By Chief Idea Officer Dave Saunders
I have a lot of friends who run in the Monument Avenue 10K, various marathons and compete in triathlons, but I don’t run unless someone is chasing me. 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll be walking with the Madison+Main team at Walk MS Richmond. Our team has raised $1,000 so far but I’m counting on your generosity to help push us over the $2,000 mark; to donate a few bucks to a good cause click here.
It was a busy week at Madison+Main, despite March Madness cutting into our productivity by 37.2%. VP of Brand Strategy Kara Forbis is currently leading the pack with a perfect bracket in the NCAA Tournament. I am in last place, but luckily I picked VCU to win the National Championship, meaning I will be the last man standing on April 8th.
Monday 3/18 – On Monday, our new TV ad for Springdale at Lucy Corr Village started running on several area stations, special thanks to Mark Remes and the gang at BES Studios for their hard work and creativity. We think the spot turned out great, click here to watch it and let us know what you think!
I also wrote some cool direct mail pieces for our client Howell’s Heating & Air on Monday. At Madison+Main we work with several small businesses that use the Every Day Direct Mail program through the United States Postal Service. Want to learn how you can send out direct mail without paying postage? Click here to find out more about this unique marketing program.
Tuesday 3/19 – On Tuesday morning at 9:00am the entire staff and I gathered in the conference room and called VP of Operations, Molly Quarles so we could sing Happy Birthday to her. It was a rousing rendition of the HBTY song. We are always happy when we can send a little love 2,000 miles away to our colleague in Texas. Say “hi!” to Molly on Twitter here.
Speaking of far away colleagues, we were thrilled to have VP of Brand Strategy, Kara Forbis in the Richmond office this week. As you may or may not know, Madison+Main has an office in Blacksburg, Virginia, right in the heart of Hokie Nation. If you know of an organization that can use our services in the Western part of the state, email Kara at karaf@madisonmain.com.
Wednesday 3/20 – Specials thanks to our neighbors at Style Weekly, Dana Elmquist, Publishing and New Media Development Manager and Hannah Huber, Sales Manager. The lovely ladies stopped by Wednesday for a “Madison+Main Lunch & Learn” and told us about several cool new advertising initiatives, such as front page sticky notes and special advertising sections that they produce for a variety of organizations, like NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners).
On Wednesday night we held our Madison+Main March Mixer at Legend Brewery and raised some glasses with friends and colleagues. We also had some fantastic giveaways featuring props from our First Bank TV spot “Free Checking.” The April Mixer will be held Wednesday, April 17th at Capital Ale Innsbrook. Make sure you save the date!
Sometimes we give away prizes. Former M+M Intern, Jovan Coker dropped by the Mixer and won a “calendar full of kittens.”
Thursday 3/21 – The word of the day Thursday was “research”. Kara locked me in the conference room and forced me to work all day…but was nice enough to buy me some Panang Chicken Curry from Elephant Thai. At 3:00pm they kicked me out of the conference room so we could host our good friends from WWBT-NBC12. Super rep, Jennifer Barbin and Sales Manager, Joel Mark came in to provide 19 pounds of market research data for ½ a dozen clients; fascinating stuff and a real value from our partners at NBC 12. Thank you very much.
The good news continued for me personally as my daughter, Hattie, scored last minute tickets for Carrie Underwood at the Richmond Coliseum Thursday night…and the best news of all? I didn’t have to go to the concert. My wife, Suzie, and I opted for drinks at Morton’s and dinner at La Grotta. Saunders for the win!
Friday 3/22 – The March birthdays continue to roll in as we celebrated intern Jacob P. Huber’s 21st birthday today. Jacob is a Junior marketing major at VCU and a bright young man who I believe will bring a lot of the table… probably lunch. 🙂 Be sure to email your birthday wishes to Jacob at jacobh@madisonmain.com and just for giggles, ask him what his nickname is. This afternoon I was back in the studio recording new radio ads for Howell’s Heating & Air.
March Madness is in full swing, so I’ll be watching B-ball all weekend. Here are my predictions; 1) VCU will pound Michigan and win by 10 2) Number 2 seed Duke will be the first high ranking seed to exit the tournament and 3) I’ll gain 6 pounds before Monday by eating waaaay too many chicken wings.
Have a great weekend folks!