Madison+Main’s Weekly Report 3/28/14

Hey folks,

It was a busy week at Madison+Main, but we took some casualties. Winter threw its last punch at us, with snow flurries on Monday and 17 degree temps on Wednesday. A large percentage of the Madison+Main-iacs were down for the count; Molly, Kara, Dorsey, Kelley, Colleen. I got the sniffles on Tuesday night, but they went away after two medium-sized glasses of Maker’s Mark.

For the rest of the crew, who actually made it in to work, they found we had run out of coffee and it looked like a scene from my new tv-watching addiction: The Walking Dead. And the fact that it was  no-make-up Monday had nothing to do with it.  🙂

Monday (3/24) – It was an early (7:30am) call for the first location of our latest TV production for Howell’s Heating & Air. Later that morning I joined the production team from Broadscope Media at our second location, Nesbit Salon. Special thanks to the managers and owners of Nesbit for allowing us to shoot all day Monday at their amazing location on Main Street.

No, that’s not a Zombie in the tub. It’s me. #BathingDead

Monday marked one year since last year’s Walk MS: Richmond, where Team Madison+Main raised money AND awareness for the MS Society. We’re walking again this year (April 26th) and we need your help… ANY amount helps. Click here to support the Madison+Main-iacs at Walk MS. This year we’re thinking of dressing up as Zombies and walking around Innsbrook… waddya think?

We created a “Harlem Shake” video at last year’s MS Walk in Richmond

Tuesday (3/25) – It was good to be back at Rotary on Tuesday morning and I got several questions about my comments in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week. Here’s a link to the article in case you missed it. I also had some questions about Madison+Main’s Banana Campaign, a multi-platform content marketing campaign that we launched a couple of weeks ago. At 9am I met with a new prospective company and received first-hand proof that the campaign was working. Me: ”So, how’d you hear about Madison+Main?” Prospective Client:“I was on Facebook and saw these girls dressed like bananas with a gorilla. I clicked the link and thought, ‘These guys look fun!’” #BoldBrandsWin

Madison+Main takes its Banana Campaign to the streets of Carytown

That afternoon we presented some 3D direct mail concepts to our buds at Village Bank and I jumped in the studio to record some new radio ads for Howell’s Heating & Air. On Tuesday evening I was invited to give a lecture at UR’s Robins School of Business. Great kids, great class and great questions.

Marketing Tip of the Week (compliments of my buddy Scott Shufflebarger at Hertless Brothers)

In the nightcap, I finished season 1 of The Walking Dead on DVD, scared myself silly and couldn’t sleep til the wee hours of the morning.

Wednesday (3/26) – On Wednesday morning I was so sleepy I couldn’t wake up in time to do the Greater Richmond Chamber Lead Investor Breakfast. I only have myself to blame. But I was able to bounce back into a series of productive client meetings with Greg and Lynn from Davis & Green Electrical and Mike Caniglia from Vera’s Fine Jewelers. I was also delighted to host Dr. Debbie Sydow, President of Richard Bland College, at our offices in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, we had a strong showing at the PRSA Luncheon with MarCom Executive Sarah Murphy, Digital Marketing Manager Dorsey McFadden and Account Services CoordinatorBrandon Singletary representing Madison+Main.

Brandon, Sarah and Dorsey learned about the Law of Social Media at PRSA on Wednesday

I met with our interns Wednesday evening after hours and helped them with their video project, which reminded me: we’re now accepting applications for summer interns. If you know a bright young undergrad or recent grad who likes branding, marketing and making coffee, please have them send a letter and resume to me at shout@madisonmain.com.

Thursday (3/27) –  On Thursday we sent Kelley Miller back to New York. #fugetaboudit

In the morning I worked on my upcoming Ignite presentation at the Virginia Council of CEOs retreat. Thanks to Dale Carnegie‘s JJ White and VACEO’s Executive Director Scott McRoberts for talking me into this. It’s going to be fun… and frightening.

On Thursday we finalized our sponsorship of the RVA Creativity Awards. We are proud to announce that Madison+Main is a Bronze Sponsor of C3‘s inaugural community creativity awards. The event will be held on Thursday, May 1st at the Hippodrome, bringing together artists, composers, communicators, writers, publishers, web designs, marketers and many more from RVA’s vibrant creative community. Tickets available here.

Friday (3/28) – Today is Kara Forbis‘ birthday. In her honor, we all started drinking wine at breakfast. By lunchtime everyone was stumbling around, glassy-eyed and mumbling like Zombies. So, Art Director Geoff Glisson and I grabbed my bag of guns and drove toColonial Shooting Academy and popped off a few hundred rounds at paper targets, that look like… wait for it… Zombies. I am on my way to NBC12 right now to meet with their TV production team and watch a Village Bank financial literacy shoot.

Our friends Greg Hofbauer and Bart Levy from Nimble Pitch dropped by this morning. They have a really cool product and have been getting a lot of press recently. Learn more about digital interactive storytelling here.

Tonight I’ll probably finish off the second season of Walking Dead. What are you doing this weekend.