eROI Days Email Agency

Web 2.0 companies are springing up all over the place. I know most of you are thinking that this is just like the Dot Com rush of 1999, but it’s different because many of these business models are sound and social networking / user-generated content works (given the right implementation of it).

One company (Matchpoint) in our backyard came to us 6 months ago with an amazing concept – connect professional parents, highly-skilled and intelligent parents who are getting back into the workforce, with each other and ultimately to flexible, contract jobs. It has some elements to LinkedIn, but it is far more visually appealing, niche, and a hybrid full-service revenue model of having real regional managers place professionals in these jobs. Create your own profile on Matchpointcorp.com!

In Seattle, venture capital reporter John Cook, documents the top 100 Web 2.0 companies in the city alone. Here are the top 5:

Atomic Moguls: Next generation fantasy games. (New entry)

Avvo: Consumer-oriented online legal service. (Stealth)

Bag Borrow or Steal: Luxury goods borrowing service.

Beet Inc.: Online music. (New entry)

BeRecruited: Online sports recruiting site. (New entry)

Read his full blog posting with all 100 Web 2.0 listings >>

OMMA West ’07 – Day 1 Re-cap

Overall theme of the event: “High Anxiety”

Topics covered were:
1) Top 10 Online Marketing Buzzwords you need to eliminate
2) Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, talks about the power of the Blogosphere as well as consumers need + longing for authenticity, transparency, and like-minded values to the media and brands they consume.
3) Shelly Palmer, Media 3.0 host, coins the next big realization – Context (not Content) is King
4) The new new thing in Social Networks
5) Case studies of HOT trend: User-Generated Video integration into websites – for Media, Big Consumer Brands, and smaller brands
6) Email Liars Club – featuring AcquireWeb, Ogilvy, AvenueA / Razorfish, and eROI

Details to follow in upcoming blog posts…

We got in late last night and I went on a little stroll. Stumbling upon sixth street, I proceeded to have my mind blown. Austin is nuts. Portland has nothing on the Austin nightlife. There were hundreds of folks partying in the streets, and I must say warm weather does good things to people. After grabbing some pizza, I headed back to the Radisson, where we are holed up.

Today we started off with breakfast at a Mexican Cafe. I got some chorizo, very good stuff. We then walked up to the capital building and checked out how Texas does it. It was a trip going to the place where GW got his start. I sat on a bench right under his portrait. Jeff took pictures of kids. Leslie wanted to go on a tour and I wouldn’t do it. Probably the first of many of my shooting down the poor girl. What can I say, I am grouchy.

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Agency owners don’t have any peers in our own companies. It’s too cliche to say that we’re a lonely breed, because we’re way too social to be lonely. However, we have a lot of questions that need answers from other agency entrepreneurs who’ve been there before. What is normal for an annual profit margin goal for other agencies? Should our agency charge for the value of an idea or simply charge for our hours? What operational efficiencies can we learn from one another?

We want to know what other agency owners know. Recently, a group of agency owners in Portland, Oregon started a peer group discussion called the Agency Owner Roundtable facilitated by the Portland Advertising Federation. These conversations are completely confidential, so I’m not able to share any individual responses. One of the most interesting pieces to the discussion overall are the topics of interest to our group of a dirty dozen agency owners:

• Intellectual Property and Agency Compensation from clients
• Employee Recruiting and Retention
• Employee Training
• Organizational Structure

I like all 4 topics above, but the first one surrounding the concept of clients “Paying for the upside of the idea, instead of just hours” is of particular interest. Check out these articles:
1. As Agency Work Gets More Engaging, So Does Compensation
2. Fed-up Agencies Quit Punching the Clock
3. Portland ad firm tries pay-for-results

If you are an agency owner in Portland and want to talk about employee issues, agency compensation, or innovative ideas of where the marketing industry can evolve, please shoot me an email (ryan at eroi.com) or comment to this blog posting.

Normally, I don’t mention anything in one of our press releases, but this was a recap to 2006 and I’m feeling a bit philosophical from a business perspective. If things go well for us this year (’07), we will grow smart and build employee evangelists and customer evangelists. Halleluiah! (I’m not religious, but I couldn’t avoid it with all the evangelist talk). There’s a lot more to it then that, but let’s start the discussion there. I hope to gain a lot of insight from other creative agency owners in an Agency Owner Roundtable (among Portland agency owners) discussion that begins tonight and hopefully will continue to happen every couple months.

Our Press Release:
eROI Delivers Strong Finish to 2006 with 61% Revenue Growth; Adds Over 150 New Clients and Expands Management Team

PORTLAND, Ore. (January 22, 2007) eROI, Inc., a full-service e-marketing company, today announced that the company continued its pattern of profitability, recording its fourth consecutive profitable year as a 4-year old company. In 2006, the company grew their revenue 61%, making 2006 their strongest year. Last year, the company brought on over 150 new clients, including The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, Montinore Vineyards, Annie’s Natural Foods and Digimarc Corporation. Furthermore, eROI grew to 32 team members and expanded its management team through well-deserved promotions.

eROI’s positive growth continues partly because of its consistent high quality of service and distinctive creative approach to online marketing. Additionally, the strong momentum is fueled by an increase in the demand for email marketing, e-commerce functionality, and social media tools and platforms. New and current clients such as retailer Dunderdon, gamer Konami and foodie Kettle Foods are realizing the value of direct consumer feedback that social media tools provide. “We’ve helped implement some very successful online viral marketing campaigns for clients by using customized versions of available social media tools. Social media allows organizations to build online communities of loyal brand evangelists,” said Maureen Pimley, recently promoted Vice President of Client Services. “These tools are key to tapping into a much larger audience of interested prospective customers.”

