eROI Days Email Agency

Shaggy uses some of his lyrical magic to call in a Taxi Cab. This is one Audio file you need to listen to - 45 seconds of bliss. BoreMe.com is a gem of obscure, funny video and audio clips.

Listen to Shaggy Call for a Cab

Wieden + Kennedy is hosting a “Fight Night” among Portland agencies on April 27th and the gloves are coming off. The proceeds of this fundraiser goes to The Central Oregon Boxing Club. I’m posting about this event because I think the concept is very cool and the email caught my attention. Comment with your own thoughts and email caleb.jensen@wk.com if you want to participate.

According to a MarketingProfs survey, email marketing delivers the highest ROI over all other marketing mediums. As the MarketingVox story reads: “Marketers use a wide variety of techniques to improve response in their retention and acquisition email programs, with varying results, according to a MarketingProfs survey, the results of which are analyzed (premium article) by Return Path, which also offers recommendations. Among respondents who measure their campaigns, 40 percent say email earns the highest ROI, followed by search (28 percent) and direct mail (18 percent). Revenue per campaign is the most-utilized email-marketing success metric, used by 39.8 percent; file size is a close second with 38.3 percent keeping tabs; and revenue per email third at 25.8 percent. Some 35 percent do not set clear success metrics.

Some 50-70 percent of respondents say they manipulate various response elements in every email campaign, primarily the offer, the call to action, and the subject line; however, 5-40 percent do not at all adjust the various elements.

Some 50 percent of respondents segment their email file to boost response, saying they do so consistently and reporting that segments based on purchase/response drive the highest success; demographic targeting is used by 70 percent of that half, with mixed results.”

BuildaBusinessinaDay.com

I got this email from a friend of mine that details an incredibly cool event that takes “The Apprentice” to a whole new level in Portland.

“Starve Ups: Build a Business in a Day
What do you need to build a business? A product? A marketing strategy? A sales team? A series of distribution channels? A brand? What if you could help launch a business by bringing all of these elements together with the help of over 35 entrepreneurs and 3 entrepreneurial organizations. What if it you could compress executing upon all of these elements into a single day. What if it didn’t financially cost you anything as a business owner except for some manufacturing time. Move over Donald and make room for “The Johnold.” RSVP to participate in this free 24 hour event by sending an email to contactus@starveups.com.

In October 2005, Starve Ups, an entrepreneurial organization of 18 of the hottest young startups in Portland, started a business event called “Build a Business in a Day.” On that fateful Saturday morning, 24 entrepreneurs gathered around and listened to the Johnold outline their task for the day. 24 people split into 4 teams and each team had to sell 3,000 Mardi Gras necklaces (Beads for the Bayou). Each team had $250 cash for product development (add stickers or bling bling to the necklaces), marketing, and building out the sales channel. Whichever team brought in the most revenue won. The grand prize was pride, second place less pride, and last prize was utter embarrassment. Long story short, all 4 teams brought in nearly $7,000 which was all donated to the Red Cross Katrina Relief effort.

It’s now March 2006 and the stakes are higher. The event is a 24-hour event now. We will gather at 3:30pm on Friday, March 31st at. However, this time we know what we are branding and selling. Earthly Food Delights Company is donating its VEGAN chocolate energy bars and kitchens to the cause. On that Friday, each team among the 6 teams will concoct their own ingredients and look to the energy bars, create packaging, branding and marketing strategies, and return the following morning (Saturday, April 1st) to launch their new product to the Portland market. Each team will be judged on two equal criteria - how the company is branded and on total sales per team.

Let the games begin…”

We are regular contributors on web marketing campaigns for iMediaConnection.com. We get asked to review new campaigns and would like to steer you to these from time to time.

This one focuses on fuse TV and was well done. Read our CEO’s takes.

Hip Humor Reaches Youth
fuse TV targets youth with a website that offers animation, comedy, downloads and music.

Another review we recently did for iMediaConnection.com. Worth a quick read as many people only associate eROI wil email marketing. We actually run a full service agency as well that helps deliver campaigns like the one reviewed below.

eROI CEO Reviews Nordstrom Silverscreen

Ecommerce Meets Entertainment
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Shopping and entertainment merge in Fallon’s Nordstrom BDA; audiences can watch remixed music videos, and buy the featured clothing while still within the video.

