Blog

If you're ever invited to a weekend bachelor party in New Orleans, make sure you opt to go home on Sunday rather than Monday. Just like a trip to Vegas, the extra day is bound to be too much of a good thing.

We thoroughly enjoyed the first two days in the Big Easy. We ate copious amounts of cajun cuisine, drank dangerously delicious drinks on Bourbon Street, and were merrily molested by multiple strippers.

Here we are at the famous rotating bar inside the Hotel Monteleone. Notice the matching green T-shirts complete with our catch phrase of the weekend, "cheers bitches!"

Our bachelor is lucky (as are the rest of the married party goers) that "for richer or poorer" is included in the marriage vows because by the third day ATM cards were getting abused. Not to mention that at least a few of us experienced more sickness than health.

Thanks again to Stanley Eding (in the hat) and the boys from FCCI for a great time!

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

The Siesta Key Kiwanis Club sponsors a Builders Club, a children’s version of the service organization, at Sarasota Middle School. I spearheaded the effort four years ago, and Marti Watson, the school’s guidance counselor, has done an outstanding job helping the kids grow their club.

The SMS Builders Club organized their first official fundraiser; a March for Babies supporting the March of Dimes. The kids solicited sponsors for a walk at Oscar Scherer Park on Saturday morning. Some members from our club also participated in the walk and prepared a BBQ lunch for the hungry kids.

Here is new club member Bill Irish dousing the flames with fellow grill cook Chet Wanvig. Great job on the burgers guys!

I would like to recognize and thank Drew Lowther, our club member who has led our sponsored leadership programs for the past two years, for helping the kids organize this wonderful event.

Here are two business lunches coming up that you may want to attend:

AAF Suncoast Business Workshop - How to Win an ADDY
Thursday, March 15, 2012
11:30am – 1:00 pm
Polo Grill and Bar
Florida Room

Learn from local advertising leaders what it takes to produce award-winning work. Panelists include Patricia Courtois from Clarke Advertising, Sam Stern from CAP Creative, and John Fain from Grapevine Communications.

STF Techbyte Luncheon – UEP on the Suncoast
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
11:30am – 1:00pm
Polo Grill and Bar
Florida Room

Mike Kennedy, CEO of Suncoast Community Capital, will talk about the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership with the Kaufman Foundation and how businesses can gain access to micro-loans.

Both events will help respective members of these organizations do their jobs better and prospective members find out if these groups are a good fit for their business. I hope to see you there…

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

Last week I had the unusual privilege of serving as a “celebrity judge” in a meatball contest.

Helping me sample more than 20 varieties of meatballs was Antonio, owner of the Piccolo Italian Market & Deli. Categories included meat, poultry, fish, vegetarian and store bought meatballs. Thanks again to Jackie and John Cutrone for hosting the fun party.

Milestone is also helping Jackie with a charity she founded called Passion for Haiti. Last year we designed a flyer for a fundraiser that raised ten thousand dollars for children at the orphanage in Atrelle. Now we’ve designed a logo for the non-profit, and we’re building a website that will promote fundraising events and allow people to make donations online.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

Last week’s ADDY Awards Gala almost came off without a hitch. Everything was going really well. We had a great turnout. The gallery looked fantastic. Michael’s On East did an excellent job with the food. Everyone settled in for the awards program.  The lights went down, and the presentation froze up.

Our emcee, Jimmy Dean from Harbor Style Magazine, began the program talking about some humorous ads from his long career in the business. He set up a bit about unrealistic client expectations and was ready to show the end result – a bazaar ad with a cow on a roof.

When his punch line didn’t appear on the screen the entire audience started to squirm, but none more than Alex Stafford, AAF Suncoast’s president, who had prepared the presentation and was manning his laptop at the projector.

Jimmy is an excellent public speaker. He took the snafu in stride, skipped all of his jokes, and quickly moved the program along to the student awards. Unfortunately the screen was still dark. Alex, desperately trying to fix the presentation, was rebooting his computer.

Vivian Owen from Ringling College of Art and Design was on the stage with Jimmy to co-present the student awards. She saw that Alex was struggling and tried to improvise calling for a short bar break. Of course it seemed like an eternity, but the whole process only dragged on for about five minutes.

You might be thinking this was an awful experience for the audience, but it wasn’t. Everyone was quite entertained because in addition to the slideshow we had a live twitter feed shown on two flat screens. As you might imagine with a room full of creative people armed with their mobile phones, the commentary was relentless.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

My brother’s birthday was yesterday. He would have been 42. Our public relations specialist had to cancel the birthday party for her kids, Jack and Alex, because of the weather. Tomorrow my daughter turns five, and my sister-in-law shares a birthday next Monday with our copywriter. Happy birthday to John, Mia, Elisabeth, Spencer, Jack and Alex!

