Blogger relations

There’s little doubt that as an event, Camp Baby was a success. The mom bloggers who attended had a great time, and when I spoke to event architect Lori Dolginoff last week, she told me that Johnson & Johnson considers the event a success based on both their interactions with the women at the event and the emails she personally received from attendees afterward.

"We accomplished our goal of building relationships with the mom bloggers. We wanted to get to know the women face to face, not just through email. Even though there was risk attached in doing an event like this — there are always people that won’t like something — we felt it was worth it. Overall, the bloggers seem to appreciate that we are making an effort so I consider it a win. For me personally, seeing the women enjoying each other’s company was very rewarding."

I asked Lori why face-to-face was so important to them. She told me that J&J wanted to be seen as a leader in working with the mom blogger community and felt that the only way to do this was to meet the women. Clearly they wanted to make a strong public statement about their commitment to the community by entering it in a big, visible way.

But what about the long-term? Do wine and dine events make a solid foundation for long term relationships? For J&J or any company? I asked Lori how they intended to follow up Camp Baby with both the women who attended and the larger population of parent bloggers who didn’t enjoy the antics of Ted Allen, a free Nintendo DS and the wonderful world of Wii at the Frog and Peach dinner. Even though it is still early days yet, J&J must have some idea on how it intends to build on what it learned at Camp Baby.

She told me that moving forward, J&J will be focusing on growing the one-to-one relationships they began at Camp Baby as well as working with  groups and networks of women/mom bloggers to make sure that future programs and communications are relevant. She said that  J&J already has two specific initiatives in the planning stages, but could not give me any details at this time.

One hot topic among the moms who attended the event was chemical additives in baby products. Lori said they knew this going into the event and wanted to address it up front by having a speaker on the subject: "We are listening and looking at the best science. The feedback is very important and we definitely captured everything." 

I wasn’t at Camp Baby, but from what I’ve heard and read, my sense is that they had hoped to convince the women of the safety of the additives and J&J’s science, and were somewhat surprised that the moms didn’t just take their word for it. That said, we should give J&J a little time to take action. Especially since the feedback may not have been what they expected.

I also asked Lori about the unacknowledged product component in the sessions. She said they needed to have it in order to have a place for the questions about specific issues, but that Camp Baby was about relationships, not publicity:

"We didn’t introduce any new products, as I would have at an event for press. By having it all there, we could then determine who was most interested in a given issue or product. For example, many women didn’t know that Neutrogena was one of our brands. We are now planning some Neutrogena giveaways with some of the bloggers."

No one really minded the product pitch component; the women expected it and most commented that it was very soft-sell. Nevertheless, I would recommend that companies doing a similar big event be even more explicit about any product component. Especially if attending a product expo or site visit is a required activity in order to participate. It’s like sitting through the timeshare presentation in order to get the free gift. It’s okay if you know that’s the bargain you’ve made. Not so much if it is a surprise.

As I said in my first post about Camp Baby, set the right expectations. I’d also recommend a few sessions, educational as well as recreational, that have absolutely nothing to do with products or company initiatives. By the way, I’m still baffled by the hair braiding session. There has to have been some other way to tie in hair care products….

I don’t want to revisit the pre-event criticisms too much because Lori stepped up, personally responded and addressed folks’ concerns as best she could. Anyone who has ever planned a big event,  personally or professionally,  knows that there are always a few kinks. However, one area I would recommend paying particular attention to is the invitiation process. J&J invited somewhere between 100-150 women for the 56 spaces and aggressively recruited women that it ultimately had to turn away.  Think carefully about the ratio of invites to expected attendees and leave sufficient time between first outreach and follow-up to gauge real response.

I asked Lori what she would do differently next time:

"We would develop a website or area on our site explaining the program details. Our instinct with Camp Baby was to handle everything one-to-one with the women. In hindsight, it would have been better to also do some broad communication up front to address common questions. I also think we would have benefited from the extra layer of a senior person’s eye on the outreach, to understand things like if a woman recently had a baby, she might want to bring the newborn with her."

