René of the Day // 10.23.11 // Cincinnati Chocolate Festival

This event was a delicious success! The Isaac M. Wise Temple Sisterhood raised $60,000 for this one-day event at the Cintas Center. For only the second year, they've continued to grow and expand tremendously. The first year (2010) was held at the JCC. This year, there was a wait at the door in the first hour because the Cintas Center was at capacity! Next year they're looking toward the Duke Energy Convention Center to house Cincinnati's overflowing chocaholic population.

It was an honor and privelege to donate my time and skills to this cause. What began as volunteering to manage social media and PR efforts blossomed into project management for the website, ads for Cincinnati Magazine, brochure, poster, pamphlet and beyond. The Sisterhood donates all proceeds to local charities that benefit women and children, such as the YMCA Battered Women's Shelter, Children's Hospital, the Freestore Foodbank and more. Makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :)

It was fun to volunteer in the Kidz Zone the first few hours of the day and then I met up with my parents and niece and Matt's parents and his sister and brother-in-law to enjoy the festivities. My favorite items were the cheese and chocolate from Murray's at Kroger and the mint chocolate chip bread pudding from Bella Luna. I'm not a huge chocolate fan but mint and peanut butter really get me! Despite the crowds, it was great to see friends (thanks Becca & Kristin!) and family there supporting my efforts and the cause.
(Wish I'd taken a photo inside the festival but it was absolutely chaos!)

Kylie and me, before stuffing our faces with chocolate! ;)

René of the Day // 10.27.11 // Ritz Pix Deal

This is an incredible deal so I had to share it! Ritz Camera has a special on digital photograph prints for only 6 cents each (for 3.5x5") on Tuesdays and Wednesday - can you beat that?!

Create a free account on their website and upload your photos and order them to be printed mid-week. It was so easy and the prints turned out great. Pick up was quick and simple and they were really nice (I went to the location in Kenwood on Montgomery Road - there's also one in Rookwood). I ordered over 70 prints for an album I created for MR and it cost less than $5.00. Keep this in mind for holiday gifting because it's a total steal. You're welcome! :)

Other print sizes range from 22-57 cents - still a bargain.

Learn more here.

René of the Day // 10.22.11 // If Findlay was a hipster...

René of the Day // 10.21.11 // Quit the QR codes!

For reals - it's unbelievable the way the American society picks up on fads. It's a joke at the advertising agency where I work to just "slap a QR code on it." Of course, we do not do this - it's just disappointing to see how many marketing campaigns have included Quick Read codes on their products and in their marketing collateral in recent months. WHY???

I will vouch that they can, in fact, be a great tool for a well-planned campaign. But I'll get to that later. Beyond recent conversations with colleagues, this post was sparked from an experience I had this morning. I was brushing my teeth and saw a tiny square on the back of the tube of toothpaste. Are you kidding me? This is asinine for so many reasons:

1. I don't bring my smart phone into the bathroom - who does that? Toothpaste is a home-based consumer product. Full-size tube, not travel size. No need for mobile marketing there.
2. Again, I'm using this at home, so I have access to my computer. I don't use my phone to access the Internet at home. So just give me a damn URL and I'll look it up if I'm interested. Crest.com - thanks!
3. Unless you have a compelling campaign or contest, I'm not going out of my way to visit your site.
4. If the site is not optimized for mobile usage, DO NOT use a QR code! It leads to a horrible user experience - you see 1/8 of the top left corner of the site, you have to zoom in to click on anything and it's just a hassle. If brands decide to include these, they need to have the budget to execute properly.

Other instances where QR codes are not well played include billboards - if I'm driving 65 mph (let's be honest - 74 mph) on the highway, I do not - nor do my passengers - have time to pull up a QR code app and focus to snap the code. You go by WAY too fast to capture that! Not to mention, isn't texting and driving illegal and highly unsafe even if it isn't against the law? I'm sure QRs on billboards have led to accidents - and even due to the confusion because many people still wonder, "WTF is that?" Which is also funny -- the messaging marketers include to inform users. I've seen simple messages like "Learn more here" which assumes the consumer is familiar with the technology. To convoluted text that practically insults intelligence: "Download the QuickMark app and use it to scan this barcode to visit our website with more details on this lame promotion." Really? There is no industry standard yet on the language.

I don't think QR codes are a terrible idea - they can be very useful tools when used for the right concept. For example, they're great for events, concerts or even in signage AT the grocery store, when your mobile device is all you have. Again, the site it points to needs to be optimized for mobile and have a clear call to action - why should I go there? Is there a coupon, a recipe or directions or a map for the event? Another great use is for tourism - for example, scan a QR code at Fountain Square for a listing of all the local restaurants and shops - that would be awesome! But it's silly to use one just take people to your general website - just post the URL (simplified vanity URL if needed) or let them Google it. I understand that it increases sites visits and CTR but, if people aren't getting anything out of it, they won't become return visitors or share it with others.

If marketers keep posting them all over, QR codes will indefinitely become advertising trash. People will be annoyed rather than compelled to pull out their phones and see what prize they lead to - because they know they won't. Maybe I will scan the code on the toothpaste just to see if the juice is worth the squeeze.

