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Red Door Interactive’s John Faris to speak at MAGIC S.L.A.T.E Monday

Red Door — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:59 +0000

- Company’s Cross Channel Marketing Director to discuss how to drive offline sales with location-based social, search tactics -

SAN DIEGO – February 7, 2012 – John Faris, Director of Cross Channel Marketing at Red Door Interactive, a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses engage their customers wherever they are, will speak Monday at Las Vegas’ MAGIC S.L.A.T.E.

The presentation entitled “Driving offline sales with location-based social and search tactics” will help marketers mobilize and localize existing social and search strategies to drive offline activity.

Faris will discuss how consumer purchasing decisions are becoming more influenced by brand and product research conducted online, and how specialty retailers can adapt. According to Google, 89 percent of consumers who buy in key retail categories in-store have conducted online research prior to purchase. To capitalize on consumers’ new inclination to research online before purchasing offline, marketers need to go beyond awareness and direct response campaigns, and start influencing the purchase decision-making process. This means ramping up mobile content and campaigns, social check-in campaigns, and local search engine marketing efforts.

More information is available at http://www.magiconline.com/slate.

About Red Door Interactive, Inc.
With offices in San Diego, Carlsbad and Denver, Red Door Interactive, Inc. is a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses acquire, convert, retain and engage their customers wherever they are. The firm holds more than a decade of expertise in successfully developing and executing communications initiatives across all touch points to deliver real, measureable results. Clients include Quiksilver, Sutter Home Winery, Cricket Communications, PETCO, Rubio’s, Charlotte Russe and Eagle Creek. Find out more about Red Door Interactive at http://www.reddoor.biz.

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We’re hiring! Looking for a Project Manager, Denver

Red Door — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:36:23 +0000

We’re hiring! Looking for a Project Manager to join our Denver office.

Is This You? From project kick-off to lessons learned, we’re looking for a dynamic team player to execute projects to meet client project goals. You can handle the minutia while keeping the big picture top-of-mind. You will be comfortable having the authority to make quick decisions on the fly as well as know when it’s appropriate to lean on subject matter experts for their insights. You will be able to clearly communicate status, actions and risks to clients while keeping teams engaged and motivated and forward-thinking. You have a dedication to quality and know how to provide value without compromising project goals.

Learning & Growth: You are organized, detail-oriented, and have the ability to learn quickly in a fast-paced environment. You are adept at learning and able leverage new technologies and project management best practices throughout the project life cycle. You will have opportunities to gain mastery in and execute Lean and Agile best practices within the project life cycle. You will engage in career/professional growth opportunities through supervision, mentoring and on-going training.

Our projects: You have the opportunity to manage both external and internal teams throughout complex, multiphase projects. You execute on a variety of project types such as engine optimization (SEO) strategy, online media and web site and application development. You welcome the opportunity to provide solutions and improvements to our project process through regular in-project retrospectives and post-project reviews.

Our team: Working under the larger umbrella of the Project and Process Management team you will join a strong team of project managers. You work with our Senior Estimator and Quality Architect to provide continuous improvements to projects. You provide mentorship to junior members of our team and serve in a leadership role within the PM and project teams.

Is this you? If so, APPLY NOW!

Current Open Positions:

Director of Business Development, Denver with a proven track record of developing and growing meaningful relationships.
Senior Web Developer with strong back-end development experience with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) technologies.
Search Marketing Manager who can gracefully manage SEO and paid search objectives and develop people.
Senior Strategist with expertise in turning research into insights and delivering compelling presentations that resonate with executive audiences.
Project Manager who is a dynamic team player with excellent judgment to execute projects to meet client goals.

About Red Door Interactive
With offices in San Diego, Carlsbad and Denver, Red Door Interactive, Inc. is a strategic partner dedicated to helping businesses continually evolve by offering a broad array of services. We help brands including Cricket Communications, Eagle Creek, Quiksilver, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, and Petco connect seamlessly with customers across all touch points.

