eROI Days Email Agency

Advertising Age reports that “Promotion Firms Caught in Internet Gambling Crackdown.” The article speaks for itself, so I’ll only add the comment that the U.S. government is watching you no matter how big or small you are so don’t mess with smuggling cars to Costa Rica as part of the compensation package.

The article continues, “DME Global Marketing & Fulfillment, Direct Mail Expertise and Mobile Promotions and four of its principals — William Hernon Lenis; his son William Luis Lenis and daughter Monica Lenis; and Manny Gustavo Lenis, a nephew — were named in an indictment unsealed yesterday accusing BetOnSports and its principals of illegally engaging in internet gambling and tax evasion.

Racketeering conspiracy
The indictment, issued in St. Louis, charges the ad execs and their companies with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, saying they worked to illegally advertise and support several websites by buying ads, sending equipment and prizes for the site to Costa Rica and eventually serving as the fulfillment house for internet-gambling prizes.

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eMarketer published some exciting data on blog demographics and which group of people are blog power-users. Most blog neophytes assume that 12-24 year old MySpace users and “People” magazine readers are blogging about 50 Cent all day long, but the reality (from what this study shows) is that older, educated, affluent individuals are consuming and creating the bulk of the blog content. View the full article on “Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs.”

Retro techie meets creative meets Web 2.0. This video shows the viral nature of YouTube and authentic, creative video showcased on the Web 2.0 site. I received an email from someone in my office, a friend in Belgium, and another business associate in the span of 2 days. Fascinating.

I opened my inbox this morning to an email from my buddy Joe calling me Scruffaluffagus and telling me my facial hair is as outdated as Hammer Pants. After crossing Joe off my list of people I’d buy a car for if I won the lottery, I followed a link to an audio/video message he created for me. What I was presented with was a talking head spouting out some critique of my hair stylings. Intrigued and slightly bruised, I ventured into the linked website, barberbrigade.com.

The spinning barber shop stripe sign used as a loading status bar, along with the website’s URL, were enough to tie this all together. It’s a site dedicated to male grooming. All the outright and unwarranted abuse of my facial fuzz fashion fax pas aside, my experience with barberbrigade.com was a good one. The design of this website (it’s flash man, get with the program), is as sweet as Joe’s girlfriends lips (think honey with a touch of caramel). Almost everything on the site is clickable and interactive. The nutty designers of the site at Wexley School for Girls did a great job of flexing their creative creativeness. There are sound bites, birds that take dumps and even a fish that blows balloon animals.

I was quickly hooked by the interactivity and design. So much so that I spent a good hour on the site (Yes, while at work but it’s cool, I put my hours under miscellaneous on the timesheet.). The site also succeeded in sparking my interest in the grooming products it is attempting to sell. I even showed them to my lady. Personally, I still have a hard time spending more than $10 on anything to do with hair so if she wants me to look pretty, she’ll have to dig into her pockets. Hey, I’m no $2 whore you know. Not like Joe.

So you would assume that as an email marketing company we would all be drinking the Kool Aid right. Well of course we are. One of the team has a band and seems a solid grasp on humor and personalization in emails. He had a show the other night and sent this out to the team to come watch him rock. My favorite thing (besides Mr T and free Fried Chicken - see the name of the other band) was that he added my name to the email under the photo. He has done this a few times with another using the TV show 24 (which I think he believes he IS Jack Bauer).

A simple showing of personalization that works.

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So, how do you add humor and potential viral marketing to a campaign surrounding cancer? You launch a site called NoticeYourNuts.com. Apparently, 99% of testicular cancer is treatable if discovered early. I would have never known that if I didn’t get a couple emails from friends to tell me to check out this funny but poignant online video. Here’s my question though: aren’t most guys pretty in tune with their nuts? What I didn’t get from the video is what to look out for - weird growth? something funky? Alright, I’m curious enough now to look it up on www.webmd.com.

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The eROI 2006 party got off to a good start and finished strong.

Over 400 clients and friends joined the eROI team at our office in NW Portland (Waterfront Pearl District area) to network, enjoy some frozen marguritas, dacquiris, and other assorted drinks, chow down on Russel Street BBQ goodies, and watch DJ Joel Skool mix it up with some notable acid jazz funk band members.