eROI NYC Interactive Agency

Complete our survey on “2009 Trends in Online Marketing” and enter to win a Flip UltraTM Camcorder or one of several Retail Gift Cards!

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I try to do sweet vids every once in a while and I can tell you that if you don’t have a Flip you need one so please help and take the survey.

We launched a new survey today in partnership with E-Marketing and Commerce – 2009 Trends in Online Marketing. We are setting out to get some data on how online marketers used their online marketing resources (budget and time) in 2009, how they value various online mediums and what they will continue to focus on in 2010.

The results of the survey will give us valuable insight into how various Online Marketing mediums were used in 2009 and uncover what marketers can do differently (or keep doing!) in 2010. Enter your email on the final question and you will be entered to win a Flip Ultra^TM camcorder or one of several retail gift cards.

TAKE THE SURVEY >>>

I took a walk over to The Dessy Group the other day to give a shout to one of our first NYC clients Alan Dessy. He is with out a doubt one of my most savvy clients and always has something cool to share. This time I was blown away. The Dessy Group partnered with Pantone to create Pantone Wedding. Brides to be can create unique inspiration boards for their wedding that they can share with friends and family. The user experience is great. You can import your own pictures and choose from galleries to create a visual mosaic of the wedding. Pantone Wedding swatch cards can then be divided into color chips for easy distribution to vendors ensuring it all matches. Love the progress Alan. Rock.

Our extended eROI family out in Portland are a constant reminder of what it feels like to live in a community and not just a city.  Sure, New York City is full of festivals and parties where, if you’re lucky you’ll see 5 or 6 familiar faces, but when’s the last time you gathered hundreds of your neighbors together to rally around a community cause?  Probably never.
The Old Town / Chinatown section of Portland, where eROI is based, was graced for 60 years with the beautiful and odd Hung Far Low Chinese Restaurant sign.  The sign was considered a landmark in the hood; one of those things that “keeps Portland weird”.  Big props to a city that embraces its weirdness!  When the sign was removed last year, it sparked some anger from its loyal friends.   Approaching the anniversary of its removal, eROI, along with some of its neighbors, rallied together to throw the Old Town Block Party on September 12th to honor the sign and raise money for its restoration.  The sweet email and site done by our Portland brothers, Tom and Quang, set the tone for a beautiful day in Old Town, where friends and family came out for food, drinks, music, shopping and of course, to  support the resurrection Hung Far Low.

My friends and I love using astrology to explain the way people act.  You’ll always hear one of us say, “she’s the life of the party, she’s a typical Gemini” or “he’s so arrogant yet so attractive, is he by any chance an Aquarius?”.  I’ll admit though, that I’ve always been a little skeptical of how ALL people of the same sun sign can embody the same characteristics?  Moonit, the new site launched by eROI last week, gets way more specific with it.  By using the year, day and even time someone was born, Moonit breaks your relationships down for so you can do as they say and  “take control of your own destiny”.  So how does it work?  The folks at Moonit explain that they use “thousands of years of data from the stars to help determine whether two people are compatible from a romantic, platonic and professional perspective.”

Using Moonit is simple.  You login, pick the type of relationship you are testing and enter all of the birthday data you can remember.  The best part is if you are totally clueless about the other person’s info, Moonit can access all of that information directly from your contacts on Facebook.

Moonit calculates your compatibility and hooks you up with some tips on how to handle your relationship with that person.  Your results are then stored in your relationship profile along with all of the results from past readings.

This profile also allows you to track your relationships as things take shape, complete with a chart of the ups and downs of your time together.  This can serve as your own personal, online relationship journal.  Of course there’s always the very ‘09 option of sharing your thoughts about your relationship with the Facebook or Twitter world.

If you have a burning relationship question or if you’re like me and love to help others solve their problems, visit The Couch section of Moonit.  The site’s resident Psychologist Dr. Block gives his opinion on the issue at hand and the rest is up to the Mooniverse.  Questions about anything involving relationships; be it office flings, jealous friends, or cheating are answered by your peers from around the world.

And of course, what fun would it be without the ability to dissect the readings of our favorite celebs and celeb couples?  Moonit uses their data to explain the lives of those celebrities and then leaves it to you to give your input.  It’s definitely interesting to see what the stars have to say about Kanye’s recent meltdown at the VMAs.