This might be one the the best emails sent to me in the past few days. We go to a lot of conferences each year, but if we could learn from the best email marketers in the world, we should all go. I mean TV, Radio, Web, Print and Word of Mouth Coverage has established the Nigerian’s as the world’s top email marketers.

The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

Tag Line for the 2006 Conference:
“Write better emails. Make more moneys.”

Intro:
I am Mr. Laurent Mpeti Kabila, a senior assistant leader of the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone.

I present to you an urgent and confidential request: I request your attendance at The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference. This is an excellent opportunity to meet your distinguished colleagues, learn new marketing techniques, and spend your hard-earned money. Attending this conference demands the highest trust, security and confidentiality between us.

Keynote Address:
Dr. Hamza Kalu’s adds some historical perspective in his keynote address: “From Postal Scams To Email Scams: We Have Come a Long Way Infant Child.”

Debate:
Attend a lively debate between Lady Mariam Abacha and Mr. Godwin Oyathelem. Topic: “The effectiveness of using all UPPERCASE characters.”

Practical Discussion:
Mallam Mahmud Abacah answers the question, “Are 10 million emails a day too many?”

Competition:
Other countries are now adapting our business. Is this a threat or an opportunity?

Tech Session:
Mrs. M Sese-Seko reveals valuable secrets in her session titled, “Those Pesky Email Headers”

Commerce:
Find out how banking systems throughout the world operate — with special emphasis on money transfers.

Linguistics:
Damn, spam, scam, sham. And more rhymes in the “sticks and stones” category.

Telecommunications:
Soliciting via cell phone text messaging: Can it work?

Accounting:
The taxman he’s a comin’: Keeping good and accurate records.

Open Discussion:
We will resume last year’s high-spirited discussion of unionization, including health benefits.

Workshop:
Grammatical errors: What’s the optimal number?

Statistics:
Dr. Kayode Naiyeju presents his ground-breaking research: “Analyzing response rates using analysis of variance: That pesky R-squared value,” as published in The Nigerian Journal of Applied Statistics.

Economics:
A round table discussion: Is email now Nigeria’s top export?

For Newcomers:
View an entertaining PowerPoint presentation that describes how to get started in this lucrative business, with no initial investment!

Hand-on Session:
Experts critique your emails, and offer valuable tips.

Just as my lawn goes dormant for a few months, I always feel like Scott’s does as well. I can never remember getting emails from them from November to February but then maybe that is because I can’t step foot on the lawn at that time of year here in the Pacific NW.

But I was happy to get this one. Like Puxatawny Phil seeing his shadow, this one tells me only 4 more months till it stops raining in Oregon. Well at least until we can garuntee dry days for a few months.

One thing I wanted to point out in this was the use of a survey. I love surveys and we know that people like to vote. But the problem is that I got this in the new MSN LiveMail and it kills all surveys and even from opening a new window for this survey, which is odd. So lesson for today, it rains in Oregon, Scotts takes a break from the lawn just like my dog, and surveys should have links in them if you want people to be able to participate.

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Big brother has been watching for a long time. Even since before 1984.

And now government seeks the aid of marketers to keep tabs on US citizens. They plan to track purchases, emails and behavioral patterns back to those with a propensity to commit crime or join terrorist groups. This way, they think they can stop crime before it happens.

You better watch out! Your years of buying Japanese cars, French wine and Russian porn may just come back and bite you. If your last three debit card purchases weren’t an American flag, a baseball cap (fitted) and some bullets for your Smith & Wesson, you might as well turn yourself in now.

So, here’s to you mister conspiracy theory, with your grassy knoll and your area 51. You were right. Question is, what are we going to do about it? And how do we, as marketers, keep the trust of our consumers?

We have been testing out some new social media systems with Google Maps. This is one that we have created using Frappr.com allows people on this blog as well as others mark their geo location. We invite you to mark your turf on the map and tag the industry you are in.

<img alt=”FrappreROI.jpg” src=”http://www.theemailwars.com/archives/FrappreROI.jpg” width=”300″

So good to see that cocktails are not just for the after 5 crowd anymore. Kettle Foods latest campaign is infusing cocktail themed flavors into the next round of chips. Now the best part is, if you vote, you can also get a 5 pack sample of the chips sent to your house or office. I did and let me tell you that they are all great, but I do have a favorite. I hope that it wins and they make it. Sooo good.

