Web Work!

I sure have been busy with websites lately. We recently launched a campaign-specific site in conjunction with National Capital Bank's Move to NCB campaign, and we're currently working on a homepage and full website refresh for them as well. We're also in the midst of creating a site for a cleanroom construction firm, an Intranet for a community bank in Louisa, a new site for a local printing/mailing house, and we're working with the Chamber to create a site for The Capital Region Collaborative, a cooperative effort to enhance the Richmond Region.

With this work, we've noticed a trend that more and more clients have the desire to control and update their websites as needed in-house. So we've been learning a lot about content management systems and how our clients can use them, and have been integrating them into many of the sites we're working on. We've learned that WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine and Joomla are the favorites among programmers. We welcome the opportunity to learn more about how content management systems can be used to make our clients' lives easier, so if you like programming with these systems, let's talk!

Move Your Money

Over the last few months we've been working with The National Capital Bank of Washington to develop a campaign that encourages customers to move their money away from the big banks to a safe and sound institution like NCB. The concept plays off of the national Move Your Money movement with a campaign specific Move To NCB url and print ad.

Not only does this campaign look great, it has been very exciting to put together because we all feel so strongly that if you live in the DC area you'd be crazy not to bank with NCB. The Bank was founded in 1889 and has been managed by the same family since. In addition, the Bank has consistently been rated as one of the top community banks in the nation. And it is the only A+ rated bank in the DC metro area.

Check out the site and let us know what you think!

An Eclectic Group

Each month we receive a Wellness Review report from our IT provider, The HelpDesk Company with all sorts of interesting info about computer security, usage, and backups. I always find the Employee Internet Usage page particularly interesting. Our top 3 sites this month were, in order, Fifa, Cake Central, and Facebook. So yes, we're sports enthusiasts, cake bakers and decorators, and social network junkies.

We also love to listen to music at the office via Pandora, keep up with business connections via The Greater Richmond Chamber and find good looking stock photos at reasonable prices for our clients at iStock.

Any favorite websites you use regularly at work? Let me know. And as importantly, if you don't know what sites your team is visiting on a regular basis then you don't know a lot about what's going on at your office. Consider this a shameless plug for our friends at The HelpDesk Company!

Back in the swing of things

After a week off (filled with walking, biking, kayaking and beach-ing - that just seemed to fly by), I've gotten all caught up and jumped right back in the middle of projects I was working on before I left. Because of a great service offered by our friends at The Helpdesk Company, I was able to check my email remotely, and keep track of what was going on back at MBM world headquarters. So I wasn't totally clueless.

Helpdesk also installed wireless internet in our office while I was out! I haven't tried it out yet, but plan to this week when I bring in my netbook. Hopefully wi-fi will make our workspaces more flexible. I can't wait for us and our clients, vendors and visitors to really take advantage of it. So next time you're coming by MBM, be sure to bring your laptop!

Learning at MBM

Since I'm both the youngest MBMer and one of the more recent staff additions (although it's been almost 2 years!), it's pretty rare that I'm explaining how to do anything. But, with Mary Blanche here as our intern, I've been stopping to explain techniques, policies, and marketing know-how quite a bit recently.

It's been a good exercise to sit back for a minute and think through why we do anything the way we do. It's easy to go through the motions, but when you have to stop and explain why, it can be a challenge!

Whether it's going over how the print process works, how to work with a designer, or how to communicate with a client, it's interesting to see Mary Blanche soaking everything up like a sponge. Plus, at MBM, I think we're always learning something new - all of our clients and vendors work differently and there's always a new project on the horizon. Beyond that, I'm sure at some point, Mary Blanche is going to offer up a better method or two.

A Tuesday That Feels Like A Monday...

And Friday's Going To Come A Lot Faster Than Expected.

Long holiday weekends are always a challenge - an extra day away from the office (unless you're constantly checking emails and updates from a client like Courtney was). But it means a shorter week where Tuesday has to do the work of two days. For us, it was a long two days in 8 hours!

Kelly's on vacation, so we're one short. Courtney's big client press release (we were in at 7:30 AM to be ready) was delayed with glitches (on their end). I had a dentist appointment ('nuff said). And Megan found some costly issues on a large project ready to go to print. Luckily, Mary-Blanche kept her sunny disposition and we've made it to 5:00.

So, we're glad two-day's over. I'm headed to yoga, Courtney to the Rivah, and Megan to her pool. And as our friend Scarlett always said, "tomorrow is another day."

Chipotle Rocks

Chipotle is by far one of our favorite picks for lunch here at the MBM office. The food is awesome and the ingredients are always fresh and delicious! If you haven't had their chips and guacamole you are missing out.

Not only do they have really good food, Chipotle gets points for its cool marketing including messages and stories on its bags, an interactive website with easy ordering tools and intriguing billboards. In addition, Chipotle has now launched a social-media and web driven campaign to raise money for a non-profit called The Lunch Box. The Lunch Box is a new initiative from the F3: Food Family Farming Foundation that will offer 100,000 schools nationwide (32 million children) recipes and other tools for implementing healthy, whole foods-based, economical meal programs. The campaign is called "No Junk" and asks Chipotle fans to email them their junk emails at nojunk@chipotlejunk.com.

Here's how it works. For every 100,000 junk emails received, Chipotle will donate $10,000 (up to $50k maximum). The idea behind the campaign is to help people get rid of the junk in their lives and do something good to help others. Pretty cool, huh?

As a marketer, I like this campaign for many different reasons. One, it stays in line with the brand of the company in all aspects of the campaign (the message, the non-profit, etc). Second, it's a great way to raise awareness for the company by focusing on how it gives back to the community while highlighting how the food they offer fits into the "non junk" category. This will hopefully position them in the minds of some consumers who might not have realized that they use only free range meats fed vegetarian diets with no antibiotics, etc. This campaign is also a good example of how to make social media work to promote a brand.

Want to learn more about the campaign? Visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/chipotle?ref=ts.
Or read this article http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=130826.