I agree 100%. Both of these things, a blog site and having people with more experience involved in blogger outreach, would make the process much smoother. It also bears repeating that you have to do your homework (prepare) and participate in a community before you jump in with a pitch or a program. Regardless of the level of research J&J did during the planning of Camp Baby, the company  was simply a big company to the mom blogger community when it started the outreach. There was no trust, no relationship. They jumped in at the middle — the pitch — before it had laid the proper foundation.

Lori told me that as hard as it was to have all the critcism up front, she feels it was worth it: "It’s hard to explain, but we might not have had the level of engagement with the community if there hadn’t been some hiccups."

While I am glad it worked out for her, setting off a blogstorm is not a strategy I recommend. It wasn’t until she stepped in as a real person to address the criticism that things started to calm down. It’s so much easier to start the relationship with that personal engagement, and then invite bloggers to your party.

Whether Camp Baby ultimately is a success? Only time will tell. J&J certainly has made a splash and has the opportunity to engage with parent bloggers over the long term. But it has to stay the course. One date does not a relationship make, and more importantly, if you ask someone’s opinion, you have to be willing to take action. 

That’s what the mom blogger community will be watching for — will J&J walk the talk?

Stay tuned.

—

My previous Camp Baby posts:

• Camp Baby Blogstorm
• Post Mortem Part One (mom bloggers’ perspective)
• What I Learned from Camp Baby

Tags: J&J, Johnson & Johnson, Camp Baby, Lori Dolginoff, blogger relations

Warning: VERY long post. First of at least two, hopefully three, parts about Johnson & Johnson’s recent Camp Baby event. This post summarizes  the mom bloggers’ reactions and perceptions. Hopefully, I’ll hear from J&J to get their perspective for the second post, and the third will be recommendations for companies considering similar programs.

Despite some issues with the initial outreach, J&J’s Camp Baby  was top-notch, and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves tremendously. I have not read or spoken to a single woman who did not enjoy herself, even if she had some criticisms of the event.

The 56 women who attended enjoyed the opportunity to see their mom blogger friends and make new ones, and no one felt too pressured by product pitches.   

"What I enjoyed most from the event though was the opportunity to meet and bond with so many amazing women who happen to be mommy bloggers. I hope that J&J continues to do more Camp Babies, and allow more individuals (other mommy bloggers, more women of color, even daddy bloggers too) to enjoy the incredible experience that we had last week at Camp Baby." – Maryam Scoble   

"I guess what I came away with more than anything was a feeling that this is my tribe. Despite the fact that these women may live hundreds of miles away from me, there is some undeniable thread connecting us, a kinship that feels easy and natural and real. I love these ladies."- Sweetney   

"It’s quite clear that J&J definitely know how to throw a party. The hotel and food were outstanding, as was the Saturday evening dinner party sponsored by Wii and Nintendo. The camp fire, which sounded a bit odd, was actually very nice — set up in a cabin fashion with after dinner and bed time drinks and snacks." – Kristen Chase, Motherhood Uncensored, via email

While most of the women expected a certain amount of product pitching, they were generally pleased that overall, it wasn’t "yucky direct sell," in the words of  Kim from Hormone-Colored Days (phone conversation).

Erika Jurney (Plain Jane Mom) gives an excellent rundown of the whole event. In summary, she liked most of the main sessions, but felt that the breakout sessions were "where the wheels came off. They divided us into 3 groups for smaller sessions, which is fine, but the sessions were… odd." Including the much talked about session "What’s going on down there?" and the hair braiding. Kristin over at Better Now also has a good description of the hair braiding class, with photos.

