Facing a rough economy and increased competition in the market, Baja Fresh has integrated a new low-cost medium to their marketing mix – Email Blasts. Through the help of MMG, Baja Fresh has found continued success to stay above the competition and beat the economic struggles. Since the start of their email campaign almost one year ago, Baja Fresh has seen constant increases in foot traffic and sales in the weeks following the email blasts’ sendoff. The email blasts incorporate special promotions on featured menu items as well as design elements created by MMG to attract users and offer something unique.

Email blasts are a low-cost, unique way of directly communicating to your audience and increase awareness on certain products or specials. MMG has several clients that are taking advantage of the subscription-based email service named MyEmma including Gold’s Gym Treasure Valley, the Duke Family Foundation and others. MyEmma allows agencies to create, send and track stylish email campaigns with an affordable setup fee and tiered monthly pricing options based on the company and list size.

If you’d like to be included in future email blasts, please comment on this post and indicate which client interests you the most.

The 2^nd annual Windfall Classic golf tournament hosted by the Duke Family Foundation, proved to be a tremendous success and a great improvement over last year’s inaugural event. Held at Jug Mountain Ranch in McCall, Idaho, the 2^nd annual event received tremendous support from the community with 68 golfers in attendance as well as several spectators and volunteers. Eric Trapp & Derek Lakstol of the Idaho Steelheads and John Grizaffi & Barry Harris of Stein Distributing took home the coveted crystal trophies with a winning score of 12 under par - 60.

Sharing a similar mission to the Duke Family Foundation, the YMCA Camp at Horsethief Reservoir was deemed to be the beneficiary for this year’s event. The YMCA had a strong helping hand in the tournament as well coordinating several items for a silent auction as well as bringing in additional golfers and teams. 

“The selection of Y Camp Idaho was clear to us,” said Duke, Founder of the Duke Family Foundation. “Both the Duke Family Foundation and Horsethief Reservoir Camp share similar missions. We are both committed to the health and happiness of Idaho’s children and the important role outdoor activity can play in achieving that goal.”

MMG was heavily involved in all aspects of the event including the planning and development of the tournament as well as the design of several items including sponsorship materials, invitations and email blasts.

For information on the Windfall Classic please visit www.windfallclassic.com or if you’d like to be included in next year’s invitations please contact Tyler @ 472.7451.

We just received some great news upon Edward and Carolyn’s return from the annual Gold’s Gym International convention: Gold’s Gym Treasure Valley won three national franchisee awards as determined by Gold’s Gym International.  The Boise franchise received the top prize for the categories of Best Overall Fitness Program, Best American Diabetes Campaign and Best Marketing Campaign among the over 600 Gold’s Gym locations worldwide.Here at MMG, we couldn’t be more proud of these awards. We love to win creative awards as much as the next agency, but the awards that come from within our clients’ industries mean the most.For years, MMG has been Gold’s Gym Treasure Valley’s marketing partner in the truest sense of the word. Our team, headed up by Carolyn Weske, is responsible for nearly all aspects of the brand … from advertising, media planning, public relations, event planning and management, promotional giveaways, POS, and so much more.The award for Best ADA, capitalized on the national partnership between Gold’s Gym and the American Diabetes Association.  MMG helped Gold’s Gym develop Bikes in Boise, a 12-hour spin-a-thon, three years ago to help raise awareness and funds for the ADA and Boise’s local Humphrey’s Diabetes Center.  The 2008 event was held on May 3^rd at the Boise Town Square Mall and featured over 250 riders.  Each rider made a donation of $25 for each hour on the bike and additional funds were established by local corporate donors.  The 2008 event raised over $52,000 for diabetes research and programs. Best Overall Fitness was judged largely on member participation in GGX classes, personal training, class schedules and participation in other services including senior and youth programs.  With an individualized personal training and nutrition programs, Gold’s Gym Treasure Valley was recognized for their extensive programs, seminars, weight management and unique tools such as the APEX Body Bugg and Virtual Fitness Planner.   They were also recognized for the incorporation of the Les Mills programs and Group X classes which is at an impressive 45% participation rate at the Parkcenter location. The final category awarded, Best Marketing Campaign, took into account promotions and participation on a local and national level, ad materials, creativity and content of the local web page and overall results of marketing efforts.  The Treasure Valley was recognized for their community involvement as well as annual programs including Bikes in Boise and the Body Success Challenge, a 12 week body transformation challenge which strives to make Boise one of the fittest cities in the nation and educates the community on overall health and fitness.Congrats to all of our friends and colleagues at Gold’s Gym, as well as everyone at MMG for all of their hard (and smart) work this past year.

