MarketingSherpa Blog

The Marketing Research Association (MRA) have launched a Researcher-to-Researcher Relief Assistance Blog. The following is straight from their site:

“Many marketing researchers located in the South have been severely affected by this tragic storm. This Blog will be used as an exchange system where all research professionals can list what they are in need of and/or what they can provide one another.

For example, some items that researchers in the affected areas may be in need of are: -Additional office space for temporary use -Computers -Phone line usage -Support on active studies or retrieving data from the Internet http://www.mra-net.org/

Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge contacted us with a call for help, “We are housing WWL-TV Channel 4 in our studios and know that the two PBS stations in New Orleans are shut down for at least the next 6 months. All the workers at the TV stations — both commercial and public — are displaced and don’t have places to live.” They are hoping fellow media professionals will set up a jobs and housing board to help out. (If you do let us know and we’ll post a link here.)

You can also donate to the Louisiana PBS at http://www.lpb.org and contact Development Director Lisa Stansbury at (225) 767-4466.

If you publish a Web site supported in part or whole from AdSense revenues, you can join the folks at ReliefSense (not a part of Google, but yes Google has ok-ed the idea) who are pledging to donate their AdSense revenues for Sept 12th to Katrina relief efforts. More info at: http://www.reliefsense.com/

If you are a podcaster, you can get audio PSAs for podcasts below the menu bar at http://podcastdesign.com

The blogging community is gathering info for relief efforts at: http://truthlaidbear.com/katrinarelief.php

MediaSpan/FMW just announced they are offering free website hosting and FTP server access to any Gulf-area media property whose current site has been short-circuited due to the recent disaster. More info contact MediaSpan Online Services CTO Mike Gibbs at 949-369-5900 x209 or mgibbs@firstmediaworks.com.

MediaSpan/FMW are also offering radio stations nationwide a free Web application to securely send funds to the Red Cross Hurricane relief effort, while tracking and managing local donations. Get the code from Mike who’se email is in the item above.

If you are publishing via email, please see the section of this page for emailers.

If you run an ad-based Web site, see the Ad Council’s link for PSAs at the very end of this Resources page.

If you are running a subscription site, you may want to follow ASAE’s lead (see below) and automatically extend subs for members in affected areas for six months. Let’s face it, they may not be able to access or pay credit card bills for a while. You may take a short-term loss, but see a long-term gain.

If you handle circulation for a print magazine both the BPA and ABC audit bureaus have reportedly said they will not count distribution to affected areas … which means some folks will miss rate base. Sorry.

A spokesperson for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) told us they’ve taken the following three steps:

1. ASAE has automatically extended by 6 months the membership of any member in an affected area

2. ASAE staff is collecting contributions for relief and ASAE will match all contributions

3. They have sent an email to their membership containing a list of reputable organizations to whom to donate http://www.asaenet.org/

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau issued an update September 7th stating:

“All city-wide conventions are cancelled through December 1. There will be an announcement Tuesday Sept 13 regarding the status of future meetings in December through March. Additional assessments will be made during the next two weeks when we are out of search and rescue mode. Contact the following staff in Washington and Chicago:

Donna Karl 630-357-3480 Peggy Hagaman: 847-236-0200 JoAnne Hunsicker: 703-379-2233 ”

The Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA) have set up two efforts:

#1. They’ve set up a relief fund to help individuals in the trade show industry

#2. They’ve put together a list of 19 scheduled trade shows coming up in New Orleans in Sept/Oct and will be updating as info is available as to what the organizers are doing (moving, rescheduling, etc) http://www.tsea.org

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) have launched a new section in their online resource center with info for marketers in the field. Registration is required, but access will be free for the next 30 days: http://www.hsmaieconnect.org/index.html

They have also announced their next few month’s already scheduled events will do double-duty as fundraisers, and the association will kick in a $25,000 donation to relief efforts.