Red Door Interactive moves to Downtown office

Red Door — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:11:47 +0000

- Denver agency finds new location to accommodate expanding team -

Denver – February 2nd, 2012 – Red Door Interactive, a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses engage their customers wherever they are, announced today its move to a new Downtown office space.

Since opening its doors in Denver three years ago, the agency has grown by more than 50 percent and the change was necessary to accommodate its rapidly-expanding team and client base.

“The new location is a great fit for our team and will allow us to expand our multi-office communication and stay connected through advanced technologies,” said Jaime Heather Intile, VP of Business Services and Managing Director in Denver for Red Door Interactive. “In 2011, we were recognized as the top Web Developer in Denver by the Denver Business Journal in terms of revenue which reiterates that brands are coming to us to help them achieve their online goals. We’re looking forward to helping more businesses in Rocky Mountain region!”

Each of Red Door’s three locations possesses a special theme and the Denver design concept is Modern Lodge. The goal is for employees and guests to feel warm and welcome in their work environment and décor entails a fun faux animal-head art installation and the inclusion of natural elements and accents such as beetle kill wood. The office will maintain its open layout, but will also offer small meeting rooms, a gathering hub with built-in booths and bars where people can eat and host informal meetings.

The agency is looking to hire new team members for numerous positions, including Director of Business Development, Art Director, Sr. Web Developer and paid internships in Business Services, Marketing Communications, Research and Strategy, Business Development and Online Advertising. More information on these positions is available at: http://www.reddoor.biz/careers

The new office is located at 1001 17th Street, Suite PL150, Denver, Colo., 80202.

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Red Door Interactive’s Jeannie Fratoni on Judging Panel for the 2012 IAB Rising Stars Mobile Ad Format Competition

Red Door — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:30:26 +0000

- Co-Founder will select industry’s best campaigns for Mobile Standard Ad Units -

SAN DIEGO – January 19, 2012 – Jeannie Fratoni of Red Door Interactive, a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses engage their customers wherever they are, will judge the 2012 IAB Rising Stars Mobile Ad Format Competition.

Fratoni, an experienced judge and member of the Mobile Rising Stars Agency Working Group, will critique the organizations’ competition, including more than 60 mobile ad concepts suitable for smartphones and connected devices.

“I’ve judged for numerous industry awards such as the Webby Awards, the Internet Advertising Competition (IAC), the International WebAward Competition and the Davey Awards. It’s a great honor to be a part of such a significant competition that will play a key role in determining new guidelines for mobile online advertising,” said Jeannie Fratoni of Red Door Interactive. “The judges will be responsible for selecting the industry’s best that will then become the IAB Mobile Ad Format Standards. I’m excited to represent Red Door on this front!”

The IAB’s Rising Stars is a program that goes beyond the basic standards to capture innovation in creative-friendly ad units for the good of the industry. Submissions are evaluated on the following criteria: user experience, branding, functionality, page integration and adoptability. The winners will be announced February 26-28 at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.

“If the success of Rising Stars Display is any indication, Rising Stars Mobile is likely to be a real motivating factor in revving up mobile interactive advertising with blue-chip brands and publishers,” said Peter Minnium, Head of Brand Initiatives at the IAB. “These prospective ad formats are sure to be great enhancements to the already established mobile advertising guidelines from other organizations like the MMA.”

About the IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86 percent of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

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Michele Kiss Hinojosa to speak at TechAmerica Marketing & Sales Roundtable tomorrow

Red Door — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:00:07 +0000

- Red Door Interactive’s Director of Analytics to discuss Marketing ROI -

SAN DIEGO – January 18, 2012 – Michele Kiss Hinojosa, Director of Analytics at Red Door Interactive, a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses engage their customers wherever they are, will participate in the TechAmerica Marketing & Sales Roundtable tomorrow.

The seminar entitled “Marketing ROI,” will discuss a variety of issues, including why it’s important to every marketer, how to identify what to measure, tools to measure, reading analytics and more.