Jason and I recently returned from an amazing 5 days in Boston spent attending the How Design Conference. We took workshops to sharpen our technical skills, heard inspiring talks on design, marketing strategy, and creativity in general, and networked with many other creatives from all over the country. It was refreshing to say the least. My personal highlights were meeting and chatting with Michael Beirut, one of my design heroes; taking a very informative Photoshop skills workshop; the hand-lettering workshop I attended; meeting the people behind the Modern Dog agency, creators of hundreds of amazing rock posters; and the sessions I attended on “Making Creativity Work” and “Illustrative Design.” This was an amazing opportunity for both Jason and I and we made the most of it, not only getting in a years worth of design education in less than a week but also seeing a lot of Boston while we were at it. Harvard, Beacon Hill, and a no-hitter Sox game were all on the agenda for me. Seeing the Red Sox in Fenway Park has been a dream of mine for a long time, and having Lester throw a no hitter the same night was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t have picked a better night.

Here are some photos I took while in Beantown. There aren’t many photos of the convention itself, because I was too busy furiously scribbling notes at the time.

All in all, it was an incredibly beneficial trip, and we can’t wait to implement what we learned back here at MMG.

MMG wants to congratulate Kevin Settles in his new position as a voting director for the NRA, the leading business association for the restaurant industry. Kevin first opened Bardenay, America’s first restaurant and distillery, in downtown Boise in 1999. It has since expanded to include two additional locations Eagle in 2004 and Coeur d’Alene in 2007. Today, Bardenay is known for its fine Northwestern cuisine, rustic atmosphere and innovative cocktail menu, crafted from the on-site distilleries. Below is an article that appeared in the Coeur d’Alene Press this week, recognizing Kevin’s achievement:
Movers & Shakers
Posted: Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008 - 10:20:10 pm PST
Email this story Printer friendly version Making their mark

• The National Restaurant Association board named Bardenay owner Kevin Settles to join its board in May. Settles will serve as a voting director for the national board which serves to represent, educate and promote the restaurant industry, comprising 945,000 restaurants.

“I am very excited to be part of such a vibrant organization,” Settles said. “I look forward to using my ties to the NRA to strengthen the Idaho Lodging and Restaurant Association.”

NRA represents more than 380,000 member restaurant establishments. Settles will join the board of 82 directors from across the country representing every facet of the industry.

One of my favorite events at the beginning of each year is Flying M’s “Valentine for AIDS” silent auction and art show benefitting the Safety Net for AIDS (SNAP) program. As a former Flying M employee and Boise artist I’ve been proud to participate in the event for the past 6 years. Each February Boise’s favorite independent coffee shop is turned into an eclectic Valentine gallery showcasing the city’s finest artists and craftspeople. I’m looking forward to checking out new work by Ben Wilson, Laurie Blakeslee, Grant Olsen, EJ Pettinger, Rick Walter, Tiffany Watkins, Sean Aucutt, Sasha Probrasco and many others. My wife, Wendi, and I decided to collaborate this year and we put to use a broken cello that was going to be thrown out by a local music store:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/263/gallery/285599-a285561-t2.html

Since Wendi and I met while working at the Flying M their Valentine’s art show seemed like a great place for our first collective effort. This picture doesn’t do our piece justice because you can’t see all the detail that Wendi added to the sides of the cello. I’ll try to post some additional photos, but I invite you all to head down and check out all the Valentine for AIDS art up close. It is a great place to find a unique gift for your lover… The show runs Thursday, February 7th through Sunday, February 17th (Auction ends at 4 pm on the 17th). 

UPDATE: Here are some of my pics from home. The bidding has started….

 http://www.mmgboise.com/clients/valentine/flyingm.html

Karin Carlilse, our astute summer intern and Junior Marketing student at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN continues to take the ad world by the horns. Less that a year after being published as a contributor to her marketing professors work in the tourism field, Karin is now a media sensation for her astute analysis of this past Sunday’s Superbowl ads. Some other students had some thoughts but not smart ones (students) that interned at MMG like Karin!
In addition to the newspaper article Karin also did both radio and TV interviews and was featured on the St. Mary’s website!

