eROI Days Email Agency » Funny Email

Holiday Cheer comes in 40oz

Hannah — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:36:59 +0000

Things I like: cheesing for the camera, beer, the holidays, websites that include all of these things.

Lucky for me, and you, eROI shares in my adoration for the aforementioned things.

To commemorate the holiday season we wanted to say “Cheers in the Name of Frugality” to all of our clients, supporters and friends. Joyfully, the entire company is as narcissistic as I am and thought the perfect gift to you was pictures of us (my go-to gift outside my professional life).

Highlights included: beer showers in the kiddy-pool, “organized falling”, clothing removal and, of course, pet cameos. It was loads of fun and brought all of us together even more. This one will be hard to top.

See the email we sent out »

See the Holiday Cheer landing page »

I’ll Take a Side of Funny on My B-Day

Hannah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:28:09 +0000

Everyone should feel special on their birthday. In my family that sense of happiness came with a slight sense of humiliation. Whether it was a sombrero at Who Song and Larry’s or the story of your birth being recounted to your closest friends, birthdays were a roller coaster of emotions.

Being the giver that I am, I was sure to pass on my family traditions to my eROI family. Thus began the institution of the birthday email. Even though every employee is guaranteed to get a card late, I made sure that these mild affronts showed up right on time.

Below are a few of the highlights throughout the year. I hope I don’t lose friends over this.

Our fearless leader in a stylish ‘stache. Click here for the real thing.

VP of Products, going to his version of The Dark Side.

Our controller, she is known to party with rock stars from time to time ;)

Senior Account Executive may be his day job title but at night he is at the DJ Booth spinning for Homeless Panda.

Always put together Director of Account Services, St Tropez style.

And as an update for all of you waiting with bated breath about the fate of the dishwasher. Yesterday we officially got a new one. It’s time to put the Mom Jeans away.

Email Campaign Comedy

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:15:52 +0000

“Woman Sues Toyota Over ‘Terrifying’ Prank” was the ABC News headline that caught the eye of one of eROI’s developers and the article quickly circulated around the office. The article stated that Amber Duick was suing Toyota for $10 million over emails that supposedly made her believe that she was being stalked. The campaign in question was for Toyota’s Matrix car. The emails, intended for “men under 35 who hate advertising,” was a series of emails “from” a fictitious English man on the run from cops claiming to need to stay at the recipients house. Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency responsible for the ads, even created a fake MySpace page for the fugitive. The campaign was well executed, funny, creative and buzz worthy and the lawsuit only adds to the hype around the emails.

It seems there are a couple things that don’t line up with the lawsuit. First of all, the lawyers who represent Toyota asserted that there was a confirmed opt-in process that Duick admitted that she committed to at the initial outset of the series of Toyota campaign emails that she received. The article didn’t mention whether or not there was an unsubscribe link and physical address in each email (CAN-Spam compliance), as Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi may have taken the position that those elements in the email would have detracted from the authenticity of this fake campaign (not sure I’ve ever written “authenticity and fake” in the same sentence where it actually kind of made sense).

If there was an easy opt-out on each and every email, which would make you think either this is the most privacy concerned criminal ever encountered, then there isn’t even a glimmer of hope that Duick could win her case. As is, Toyota has an overwhelmingly solid legal argument based on her written consent in opt-in.

What could have been done differently?

Obviously a neurotic Los Angeles woman wasn’t their target audience, so how could she have been engaged while not being “terrified?” List segmentation could have been used to “check in” on consumers not fitting the targeted demographic. Toyota could have even segmented women from men and had an extra question or check in to make sure their campaign would be received with the appropriate response. Another idea would be to just make the product a little more blatantly obvious so you know you are interacting with a brand but you are still having fun. Finding a balance between really creative and fun with responsible marketing is key.

Portland Bike Culture: A Beautiful Thing

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:27:33 +0000

When I first started writing for this blog, it was called “Email Days” and featured lots of examples of everyday emails, highlighting the importance of email in our every day lives, not just touting email marketing only. So, I thought I’d go back to my roots a little bit and tell you about an email a friend sent me last night. He is an avid cyclist and knows I like cycling as well, despite the fact that we both mainly commute to work by bike and don’t get to do long rides very often as our weekends are consumed with raising young kids and different kinds of activities then biking. He sent a link to the video below, which is filmed in Portland, Oregon, and really captures the humor of two different types of cyclists – hipsters vs performance. This is one of the funnier videos I’ve seen in a while and is very close to home, literally and figuratively. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Doing Dishes in Mom Jeans

Hannah — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:06:23 +0000

Dylan may participate in the Email Wars but I have been on the front line of the Dishes Wars for quite some time now. There was a heavy blow to my defense recently. The dishwasher, along with some of my resolve, broke last week. For a little while my post-it stating, “If you leave dishes in the sink a monster will eat you!” kept the kitchen clear but in time everyone realized I was, in fact, bluffing and no monster would prey on them. As a final desperate plea, while I waited for the repair man, I sent out an email to the team begging for mercy from the suds.

