eROI Days Email Agency

Alcoa presents (sorry, that’s the beginning of a TV commercial of “The Catch” in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it’s now back on the prize – bragging rights to the Third Annual PAF Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark.  If you want to take a look at videos from prior year’s Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008.  It’s going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we’re going to bring our “A” Game.  Check it (this is PAF’s main event email and all the info is below):

BATTLE OF THE BANDS

DATE:
Wednesday June 17, 2009

TIME:
6:00 pm

PLACE:
Someday Lounge
224 NW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR

COST:
$300 per band

Register your Band!
Contact Mike Terry at mterry@magnetoworks.com

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This morning’s article on eMarketer, “Marketers Moving to Digital Media” had some really encouraging and powerful data in it. For all of us in the interactive agency and email marketing industry, this is great news that validates our gut instinct that we’ve been seeing anecdotally. The article begins:

“Looking for an upside. In the wake of the global economic downturn, marketers worldwide are shifting more of their budgets into cheaper, more-measurable categories. In most cases, that means online.

Although the name of the organization might imply a slight bias, in a survey by the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), 81% of respondents said they plan to invest at least as much in digital marketing in 2009 as in the previous year.

More than 77% of traditional advertising agencies are increasing the amount of digital in their budgets by 1% to 29%. And over 10% are upping online budgets by 30% or more.

The pictures / slideshow below of the eROI camping trip at Timothy Lake on the back side of Mt. Hood is good, but it’s a bit biased towards the family fun side of things. Kelsey will need to reveal the late night photos and video of some of the drinking games and intriguing conversations. All in all – a great time was had by all 25 folks who joined for a great overnight trip. The link to the slideshow is here if you want to see the full size of the pictures – http://picasaweb.google.com/ryanbuch99/EROICampingJuly08AtTimothyLakeMtHood.

You will be inspired. The new look to this fascinatingly fascinating blog will be far far better than the little screenshot below. Prepare to be utterly floored by this weekend. No pressure to the awesome developer (rockstar Mrs. Gunter) and designer (nicely done Mr. Calvert).

I almost forgot — this blog will transition over the next month or so to having everyone subscribe to eroidays.com, no longer emaildays.com (same content, just a more accurate name):

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:

Ever since we moved into the Technology & Arts Building on 505 NW Couch Street, we’ve loved it – it’s in the heart of Oldtown / Chinatown and 1 block from downtown. It has the coolest, hipest retail (Compound), favorite indie coffee place in town (Backspace), best Steak & Cheese sandwiches (Ford’s Cafe), killer drinks and ambience (Someday Lounge), and coming soon – the first and only upscale business lunch spot in the entire neighborhood (Davis Street Tavern).

However, this blog post isn’t about all the killer stuff currently in our building. It’s about the development happening across the street in the full city block parking lot that’s about to become the hotspot in town for upscale grocery shopping (Japanese + Chinese), retail, farmer’s market, and all kinds of other goodness. Check out this recent Portland Tribune article talking all about it!

It’s not totally a done deal, but it’s looking good. Ain’t life grand.

If you didn’t catch our email yesterday and you attended or participated in the big eROI fashion party called FIVE a couple weeks ago, here it is below. Also, we have new video to show you.

The new eROI party video – check it out to see if you are in the video:

Full disclosure, eROI did the design for this CBSSports.com Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball newsletter signup email. One pleasant surprise is how well this email performed both before its launch in eye-tracking testing and in the number of newsletter signups it drove in the actual campaign.

What are your thougths on the above email design? Please comment.

Gonna be another great event this year…

Internet Strategy Forum Summit 2008
July 17-18, Governor Hotel, Portland

Internet Strategy Forum Summit attendees will gain actionable insight into smart enterprise Internet strategy as they engage with each other and with the VP and C-level keynote presenters from leading global companies such as eMarketer, Forrester Research, Disney, Nike, Intel, IBM, WebTrends and Fandango, who will share their experience and ideas on how to best leverage the Internet and integrate it into your overall business strategy.

