eROI NYC Interactive Agency

A week or so ago I attended this years Twestival with @redirect. What is a Twestival? This is from their site:

“Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.  Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date, raising over $1.2 million within 14 months for 137 nonprofits.  All local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects. Twestival™ Global is a series of offline events hosted on one day for one cause in cities around the world. Twestival™  Local is a series of offline events which aim to support local causes over a designated weekend.”

So there are a series of parties going on around the world on the same date for the same cause. What is it about collective experience that is so sweet? Knowing you are a part of something global seems to resonate a ton these days….especially with web heads. Its was at Good Units which is an underground venue for parties and shows…it was a pretty sweet set up save the fact that it was so far underground that my BB couldn’t quite catch so you notice my own tweet stream end about the time I get there. At any rate the venue was great and the energy of the rooms were good. The band certainly kicked ass….Shinobi Ninja. More on them in a bit. On a global scale the event seemed to do well. Mashable just wrote an in depth post about it…here are some highlights:

• $450,000 raised for Concern Worldwide, an international NGO helping fund educational projects around the world.
• Contributions to Twestival Global 2010 grew by more than 80% during its second annual fundraising event.
• $1.2 million has been raised over the past 14 months on behalf of 137 organizations.
• Twestival helped accept a truly worldwide outpouring of support from 45 countries in 12 different currencies.

So kudos to the planners and organizers of this whole thing. I can only imagine how much work went into it. I met some cool people there and saw some old friends as well. If you read through my blog you know that I document almost every event I attend however as I went through my assets for this event I realized I was pretty thin on video. I did however get a bunch of great stills. I realized my night is actually best documented by going through the unedited pics on my camera in sequence.  There is some video in in there to set it up though.  I did reach out to #nyctwestival for more video assets so I could make a proper one but I haven’t heard back. At any rate the video is a bit raw but that isn’t always a bad thing.

A bit more about Shinobi Ninja….they are a Brooklyn based self proclaimed “super group of the 21st century”. That night they probably were. They were terrific and I highly recommend you check out their shows.  High energy high movement. They made the night for sure.  They are highly active on twitter and also have an EP out that I picked up which happens to feature a video game as well.  Nice work. They are an odd mix of peeps with an eclectic and hard sound. The video above uses a remix of their Brooklyn to Babylon single. @shinobininja hit me if you need/want any of these assets.



Here are some links to more pics from the night:

www.nbcnewyork.com

Guest of a guest

Random night out

I am always fascinated by common human experiences. Things that span the Earth and create a link between us all. The internet of course is one of those things…but there are so many others. Its amazing how close we all are….yet how far away at the same time.

“Let’s get conversions!” they cheer from the cliffs and huts of the village. We hear it everyday. How do we increase conversion rates? No matter the vertical or the offer the answer is simple. Provide value….be compelling. I converted myself on an offer this weekend so I thought it relevant to share. And perhaps bring you some value. First, remember that everyone is competing for eyeballs both online and offline….what the internet provides is interaction with the brand….eyeballs plus action so that to me is the goal. Let’s go through the steps of my recent conversion.

Step 1: I received the below email. Delivery time Friday 4:45pm…Subject Line: Happy Valentine’s Day from eMusic…the offer: Here is a gift for you. How curious and tempting right. I am fan of the “Unwrap it now” call to action as well. Visually the creative is decent. I have issue with the header navigation. I know the old “best practice” hand book has a chapter on this but in this case I say let the V Day offer stand alone. Its going out to existing users and its a conceptual event driven offer. Nav in the email is just not necessary in this case. But alas the offer was compelling so I clicked.

Step 2: I was routed to a landing page and was auto played a short Flash Video. The video was good I suppose. Not to intrusive but not that big of a WOW factor. It works though as it is an offer for existing users. The action isnt to forward this. So the video is short and the song is too which is nice. The end state of the video plugged the offer and below the vid there is a link explaining the gift….5 free downloads.

Step 3: I clicked the redem button and was on the home page ready to log in.  So now I am here….logged in with free stuff to use. I noticed something I liked on the home page (see below)….I read about the artist…then downloaded her whole album. The experience was so good I searched again and downloaded another album. I pay for 35 songs a month and used almost all of them in this one session.

So I interacted and had a brand positive experience in just three clicks.  There are a couple reasons I like this besides the fact that it brought value.  For these kinds of sites and services its important to remember that sometimes your users forget they are even a part of the community. I know I do sometimes…I have lost my downloads a few times because it just slips my mind that I have them waiting for me there. While it may seem like it doesn’t matter if I use my downloads or not as E-Music will make their money anyway I contend that it means everything. They need to show that people use their service so they can intern sign more artists and labels to get an even broader audience. So this offer is relevant, compelling, it brings value and encourages interaction. Good job E Music. Still a fan. Here’s a sample of what I found…pretty sweet…the drop at 0:49 seconds in is ridiculous. Enjoy

OK..this is kind of heady. But if you watch this all the way through and buy in…it is amazing. Disclaimer: This goes slow but is worth the full 7 min.

What? Right…Everyone has done the old say a word hundred times in a row….like my title it starts to sound like some weird alien language. The same rings for our industry buzz words….you hear them so much they start to loose their meaning.  This has come up a bunch lately so I wanted to spend some time with it….the brand evangelists. We all talk about them and hunt them. I can’t go 24 hours with out hearing some one utter the phrase. But why are they important? Why should we care and how do we recognize them? I need examples. Got some. I found a couple campaigns today that illustrate brand positive ways to take care of the people who engage  most with your brand (the aforementioned brand evangelist) and give them cool sh*t to do.