Drinks Anyone? Vote today as the content ends in two weeks.

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Not sure why but even 4 years ago with the Trunk Monkey spots we seem to love when monkeys do the unexpected. Maybe it is because we were all monkeys at one point in time. And some of us her might still be monkeys.

Think back to 1999 when we were all going to change the world with the internet. Sites and ideas sprang up overnight and leapt into the media frenzy on a daily basis. The media controlled the game and companies had to pay dearly to leverage the saturated pages of every offline vehicle to get their messaging in front of businesses and consumers. Now, flash forward to 2006, the tables have been turned to a method of consumers running the show. Everyone from your co-workers, children and parents have begun to embrace the world of consumer generated content, blogging, social media sites and word of mouth marketing.

Today we have many online vehicles to move our messaging across the globe in a relatively inexpensive way, but it also leads us into new, unfamiliar waters of relinquishing some control. This may be the hardest part of the entire movement; where people outside of your ad agency or internal marketing group can make or break your message.
How have we approached it?

We have been fortunate to help many companies move from the sidelines to the frontlines of this next wave in marketing. We are not going to tell you that it hasn’t been without fear or trepidation on the parts of many VPs and Legal Counsels, but in the end it’s been an eye opener to the power you can unleash for your brand and campaign. So, before we dive into a quick overview of how your business might be able to use this medium, fasten your seat belt and throw some of your old notions to the wind, but not to chance.

Kettle Foods Dips Toe into Social Media
In the second year of the Crave campaign that was executed by Maxwell PR and eROI for Kettle Foods, all parties involved wanted to leverage the momentum of brand evangelism and consumer generated media. But what would be a simple way to move into this realm without releasing all control. The answer came in the form of the StraightUpFlavor.com site for voting on the next flavor of Kettle Foods chips. This provided a way for consumers to supply feedback to the company. After planning on the method of collection, the new site opened up to accept this media in an uncontrolled format. After the first week of results, Kettle Foods loved all of the consumer comments. Thus, the company has created a way to get direct consumer feedback for new concepts/flavors.

Jack Klugman Podcasts
Jack Klugman, the actor from the Odd Couple and Quincy MD, was releasing a new book on his life and friendship with Tony Randall. The national media tour was planned; book signing dates set and PR ready to roll. However, what about the audience that wouldn’t be hit through these channels? The idea for a TonyandMe Blog was born. This blog would allow Jack to create a new media strategy in a real grass roots way. Sitting down with his son over a long weekend, Jack started recording stories about the friends he had in his life and anecdotes about each. Besides sharing the stories with his own son, he was also able to share his stories online with many. The plan used RSS (Real Simple Syndication), Podcasts and grass roots efforts to let others pass and interact with his message. With a few calls to Itunes, Jack was placed in the home page rotation of featured content driving his podcast to unimagined highs and downloads. With this new organic visibility, small video clips were created from live events, old footage and interviews to keep the content library available and active and to keep the online audience engaged through the first few months of the book release and holiday season.

Mass Media and Our Love of Celebrities
DeliveryAgent approached eROI to help test the waters for a new site as well as support for the current paid effort for the ShoptheScene.com (NBC, ABC, Miramax, Project Runway, Queer Eye and more). A new blog and social media plan is what resulted. The idea was to use a blog to test efforts and define what types of media (text, audio and video) would be rapid drivers of organic search engine and social media traffic. A three tiered strategy was created as to not over extend the internal requirements of the DeliveryAgent team from current roles, and build a plan that could be ramped up or even killed off if deemed a liability. The use of a blog or disposable URL gives the ability to scale or kill a concept that is not ultimately tied to other sites or the brand.

How will you approach it?

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Working your tail off? Think you deserve more? Now you can use this AMAZING new web based machine to figure it out. Introducing the Salary-Matic.

It was created to promote an online recruiting service. The minisite asks you: “How much do you think you deserve to make?”. Just make sure you don’t share your answer with colleagues.., or boss.

I have seen so many Brokeback Mountain paradies now. Will it ever end?