you need the most help with?” “What are your pain points?”

Share those conversations with colleagues. Anecdotal information from the conversations/emails your staff is having with your customers should be shared—by everyone.

Learn from your audience. Sales teams everywhere are dealing with cancelled or pivoted events. What are your subscribers saying? Will they buy into virtual events? Are they looking forward to hybrid events? Can sponsored webinars fill the gap?

Get back to your core products. Innovation is good but we also want to get back to what we do well. What go-to product do you have now that you can tune or adjust to solve your audience’s current challenges?

Look at something new. Your events have gone away. But maybe that opens the door to more sponsored webinars, which may have a greater profit margin anyway. Get in information-gathering mode and find out what your audience needs.

Tailor information that is out there to your industry. What can we do now to positively impact the people we serve? It’s all about vaccinations these days. How can you take that information and tailor to your industry?

Explore your archives. It’s a great time to dig into your files. What do you have that can be recycled and refreshed—maybe a white paper that focused on crisis communications or selling in a downturn.

‘Once Digital Gets Its Hands on Things, It Never Lets Go’; Media Executives Talk Transformation

by COVID 19Media

“I think there’s an incredible future path for us to do what we do,” Industry Dive CEO Sean Griffey said today in an excellent discussion on digital transformation. “There’s still a place for good journalism in the world. And a place for us to leverage our role as connectors and make a lot of money for it.”

Listening intently to that discussion yesterday took me back to a Zoom call I had in May with Krystle Kopacz, CEO of Revmade. “The biggest challenge is, ‘How do you lead your company through a massive transformation when your work hours are not what you’re used to, you can’t connect in the office, and you can’t separate professional and personal problems?’” she told me.

Kopacz said she had been up early—probably around 5 am given her schedule with a 9-month-old daughter—thinking about her SIPA keynote in June. “Publishers can provide information and research, but what do they need from me? How can I help them navigate this? I work with brand clients. And they’re calling me saying, ‘We’re not doing trade shows, so how do I find qualified buyers?'”

Her first question, she said, is, “Have you thought about working with a publisher?” But  “publishers are up against a lot in this new environment. What they need to do is to align their products better with marketing pain points. ‘How do I call up some of the clients’ pain points? How do I create a lead gen replacement package?’

“This is where your media sales team can play the biggest role, helping clients understand and being relevant to your target audience,” Kopacz continued. “They’re also wondering, ‘How do I navigate this?’ So there’s some advice-giving that needs to happen.”

From a business standpoint, as Griffey said, good things can come of this. The other SIPA 2020 keynote, Don Harkey, told the story of his 75 year-old mother-in-law teaching piano lessons on Skype now. “If you would have told me that at Christmas time, I would’ve said no way. But she’s doing it and liking it and said she will be offering it to her students in the future. It’s things like that that are fundamentally changing.”

“What [Customer] Problems Are We Solving Day-to-Day?”

Harkey’s mother-in-law had figured out a way to solve her audience’s pain points. It’s kind of the same for some members. In the discussion yesterday, Elizabeth Green, CEO of Brief Media, said that their “transformation started in 2013 [when] we realized that if we wanted to connect with our audience, we needed to provide information they needed every day. We acquired a workflow product that’s now the fastest growing part of our business.”

Their foundation is still their database, she said, but “our media product gets us to the table. It has built this broader audience for us [so we can] go deeper [with the] workflow product. Some days I wake up and wish I was a big company, but then I’m glad we’re small,” Green added with a smile.

Green said they actually had their best year ever in 2020—their niche is the veterinary field—partly because they had thought about transformation well before the pandemic. “What problems are we solving day-to-day for our audience?” Green asked. “As an organization, we had to change our structure from a media organization to one that is product focused. That allowed us to get much greater cross-collaboration with our teams, because they’re now focused on product and not departments. We also are able to make decisions much faster.”

Industry Dive’s Griffey added that over the last 12 months, he has seen “upticks in brand advertising and other different [digital] components. People had relied on events to do these things. They used events to get executives on panels and as keynotes. And now we see [the resurgence of] brand. Will that go away when events come back? It’s kind of a [reminder] that once digital gets its hands on things, it never lets go. We got tailwinds because we didn’t have events. Marketers come to us looking to use digital in ways that wouldn’t be expected.”

“How does the lack of live events across the industry affect us?” Kopacz asked back on that May morning. “What does that do to lead generation efforts? And how are you refilling that pipeline? Publishers still have a key role to play between buyers and sellers. There are many ways you can mimic what live events do.”

For now, that journey continues.