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 We thought you’d enjoy a video featuring highlights of Child’s Play Communicatons’ third annual Bloggers Brunch, held April 13th in Los Angeles: Child’s Play Communications 2010 Los Angeles Bloggers Brunch

Fabulous story in yesterday’s New York Times  by Jennifer Mendelsohn on the evolution of mommy bloggers and their relationship with brands. Despite the somewhat snarky title, “Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building My Brand,” the piece provided a very thorough and fair assessment of where the momosphere stands today and the issues that apply. It traces the development of blogs from “glorified electronic scrapbooks”  where moms shared photos of and updates on their children to “a cultural force to be reckoned with….a burgeoning industry generating incomes from $25 a month in what one blogger called ‘latte money’ to, for a very elite few, six figures,” and where advertising on blogs will top $746 million by 2012, more than twice the figure for 2007. It also addressed the perks now available to bloggers, including corporate sponsored trips to the Olympics and the Oscars. (Full disclosure: We just arranged a mommy blogger trip to Orlando for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau).

Most interesting to me was the comment that “some find the vast influx of corporate sponsors, freebies and promotions into the blogosphere a bit troubling. That might be in part because bloggers and corporations are still forging the proper boundaries of their relationship, groping through uncharted territory.”  So true: To some degree, we’re all making this up as we go along, some more successfully than others.

That relationship was summed up succintly by Ciaran Blumenfeld of Momfluential, who, I am happy to say, is one of the speakers at our company’s Bloggers Brunch in Los Angeles on Aprils 13th (register here to attend):

“It’s like we’re playing seven minutes in heaven.The brands know they need a blogger. The bloggers know they need a brand. When everyone gets in the closet, nobody knows what to do with each other. It’s like we’re all 13 again.”

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Marketers, what are your thoughts on the subject? Moms, do you agree with the article’s point of view? Everyone, please join us for our LA Bloggers Brunch, and hear more on this subject from Ciaran, as well as other panel members:

· Jill Asher, Silicon Valley Moms Blog
·  Caryn Bailey, Rockin Mama
· Maryanne Conlin (MC) Milker, The Not Quite Crunchy Parent

 

Click to see Bloggers Brunch video

I was delighted to be quoted in last week’s Computerworld blog titled, “Why K”NEX brands loves mommy blogs.” The author talked about how toy companies such as K’NEX Brands value working with mom bloggers. In the article, K’NEX chief marketing officer Barbara Rentschler is quoted as saying “We raise awareness much more with mom blogs than we did with advertising.” In the story, I answered questions about how Child’s Play has created visibility for K’NEX through our Team Mom blogger network. The article looks at some of the current hot topics in the momosphere — payment for posts, pending FTC regulations and more — in a way that I believe was both fair and thorough.

I thought you might find the article informative.  For the full story, visit here.

First day back at work after a week at the beach. Here’s what I did on my summer vacation:

• Held a new business conference call.
• Updated  my bio  to meet the deadline for an audio conference I’m organizing on social media.
• Finalized the invitation to Child’s Play Communications’ second annual Bloggers Brunch.
• Did an interview with ComputerWorld, on publicity and mommy bloggers.
• Dealt with a panicked client.
• Realized that I really needed a vacation — preferably sometime soon.