My two fellow eROI NYC folks, Chris Masagatani and Kavita Makadia, joined me in attending the June 1 Ignite NYC event just a block from Chris’s apartment in Midtown. I had been to an Ignite event in Washington DC which was pretty good, but a little stiff and serious, so my expectations were moderate before going to the event. At this NYC event, I was blown away by how creative, funny, and polished each of the 5-minute presentations were. I highly highly recommend you watch the video below of the brilliantly funny Baratunde Shares of The Onion.
As I was biking in to work this morning along Waterfront Park (Willamette River and Mt. Hood views), I caught up with a colleague of mine who works at the PDC and we rode the rest of the way into work together. It was one of those “Portland moments” where it would be unexpected anywhere else for a couple business guys who haven’t seen each other in 3 months connect on a morning commute into work. Portland, like Amsterdam, has a biking culture, and with the right gear, it’s refreshing to bike rain or shine (although SUN is so so much better). Here is the NY Times article my Dad (who lives in Washington DC) sent me as I arrived at my desk this morning:
“A LOT of good cyclists come out of Portland just because you can ride year-round,” said Bruce Rogers, an athletic-shoe designer visiting from his home in Hailey, Idaho. “I love coming back because I love the biking, no matter what time of year it is. More than fitness, it’s a fun outlet. As long as you have decent rainwear you can ride in any weather.”
Careering through streets on a bicycle in Portland, Ore., this time of year can be an easy weekend adventure that mixes showers, sunbursts, cafes and a robust bicycle culture. And equipped with a sturdy rain jacket, booties, fenders and a bike map (a waterproof version that folds to the size of a credit card is handy), visitors can enjoy the city the way locals do.
In 2003, eROI designed and developed a website for Meritage Properties. Six years later, they were ready for a new overall strategy and design and again decided to turn to the eROI team to make it happen. The original design was simple and fit their needs at the time but with more focus on online marketing, Meritage Properties wanted to present themselves in a more mature fashion. The emphasis was on making the design clean and crisp. This was achieved by using neutral colors to make the property photos and logo pop off the page through greater contrast. Additionally, the site employs helpful yet understated navigation bars and a java script slideshow of properties rotating on the home page. Another success was integrating google maps into the site. This added functionality, built in wordpress, allows viewers to click a location and view the property that resides there. The overall effect is a stunning combination of photography, information and functionality. This site has been propelled back into the modern world of web design.
At eROI, we’ve launched some exciting new blogs in the past couple months, and the content is unbelievably good. It’s so good, it may even rival the eROI Days blog. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, now is your chance. Fresh is a blog from our creatives that is both design-oriented as well as great insights into web technologies. eROI NYC has an urban, high-energy feel to it with loads of unique video straight from the New York underground. Then, there are the tried and true old-timer blogs with eROI Days, The Email Wars, and Return on Subscriber.
Our fearless NYC Director, Chris Masagatani, has been scouring the streets of NYC for 374 days. He and his fiance (now wife) moved there Dec 2, 2007. They moved straight into Hell’s Kitchen and Chris commuted all of 25 blocks to the eROI NYC office in the Flat Iron District of Manhattan where we still operate. So much change in a year - his wife is one of the top designers at nationally-acclaimed design school Parsons, and Chris is truly coming into his own as an expert online marketer, leading email design and web projects for CBS Sports, CBS Watch magazine, CBS Star Trek store among other key eROI clients like digital publisher Zinio, real estate companies like Shares of New York, The Marketing Directors and dozens more unique and amazing NYC-based clients.
What makes our year anniversary in NYC even better is that Chris has found his voice blogging on our new blog in the eROI blog family. Check out the phenomenal, unique video mashups, and photos of NYC life on THE REBIRTH OF SLICK >>
You will feel like you are in New York City when you read the blog posts and watch the videos at www.eroinyc.com
Email Design Drives Results for CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports
Does email design really matter? Is it just “fluff,” or does it truly drive results?
At eROI, we just let our Resource Center subscribers know about this exclusive email marketing case study. See how a fresh, targeted, and on-brand email design by eROI’s award-winning creative team took the CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports emails to the next level.
Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on Email Design. Give us your take Before & After you read the case study. Thx.
Our NYC Director, Chris Masagatani, has creating, editing, mixing, and mashing video with a very urban, creative flair. He posted his video to the blog he contributes most to - CrossPixelNYC, however, I couldn’t resist embedding the video in this blog post here. Enjoy!
Chris - you have insane skills video editing. I had to share this video you did on CrossPixelNYC blog on to eROIdays (in the spirit of re-tweeting). Again - great stuff!