I’ve got to admit it’s pretty addictive and I’m definitely not the only one out there who would suggest you try mooning someone.  Check out all the recent press its been getting:

forbes

techcrunch

shoemoney

blogher

wealth…uncomplicated

trend hunter

I need to give some props this week to MoMa and the new launch of their web based Summer Planner App. MoMa traditionally does a great job with their email marketing but this latest round added another level of unique engagement. I can envision the brainstorm session that lead to this….”let’s make it fun to plan your day/week at the museum” How do we do that? I received an email from them last week (image 1) promoting the new online planner. I clicked through to find a well designed and very easy to use site that thought out of the box in terms of usability and function. The interface is fun and colorful and the overall user experience lends itsself well to discovery and exploration. Hallmarks of a good museum right?

Upon entering the dates that you are interested in, you are prompted to sign in. They utilized a clever Facebook user sign in tool that allows you to use your Facebook page in sign in (image 2). You can also create a user profile with in the app. Nice move with the Facebook connect as it lends itsself well to sharing without having to flat our forward stuff. After you enter in all of your info it builds an itinerary for you based on your interests and the availability of the exhibits (image 3). The navigation is great and its tied into some cool features that help you select exhibits that might be of interest to you (image 5).  Nice work on this MoMa.

So I have 847 million reasons why Zappo’s rules and unless you have been in the server room all week you know the recent news. We have always been huge admirers of the Zappo’s brand. In fact I think Tony was the best speaker at SXSW this year. I think we all can find something to learn from them. As a tribute to their recent good news I wanted to share the DNA of what makes Zappo’s…well Zappo’s. I think even Tony would agree that it comes down to the “core values”. So here they are….the real reason Amazon bought Zappo’s:

The 10 Core Zappo’s Values:

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

@vitaloca found this cool little site called Wordle. Check it out:

“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”

Here is the Wordle of eROINYC:

While giving my RSS reader a refresh today I added a site I have read for a while called CommonDreams.org. They have a good explanation of what an RSS feed is and how it can be useful. I never heard to it referred to as “Really Stops Spam”….sound like some one bet him to throw that in there:

What is RSS? RSS is an XML format that stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary” or even “Really Stops Spam”, depending on who you talk to. Basically it’s really just a standardized format for sharing content over the Internet. RSS is a lot like TiVo but for the Internet – you get to choose what content you want and when. For CommonDreams.org readers with a web site, the CommonDreams.org webfeed is the best way to add our news & views to your site.

Do you have my feed?

If you have ever lived or stayed in New York City for any extended amount of time you know what a pain grocery shopping is here. From day one I have had issues on where to grocery shop. The landscape of NYC grocery stores is crazy. There are deli’s, fish houses, veggie depots, wine shops, fruit stands.  There are little special stores for everything but very few stores that have everything. And even those stores are a far cry from the Supermarkets out West where you can drive a car through the aisles and half of them have hardware departments. You do have your Whole Foods but I have to get on a subway to get there. I admit that part of the romance of NYC is going to all those places and experiencing the process but sometimes you just want to get your food and be out.

That said, I want to give a tip of the hat to The Food Emporium this week. In searching for a new store in my hood I landed on their site. I have shopped there before but never clicked through. And although it could use a re-design, their site has clear messaging, a good reader for specials and a decent ecom engine.  They aren’t doing anything mind blowing or new but for a local grocer I say good job Food Emporium.  Expect a call.

In any industry or vertical there are terms and nomenclature that become second nature to those immersed in it but might as well be Chinese to those who aren’t. For instance, I can tell you how a saving account works but I’ll be damned if I try to explain what a hedge fund is. But a banker would immediately be able to run it down for you. Too often I think we over look the meaning of terms we use with clients. We all know the glazed over look someone gets when you try to explain what an RSS feed or what Twitter is if they have never heard of it. That being said I wanted to share a great email from one of our designers. In the email she takes the time to define what a WIREFRAME is so that we can effectively execute and collaborate. With out spelling out the meaning of something before hand how can we expect a client to automatically know what it is? The internet is very esoteric so in the spirit of education here is one eROI designer’s explanation of what exactly a wireframe is. She might have gotten these definitions off of a site but I am not sure where. This is verbatim:

What are wireframes?

Web site wireframes are blue prints that define a Web page’s content and functionality. They do not convey design – e.g. colors, graphics, or fonts.

-they are a visualization tool for presenting proposed functions, structure and content 

-wireframes convey hierarchy. what things are more important than others?

-separating look at feel so we can focus on the content and function. 

-conveys the very general layout 

-information architecture-focused 

They are NOT…

- Meant for an external audience without an explanation of context

- Meant to be the design of a page

- To portray any graphic elements

- To convey the brand of a website