eROI Days Email Agency

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:

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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:

Here are a few other people’s slideshows:
eROI Flickr pics: http://www.flickr.com/groups/753070@N25/pool/show/

Scott Kveton Flickr pics: http://flickr.com/photos/kveton/sets/72157605740710205/show/

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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…

To see more videos, check out the eROI YouTube Channel >>

Total yoga for the brain. Thanks for thinking of ways to infuse positivity into what we do. Here is my love letter to eROI:

I love that we create.

I love the team I work with and the layered relationships we have built doing great things together.

I love the importance of creativity in everything that goes on with the company. We value every employee’s talents and input and utilize them in very effective ways.

I love that eROI is not just a job it’s a lifestyle choice. Because of the atmosphere and sense of family I choose to not just do my work but live my work.

I love that eROI puts trust in its employees and expects the best from them.

I love that we go toe to toe with the best in the business.

I love that eROI has provided me the opportunity to start a family and live in NYC.

I love that we provide insurance for our employees and are ultra responsive to personal needs when appropriate. I have seen members of the team get rocked with crazy life experiences both good and bad and have seen the people at eROI bring them back or help them celebrate. It is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

I love our brand and I love contributing to its growth.

Met with a young entrepreneur, Noah Glass, 26 yrs old, who founded a super innovative startup called GoMobo, where mobile phone users (basically 1/2 of the world) can purchase food at a restaurant from their car, cab, train, or on foot and then go pick it up without waiting in line. It’s the perfect solution for Manhattan where waits can be long and everyone is on a mobile device. In the past couple years, Noah and GoMobo have been covered on ABC News, Good Morning America, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, and Inc. magazine. They’ve got 5,000 active users/consumers in their network and the company is really taking off.

On the Inc. magazine topic, I met an Inc. reporter, Athena, at the Inc. 500 Conference in 2007 in Chicago, and reconnected with her at the new Inc. office at 7 World Trade Center. Wow – the views from their office were unbelievable – and very cool to watch Ground Zero start to come back to life with some major developments happening quickly. I’m a huge fan of Inc. magazine and their annual Inc. 500 conference is really helpful for connecting entrepreneurs and giving some new perspective on growing your business the right way. Athena asked a lot of great questions about some of the innovative Oregon companies that I mentioned to her – Plas2Fuel and a network of entrepreneurs in a group we started called Starve Ups.

A friend sent me this awesome video on the “best prank ever done” at Grand Central Station:

I took the train in from Princeton, New Jersey this morning (spent the night at my childhood friend’s house in Princeton, after recovering from a huge night out at TGI Fridays – with him, his wife, and adorable 2-year-old son, followed by an intense game of Scrabble where his British wife crushed us with words like “cheque” and other non-American, English words). I digress. It’s a balmy 55 degree, overcast day in Manhattan and I’m loving the freedom of walking everywhere in this town.

I connected w/ Chris Masagatani, our NYC Director, at my hotel near Madison Square Garden and we walked to his interim office at ReturnPath – an awesome partner of ours. It’s amazing what you can get done in just a few hours when you have uninterrupted time in person with someone. Chris and I went over updates on all of our NY region clients – roughly 40 of them. We made travel arrangements for him to come back to see us in April in P’town. We also went over a NYC-specific grassroots marketing campaign of reaching out to other bloggers in NYC in the marketing, interactive, and advertising industries.

Chris’s blog is www.CrossPixelNation.com. It’s barebones from a design perspective, but it will soon be a key asset to our NYC office.

We treated ReturnPath Exec Stephanie Miller out to a tasty lunch of Southern cooking nearby and caught up on the happenings within the email and interactive industry. Huge thanks again to Matt, Stephanie, and the ReturnPath team to making our entry into the NYC market so much more enjoyable than scrapping away and learning the hard way.

Another update. We hired an awesome NYC-dedicated account coordinator, Donald Law, in our Portland office and he’s hitting the ground floor running this week.

If you still haven’t clicked through to Chris’s blog, here is Episode II of his video talents and impressions of the Big Apple after living here for the past 6 weeks:

Chris spent all weekend and week (wait – is he working at all?) on this very cool video of his journey from Portland to New York City. Watch it and see the amazing amount of positive energy Chris has – nicely done!

Big things will happen in ‘08, Chris – let the journey begin!