The Marketing & Sales Roundtable is a community of marketing and sales professionals who meet to exchange ideas, share best practices, learn new techniques and tactics and network. More information is available at: http://www.techamerica.org/marketing-sales-roundtable-2

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Looking back on 2011 with Caring Hearts

Red Door — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:00:10 +0000

At Red Door, we stand strongly behind our core values. While we “SHARE” every day to improve our work within the office, we also recognize that the value of sharing goes beyond our office doors. Our Philanthropy Committee, aptly named “Caring Hearts,” embodies this very notion. And as we begin a new year, we’d like to share with you as we reflect on the events and activities that our Caring Hearts hosted in 2011.

Serving Seniors

Beginning in April, Caring Hearts volunteered serving lunch each month at the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center in downtown San Diego. Welcomed by applause and thanked with big smiles and kind words, the “Red Door girls”—as the seniors started calling them—stood out and made a difference in their red t-shirts! Learn more.

MS Walk

On April 30^th, Caring Hearts gathered a team to volunteer at the registration table at the MS Walk in NTC Park in San Diego. Our second year at the event, we were excited to be part of the community and cheer on the other participants. Learn more.

Wreaths Across America

On December 10^th, Red Door volunteered for its second year at this event. Volunteers helped lay over 2,700 Christmas wreaths on the headstones of fallen soldiers at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, helping spread the message about the importance of remembering and honoring the sacrifices made by soldiers and their families. Learn more.

Adopt-a-Family

Throughout December, Caring Hearts lead a program that swept through the office: adopting a family to sponsor over the holidays. After receiving our family’s wish list from the Salvation Army Kroc Center, we did our most rewarding Christmas shopping of the season. From dream gifts like iPods to household goods and clothing, the gifts made for a very merry Christmas, indeed. Learn more.

We look forward to more sharing and caring in 2012.

4 Short-Form Blogging Networks Perfect for Customer Engagement

Anne Buehner — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:23:22 +0000

Mashable
Anne Buehner, Associate Social Media Strategist, Red Door Interactive

Toasting the new year is not what it used to be. Which comes first – a kiss from your loved one or uploading a photo of the ball drop to Instagram?

This type of midnight social media madness provides a great snapshot into the lives of the consumers who may buy your product or service in 2012. It’s time to take direct aim at your audience, or at least try to satisfy their appetite for moment-to-moment content.

With 2011 in the rearview mirror, you’re likely forecasting a fresh social media/instablogging strategy for the new year. You’ve probably heard that a brand relationship needs to mirror a personal one, but which self-publishing platforms can really accomplish this esprit de corps? One of the easiest ways for brands to leverage warm and fuzzy feelings is to play in the same social spaces as your friends and family would.

However, it can be difficult to decide which platform is the right fit for your brand – in addition to the standards Facebook and Twitter, of course. Which sites help brands keep up in the real-time content race? Which sites really drive engagement? Here are a few I see as emerging leaders.

1. Tumblr

Brands use Tumblr to create a community and to build a following fast with its quick and easy setup, seamless tagging and sharing capabilities. Existing brands also use the short-form blog to breathe life into content through a host of mixed-media that includes photos, links and video. However, you don’t want to shoot from the hip with Tumblr — it requires a content strategy, branded “look and feel” and management approval to re-blog other images. You’ll want to use Google Analytics to track traffic since Tumblr does not offer a reporting platform. Tumblr also does not have the best reputation when it comes to collaborating with brands on advertising opportunities.

Anthropologie recently launched a Tumblr blog called Etymologie. The posts are inspired by reader-submitted words and the content is more lifestyle-driven, rather than promotional. Ace Hotel uses a Tumblr called Everything Will Be Okay, with a philanthropic focus and subtle “get a room” reference to its hotels.

The Tumblr platform isn’t just suited for big timers; it can work for a small companies looking to find fans in a target audience of 34-years-old and younger.

