Would the Today Show personality offer deep insights about the state of the industry?
Would the rain drizzling in NYC end soon?
Would the newly thin man (thanks to a gastric bypass) succumb to the tempting basket of rolls on the table, or worse yet, indulge in the strawberry cheesecake?
I have no idea what Roker ate (or didn’t eat) at the lunch. And he didn’t give one weather prediction. But he did share a lot of amusing stories about his life, as well as a few sharp quips about his relationship to direct marketing.
Looking around the room, he noticed that a table in the front reserved for the USPS was empty. Did their invitations get lost in the mail, he wondered? (The postal service contingent was sitting in the back.)
The speech followed the presentation of the DMD Marketer of the Year award to Jason Ackerman, cofounder and CFO of FreshDirect. The grocery delivery service built an active customer base of 100,000 in Manhattan by using tactics such as offering new customers $50 worth of groceries for free.
Roker noted that he had a delivery from the firm scheduled for that afternoon, much to the delight of his children, who love playing with the boxes. More interestingly, he quipped, the company has a new Internet ordering service slated to debut. “SexDirect – and you get the first $50 for free.”
The “Today” show goes direct to six million customers daily, he said, so he feels some kinship to the industry. Roker noted too that his father was a direct marketer of sorts in his role with the New York Transit Authority. His dad, a bus driver, had a direct link to the consumer.
Growing up in Queens, said Roker, “we knew he had to be a good because people kept taking his bus.”
When asked by the audience who his favorite interviews had been over the years, he offered two names without hesitation: Rosa Parks (“Without her, I wouldn’t be here today”) and late Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz, who was an inspiration to the amateur cartoonist in Roker.
His most awkward interview was while working on New York’s local Live At Five newscast. Jerry Lewis took offense to a question about what an upcoming concert performance would entail (Comedy? Music?) and behaved belligerently. Years later, Lewis called to apologize, noting he had been on medication at the time that caused him to behave inappropriately.
Another audience member asked what one thing Roker would like to see change about America. His one hope was simple but in these difficult times very appropriate. “Just get along.”
