Like many fellow marketing-geek friends, I have a hard time disconnecting my brain from my day job when I’m outside of work and just having fun. Recently there was just such an occasion, when Jay, Michael, and I from Bridge Worldwide took our girls to the annual Daddy Daughter Dance in the Cincinnati suburb of Anderson. We had a blast with our little princesses, but we also came up with a few ideas that could lead to meaningful marketing and business results in our local area.

This annual Daddy Daughter Dance is a pretty big deal here in Anderson Township, a fairly large and higher-than-average income area. The dance is so popular that it actually is held on both a Friday and Saturday night in February each year. Many fathers who I know in the area attended on the Saturday we went. There had to be at least 250 couples in attendance. It was the first time attending for Jay, Michael, and I, as our girls are just now able to attend a later-night event such as this without melting down.

We had a wonderful time. My wife bought the girls corsages, and we met for dinner at a fancy restaurant nearby before the dance. The price of the event included a free photo (above), and a red carnation for the ladies as we left. We danced and had a blast, but I just couldn’t help thinking that many opportunities for marketers were left untouched.

Let’s start with the opportunity at hand. First, there are several relevant selling occasions wrapped around this annual dance; it’s the kind of event where parents open up their purses and wallets to make the experience as special as possible. The local Macy’s in the center of Anderson could benefit from clothing sales to both little girls and their fathers; the flower shops could see sales from corsages; the restaurants could benefit from hundreds of pre-dance diners; and limo services even could pick up some extra business.

Imagine what these businesses could do to add value and reap greater sales. Macy’s could set up a fashion show for mothers and daughters a few weekends before the event, and have dress consultants on hand to help them pick out a new outfit for the dance. Local restaurants could set up a special prix fixe meal served especially to get dancers in and out on schedule. I’m sure that a small sponsorship would allow the businesses access to the database of ticket purchasers for direct marketing—the kind of marketing that people would find extremely helpful and relevant.

Aside from incremental sales linked to the event, there are other benefits of creating meaningful marketing around this event. Because it is an annual tradition, it becomes less complex to prepare and plans can be made well in advance. And imagine the long-term loyalty that could result from adding value to this meaningful event. Whem Mom brings her daughter into Macy’s for a special event, she feels a tighter bond to the store, leading her to consciously and unconsciously choose this chain more often throughout the year.

So what’s the holdup? Why aren’t Macy’s, Olive Garden, and FTD lining up to get into events such as this? I think the biggest reason is that this means a major change in how these companies look at marketing. They are all raised to think in terms of TV ads and Sunday circulars. Local tie-ins such as these also take more human labor to set up at a time when head-count reduction is rampant.

Perhaps the current economic pressures will lead traditional marketers to try something new. In fact, local, meaningful event marketing such as this plays right into the hands of a company such as Macy’s. Its large, central locations and range of merchandise allow it to beat e-tailers and small specialty chains with such an approach.

We’ll be back at the Daddy Daughter Dance in 2010—and we’ll see if any marketers seize the opportunity by then.