2. Pinterest

Brands use Pinterest to build brand personality and inspire trends and influencers through instant social sharing. Pins are typically centered around major life events such as weddings and holidays. Users create theme-based collections through the site’s virtual pinboards. Dialogue is generated through the simple act of Pinning, Repinning, Liking and commenting on images taken on a smartphone or from the web. Pinterest presents a helpful tool for brand direction by analyzing what is frequently Pinned and why.

With over 400,000 visitors per month – and rapidly growing – Pinterest is a huge referral source for brands. Real Simple recently reported that Pinterest drove more traffic to its website than Facebook in the month of October. Smaller brands should take note of Cabot Cheese, which uses Pinterest to curate photos of food that can be made with its cheese — other boards include fun photos of cows, farms and Vermont.

While the site’s list of etiquette states “avoid self-promotion,” aka soft sell, it does not include stipulations around contests. Lands’ End took advantage of this in December with the engagement contest Lands’ End Canvas Pin It to Win It. The promotion encouraged users to browse its modern clothing line and make Boards for a chance to win apparel.

3. Instagram

Brands use Instagram to showcase products, services, events or just a behind-the-scenes look through a feed of photos, instead of a slew of text. The photo sharing application for iPhone uses dazzling image filters, and features cross-posting to other social networks including Twitter, Facebook profiles, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr and Posterous. The goal is to attract new fans with Instagram’s search and keyword function, and to draw engagement through likes, comments, @replies and #hashtags. Instagram provides relatively seamless integration with dozens of third-party applications, including Statigram, which offers analytics.

Brands with an existing following can thrive on Instagram. In 2011, more than 150 million images were uploaded to the platform in less than a year by more than 8 million users. Popular t-shirt company Threadless is a great insta-success story, recently passing 70,000 followers, some of whom submit their own designs.

One big drawback: Instagram is still not available for Android, and the application doesn’t integrate with Facebook brand pages. What it does do is make your pictures look good – really good. For me, Instagram feels like a safe space, where I can sift through gorgeous real-time photo updates from friends, family and my favorite shoe company, all in one place.

4. Tout

Brands use Tout to create real-time, 15-second video status updates captured from Apple and Android smartphones, and then distributed through social networks. Instant video sharing is on the rise as more and more consumers use smartphones. Tout offers integration across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and does include analytics. It’s essentially video Twitter.

Brands that want to utilize creative ways to showcase new products or services, make announcements, give a behind-the-scenes look, or “tout out” to show appreciation for fans or staff may want to experiment with this platform. You might remember when Shaquille O’Neal famously announced his retirement from basketball via Tout. Similar to Instagram, brands without a decent following shouldn’t start with Tout first, but add it on to their existing social strategy.

Tout is still in its toddler stage, asking for suggestions from its community to help drive the product road map for the platform. Perhaps you can help navigate how Tout would best suit your brand.

I also think Tout requires client management, and doesn’t really work in the B2B space. You can’t share Tout directly from your smartphone to YouTube, only to Twitter, Facebook and email. You can cut YouTube videos down and then upload your favorite 15-seconds to Tout.

No matter what platform you choose, if you’re providing springboards for spontaneity around your brand, you generate a more transparent, empowering and compelling message for the audience — one that can help build and strengthen communities at a rapid pace with the snap of a camera, Pin or click.

Understanding and developing a strategy around these tools gives your brand control over the real-time moments that today’s connected generation craves. After the midnight toast, it’s time to Pin, Tumble and Tout.

Image courtesy of Flickr, libraryman

View original post on mashable.com>>>

Why Marketing Needs Objectives… Not Just Goals

Brett — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:31:46 +0000

MarketingProfs
Brett Johnson, Sr. Strategist, Red Door Interactive

In this article, you’ll learn how to…

Create solid, actionable objectives
Implement tactics that support your objectives
Motivate employees to enhance the quality of your strategies

Many companies have essentially the same overarching goals: increase sales, decrease operating costs, and reduce churn. All of those goals result in growing a company’s net revenue and profitability.