A session that got kudos from many mom bloggers was the InfantSEE program. Says Tania, on her blog Chicky Chick Baby: "I had never heard about this program encouraging parents to get their young children’s eye sight checked but I’m very interested in it now. And you should {be} too. Go check it out, I’ll wait."  Far far better marks than the hair braiding and aforementioned vagina session:   

"There wasn’t anything truly negative about my experience at Camp Baby […]. The organizers of the event went out of their way to ensure we all had a pleasurable and educational experience and I commend them on a job well done. But I really could have done without the hair braiding and I, correctly, skipped the vah jay jay panel. When I heard from other women in attendance the words "collapsed pelvis floor" and "anal leakage," I figured then was a good time to go up to my room and rest before dinner." (Tania, via email)

Less satisfactory was the session on J&J Baby Products

Adrienne at Baby Toolkit has a long post about her conversations with the J&J folks about the health effects of phthalates and other additives:   

"In and after the session, I specifically requested future production of unscented baby products (J&J currently only offers a few under their Aveeno line) as phthalates are most often found in fragrances. Apparently, J&J feels that the psychological effects of the scents are so strong that they are deeply reluctant to forgo the fragrances. As a child who didn’t use their classic pink lotion because of sensitive skin, I reiterated that they’re missing a market of people who dislike and/or cannot use scented products (including families with allergies and asthma). The cynic in me thinks that their dedication to fragrance may be a subtle but powerful form of branding as scent memories have overwhelming influence on decision making, but sometimes my inner cynic is paranoid."

Vivienne of Cool Moms Rule writes:   

"Of all the talks of the day, this one felt most like a Johnson and Johnson commercial to me.  Added to that, the speaker, although I am sure it was unintentional, spoke as if she were talking to a group of preschoolers.  I felt that she was using a different, sweeter, more singsong voice and basically condescending to her audience, so that may be why my own reaction to this presentation was so strong and so negative (however, the Moms sitting near me echoed my own sentiments at lunch time). I think most Moms are aware of Johnson & Johnson’s "No More Tears" shampoo and baby wash, so telling us that baby’s eyes are more sensitive and they tend to rub their eyes when they are tired just came across as a selling point rather than crucial health information. My take:  Spare me. Give Moms some credit next time."

Jodi from Mom’s Favorite Stuff, in email:

"The content was generally very good.  My favorites were the morning sessions – Dr. Scott Jens from InfantSEE, Dr. Germ, and Jodi Mindell. I thought the nutrition and Babycenter discussions missed their mark as they told us things we already knew for the most part.  The panel discussion on skin was downright uncomfortable.  I felt that the J&J employees were just trying to “tell” us their products were safe, and didn’t really want to hear from some of the mommies who do lots of research.  One of the employees kept saying she was giving us a “chemistry lesson” which came across as condescending."

Tania, Chicky Chicky Baby, in email:   

"I was split on the session content. Some of it was very informative, like the InfantSEE program for instance. I had no idea such a program existed.  I was not, however, pleased with our "experts" dancing around the hard questions asked of them by some bloggers about 1,4 Dioxane and other additives in their baby products that could potentially pose long term damage to our children.  The general attitude of the bloggers seemed to be: Just be frank and upfront with us about what goes into your products and we’ll make an informed decision from there.  But J&J seemed to downplay our concerns which didn’t sit well with some, if not most, of us."

Christina, A Mommy Story, in email:   

"Some sessions were genuinely informative, like learning about the InfantSEE program, but most were thinly veiled product pushes, which I expected, so I wasn’t offended in any way. They knew we would be asking about chemicals in their products, and they were ready to defend their products as safe. But the explanations they gave weren’t satisfying to many, and they didn’t seem to pay attention when we asked if they would just TRY to make one product free of phthalates, parabens, artificial fragrance, etc. and see how well it does. They asked several questions about their entire baby products brand, and several bloggers answered back that many of us no longer look at trusting an entire brand – we’re loyal to individual products that we trust, but not brands as a whole."

Was Camp Baby a success?