Exciting news in the MMG world - I have a new desk. I switched things up last week by moving to the empty desk on the other side of the office. Although it’s always exciting to move around a bit, and the move was only 20 feet from my old desk, things are very different over here. My previous desk was out in the open and now things are a little closed off. Here are some thoughts after my first week on this side of the office:

Sights

There are different sights I see and don’t see everyday. Being closer to the creative department I’m constantly seeing the amazing work the guys are able to do. Seeing their work from start to finish is a real treat. The one disadvantage of moving is that I’m a little more closed off to the rest of the office, which doesn’t provide me the opportunity to see everyone come and go all day long like I used to (I’m thinking of installing a window or a mirror above my desk so I can see everything that’s going on again).

Sounds

There are a lot of new sounds to get used on this side of the office. The creative department always has music that I’m never really familiar with playing on their computers. Whether they decide to have an all 80’s music day or they’re rocking out to hits that I don’t know the name of there’s always unfamiliar sounds to be heard. Then of course there’s always noises from the guys discussing the creative aspects of new projects; discussing copy, layout and design of projects.

Smells

My final thought/observation from this side of the office is that there are plenty of new smells that weren’t present before. Aaron heats up his leftovers everyday (apparently Aaron is an amazing chef) and the smells make me very hunger. The other guys on this side of the office are also bringing in some great smells from lunch. Whether it’s a quick trip to the taco cart or Zen Bento there are plenty of good smells during the lunch hour. There are also a few bad smells coming from this side of the office but I won’t get into that at all.

As exciting of an adventure as this may sound, I’m sure I’ve built it up to be more exciting then it really is. But if you are ever in the office, make sure you pop your head over my wall and say hi.

Hopefully you had a chance to read the story on the front page of the Sunday, December 16 issue of the Idaho Statesman. The article, part of the Year of Caring series, is especially touching to me because it is about an old soccer friend of mine from our days with the Boise Nationals, who died while climbing in the Himalayas. I didn’t know John Jackson too well; he was a year younger and he went to a different high school—so we were never on the same team. But I did know him well enough to know that he was brilliant, talented and full of life. He was the kind of guy everyone loved to be around.

The article is about the John William Jackson Fund, which raises money through recycling and grass-roots fundraising, and supports young Idahoans who share John’s interests and passions including education, music, climbing and outdoor sports. A portion of the funds raised comes through Bill “Action” Jackson (John’s father) and his recycling efforts, namely scrap metal.

“Each piece of metal Jackson picks up is a tribute to his son,” according to Michael Deeds, who wrote the article for the Statesman. “Symbolic as it is, recycling is a small portion of the circle of life fund.”

It’s about giving back; paying it forward, and living life as John lived it. That inspires me. It makes me want to do more with my time and energy. Since my son was born this past March, I’ve felt a real calling to try to make a difference … particularly environmentally. At MMG, we’re trying to do more. This past summer we created a “green team” of sorts, though not limited to environmental issues. It’s an opportunity for us to try to leave a positive impact on our community, and it’s something we’re excited about. Our last event was the Boise River Sweep in September, but we haven’t done anything since. We’ve all been busy, and time is precious. But this article turned that argument on it’s head. Time is precious. We can’t afford to wait.

“I know that everything in life is temporary, and we are not given nearly enough time with the people we truly wish to spend it with,” John wrote in an essay when he was fifteen after his dad had heart surgery. “The day that I saw my father as human was the day that I came face to face with the unavoidable truth that nothing in life is forever, and that trying to hold on is like trying to hold a handful of water, you simply cannot.”

This article, in particular this quote, has reignited the fire under my butt to get back out there and seize the day. Stop watching so much TV. Spend time with the people I love. Work hard. Play hard. Give back.

“Remember, rethink, reuse, recycle relentlessly.”

That’s the fund’s motto. That’s how John lived, and I congratulate and thank Michael Deeds and the Statesman for an exceptional piece of journalism that will further John’s legacy in making our community and world a better place to live.

To read the article, click here.

Big things have been happening this offseason with our client 2 hours North of Boise. Jug Mountain Ranch received the honor of being named the No. 2 Best New Course Under $75 in the January, 2008 issue of Golf Digest. Golf Digest has been recognizing the best new courses in the US for the past 25 years.

This past season I had the opportunity to play Jug a couple of times, and I can honestly say that Golf Digest made a good choice by honoring the course. The course offers so many amazing McCall views as well as providing golfers of all skill levels challenges on every hole. With the new clubhouse scheduled to open this coming season, Jug Mountain will start play in its correct order of holes.

Congratulations to everyone who helped Jug Mountain Ranch achieve this honor!