U! Marketing
contactportfolioservicesteam u!abouthome
weekly thoughts

September 4, 2009

Movers & Shakers – Scene 3, Take 1

Filed under: Clients,Miscellany,News,Projects,Thoughts — Tags: , , , , , , , — Andruw @ 1:05 pm

Movers;
So, I just recently packed up and moved. Which means U! Marketing has come along with me. Not far from my old place [three rights make a left] and things are operating as normal. Well normal for Team U anyways so no need to worry. I mean it wouldnt be U! Marketing if I wasn’t setup on top of boxes for the first 14 hrs and Heather was surrounded up to her ears in boxes and junk the first 2 days.

Shakers;
Seems like projects are just coming out of the wood work now! No idea what to do or where to start. I need a script to tell me what to do… and some sleep! No complaints though. Some of these projects are going to be a lot of fun and have me excited. Things seem to be shaking up. We’ve seen a lot of inquiries to our services, had quite a few referrals and seen things turn another corner.

Random Act of Kindness (RAK);
So, I wanted to give a shoutout to “server guy” as he’s been dubbed [ya, we're not too original with the name thing around here]. Richard DeWolfe of Plenty of Hosting is awesome. I haven’t personally chatted with him, but he’s awesome. He’s given us “plenty of hosting” [I'm so witty], a spotlight on his site, some small projects AND now on top of that the guy is recommending us, sending us clients, and spreading our name. Stay with me, here’s were it gets even cooler! Some are pretty awesome clients and they’re also from Montreal and other areas. Diggin’ this expansion stuff. One province at a time. [aren't you glad you stayed with me] So, again thanks for everything. Keep it up RD!

and now back to our regular program.

August 26, 2009

Scribbles & Dribble

Filed under: Clients,Miscellany,News,Projects,Thoughts — Tags: , , , — Andruw @ 10:17 pm

So, I’ve been getting yelled at to do a blog by both my colleague and concious… I think I have 2 personalities now. Not sure yet. More details to follow.

So this being my first blog in a while.. a long while. I plan on just touching on everything that’s gone on recently.

We’re alive and still at command of the ship for starters. Things have been pretty hectic here and there. It’s a battle. One that I’m enjoying more and more, feeling more like I’m on the winning side a little more every day. Learning the ropes as an owner has been awesome, I really do enjoy it. I have to give a shout out to all those that have helped me survive and given me knowledge that has helped us tremendously.

We’re starting to see the payoff of hard work and patience in the form of more clients and steady work. Some people have taken note of our talents and previous work. It’s nice to hear someone tell me they liked my work for another client which is why they contacted me, or that our other clients are referring us and pushing us! So kudos to you all as well.

We have several new clients and projects lined up for the coming weeks and future (a few of which I’m overly excited about to the point I feel as giddy as a 6 year old at 4am waiting for Santa to hit the roof over their head), so we’re hoping to really get things pumping through out the winter.

On a side track, summer is winding down which leaves me more time to myself as I won’t be doing as much in the activity side of things like summer hockey, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Only hockey and basketball all winter, which will allow me to focus on getting to another gear in the “promote me to U” side of things (that’s not really a slogan or anything) which should also allow us to see more work.

Lastly, I’ve got a second internet based idea I’d like to launch this winter and see how that goes. Chances are I will blog it on here once I have some material or it’s completed for you all to see.

As for me right now, I’m out.

April 16, 2009

Playing in the Sandbox

Filed under: Clients,Projects,Thoughts — Tags: , , , , , , — Andruw @ 11:59 am

So, just last week Duong was asking some pretty ridiculous questions about a project, that I couldn’t really answer because the client themselves couldn’t really answer them since they weren’t sure what they wanted to see themselves.

My response; “Think outside the box, but don’t think too far outside the box. Break some boundaries, but not too many, you don’t want to take away from what they’ve been doing already.”

So Duong put it into terms like only he could; “So in other words you can play in the sandbox but sometimes you’re allowed to play outside of the sandbox, but you always have to come back in?”

That was kind of a neat way to phrase things. I almost want to tell clients when we’re doing different pieces of their marketing it’s like playing in the sandbox. You always want to break barriers and come up with new designs that set your client apart from the competition, but you don’t want to take them too far out of their element and what they’ve been doing that no one, not even themselves know what they do or who they are.  Those that aren’t playing in the sandbox and are all over the playground - on the swings, the jungle gym, teeter toter – no one knows what message they’re trying to get across. As long as you’re always running back to the sandbox, people see that one constant in the message and can link you back to past messages they’ve taken in.

Playing in the sandbox keeps you from venturing too far, but stepping outside those little walls lets you explore new ideas and options without disrupting what you’re trying to accomplish with the design. You’re being different and unique without taking away from your client’s image they’ve been building over years.

It’s almost like the old phrase “thinking outside of the box”, only the new “outside of the box” is inside the box.