Jaelithe has a terrific post that covers her expectations for Camp Baby as well as how well they were met. Overall, she was impressed with the event but wondered if the organizers really understood beforehand who they had invited:   

"During one presentation by a Johnson and Johnson scientist focused on product safety, the presenter quipped that by the end of her presentation, she’d have turned us all into amateur scientists. And I had to stifle a laugh, considering that I was sitting three feet away from a former neuroscientist, and couldn’t glance in any direction without my gaze falling on current or former nurses. To be sure, the non-scientist, non-health-professional members of the group were a majority. But many of them, I am sure, were teachers, or lawyers, or reporters, or professional freelance writers, or ad execs, etc., (and many others, I am sure, had been such, before they became stay-at-home-moms)."

This is a common misconception about mom bloggers — that they are "just"  moms. As I wrote in Some Advice on Reaching Out to Mommy Bloggers (pdf):   

"Apparently, once women become mothers, our interests shift entirely to laundry, lunch and Lestoil.And not just interest, mind you. Love. In the Madison Avenue mindset, women are passionate about clean clothes, nice smelling rooms and Hamburger Helper. More or less modern June Cleavers, regardless of profession, education, employment, race or cultural background."

It’s why so much of the outreach addressed to moms  is somewhat condescending. I was pleased to see that after the time spent with the women at Camp Baby, the folks at J&J seem to understand this, but I am not inclined to give the company a completely free pass. One could also learn this by reading the moms’ blogs over a period of time.

It seems like they spent the bulk of their preparation time creating a wonderful, swanky event, which is reflected in all the blog posts and conversations I’ve had with participants, but not nearly enough on getting to know the blogs, and the women, through their blogs. Or what they were really interested in. Which may be why some of the sessions did not go over as well as others. For example, I’m willing to bet many women would have passed on the hair braiding to have a longer discussion about product additives.Or product packaging. As Kristen Chase wrote me afterward:   

"The invitation debacle was clearly a smaller issue in the bigger problem that J&J did not know who they were inviting. It wasn’t a matter of bigger bloggers vs smaller bloggers, popular vs unpopular, or even ethnic vs non ethnic, but rather who the women and moms actually were and what they would be interested in. It’s clear based on some of the sessions that they had not at all thought it through. While some were definitely interesting, most showed their image of mothers being fairly uninformed and almost goofy — something which bloggers are most clearly not."

From the few comments above, it also isn’t entirely clear, yet, whether J&J took the feedback about the additives on board. Only time will tell.

That said, while it’s not certain that J&J had spent a whole lot of time reading all the mom blogs before they issued the invitations, it is crystal clear that once they had a firm invite list, they made the effort to get to know who was coming to the event. Jaelithe notes on her blog:   

"I was able to talk with Lori, the person from Johnson and Johnson’s communications division in charge of organizing the Camp Baby event, immediately upon arrival at the hotel regarding the nursing mothers situation. And I do mean immediately: having read my blog post the night before, Lori was actually waiting for me in the hotel lobby, ready to have a conversation."

On some level, the issue of not knowing who they were inviting was part of the outreach problems as well. While I don’t want to dwell on things covered previously, it is important to point out that the invitation to participate clearly was sent to far more women that J&J had space for. That in itself is not necessarily a problem. Not everyone will be able to come; the event planners rightly should hedge their bets. But it wasn’t clear at the outset that space was limited and some women didn’t initially recognize the invite as legitimate, perhaps delaying their response and leading to disappointment when there was no space left.

Said Tania, Chicky Chicky Baby (email):   

"The invite process left a lot to be desired.  The initial email I received sounded like a scam, like someone was trying to sell me the proverbial vacation time share condo."

And Christina, A Mommy Story (email):   

"When I got the invite, I didn’t believe it was real. Once I realized it was real, I was willing to go only if I knew at least one other blogger there. Seeing that several bloggers I know would be there, I decided it would be a fun way to meet up with them again."