See the Full Press Release on our site >>

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If you are in the Marketing or Advertising industry, you really don’t want to miss this event. Register today >>

OgilvyInteractive Partners Paul Beck and Jeanniey Mullen, based in New York, discuss how Ogilvy got into the interactive online creative business. Paul and Jeanniey will share their experiences at Ogilvy as well as smaller agencies and technology companies that they led. They will provide a framework of how Ogilvy is structured and all of the different marketing channels where Ogilvy helps its clients. Paul and Jeanniey are dynamic and engaging speakers who speak often around the country on the newest trends in Interactive Marketing.

When: January 19, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Where: Kell’s Irish Pub. 112 SW Second Ave. Portland, OR 97204
Cost: PAF Members: $30.00, Non-Members: $45.00

Wieden+Kennedy headquarters in Portland, Oregon has held off entering into the interactive agency world for the past decade until now. Wieden has fervently stayed true to its core talent in TV and print advertising until its recent hiring of Carat Fusion exec, Renny Gleeson, as its global director of digital strategies. Arguably, the most talented independent, private agency in traditional mediums, WK is going to make a strong run at the online world with this new infusion of talent and business direction. WK has a lot of ground to make up to catch up with online viral marketing pioneer Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Read the full MediaPost article

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.

Alright, so I’m originally from the East Coast where Yankee / Dixie conversation seems as fresh today as 140 years ago (maybe not quite that fresh, but you get my point). Even though I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon for the past 10 years, I’m originally from Maryland, one of 3 neutral states in the country during Civil War times. I got an email from a co-worker with the Yankee / Dixie quiz and to my surprise, I found I was slightly more Dixie. I’ve been a called a Yankee my whole adult life and now I find out I’m a Yankee. My indentity is so confused. See which side of the fence you fall:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html

BuildaBusinessinaDay.com

I got this email from a friend of mine that details an incredibly cool event that takes “The Apprentice” to a whole new level in Portland.

“Starve Ups: Build a Business in a Day
What do you need to build a business? A product? A marketing strategy? A sales team? A series of distribution channels? A brand? What if you could help launch a business by bringing all of these elements together with the help of over 35 entrepreneurs and 3 entrepreneurial organizations. What if it you could compress executing upon all of these elements into a single day. What if it didn’t financially cost you anything as a business owner except for some manufacturing time. Move over Donald and make room for “The Johnold.” RSVP to participate in this free 24 hour event by sending an email to contactus@starveups.com.

In October 2005, Starve Ups, an entrepreneurial organization of 18 of the hottest young startups in Portland, started a business event called “Build a Business in a Day.” On that fateful Saturday morning, 24 entrepreneurs gathered around and listened to the Johnold outline their task for the day. 24 people split into 4 teams and each team had to sell 3,000 Mardi Gras necklaces (Beads for the Bayou). Each team had $250 cash for product development (add stickers or bling bling to the necklaces), marketing, and building out the sales channel. Whichever team brought in the most revenue won. The grand prize was pride, second place less pride, and last prize was utter embarrassment. Long story short, all 4 teams brought in nearly $7,000 which was all donated to the Red Cross Katrina Relief effort.

It’s now March 2006 and the stakes are higher. The event is a 24-hour event now. We will gather at 3:30pm on Friday, March 31st at. However, this time we know what we are branding and selling. Earthly Food Delights Company is donating its VEGAN chocolate energy bars and kitchens to the cause. On that Friday, each team among the 6 teams will concoct their own ingredients and look to the energy bars, create packaging, branding and marketing strategies, and return the following morning (Saturday, April 1st) to launch their new product to the Portland market. Each team will be judged on two equal criteria – how the company is branded and on total sales per team.

Let the games begin…”

So after moving in, we were rewarded with some new toys. I mean Darts, Foosball, Guns and Liquor should have been enough for anyone, but we needed a Lil’ Chick.

This new Green Machine is the envy of inter-office transporation. Living in a “Bike Friendly” city like Portland, we needed to bring the bike inside to really hold up to the hype.

And who can’t solve problems better with an increase in blood flow? We know Lil’ Jeff can.

Another good example of an email that give me clear choices of places I can go. This visual cityscape takes me for a few seconds to each city mentally and makes me think about what my next trips might be (since we have hung up our wings for 05 business travel).

One thing that did bother me after looking at it a while longer was the fact that some of the cities they were showing in the other areas are not easy destinations from our airport. I think that some demographic data mining and using dynamic content would really benefit them to know which major cities are most traveled to from the Portland International Airport. Right? Unless you like 2 lay overs and 3 flights to Akron, Ohio.

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I got this email about a very cool craft art fair event in Portland next month (Sep 29). It’s a great cause benefitting Friends of the Children – Portland and an example of a great event promotional email.

If you want the real deal to become a Portland marketing community maven, you need to sign up for the email list on www.pdxmindshare.com.

With all the Spam out there, a friend told me about this Portland restaurant that you have to actually know someone to get on their email list and eat there. What the f*&k – I’m intrigued. So, I started asking everyone if they knew about it and within a few people, I heard “Yeah, Ripe is awesome. You’ve GOT to eat there.” I’ve got to agree. They’ve converted me from cynic to evangelist and their email is cool, too. Click through to see an example of their exclusive but minamilist email.

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