ego to san francisco

At the end of the weekend I'm heading to the 2010 DMA Conference, this year being held in San Francisco. It's the world's biggest hoedown of direct marketing geeks, clients, agency types and bitter creatives, capped on Tuesday evening by the ECHO Awards, the Oscars of response.

I hope to find some nuggets in the deluge of conference sessions; given the global attendance, there's got to be people there with something interesting to say. There's so much confusion, fear, rethinking, innovation and experimentation in our business right now; it's an ever-embiggening crisatunity from which to learn. 

However, on a more personal level, I'm focused on a few short hours of the whole thing, because the DRTV spot we did last fall is a finalist for a Gold award. And no, we didn't create it to win awards. You can't, not in a category where every dollar you raise actually has an impact on people who have virtually nothing. (Well, I suppose you could, but if that person is you I don't want to meet you.) We simply tried to be smart and innovative in an undifferentiated category, as a means of increasing our effectiveness. It's all about the clicks and calls, and we did pretty well at that.

Yes, it's an honour just to be nominated; it's a thrill just to make the playoffs. And knowing that we've won at least a Bronze is similarly great, as it rewards the strong combination of strategy, creative and results we were able to put together for that spot. But a Gold would reflect the amazing dedication and commitment of a big group of people who made it happen.

But, damn it, I have an ego and I also want to win for purely selfish reasons. And if that makes me history's greatest monster, so be it.