10 Things You Need to Know About the ASAE Gold Circle Awards

Ah, November...Halloween is over and some of you are already mapping out Thanksgiving Day plans or mentally (and financially) prepping for Black Friday deals. But for the ASAE Gold Circle Awards Committee, November kicks off the 2016 awards program season. So I thought now would be the best time to share these 10 things you should know about the ASAE Gold Circle Awards Program.

1. The ASAE Gold Circle Awards is a year-long program that recognizes excellence in association marketing, membership and communications fields.

2. There is a hard-working Gold Circle Awards Committee that evaluates and revises, where necessary, all components of the program. It is made up of association professionals from the three core areas and Committee members serve on sub-groups to help manage the communications and visibility of the program, oversee the judging process, promote the content of award-winning campaigns and develop sessions, webinars and other related professional development opportunities. That's us (those that attended the recent in-person meeting at ASAE headquarters in Washington, DC) below.

2015-2016 ASAE Gold Circle Awards Committee

3. We've streamlined the categories and made the criteria easier to follow. Together, this will make the application process simpler. In addition...

4. ...A new online application platform, thanks to ASAE, will allow for a smoother submission experience.

5. The awards celebrate marketing, membership and communications, but it is relevant for every area of association management. We are building engagement and recognition of the program among the C-suite and expect participation from all disciplines of associations, from technology to government affairs to education.

6. Past winners are featured in education sessions at the ASAE Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference, in Associations Now Daily, through virtual lunches and webinars, in newsletter articles, news media outlets, video and online.

7. We've fine-tuned the judging process to better fit this into the busy schedules of association professionals. Once the Call for Judges opens this winter, be sure to volunteer.

8. We rely on the generosity of our friends on the ASAE Marketing, Membership and Communications Councils to help champion the program. Each group has a representative that sits on the Committee. This coming year we're reaching out to several other volunteer groups within the ASAE community as well as external organizations to join us in promoting the program.

9. While we are typically most active on Twitter during the #MMCConf event where the winners are recognized, expect to see more exposure on social media platforms throughout the year. Bookmark our dedicated url: www.asaecenter.org/goldcircle.

10. Check out your ASAE communications this month to learn more about the Gold Circle Awards Program, deadlines and how to get involved. The Gold Circle is the shape of association excellence. We hope you'll support the program through your participation, promotion and engagement.

© 2015. Tom Quash

Disco Marketing: 5 Funky Tips from 70s Music

The other day while driving and listening to satellite radio, I went on another one of my grumpy tirades about today's music, while my kids listened with little interest. I explained how the music of my youth leveraged the nearly lost art of storytelling to spin a tale through song; a practice so often absent from the charts today. Think about Papa Was A Rolling Stone or Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Aren't these compelling stories that were put to music?

But then I thought: what about disco music? Why was it so popular? Is there anything about the 70s disco era that might still be relevant today? That is, are there marketing lessons we can glean from disco? Certainly. Here are five:

1. Identify Your Call To Action, Clearly. Then Repeat It.
Some of today's marketing campaigns try so hard to be trendy or clever, that the call to action or sometimes even the product itself gets lost in the clutter. If I challenged you to name three ads from this year's Super Bowl, the apex of TV advertising, would you be able to do it? Can you recall the commercial and the product?

But if I were to ask you to name three disco tunes from the 1970s, you would most likely get to those much quicker, regardless of your age. Think about some of the disco tunes of the 70s--they are essentially little ads with the call to action right there in the title: Get Up And Boogie. Shake Your Groove Thing. Turn the Beat Around. Do a little dance; make a little love; Get Down Tonight. Repetition was common in disco, just to be sure you got the message. And this works in marketing too. Simply put, get to the point.

courtesy of SoundOpinions.org

2. Stay True to Your Brand
It's important to remember that the perceptions of the marketplace define your brand. When Toyota wanted to launch a luxury automobile line, they knew that no one would associate paying top dollar for a Toyota. That wasn't their brand essence. So they had to develop a new brand: Lexus. Consider the "queen of disco," the late Donna Summer. As disco eventually fizzled, Summer still remained on the charts, post-disco (with such hits as She Works Hard for the Money and This Time I Know It's For Real). Though the category of music changed (disco was out, "dance" was in), Summer stayed consistent with her brand identity long after her Last Dance days, recording new dance tunes, but also returning to her disco roots through concert appearances and live compilation recordings.

courtesy of TK Records

3. Promote Your Strengths
I say this affectionately: no one would accuse KC and the Sunshine Band of performing deep, thought-provoking tunes. And they never tried to do so. Their same-sounding songs capitalized on their strength as a diverse, horn-blowing energetic, fun band that could turn the simplest of titles--I'm Your Boogie Man and That's The Way (Uh Huh, Uh Huh)I Like It--into chart-topping staples of their era.




4. Enhance the Experience
Opportunities to supplement brand messaging were limited in the 70s; not much beyond TV, radio and print media. So the disco music "movement" (using the term loosely) was enhanced through...I'll call it..."experience accessories:" platform shoes. whistles. disco balls. Yes, even tambourines on the dance floor. Today, you can enhance your brand with a social media presence and a host of new options--bloggers, email, web ads, even online gaming--that did not exist then. With so many ways for consumers to digest content and messaging today, a strong marketing campaign must include a strategic mix of marketing and communications channels and platforms to reach your audiences.

5. Be Bold
Ok, so things got a little crazy back then: Ethel Merman dropped a disco album. The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb teamed up with the Muppets for Sesame Street Fever. It's ok to take risks -- you should learn from any mistakes. The goal is to use data and research, consider your brand positioning, craft your messaging and go for it. Taking risks does not mean to do so foolishly and blindly. Evaluate how your risk performed. Rod Stewart's Do You Think I'm Sexy and the Rolling Stones' Miss You are less full-blown disco records than they are examples of artists who capitalized on the trend of the day to release their signature sound with disco undertones, risking alienating their core fans who considered disco kitschy and may have turned on these artists. Instead, both hit number one with their respective songs, maintained their credibility and likely captured new followers.

So, the next time you're just starting on that marketing plan, remember that there are marketing success stories everywhere, even from some 40 years ago in music...lessons that are still relevant today and that you can employ to ensure your campaign is stayin' alive.

©2015. Tom Quash