Saddest of all is the tale of the Pinks and Blues ladies, a group blog written by a mom and her two adult daughters:   

"So, this is what went down. When “we” at Pinks & Blues were invited to Camp Baby, we really were under the impression that “we” would all be going – Mom (a mom to 4, grandmother to 7, soon-to-be 9), Audrey (a mom to 3, soon-to-be 4) and me (my doggies are my babies, but I know that most people don’t consider them “kids”… for the record, though, I do.) In fact, the original email we received regarding Camp Baby was addressed to the “Pinks & Blues Ladies” at our general P&B email address. But by the time we realized that each of us would need to be sent a separate email invite in order to register, and the invites were sent to Mom and Audrey, the event was full (we also didn’t realize that there was such a limited number of spaces). And so it’s up to me, the married-but-childless one to represent Pinks & Blues at Camp Baby."

I’ll cover this more in my recommendations post but as marketers, we need to think about who we really want to attend an event, and start there. A broadcast, "first come first served" invitation, especially to something so attractive as Camp Baby, may not meet the needs of the bloggers or the company.

Diversity

While I give J&J credit for going beyond the "top" bloggers and inviting a range of woman, the group wasn’t racially or culturally diverse. Socal Mom discussed this with them:   

"We also touched upon the lack of diversity among this event’s participants, which many of us found strange — especially when we learned that Johnson & Johnson’s President of Baby Care is an African-American woman. The publicist I talked to — who is also African-American — said that they had hoped for a more diverse group, but that the ethnicity of bloggers isn’t often apparent from their writing. I got the feeling that she was sincere… and that they will try harder next time."

I also think J&J  will try harder in future, although I also am having a bit of difficulty with the idea that it is too hard to determine the ethnicity of bloggers. Maybe it isn’t that easy if you only read a post or or two. But if you read over time, it’s not as tough as all that. We post pictures. We talk about cultural and religious holidays. Some moms actually have blogs devoted to their cultural background. Kimchi Mamas anyone?

Bottom Line

In the conclusion of her post linked above, Erika Jurney pondered:   

"The real question I’m left with is: why did they send us on this trip? Well, we know that Moms are purchasing decision makers, so it makes sense for us to be wooed (is that a word?) by a company which makes family products. So did it work? I can’t say I have a better or worse opinion of J&J products than I did before. I definitely am a little in love with the amazing women who planned this huge event, because not only did they rock their clipboards, drink wine with us, and get us unfailingly where we needed to be, but they were some of the nicest people I have ever met. (And y’all need raises 😉 But when I’m at Target and I see a J&J product next to the same thing made by another company, which will I choose? I can honestly say I don’t know, but they for sure captured my attention. Now I can’t help but notice when I see the J&J name on a product. Was that worth the thousands of dollars they spent on me? Probably."

My biggest question about Camp Baby,  from the outreach through the departure of the last GM-sponsored car, is: what were the goals of the event? In  the posts I’ve read and conversations I’ve had so far, I haven’t heard much beyond "getting to know the moms," which seems far too squishy for the amount of money that must have been spent.

Kristen Chase commented to me that:   

"The other major problem was that it was clear that J&J did not know what the purpose of their event was. Had they thought about what they had hoped to gain from the attendees, chances are they might have planned their sessions in such a way to gain information. Perhaps it was a group of green moms that would assist them in learning more about what moms want from products, along with time to experience green spa treatments and food from a green minded chef. Or perhaps it was just a way to show moms that Johnson & Johnson cares about moms — with a weekend of sessions by experts on various timely topics, and then some time to socialize and relax. And while they did attempt to learn something from the moms as part of a focus group session, because they were unaware of who they had attending, it really wasn’t effective."

Tania (Chicky Chicky Baby ), who was very positive about the execution of the event and her overall experience in both in her blog and email to me, had similar thoughts:   

"I never felt like J&J was very clear on their objectives so I went in with as open a mind as possible.  I thought the two and a half days were going to be one long product push.  What we ended up with was very different than what I had expected."

