Convio, GetActive and Jerry Maguire

Special Guest Author
Mike Turk, VP Grassroots
National Cable and Telecommunications Assoc.

The Convio acquisition of GetActive reminded me of a famous scene in Jerry Maguire, the movie starring Tom Cruise, not the "you had me at 'Hello'" scene and not the "show me the money" scene. I mean the one where Cruise's Maguire and Bob Sugar are battling it out by speed dialing clients. "This ain't show friends, it's show business," Sugar explains to an athlete on the phone. Sugar had his eye on the bottom line and McGuire, who later triumphs, wants to focus on personal service over obscenely high profit margins.

Convio's acquisition of GetActive makes sense when viewed purely from a profit perspective, but any time service-oriented corporations merge their customers often feel the squeeze. For some customers—who only need an "out-of-the-box" solution—the change may be inconsequential. But for other customers running sophisticated programs and campaigns the assimilation can be devastating.

After successfully running the e-campaigns for both the Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney '04—and now building a robust grassroots activist base for the cable industry—I have a solid understanding of what's available out there in the world of Internet advocacy tech and online communications strategic service. There are big differences among the providers in this space, which is good because most customers demand more than a "one-size-fits-all" solution. I make decisions about our programs that impact real policy and real people. When I choose a vendor, I am really choosing a teammate, an investor—a partner.

Grassroots Enterprise has taken home more top Pollie awards for their strategic Internet work than any other. I believe their success is rooted in their service delivery team model. Grassroots Enterprise partners with each of its clients by providing a four-person team to cover all the bases. I can pick up the phone and talk directly to the senior staffer responsible for strategy, the client director in charge overall delivery, the client manager accountable for day-to-day ops, or the tech lead to obtain key specs. Grassroots Enterprise consistently has among the best customer service you’ll find in the space.

I have lived at the intersection of politics and technology—crossing from the political, to the commercial and into government. I know change happens—like the merger between Convio and GetActive—but I also know my need for top-shelf service and superior tech never changes.