I hope some of you can understand my pain.

Flashback 2 years ago: eROI Idol

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:42:59 +0000

I love that YouTube videos are timeless and all of us can re-live ridiculous moments years later. At eROI, we have dozens and dozens of those moments captured over the past many years on the eROI YouTube channel here >>. So, why am I doing a Flashback blog post? Yesterday, I had a client meeting with my friend James Adair and the typical client meeting turned into something so much better after watching the below video on our big screen. The second video is of distinguished Portland PR specialist, JulieAnna Little Giannini. She was the winner at eROI Idol, so it was only appropriate to include her video as well.

Haiku Monday: Are the 70′s Back?

Ryan Buchanan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:10:10 +0000

I got a lot of comments on my look (see below) where I sported the 70′s stache for a solid 2 days. Most of you cringed in pain just looking at me with my stache. But some of you liked it, like a yearning for the days of Saturday Night Fever. So, your task is to comment below with a haiku on how you feel about 70′s style in today’s age.

KillROI Adventures thru Client Eyes

Ryan Buchanan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:01:57 +0000

KillROI has been a busy robot, checking out the scenes that Portland has to offer. Thanks to Nancy’s creative use of her camera and for sending us the hilarious photos, we are able to share those adventures with you. Here is what Nancy had to say about KillROI’s adventures:

We’ve had a lot of fun touring around Old Town Chinatown, KillROI’s home (and mine).

From a First Thursday event at ANKA Gallery, to the Steel Bridge and the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, KillROI took it all in stride.

On a tour of the Central Library’s eco-roof, KillROI proved to have no fear of heights, and on a snowshoe trek to Mt. Hood’s Trillium Lake, KillROI conquered a mountain of snow.

My personal favorite is the “where’s waldo” version–the hood of an art car. Where next? Only the Shadow knows . . . .

Thanks again Nancy and we look forward to what lies ahead for our good friend KillROI!

Funniest Email of 2008

Ryan Buchanan — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:00:10 +0000

After the last week of blog posts looking forward into 2009, I thought it would be relevant for the first blog post of 2009 to be about the Best of ’08. The key to email marketing is personalization and ultra-relevance. This email was to my parents, sisters, and brother-in-laws about a funny video on Saturday Night Live called “Jizz in My Pants.” My Mom’s response was so funny I had to forward it to all eROI employees. If you know my Mom, it’s even funnier.

—–Original Message—–
From: Ryan Buchanan
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 1:53 PM
To: Ryan’s family
Subject: Very funny, popular SNL video

Saturday Night Live at its finest – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4.

This is one of the most passed around video in the past couple weeks.

Cheers,
Ryan

—————————-
The video is below:

And my Mom’s response…

________________________________________
From: Mom
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 4:04 PM
Subject: RE: Very funny, popular SNL video

Ryan, Honey, that’s a very nice song, nice catchy tune but can you please explan what it means to – J-I-Z-Z in your pants!

The girls are very attractive but the guys look like a bunch of GoofBalls! Why do women have to go for such Goof Balls??

Your mother wants to understand,
S

A Few Good Holiday Emails

Ryan Buchanan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:08:46 +0000

Like most of you, I got dozens of corporate “Happy Holidays” emails. Most had great intent behind them (donating to good causes instead of sending a paper card or gift), but these email campaigns lacked creativity and fell flat in their execution. GoDaddy’s holiday email and flash landing page was so tame and off-brand from the edgy stance they’ve taken with their Super Bowl ads. Some of our vendors sent me holiday emails that were strong sales pitches – not appropriate for a time of reflection and authenticity. Most other emails had generic subject lines like “Happy Holidays from x” and generic email design with low or generic results to their campaigns. I liked 2 holiday emails (beyond our own holiday email) – the first was from Michelle Obama – the main thing I liked was that the Obama campaign FINALLY didn’t ask me for money for themselves – they did ask me to donate to my local food bank.

The second holiday email campaign (see above for email design) had such compelling and humorous, original content on its landing page that it made up for a slightly expected subject line and simple email design and copywriting. Basically, this email from Sandstrom Partners was incredibly effective at getting me to click on the main call to action and even better at getting me to laugh as I completely connected with the agency gift conundrum. See if you think their video landing page is funny too >>