To provide context, here is one I generated quickly that links to René of the Day.
Try it out if you want to get an idea of how they work.

René of the Day // 10.20.11 // Premiere Party: Cincinnati Chocolate Festival

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate! As a volunteer (turned part-time pro bono employee) for the second annual Cincinnati Chocolate Festival, I had the pleasure of being a guest at the Premiere Party at the Midwest Culinary Institute. It was an absolutely delicious evening, with a chocolate-themed dinner including prosecco from A Bottle or Two, beer from Christian Moerlein, cheeses, wonderful prime rib, risotto and more. Of course, the dessert table was death by chocolate - not kidding, you could've been trampled. My mom purchased a ticket to join me and my aunt and uncle (he's a total chocoholic!) were given tickets so we had a great time together. Enjoy the photos, wipe the drool from your keyboard.

My favorites - chocolate whoopie pies with passion fruit sauce by Megan Ketover.

René of the Day // 10.19.11 // STRONG Challenge

Now I'm stronger than yesterday... Now it's nothin' but my way....

Kidding. I'm sure that is not what Crossroads had in mind for this year's journey. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the services but if you'd like to learn more, click here to watch or listen (the website with all of the cool cards I'll tell you about is no longer up.)

The experience encouraged members in Community to meet with a group of others to discuss their faith, growth, lives and ideas over a course of 6-weeks. (I truly enjoyed the Freedom journey in early 2010 which had the same premise.) I met with one of my best friends from college, Becca, two good girlfriends from high school, Beth and Elizabeth and a new friend that Beth invited to join us, Holly. It was a wonderful group of women - all strong, smart and on different paths which made it really interesting to share each other's perspectives. Two teachers, two mommies of two, two single career women, one who just bought a home on her own and one who's preparing for her wedding next fall.

Each week we were tasked with 5 "cards" that were action items to challenge and build our strength. The "homework" was certainly a challenge - I struggle to find 20 minutes for myself many evenings when I get home from post-work obligations or social engagements, let alone to focus. Mind you, I do pray every evening but taking the time to think through these was a fantastic idea but I admit I wasn't always obedient with completing them each night - this is certainly one reason why I feel I didn't get as much from this journey as the last.

Each week had a theme: Play, Pray, Study, Train, Serve and Live. To provide an example, here are the five Strong Challenge I chose for the first week, Play:

1. Fill 'er up - Make a list of activities that energize and refresh you
2. Be grateful - Write down 10 things to thank God for
3. Plan a Sabbath Day
4. Share something you love
5. Rest from worry

I truly enjoyed taking on these challenges. Thinking of things you love to do really fills your heart with joy and it's always a great thing to remind ourselves what we're thankful for.

The Sabbath Day was accidental and amazing - MR surprised me and moved his Monday morning meeting so that we could have a quiet night together (something we rarely experience since our time together is always jam-packed weekends.) We had brunch with my extended family, went to the pumpkin patch with them, visited his sister and brother-in-law, had a dinner date at Dewey's, took an evening walk with the dog, he read a book for work as I watched DH and we went to bed early and got ready for work in the morning together before we drove home. I was so thankful for this day because it showed me how strong our relationship truly is and that this long distance thing is so worth it because we will have many, many days like this in our future when it all pans out.

Enough insight on my experience with the challenges. I was really disappointed that they didn't host the Prayer Experience like last time - I'm sure it was cost-related but it was an amazing opportunity with numerous rooms designed with activities for listening, praying and reflecting on the Freedom series. The Strong experience was just audio and I wasn't excited so I skipped out on it - perhaps I should've just given it a shot.

The best part of this experience was the sense of community I received from the girls in the group. They are amazing with their spirituality and I learned so much from the way the pray, think and act. I'm looking forward to re-grouping with them this spring for a bible study every other week, to continue growing together.

René of the Day // 10.17.11 // Yuengling Fling!

My friend Melissa called me at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon when I was at work - it worried me. She'd recently experience a family tragedy and I hadn't heard much from her since then... And I was damn glad I answered my phone! She's the food and beverage director at a country club in Cincinnati and she had two free tickets to the "Yuengling Fling" at the Hyatt downtown that evening. w00t!

What an event! To introduce the beer to local industry professionals, they filled a ballroom with unlimited availability of Yuengling - light, original and dark - The Rusty Griswolds played on stage and there was a delicious spread of favorite foods from Cincinnati and Pennsylvania (Yueng's homeland.) We grabbed a beer and loaded our plates with cheese coneys, soft pretzels with cheese and mini Philly cheesesteaks. NOM. The ice sculptures were pretty neat too - a bottle when you arrived off the escalator (see photo below) and they also served from a bar made of ice with bottles tucked inside.

We had a hell of a good time catching up and letting the beers flow... It's funny how everyone was freaking out about Yuengling coming to Cincinnati. So many of us have been rum running it here the past few years. My mom and I brought back 24-bottle boxes from Pittsburgh two autumns ago when we went to visit Falling Water and the Andy Warhol Museum. They don't sell beer in the grocery store so we went to this beer shack on top of a hill - seriously. And MR always brings some when he visits from Tennessee. It's been such a treat and now its here! Cheers!