In addition to all of these birthdays, we’re looking forward to a number of other celebrations this week:

Techbyte Luncheon
Tuesday 11:30am-1pm

The Suncoast Technology Forum’s first event in Charlotte County takes place this week at the Captain’s Table at Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda. Learn about the Charlotte County Broadband Initiative and meet the players to the south with are driving technology growth in our region.

Memberfest
Wednesday 5-7pm

Rescheduled from January, Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance members will finally get to enjoy the carnival-style love fest taking over Lakewood Main Street on Wednesday night.

Awards Gala
Thursday 5:30-9pm

Find out who wins! The American Advertising Federation-Suncoast is hosting its biggest party of the year, the ADDYs, at Michael’s On East.

Tree Gleaning
Saturday 9am-1pm

Got fruit? Volunteers from the Siesta Key Kiwanis Club pick unwanted fruit from backyard citrus trees during our annual tree gleaning event. Each year we collect thousands of pounds of much-needed produce and deliver it to the All Faiths Food Bank. Contact me if you would like us to glean your trees.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

I was at Ringling College of Art + Design on Saturday morning judging the American Advertising Federation Suncoast student scholarship competition. Two local advertising professionals and I rated the design work from seven applicants. The interesting thing was the best design didn’t win the prize.

Each entry consisted of a resume, a letter of recommendation, a personal statement, and three samples of work. We rated the elements of each entry on a weighted 100-point scale, and then our scores were averaged. We were surprised when we found out who won.

Judging creativity is a subjective matter, but we all agreed there were two stand-outs in the bunch. And while the design scores carried more weight, in the end it was the written elements that made the difference.

There were plenty of remarks about typos on resumes, and out of seven personal statements only one answered the question about why clients should still hire professionals in this age of consumer-generated content.

Whether or not it sealed the deal we don’t know, but the winner’s letter of recommendation came from a local advertising agency. All the others were written by faculty members. It’s likely the internship swayed our opinion.

The winner’s work was very good, at least third best out of seven. However, it was the overall score that won the competition, not the level of creativity. I hope that lesson isn’t lost on these budding artists. Of course the design is important, but it takes the total package to win the prize, get a job, convince the client, or persuade the buyer.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

I have to admit Madonna’s Super Bowl half time show was pretty good. In fact, unless you’re a Giants fan, it was probably the best part of the whole game. I don’t even recall any stand-out commercials this year. If you spend $3.5 million on one television ad, I think the least you would hope for is someone talking about it the next day.

This year is off to a fast start with January already behind us. I keep hearing good news from local business owners. Sales activity is up, some companies are hiring, and with any luck marketing budgets will continue to grow.

We have a couple of interesting events to report this week:

Global Hotspots, Corporate Espionage, Local Impact

February 9, 2012 4:30-6pm
USF Sarasota-Manatee Selby Auditorium

Learn how global security issues in information technology can affect local businesses from a panel of experts including; Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu, Business computer security expert and Dean of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at USF Sarasota-Manatee, Luke Bencie, Managing Director of Secuirty Management International, and Paul Hoffman, President of SouthTech Solutions.

Register here for this fascinating event moderated by Dr. Sunita Lodwig, an Instructor of Information Technology at USF Sarasota-Manatee.

We’re also looking forward to the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce Annual Kick-off Breakfast this Friday morning from 7:30-9:15am at the Sahib Shrine Center. Last I checked this event was almost sold out. Click here to register.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.

Last week I attended the Accrisoft Summit here in Sarasota. Attendees were encouraged to view their businesses as digital marketing agencies rather than mere web shops so they don’t become obsolete. Facilitating the change in perspective, presenters followed a “theory of abundance” sharing best practices and offering a number of “golden nuggets.”

One such nugget came from Michael Reynolds, President/CEO of SpinWeb. Michael is also a speaker, and one of his popular topics is called Inbox Zero: How to Become an Email Ninja. It’s a great way to manage your email and your time. If you’re interested you can sign up here for his next webinar on Friday, February 24 from 12-1pm.

Other nuggets came in the form of sales processes and pricing strategies, not only for building websites, but also for related online marketing services like search engine optimization, social media management, email marketing, and more. It was an eye-opening experience that will improve our business.

Another event with the potential to improve your business is the American Advertising Federation Suncoast Marquee Event. Register now to learn how to Fascinate in the First Nine Seconds from Sally Hogshead on Wednesday night from 5-8pm at the Polo Grill and Bar. And if you’re planning to attend the ADDY Awards Gala this year you can register for both events and save twenty dollars!

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.