There will be 8 keynote-style presentations, a vendor panel, a lunch, a reception and other networking opportunities, all for registration fees starting at less than $249. Friends of eROI can receive a 15% discount on the registration fee by using Discount Code “REACHROI” at registration time.

Presenters and Topics include:

* Daniel Stickel, new CEO, WebTrends (formerly with Google)

* Geoffrey Ramsey, Co-founder & CEO, eMarketer
TOPIC: Mapping the Digital Landscape: A Strategic Guide

* Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
TOPIC: Creating A Social Strategy That Will Work

* Chris Shimojima, VP, Global Digital Commerce, Nike
TOPIC: Social Commerce: Innovate How We Connect

* David Placier, VP, Consumer Insights, Disney Online
TOPIC: The evolution of CRM: Enhancing Web Site Experiences

* Nancy Bhagat, VP of Sales and Marketing Group, Intel
TOPIC: End to End Marketing Online: A Fundamental Shift

* Mike Moran, Distinguished Engineer, IBM, author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc.
TOPIC: Internet Marketing by the Numbers

* Shane O’Neill, Chief Technology Officer, Fandango
TOPIC: Email Marketing: Beyond Newsletters and Confirmation

Internet Strategy Forum Summit
Thursday, July 17, 2008
8:00am – 5:00pm
Optional Internet strategist career path symposium Friday, July 18, 2008 Governor Hotel, Portland, Oregon http://www.internetstrategyforum.org/summit

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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eROI made the Portland Business Journal’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Portland list for the second consecutive year.

Our ranking dropped from #15 to #36, even though we grew absolute revenue by an equal number. From a % perspective, it’s hard to maintain a high % of growth on a much larger number from ‘05 to ‘07.

The management team all attended the event and we were excited to be included in this prestigious group of companies.

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 >>

Jerry Ketel, one of the principals at Leopold & Ketel, was the commencement speaker at the Art Institute of Portland last week and he blew me away. Unbelievably good – here’s a transcript below:

Jerry Ketel’s Keynote address:

Thank you, it is a pleasure to be addressing you, my fellow creative professionals. And thank you for the introduction, although I think I will read to you what the Willamette Week wrote last week about this address, and I quote:

“This graphic designer managed to graduate art school AND get a job. Now he has to convince everybody else there is a future for art majors.”

Well, I don’t have to convince everybody that the world needs art majors. I mean, have you been to Gresham? Or Beaverton? Or Detroit? The world needs some imagination, don’t you think?

I mean, look at us (directing attention to commencement faculty all dressed in cap and gown). Can’t we get some help from the fashion designers in the house?

We creative types have a whole world to change!

Willamette Week then suggested that someone who would be more qualified to address you would be servers, personal assistants or telemarketers, (you know, for an approximation of what art school will really be like.)

Well, believe it or not, a former waitperson and bartender IS addressing you today.

OK, I know, I’ve probably shattered your image of me as a demi-god, among the pantheon of artistic greats like the guy who invented paint splattered aprons. The truth is, I was simply the guy who outlasted the competition. My very first job as a creative professional, I was fired. In fact I was fired 3 times in my career as an art director.

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As Portland Ad Federation’s website says, “Go a few rounds with Portland’s heavyweights. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

As a lightweight in the Portland creative realm, I absolutely loved being part of a creative concept that further reinforced Portland agency owners collaborating to do something very cool. Livengood Nowack came up with the 60’s style, boxing inspired theme to this year’s Rosey Awards – 11 agency owners dressed in boxing attire and got greased up for the photo shoot. I was having a really hard time putting my “Eye of the Tiger” face on as other agency owners like Scott “Vanilla Thrilla” Nowack and Phil “The O’Reilly Factor” Reilly were continually busting jokes.

Check out the site: www.RoseyAwards.com and click on “Features” in the navigation. One more reason to love Portland and its Creative Class. Big kudos to Livengood Nowack for making this happen!

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.