News Room

Hartford, CT – April 7, 2009—Celebrating five years of bringing together top brand executives and marketing-to-women thought-leaders, the 5th Annual M2W®-The Marketing To Women Conference, April 29 & 30, 2009, Chicago Cultural Center, is adding some new and exciting elements to its strong tradition of providing a program that includes top-notch presenters, drill-down discussion groups and innovative networking opportunities. This year, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a provocative survey on truth-telling, celebrate the launch of a new book and indulge in some outer beauty activities.

“As marketers, brand directors, agency leaders and consultants, we need to build plans based not on what women admit, but on what they really believe, do and buy,” says M2W® presenter Mary Lou Quinlan, founder/CEO of Just Ask a Woman. “In a forthcoming book from Just Ask a Woman, we'll reveal our discovery of the five biggest reasons women withhold the truth, supported by a national poll of researchers and marketers. At the M2W® conference, I will turn the truth detector on the attendees, inviting them to participate in—and learn from—our survey.”

The pre-conference reception will serve as an official launch event for the new book, Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women by popular M2W® presenter Kelley Skoloda, partner/director for Ketchum, associate sponsor of M2W®. “This year, as we celebrate five years of marketing-to-women success it's a special pleasure to also celebrate Kelley's important contributions in our industry and her new achievement as a best-selling author,” says Nan McCann, president of PME® Enterprises, LLC and founder of M2W®.

And to keep the celebration going, female attendees of M2W® will have the opportunity to enhance their outer beauty during the opening night reception, sponsored by Women@NBCU, Presenting Sponsor of this year's conference. “We couldn't think of a more beautiful way to pamper attendees at the opening night reception than with personalized touch-ups provided by our Sephora Pro Beauty Team,” says Gianna Locasto, director store marketing for Sephora.

Attendees will connect with top executives from brands such as The Clorox Company, Sharpie and Heinz and will have the opportunity to discuss a wide-variety of topics including connecting with women in the digital space, the power of cause branding and word-of-mouth campaigns. “Heinz is a great example of a brand that successfully leveraged women as consumer advocates, and as a result, executed one of its most successful product launches to date,” says CEO/founder of SheSpeaks Aliza Freud who will be joined on stage by Wendy Joyce, marketing director of Ore-Ida. “Heinz recognizes the power that women hold as consumers, and engaged the SheSpeaks members not only to build brand advocacy and grow awareness, but also to truly listen to what women have to say about their product.”

The 2009 conference is set to give business and marketing professionals the tools and resources they need to increase their emotional, cognitive and financial share of the lucrative women's market.

Women@NBCU is the Exclusive Presenting Sponsor of M2W® with Associate Sponsors Ketchum, Draftfcb, Engauge, SheSpeaks, Lifetime, Paramount Market Publishing, JSH&A, General Growth Properties, Barkley, Booz & Co. and MS&L. imc2 is the Pre Conference Workshop Sponsor and Affina, BlogHer, Shutterfly and ecojot are Hospitality Sponsors. SNiPPiES is the Video Journalism Resource and Getty Images is the Imagery Resource.

M2W® is produced by PME® Enterprises, Hartford, CT. Please visit www.m2w.biz or call 860.724.2649 x 11 for more details or to register for M2W®.

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