Christina, A Mommy Story, also generally positive about the event, said:

"They didn’t really tell us any objectives for the event. We were given some session topics (like hair braiding) and they stressed that we were not required to blog about the event. But any objectives were kept quiet."

I find this very interesting because over and over, I spoke or emailed with moms who couldn’t figure out why they were invited, since their blog wasn’t a "top" blog. Again, while I give J&J credit for going beyond the most popular blogs to invite a broader spectrum. I think it would have been helpful to have some focus beyond the number of spaces available for both the programming and the ultimate value of the feedback. Apart from the easy target of hair braiding, more focus on the interests of the moms, as well as who they were, might have made the event more valuable for all concerned.

True transparency means be willing to share with the customers what you are trying to achieve. Assuming, as I do in this case, that the goals are not nefarious, what’s the harm in telling the attendees what you expect to achieve from the event? They are smart. They know you aren’t spending thousands of dollars EACH just because moms have it tough. They know you’ve got goals. Tell them. Who knows, they might get you there faster once they know.

Or not. And that’s the risk of blogger relations. Just because you, the company, want to be "friends" with the potential customer, doesn’t mean they want to be friends with you.

And that’s true whether they come to the party and drink your wine.  Or not.

—

REPORT CARD

Positives:   

• Great event

   

• Informative sessions

   

• Not too much product pitching. Although I have to call out this priceless comment that Christina posted on her review blog: "I fully expected to have a lot of product information pushed at us. I realized this was a business trip. But I wish they would have put together a morning of product information and then have sessions that weren’t necessarily related to a product. It became a game after a while to identify the pitch. Dr. Germ = Purell. The nutritionist = Splenda. Hairbraiding = J&J hair care products. Even the "down there" session = lube, pads, and the surgical materials used to fix a prolapse."

   

• Transparency, at least in terms of asking bloggers to acknowledge that J&J paid

   

• Attitude of J&J staff

   

• Great schwag

Negatives:   

• SNAFUs during initial outreach

   

• Mid-week timing

   

• Not sufficient knowledge about the moms which impacted the event in numerous ways

   

• Lack of clarity about objectives. Clearly it was to convey product information. Be more upfront.

   

• Hair braiding. Whose idea was this? Really.

Overall Grade: B+

J&J deserves good marks for its first major engagement with mom bloggers. At least as far as the moms are concerned. With the possible exception of the response to the whole additives question. Now to the other side of the question: Did the event meet J&J’s goals? What were J&J’s goals?

I hope to speak with Lori Dolginoff this week. If I do, that will be my next post in the Camp Baby Series, followed by my analysis of what companies can learn from the J&J event.

—

Special thanks to Kristen Chase from Motherhood Uncensored, Christina from A Mommy Story, Tania from Chicky Chicky Baby, Kim from Hormone-Colored Days and Jodi from Mom’s Favorite Stuff for sharing their detailed feedback after the event as well as all the women who emailed me or commented after my initial Camp Baby post, spoke to me in person at the NYC parent blogger karaoke meet-up, posted about Camp Baby or "twitted"  their thoughts during Camp Baby. Everyone’s thoughts  and feedback have contributed greatly to my understanding of Johnson & Johnson’s Camp Baby.

More blog coverage of the event and its aftermath:   

• The Ladybug and Blogging Mama with pictures : -) (via Twitter)

   

• Camp Baby Blog (includes posts from multiple attendees)

   

• BrandWeek

   

• And the Johnson & Johnson view from event organizer Lori Dolginoff. I hope to speak with Lori later this week for the more on the company perspective.

   

• If you have a post that isn’t included here, I’ve probably read it but this post has been two days in the making and has eaten my brain. If I didn’t read it while I was actually writing, I probably missed it in the post. Please forgive me, and add it to the comments.Thanks.

Tags: Johnson & Johnson, Camp Baby, blogger relations