I never thought I’d have ‘thank you Palin’ in the title of anything I’d ever write, but I’ve done it. She and Tina Fey have made Saturday Night Live so unbelievably relevant and funny again. SNL absolutely nailed this skit last night - Baldwin said exactly what most guys (at least my guy friends) are thinking and to make this blog post relevant to online marketing, I must tell you that I don’t watch any of this stuff on TV anymore - I race to my computer on a Sunday morning and laugh my head off watching it on Saturday Night Live’s website.
Everyone else - tell me - are you watching SNL skits on their site or YouTube on Sunday or during the workweek, or is this blog post the first time you’ve seen its online video? Comment.
The smiley face image to the left makes this blog post all the more enjoyable to write. So, as an entrepreneur, let’s talk about which strategies worked and which failed last week amidst the absolute chaos in the financial markets and subsequently the economy. I was visiting clients and prospects from our NYC office on Mon-Wed last week and media is EVERYWHERE in Manhattan - you cannot escape it.
However, I was with our NYC Director, Chris Masagatani, who is super talented and hilarious to hang out with while dashing to meetings all over town. So, my NYC strategy was “Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil” in relation to all the news surrounding the markets crashing continuously.
Then, on the plane flight home to Portland on Wed night, I watched a little of Anderson Cooper and Suze Orman on the Jet Blue flight and Suze said the Dow could easily drop another 1000 points to 8,200 (little did I know that this would actually happen during the day 36 hours later). This was on top of all the other stuff I had been trying to ignore - and the honest truth is that a lot of anxiety and a little panic set in. It didn’t last long, but it was there for a brief moment that night. Failed strategy #2.
I had the most relaxing, peaceful weekend with close friends and all of our families at Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon (where I still managed to get a ton of work done) and I realized that the successful strategy #3 is to be aware of what is going on globally, but focus all of your energy on your own little world - your team, delighting customers, being frugal in how your company operates, stay calm, and exude positivity and optimism. So, if an anxiety attack hits, remember to be happy dammit!
Chris - love your use of original video on your blog - www.crosspixelnyc.com - content in this rocks. It was so good - I had to re-post on this blog so people can see how we roll in NYC. Great job!
Kelly Samardak wrote an incredible piece in her MediaPost column “Just an Online Minute” about the wayward remaining days in the last week of August and how we all get insanely busy starting today, the first day of September AFTER Labor Day. This is what grabbed my attention: “If you’re reading this on your iPhone, Blackberry, or crystal ball while on the beach gazing at Regis Philbin from behind in his sky-blue banana hammock, thanks, and enjoy this languid read of low-pressure, real-life socializing. Why? Because I know September is about to grab us all by our media necks and wipe the floors with our souls. See you next week; I’ll be the one in body armor.”
So, while we recognize that the final four months of the year are going to fly by getting entrenched in the online marketing / interactive agency / social media world while juggling family commitments, school, soccer practices for the kids, and an occasional date night w/ your spouse, let’s try to keep a little balance in our lives. Until then, enjoy this article:
The company eROI didn’t get married, but two amazing people (Chris and Tatom Masagatani) tied the knot on a Ranch outside of a tiny town called Dayton in Central Washington. Half the company was present and had a blast. Truly, the pictures and videos in the slideshow below say it all. Both families are super genuine and made the event an unbelievably special occasion:
1500 people. Quadruple-decker Ice luge. 60 models. 80 amazing fashion designs. Snoop Doggy Dogg’s posse makes a guest visit. The pictures and video really paint the picture better. Hope you enjoy:
Reunite on Ice (ROI) - you inspired me last night. I yelled my heart out for you. I sang off-key in the shower this morning. I can’t stop thinking about how awesome your performance was last night at PAF’s Battle of the Bands.
Everyone was amazing - Mike on the drums, Mitch on keyboards, Sam in his acid-washed jeans on the bass, Alex w/ some insane guitar solos and even better facial expressions, James for belting it out then ripping off his shirt at the appropriate time, Chris for some mad freestyle rapping to “Another One Bites the Dust”, but the MVP goes to the mustache-wearing, hip-gyrating Victor Nakada with special moves like the fake tear streaming down his face, high intensity - AMAZING.
I’ve had proud moments of my teams in the past, but this one was one of the proudest.
Thanks for bringing home the trophy yet again! And, thanks to all the eROI band supporters - I hope you all show up to Band Camp this summer. Because, that one time…at band camp…
When Does One Permission Overwrite The Other - In the world of multichannel and location opt in and opt out how do you keep your lists in sync? Can you?
Let me put some scenarios on the table to give you some real world examples of challenges I have been facing in some recent work with a retailer.
1. Your customer opts in from your [...]
Here is a great example of making your transactional email more than just a notification. When done right, transactional email can be a great branding opportunity.
Check out this awesome shipping confirmation email from Cd Baby below (click to enlarge).
