Everyone should check out Trio restaurant at the Four Seasons. Not only was the food delicious and the service was perfect (not over-solicitous as some high end places can be) but someone noticed I had stupidly left my purse on the floor. Must have been the food-induced coma... Instead of waiting for me to cone back, a staff member chased me down four blocks to return it! Unheard of, and I love it!

strependous weekend

I have somehow managed to survive this weekend with strep throat subsisting solely on medicine, girl scout cookies, and crime drama tv. It probably wasn't a good idea to go to Target just to get out of the house and pick up "one or two things". But Layla really needed her own mat and dog bowls even though she technically doesn't live here. And it was crucial that I decorate them with a sharpie. (Are you getting and idea of the boredom yet?) And if I didn't get those cute stackable bins my bags would be all over my closet floor!

Thankfully discount retail heaven is just a quarter mile from here. The trifecta of Wal-mart, Target, and Home Depot. Target retail therapy is to me as methadone to a heroin addict.

One benefit of being home on a Saturday night is catching the Tigers womping Houston. I also taped the SAG Awards and caught a hilarious Felicity Huffman too blind or too drunk to read her lines. Too funny and Felicity looked phenomenal!

Well that's about it. Hopefully next weekend I will report on having just ran 9 miles in preparation for the half marathon that is scarily close!

Does anyone know of a good marketing dashboard tool?

MyVideo Campaign

Thought I would share this cool campaign I'm working on with the other marketers out there. I'll update as it is implemented, but here are the basics:

Proposal
1. Post MyVideo campaign call for entries on website, press release, social media, and link in emails
2. Once entries are received, post on website/YouTube and allow public to vote by entering email address
3. Entries will be screened before posting
4. Choose top three videos to participate in customer testimonial campaign
5. Create customer testimonial ads in movie poster format
6. Hire production team to enhance, possibly reshoot videos and edit
7. Provide links to winning final videos in ads, website, and social media

Goal
1. By posting call for entries in multiple locations and media, create a buzz around the contest prior to voting, letting the public know they will be voting on the entries this year.
2. Screening entries allows us to control appropriate content. Allowing the public to vote gets users more interested and invested in the contest.
3. By capturing emails, it allows us to send an introduction to The National Alliance to new prospects and encourage them to opt-in with us and grow our prospect database. Entrants will reach out to friends/colleagues to vote for their video.
4. The movie poster format of the print ads is engaging, interesting and encourages readers to check out the video stories online.
5. Production for the videos (if necessary, depending on original quality) can be done inexpensively by hiring college production teams, at an estimated $1,000 per video.

Timeline/Deadlines
March 22 – Video hosting/voting site set up
March 29 – Call for entries posted on website, social media, and email created and sent (MyVideo contest link added to outgoing event emails)
April 1 – July 30 – Entries received
July 30 – Call for votes posted on website, social media, and email created and sent
July 31 – August 31 – Voting opened
September 1 – 3 – Winner chosen, press release created and sent, winner announced on social media and links in emails; production team chosen if necessary; begin working on ad formats
October – December – Ads placed

Now that I'm signed up for text blogging there will be a lot more blogs coming this way. Two quick things on my mind: the technology is now available to put video into print publications. In my opinion this is the only way magazines and newspapers can save themselves from near extinction. Sure it is expensive now but the price will go down. How cool would it be to pick up your USA today and read a story but also be able to watch a quick video!?
And on an unrelated note, I just signed up for the austin half marathon. (I must be crazy) to sponsor me please visit my website at www.freewebs.com/tiffany-amore. Thanks!!!

Testing the text message blog.