The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has launched a Hurricane Help page on its site where members in need of assistance can have their requests posted. Members who can and are willing to provide services, whatever they might be, are asked to contact ASTA with their offer and multiple contact information (phone, mobile, e-mail). http://www.astanet.com/hurricanehelp/

Also, ASTA members in need of or offering help are asked to contact ASTA at hurricanehelp@astahq.com or by calling 1-800-ASK-ASTA. Please be prepared to be specific in your request and have contact information ready. ASTA will be sending regular alerts to members with the most recent postings.

Potentially millions of email addresses have been affected by Katrina.

Email users may not have access to regular email for days or weeks. Their mailboxes may quickly fill and start sending mailers auto-bounce messages. This means emailers’ list management systems could unsubscribe those names automatically due to deliverability concerns. It also means mailers’ open and click result reports will show anomalies.

We asked if major email services such as AOL and Earthlink could create a special bounce code for those areas, but apparently that’s not possible due to their privacy policies.

If you have an integrated database, and can identify which of your email opt-ins are in the affected regions, you should use USPS zip guidelines to segment your files.

If you have opt-ins without any real-world address attached, we recommend you ask your database manager if there are IP addresses attached to each opt-in. (Any reputable ESP or email list management program should have been collecting that data.) You can then use IP addresses to segment names by geography for many names.

Once you’ve segmented out affected names, you’ll want to mail those names cautiously, and watch your reports. Some users may turn to the Internet and their email accounts as a communication lifeline. Others may not access accounts for weeks.

If a name in the affected area is not opening and/or clicking for a certain period of time (depending on your frequency), we strongly suggest you put that name on hiatus for a while.

— New note: The Information Refinery is making its 6,000-record email (and 190,000 postal lists) for the area within a 500-mile radius of New Orleans available indefinitely and free of charge to all nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other humanitarian groups. The lists are selectable by type of business and include builders, remodelers, contractors, architects and engineers. Email campaigns will be sent at no cost from the Information Refinery servers on behalf of the organizations. Contact: 800-529-9020; http://www.inforefinery.com.

The USPS posts a list of zip codes that all mailers should suppress against during weather-related emergencies: http://www.usps.com/communications/news/serviceupdates.htm?

Many postal list rental firms are waiving suppression charges for the Gulf Coast areas for now, including Rubin Response, 21st Century Marketing, American List Council, Datagence, and MKTG Services.

Louisiana proclamation No. 48 KBB 2005 issued Aug 26th, says no telemarketing calls can be made to Louisiana numbers until Monday Sept 26th 2005. Only exception — calls by the Red Cross.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is using its member list to work in tandem with the Red Cross in a program called Power of Two (which initially launched after 9/11). More info at: http://www.prsa.org/_News/main/katrina.asp

International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is also hosting a blog for members to detail information about Katrina. http://www.iabc.com/

The Sonoma CA chapter of the American Red Cross has issued a call for volunteer PR pros to help them with relief-related efforts. Contact Ellen Maremont Silver, direct line (707) 577-7632.

Tha Ad Council has launched a service to get out PSAs for disaster relief. Several ad organizations are supporting this – including IAB.net for online. http://www.adcouncil.org

You can pick up Red Cross banner ads for the relief effort here: http://www.redcross.org/psa/bannerorder/all/

Search marketers from several different firms have pooled resources and budgets to create campaigns to drive traffic to charitable sites. More info at http://www.semcares.com

We’ve also called the AAAA and the AAF but they don’t have any details yet on separate programs or resources they’ll be launching.

Craig’s List is one of the best places for displaced folks to find free housing: http://neworleans.craigslist.org/hhh/

MarketingSherpa reader Tinu Abayomipaul is collecting and indexing all the relief resources she can find every four hours at her Blog. More info: http://freetraffictip.com/old/2005_09_01_index.php

13 Experts’ Tips on Marketing in Wartime – Copywriting, Media Buying, B-to-B , Branding & PR http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2299