It feels like the remix of 2020, and across the board many of us marketers are having a bit of PTSD. With COVID cases spiking everywhere, it leaves a lot of uncertainty as to what the next steps should be to kick off the new year.
While there are still many in-person events and luckily no lockdowns insight, it still begs the question of whether planning events is worth the risk? Or better yet – what is the best ROI for marketing dollars in 2022? What are the best use of your time, efforts, and talents?
Let’s jump into some ideas that won’t blow your budget and should make a bigger splash than a New Year’s Day polar plunge:
Hone your brand
Have you been itching for a rebrand, a fresh website, or a new color scheme? If it doesn’t carry a big price tag, now might be the time to try that edgy image update. Another idea is to take a moment to organize and polish yourself with a new brand book, fresh graphics, an entire year campaign strategy, and more.
Content, content, content!
The old adage is true – content is king, so build an empire in 2022 with more content. Take this time to create a content strategy and stick to it. Analyze your results, and pivot focus if necessary (we are pros at that now!). Work on that SEO research you have been putting off. View this as a gift – it’s time to be more proactive than reactive, and really craft the marketing content and campaigns of your (and your clients!) dreams.
And with that, we get to our third idea…
Try something new
Mastered blog posts and boosted your social following? That’s great, but can you TikTok? The point is, expand your skillset. Keeping your marketing chops sharp is all about continual learning. Social media platforms are always adding new features and updating algorithms so it is up to you and your team to stay keen on the latest and greatest.
So stay agile, curious, and connected with your Charleston AMA Community! Together, we can make 2022 a year of marketing triumphs here in the Holy City.
This year wasn’t the year that I had prepared for when I considered running for president-elect. No one could see what was going to happen in 2020, and we certainly did not think we would still be in the pandemic at the end of 2021. Well, at least this overly optimistic person did not. Despite the past two years not developing to be all that we had hoped, we have proved the resiliency of our Charleston chapter and the community we love. Together we pivoted and created opportunities for professional development outside of our norm. You all kept showing up for events, even when the Zoom fatigue was next-level. And for this, the board and I are forever grateful.
As we go into the New Year, I am excited for not only the opportunity to be back in person for events but to have the opportunity to take what we learned in the past year to grow. We recognize that one of the many benefits of being a member of the Charleston American Marketing Association is the opportunity to network and gather together. We are excitedly working on a new calendar of events full of opportunities to learn, grow and engage in our community.
One of our highlights this year was the highly successful Spark! Awards. After having to take a year off to do a virtual event, it was wonderful to be amongst our peers and celebrate our marketing community in person with dancing, drinks, and seeing new and familiar faces. We have exciting plans for the 2022 Spark! Awards and our annual Marketing Bootcamp coming up in a few months. Not to leave out our signature programming and new opportunities to mix and mingle. Let’s just say, I am exhilarated, proud, and hopeful for all the things to come.
I want to take a moment to thank my fellow board members and volunteers for their dedication and hard work throughout this past year. Some of you started during the pandemic and quickly jumped in headfirst. All of us were forced to evolve and think outside the box to deliver programming that mattered. It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to work beside you, and as you know, are all marketing superheroes in my book.
2022, we are coming in hot and hope you are ready. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you at an event soon. Happy New Year! 🎉
As I’m delivering the last Spark! Awards to our winners, I’m fortunate enough to see these companies with fresh eyes as I’m still learning all that Charleston has to offer. Each company I stop by has its own story, its own KPI’s, its own clients, and most importantly: their own teams filled with HUMANS. They are so very unique and different from each other, yet they all have more things in common than you’d think, the Charleston lifestyle and AMA are the easy ones to point out. I’m sure we can all agree that they all have another major common denominator in creating the best work for their clients so that they keep coming back. This is where I love the Spark! Awards, the best in CHS shine and CAMA gets to brag about it.
Once we dig in, we also find that there are a lot of things we have in common along with the reasons why we should come together as a community. There, I said it, this is our call to action, this is our north star, we are calling for our members to support CAMA with our mission to bring our community together and find growth, together, in our local economy because of it. Look at what the Tech industry is doing with The Charleston Digital Corridor. We can do that with advertising and marketing.
We need to come together and share each other’s stories, for reasons I don’t have to mention (2020 did happen).
CAMA is in the beginning stages of this Community > Membership campaign. You may have heard that Zuckerberg might famously close his meetings with the mantra “Company over Country” with his fist-pumping in the air. We are taking a different approach, one would say, the opposite approach.
CAMA feels the need to come together as one to put CHS on the map as a creative hub that knows advertising and marketing, not only in the hospitality and tourism industry, but also with the big brands in technology, healthcare, and nonprofit industries. We further lift Charleston as a lifestyle destination for:
Marketing execs that want to escape their (mostly) cold headquarters
Recognize and capitalize on the plethora of talent (it is vast!)
Charleston’s ever-expanding HQ hub of major brands who continue to build and expand
The booming diversity of small startups, new boutique shops and independent entrepreneurs
The workplace is so remote these days that the HQ or the CMO can be elsewhere and you can still build a prosperous business with a rich marketing strategy. Charleston has so many ties to large organizations or remote workers who are here because they choose to be. People are moving from all over to grow our community.
I realize I may be alienating or making some execs (SUITS!) feel uneasy with this campaign of Community > Membership, but that’s where I believe we grow. Within these uneasy feelings, begins new conversations, real conversations about corporate consciousness, connecting to the next generation, driving authentic experiences, and truly reaching out for diverse POV’s.
Technically, I am one of those suits, and as an agency owner, I feel that it’s important for us to constantly be putting ourselves and our businesses out there with authenticity and a touch of vulnerability that will help our culture thrive along with our KPI’s and ROI. This is not a new concept, but it’s finally getting the respect it deserves. Be HUMAN, put people over profit, share your stories, share your strategies, be vulnerable, your brand will grow and you’ll help your client’s brand grow with you, instead of the other way around. Beiber sings about it, lol, you’re the BRAND now!
For that to happen, we have to start by being the change, we have to be the voice and complacency is not an option. Know that when you join CAMA you aren’t just joining a club, a grocery store coupon list, a gym or just paying a yearly subscription to discounted CAMA events – you’re joining our community. Our growing, thriving, interesting Charleston marketing community.
Come celebrate at the Charleston American Marketing Association (AMA) 2023 Spark! Awards — the only awards event in Charleston celebrating creative excellence and marketing talent — held at Harborside East on Wednesday, November 15 kicking off at 6:30 pm.
Early bird tickets are on sale until October 18th, 2023. $50 for AMA members and $65 for non-members.