In the Email Insider today Morgan Stewart talks about engagement in an enlighting way. He states…

“That is where the idea of building our own audiences comes in — and email marketers have a leg up on other marketers in this capacity. We know how to create programs that deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. We know that getting people to sign up with us means that we need to convey the value subscribers will receive in exchange for their personal information. Now we need to figure out how to transform this knowledge into creating audiences that are truly engaged. Not engaged meaning they are opening and clicking our email newsletters, but engaged meaning they are contributing to our platforms.”

In other words….now that we have you, let me show you some cool sh*t to do.  But how? He sites his client Scott’s Miracle-Gro. After a 10 year email marketing program they send “seasonally relevant content tailored to subscribers based on where they live, the type of grass they have, and their level of expertise.” Sweet. Makes total sense. Grass grows differently in FL than in does in WA. Hit me with what I need right…right. But how do we go deeper? I will let him explain:

“About a year ago, company strategists launched a community-focused Web site.  By providing a site dedicated to solving lawn care issues through blogs, online communities, forums, and photo galleries,  they created a logical next step for newsletter subscribers. Enthusiasts now have a place to show off their gardening skills.
Also interesting to note is that the company saw a few of its newsletter subscribers opt-out of the regular program, but this has not been a concern. After all, those former newsletter subscribers are now online community members. They are still interacting with the brand. The difference is that these consumers are now more engaged with the brand as they receive email updates related to the online community itself. Even in these instances, Scott’s isn’t necessarily sending less email, just different email.”

Love it Scott. Great job. When I hear that my minds says….”yes that’s what I mean when I say relevant and engaging”.  But I need another. The Scott example is good but this one is better.  I will let you experience it how I did….Organically. I was forwarded this video by “The General” otherwise known as Mary Schwichtenberg, MBA local eROI kick ass Account Manager.

Of course I clicked through to learn about it and I was shown this:

Wow BBC…rock rock till the break of rock.  User generated content 2.0. Here they say…take our creative, take our clips, take our IP. Rip it up. Cut it up and create. How respectable and on the money is this contest? I have a love for video in general as you can see from my posts so this was super relevant. Unfortunately I can’t enter…I shot this to fellow blogger Dean Hunt in the UK. Maybe he will enter. So to end this exercise….say evangelist 10 times and tell me it doesn’t sound Russian.

It’s been a minute since my last Flip cast video. This is a few months of NY living in 3 minutes or less.

Things come in waves. I  recently encountered a ton of sweet new bands I have never heard before.  I have been in a new music drought so I am extra stoked.  As a double bonus they all have really creative music videos. Since the golden age of the music video is over…I wanted to share these.  Take a break….get inspired.  Sweet music + inspired video = hotness.

So here goes…my Halloween Nightmare. It all started when @vitaloca and I were talking about what to do for the occasion. Last year I did the “roam if you want to” thing and just hopped around the city in a nerd costume seeking out adventure. And if you have ever been in New York during Halloween you know excitement is everywhere. So this year I thought I would try something different. I wanted to try a more collective experience.  So I got turned on to a huge party that was to go down in the failing Tavern on the Green. It was intriguing on multiple levels.

First the Tavern on the Green controversy led me to believe this would be a last of its kind party so I wanted to take advantage. Second it was one of these flat fee parties so it was all you can eat all you can drink for $60. Good deal considering Halloween in NYC is the biggest money suck on Earth.  Third, I wanted to get down in one place and see some dope costumes.  And lastly my boys Jiggy Biggs and Eric were in town and I wanted to show him how we roll out here. So party sounds great, tickets got bought…we are committed. As with any event you buy tickets to and have a ton of friends you are going with excitement started to build. I was stoked at the sheer potential of the night. The countdown began.

(more…)

I recently met up with digital guru Alan Wolk at the famed Portland import Ace Hotel in Midtown. It is always great to mix it up with a fellow digitalite (not a word but you know what I mean). He turned me on to his Ad Age column and I wanted to share some thoughts. Basically his article talks about how niche brands can learn from the mainstream content and steer clear…rather they should invest in content that is unexpected and take some chances. He explains…

“there’s a world of niche brands whose consumers would welcome the sort of outside-the-mainstream content they’re not getting from their social graphs”…

Here is another key point:

“…by non-mainstream, I don’t mean the usual cop-out of showcasing some DJ who’s been crowned the latest king of Teutonic techno. That’s a ridiculously narrow definition of “outside the mainstream” that many ad agencies fall into in an attempt to seem overly hip. They forget that there are all kinds of “cool”: old lady cool, mom cool, geek cool. All these subgroups have their own definition of what constitutes fresh and unique.”

So in honor of such a cool idea I wanted to offer some of my own “off-beat” content that I hope provides support. At the end of the day I am more stoked by the brand/person who takes a chance with content and fails than the brand/person who feeds us the same old shit. Oh another thing…don’t share things that you think others will like….share things that you like…things that you think are cool. Here goes….

Shout out to Davide Carnera from the UK for putting this video together.

Props to my brother for sharing this with me.

This guys is sick. He has some other cool stuff. BLU on Vimeo.

la quiete from blu on Vimeo.