Seems pretty simple, but the way those business goals translate into objectives, specifically with marketing, is the secret sauce that ultimately determines whether an organization stands a reasonable chance of achieving success or whether it will blow another budget on a creative refresh that fails to better communicate or motivate the consumer to convert.

Turning Goals Into Objectives
A good starting point would be to provide Marketing with the sales goals. Without the integral intermediary step of translating that type of purpose into concise and actionable marketing objectives that align the product attributes, brand assets, and user needs, Marketing will most likely end up producing fantastical tactics and catchy messaging taglines, such as “Let’s message the benefits of the product,” or “We need a branded application for the iPhone!”

Meanwhile, the what, why, and who have vanished into the interdepartmental/agency abyss, leaving the business and the consumer at the mercy of Marketing’s creative interpretation of best sellers.

Instead, at such a critical stage, marketing teams need to formulate actionable objectives and working strategies in cooperation with those who set the goals, make the product, and know the target audience.

According to Jan DeLyser, vice-president of marketing at California Avocado Commission, “It’s imperative to have clarity of common purpose and freedom to work together.” That means that individual departments and agency partners should work toward common business objectives in a collaborative fashion.

Though getting agency partners to cooperate (as opposed to compete) for working dollars is worthy of its own article, if not a book series, having a clearly actionable working objective that spans all agency partners is the key ingredient for collaboration and unity in purpose.

Because of our working relationship with the California Avocado Commission Red Door Interactive has been introduced to a methodology for creating solid and actionable objectives and supporting strategies. The system works by using a sentence structure that comprises three phrases:

In order to (insert objective)
We will (define a strategy)
By (list creative tactics that solve the problem)

For example, if the goal is to increase sales, an objective may be to drive preference of your best target customer while she is in the consideration stage. That can be accomplished if you’ve conducted your research, identified the best target audience, understood how the target customer perceives your brand or product, and recognized how she engages and researches products (e.g., mobile search, reviews).

If you drop all of those elements into the sentence-structure framework, you could get the following result: “In order to drive preference with suburban sale chasers during the consideration phase, we will activate the online voice of existing customers by creating a game that requires multiple reviews on Facebook and Yelp and that focuses on the reliability of the product.”

Implementing Tactics That Support the Objective
Although you’d end up with a game or contest (in the previous example), the resulting strategy contains key elements that support the greater objective based on the company’s current needs.

Ensure that you’ve covered each step of the sales cycle: acquisition, consideration, purchase, and retention. For example, without driving preference, how would you account for competitive threats or influences? When possible, apply what you know about your audience. If you have working segments, or if you’ve done your homework and have customer personas, you can better refine the methods of activating them.

A company might even include learning more about its audience as an objective: “In order to increase the relevance and value of our communications with our audience, we will introduce programs that qualify and segment our users into a database and develop specific channels for different types of messages by (a) segmenting existing and potential customers in our email database, (b) offering and requiring selection of specific need state choices upon email sign up, and (c) monitoring the method or channel by which consumers sign up for our marketing messages (e.g., SMS text, mobile site, mobile email, website).”

Motivating Your People
Ultimately, the goal is to formulate high-level actionable objectives and provide direction and strategies that allow team members to say, “I have an idea on how to accomplish that!” If your company has creatives with great ideas, give them the opportunity to prove that their concepts make sense against the objectives or strategies. Those concepts might require only a few minor tweaks to produce something extremely efficient and effective.

If your organization can personalize the audience as part of the process, you’ll likely see fireworks go off with your teams. They’re creative problem-solvers, chomping at the bit to run with a strategic or tactical challenge.

Finally, make sure your infrastructure is in place before you set out to achieve a particular objective. There’s no use in setting, say, a rebranding initiative based on customer service if it isn’t in top form. Though that might seem obvious, it happens all the time.

