market|er with ThyssenKrupp Access
One of our first projects for ThyssenKrupp Access, a national stair lift and elevator manufacturer, was updating their website, inside and out; back-end functionality and front-end design.
smart|er on Corporate Social Media: How to Get Started
As part of our quest to become smart|er marketers, we recently attended the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) breakfast, “What’s Your Social Strategy.” This is the first of two posts on what we learned.
build|er news this week
As an agency that serves the building industry, we'd like to share some highlights with you from this week's building industry news! Lowe's announces new tagline, NAEC tradeshow, LEED news, and more!
er|marketing
We are a B2B marketing firm specializing in the building industry and celebrating ten successful years providing
REAL RESULTS, REAL FAST
In honor of halloween, we’d like to talk about monsters. Not the scary kind, but the kind of idea that is so big, it’s MONSTER!
How do you know when you have a big idea? How about a monster one? That’s what members of our creative team set out to discover by attending Stefan Mumaw’s presentation “Chasing the Monster” and they were not disappointed.
Mumaw provided a seven-question litmus test for gauging the potential of any big idea, which you can find in his book, “Chasing the Monster Idea.” Mumaw’s presentation was an inspiring reminder to think bigger and foster curiosity into new ideas.
As examples of Monster ideas, Mumaw referenced two companies that took monster ideas and turned them into success; Dominos Pizza who doubled sales by admitting that their product was inferior and asking for a second chance, and Microsoft who used documentary style footage of a life-like model to boost sales of the video game Halo3. Both companies were not afraid to chase ideas that countered traditional tactics and it paid off.
Mumaw (and Curious George!) inspire us to continue in our culture of curiosity and think-up monster ideas for our clients.
Another non-traditional marketing campaign that we are excited about right now is one that our owners learned about at an agency conference – Orabrush. One part of their campaign included buying $28 worth of targeted facebook ads. The result – getting their product in Wal-Mart without even having a meeting! Check out one of their other non-traditional media approaches: Youtube!
Our team loves food and drink, we have potlucks for any reason you could possibly imagine and we always request guacamole. (It really doesn’t matter if the main courses are tacos or hamburgers or how big the recipe, we always finish it off before anything else!)
And now, for the legend of the guacamole as told by Matt Hillman, Guacamole Chef and ER Marketing Creative Director.
This recipe was born of hatred. See, I hate guacamole. Or to be fair, I used to hate it. For most of my life, any time I’d tried it, it was this nasty, creamy, green goo—too light to be a dip, too chunky to be a sauce, and infused with odd flavors. It always seemed like it was trying to be something it wasn’t.
So I found a recipe for very basic guacamole and made it even simpler. No frills, no extras, just the essentials. I love it, and from parties to agency potlucks, this “guacamole for people who hate guacamole” was a runaway hit. People kept asking what was in it, as if I’d employed some secret ingredient to trick their senses—but, like Kung Fu Panda, the secret ingredient is that “there is no secret ingredient.”
It reminds me a lot of marketing—so much effort to hop on the latest fads and to pack in the flavors of the month just to appear relevant. Loads of style to give the illusion of substance. Then when a good, solid, basic effort in a sales promotion comes along that delivers results, everyone marvels at its “secret ingredient”.
Trends are fun, but they should never be used at the expense of the fundamentals. So in that spirit, here’s a crowd-pleasing guacamole that gets back to basics.
Photo from Nathan Borror on Flickr, real Matt Guac photo coming soon.
Haters Guacamole
- 4 medium ripe avocados (firm-yet-yielding flesh)
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled, and finely chopped
- 1/2 small white onion (approx. 1/4 cup), minced
- Pinch kosher salt
- Pepper to taste
- 3 Tbls fresh cilantro, chopped
- Two squeezes (approx. 2 Tbls) fresh lime juice
1. Cut avocados in half, twist apart, and twist out pit with edge of knife
2. Skim a spoon inside avocado skin to remove flesh and place in large bowl
3. Add all other ingredients (if serving with salty chips, reduce salt accordingly)
4. Using a fork, lightly mash and stir ingredients, achieving a slightly smooth yet chunky consistency—do not overmix!
5. Press plastic wrap against surface and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend
6. Serve while cold
Makes approx. 2-1/2 cups
And while we’re on the topic of good food…
Congratulations to the winners of the First Annual ER Marketing Chili Cookoff!
- In 3rd place, winning ‘Better Luck Next Time’ spices is Stephanie with her ‘Beer Chili’
- In 2nd place winning ‘You’ll Need Them Later’ Tums is Christina with her ‘Meaty Vegetarian Chili’
- and in 1st place winning a ‘Pun intended’ Gift Card to Chili’s is Matt! Who knows, maybe there was guacamole in it?
Recently, we announced becoming the Agency of Record for ThyssenKrupp Access, a national stair lift and elevator manufacturer. [download the press release]
One of our first projects for them was updating their website, inside and out; back-end functionality and front-end design.
Along the path of designing the site, they figured out that they needed a massive update to their dealer’s lead management system, and they wanted it in about three weeks. Late nights and various hurdles ensued, but ER Marketing’s stellar interactive team managed to give our fairly new client real results, real fast and they were ecstatic with the end result. They received a new reliable and stable system that streamlined their lead management process on a great looking website.
Are you curious about PR? And what the heck it is? Check out this white paper on what it is and why you should care:
Excerpt:
What is PR?
Truth is, landing on the definition of PR, or Public Relations, is not an easy task. Industry leaders themselves have a hard time agreeing on exactly what it is and often argue over the semantics. However, for the sake of simplicity and understanding, let’s refer to PR as:Developing a mutually beneficial relationship with the press, so they carry positive stories about your organization to the public, resulting in change and accomplishing organizational goals
We already have an advertising and marketing program in place… what can PR do for me?
Although PR is a part of marketing, it goes beyond what traditional advertising and marketing can do. What makes it scary is that you can’t control the message PR broadcasts to the world. What if I send a story to the press and they spin it to make us look like the bad guys? Well, that’s kinda the point – we can’t control how the media and other influencers use our message, we can only influence how these messages are presented and do our best to ensure our company supports a positive mission.
Here at ER Marketing, we continually push ourselves to be smart|er, bett|er, fast|er, strong|er and one way we do this is through our motivat|er program. Every quarter, we each pick a personal goal; it can be work-related, a fitness goal, a family-oriented goal – whatever we feel would make a positive impact on our life – and put our money where our mouth is.
If we reach our goal at the end of the quarter, we get to keep our money and earn additional $$ and prizes from ERM, but if we don’t meet our goal, our money goes in a pot that gets split amongst those that met their goal and we get assigned chores (kitchen duty, ugh!).
We have a lot of fun “helping” each other meet our goals. Just watch out if you’re trying to lose weight – you might find extra sweets around the office to test your motivation!
What are your goals? What would you like to be bett|er at? Create a measurable goal each quarter and share it with a friend, so you’re accountable.
Q3 Motivat|er
Some of the goals we reached this quarter were:
- Bike 1,000 miles (Go Christina!)
- Make 20 recipes that are new to you
- Bike to work 25 times
- No Soda
Q4 motivat|er
Look how creative our team is for this quarter! Here’s some of our team’s goals:
- Read 8 books
- Set a new personal record for a 1/2 Marathon
- Create a report in Crystal Reports
- Paint a large canvas painting every month
Check in with us next quarter as we share our new goals and what we’re doing to reach them!
What’s Your motivat|er?
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