Read article on MarketingProfs.com>>>

Carlsbad Company Celebrates 10 Years of Having Fun

Red Door — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:12 +0000

Carlsbad Patch
Deanne Goodman

A look inside Red Door Interactive’s beach-themed “100% Jerk Free” Carlsbad office

February 2002, a digital company named Red Door Interactive opened in downtown San Diego. Ten years later, the award-winning company has about 60 employees and offices in San Diego, Carlsbad, and Denver, Colorado. Four years running, Red Door Interactive has won “Best Place to work” according to San Diego Business Journal.

The Carlsbad office opened in July 2010. It is in the village right across the street from Pizza Port. You’ve probably seen their sign many times without ever knowing what you were looking at.

The company helps clients like Carlsbad-based Rubio’s Fish Tacos, Souplantation, Quicksilver and Charlotte Russe profit from digital initiatives with strategies of social media, email marketing and website development for example. To be a client of Red Door Interactive, a business must earn more than $100 million in revenue.

About 10 employees work at the Carlsbad office. Erika Werner, Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships works in the Carlsbad office but says it feels less like an office and more like a home. “It’s a family atmosphere. I love my job, it doesn’t feel like a job.” Although families often fight, there is a no fighting policy at Red Door. The office is “100% Jerk Free,” as written right on the wall.

Inside you’ll also find seashells and a lobby that looks like it belongs in a beach house. The beach theme makes for a soothing work environment.

See photos here>>>

Red Door Interactive featured on FastCasual.com for bringing back Rubio’s Original Fish Taco with “Chase the Taste” game

Red Door — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:31:54 +0000

Featured on FastCasual.com

Background:
In 1983, Ralph Rubio opened up his first restaurant, debuting what would become a culinary cult classic—the beer-battered fish taco. As popularity grew and demand increased, Rubio’s began battering their famous fish tacos at a partner facility in 2006 instead of by hand in the kitchens of their restaurants in an effort to create a more consistent taste. With Rubio’s 30th anniversary on the horizon, Ralph planned to bring The Original Fish Taco® back to its beer-battered-by-hand roots. Rubio’s looked to Red Door Interactive to introduce its homecoming in a way that would not only raise awareness, but generate in-store trials as well.

Solution:
Red Door Interactive devised the Chase the Taste: The Return of The Original Fish Taco game where players had to search through action-packed, illustrated scenes to find The Original Fish Tacos, along with other hidden items such as a Rubio’s cook, Ralph, lime wedges and other appetizing accouterments.

Participants were tasked to locate all of the objects before time expired. If the game was completed, players were entered into a drawing for a chance to win exciting prizes, including a $2,500 gift card. In addition, every player received a coupon to try The Original Fish Taco.

“We counted on Red Door to create something that would be interactive and allow people to have fun,” explained Ralph Rubio. “They brainstormed several concepts that would attract interested players and enable them to spread the word through share functions.”

Results:
During the first week the game launched, more than 30,000 players set their sights on finding The Original Fish Taco. Over a period of 42 days that the game was available, the game’s landing page received 101,469 visits and the play page acquired 68,430 visits. This resulted in a 67 percent conversion rate. Of those that played the game, 69 percent won, 37 percent ran out of time (68 percent of those individuals opted to play again) and only six percent quit the game.

What’s most interesting is that when the email was distributed on the first day, it resulted in the highest engagement through the share and social functions. For example, more than 19,000 people shared the game in one way or another. The “Post Your Time” on Facebook share option was the most used with more than 7,000 shares. In addition, nearly 4,625 people shared the game via Facebook message and approximately 1,880 individuals shared it on Twitter. Equally important was the 5,198 shares that occurred through email.

“We were very pleased with the results. Red Door provided an exceptional value in producing our game; I was impressed by their energy, creative ideas and ability to produce an outstanding product. The commitment level with the game was extremely high and it was a great way to announce that the Original Fish Taco is back,” said Ralph Rubio.

Read article on FastCasual.com>>>