Colin G Chase

Seeking Contract Opportunities

Colin Chase is currently seeking consulting opportunities in the fields of eCommerce, Online Marketing (SEO/SEM), Brand Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Cross Promotion Management, Project Management, SEO Management, and Interactive or Traditional Marketing. Chase is seeking contract work (such as through a 1099 Contract or services paid directly to Chase-It Marketing™).

Colin Chase has been employed in various marketing capacities since 2000, while his Internet prowess dates back to the beginning of the World Wide Web in 1993. Chase has held positions in eCommerce, Online / Internet Marketing, Agency Marketing and Advertising, and Interactive Marketing. He has held titles such as: Director of eCommerce, eCommerce Manager, Director of Marketing, Project Manager, Marketing Film / Animation Producer and Director, and Lead Creative Agent.

Chase has seventeen (17) years of professional experience, with nearly 12 years being in management and director roles. Chase began his career as a Computer Technician and Network Administrator for a SUNY Community College from 1995 through 1999. In 2000 Chase went on to start his own marketing agency and firmly established himself in Online Marketing, Brand Marketing, and Interactive Marketing.

Chase was able to achieve a level of prominent success within interactive marketing from 2000 through the end of 2007 servicing niche Manufacturers before repositioning solely into eCommerce in 2008. For two years Chase guided the Online efforts of a mid-sized, family-run eRetail company in Buffalo, NY (best known for their website PoolSupplies.com). This company realized nearly 25% growth per year in the Internet Division that Chase managed, for the two years of Chase's employment at the height of the worst economic Recession since WWII. This growth came from within the Leisure Industry at a time when this industry was experiencing negative growth.

From 2010 through 2012 Chase directed the Online and Brand Marketing efforts of an emerging brand within the Snack Food industry that has become established in several retail chains across the US. The specific products marketed by Chase being primarily "Freeze-dried Fruit" which is categorized as a "Healthy Snack" and is a sub-set of the very large "Dried Fruit" market of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). Due to Chase's multi-channel approach he was able to grow online revenue for the primary brand (Brothers-All-Natural) by 60% in 2011 alone.

Cross Promotions, Sweepstakes, and Brand Marketing

Brothers International Food Corp (& Brothers-All-Natural brand)

Online Sweepstakes and Contests, Cross Promotions with larger Brands, SEM activities (PPC Campaigns), SEO efforts, Social Media Marketing

Director of eCommerce, Brand Marketing Manager, Project Management, Lead Creative Agent, Content copywriting, Director of Partnerships / Cross Promotions

Chase in most roles, company graphic artist

From 1 Day to 180 Days

Tens of Thousands

Cross Promotions, Sweepstakes, and Brand Marketing

When Colin Chase first came on-board with Brothers-All-Natural (the primary brand owned by Brothers International Food Corp) he came to conduct all aspects of the eCommerce division. However, within just a few months after his arrival the Co-CEOs (two brothers) realized that Chase also brought with him a lot of marketing prowess and experience, and so Chase was also tasked with finding and exploiting branding opportunities via cross promotions.

It Often Begins with a Press Release

Chase explained early on that submitting Press Releases to a national Press Release Distribution Network would do multiple things:

1) Press Releases would get the company name out there to be noticed and heard.

2) Press Releases would bring back to the website "authoritative" external back-links to aid with the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.

And 3) Press Releases could get the company's primary brand noticed by potential partners and/or journalists.

[See other articles about Press Releases here - Article Propagation and Press Releases in 2012 and Article Propagation and Press Releases in 2009.]

So in November and December of 2010, just 5 months after being hired as the Director of eCommerce, Chase was also writing and publishing Press Releases. The first two releases dealt with the new website's launch (published November 5th 2010 - click here to view) and a new product launch (published December 9th 2010 - click here to view).

So at the end of December, just as Chase stated could happen (though he did stress that there are no guarantees), a marketing firm associated with Warner Brothers Home Video (WHV) contacted Colin Chase as he was the press release's author as well as the listed contact. This led to Chase's becoming affiliated with Addie Van Gessel of Vertical Marketing, an official cross promotions partner with WHV. Chase and Van Gessel moved quickly to establish Brothers-All-Natural's first Sweepstakes for the DVD Release of Yogi Bear in March 2011. This promotion required a lot of effort on Brothers-All-Natural's end without a whole lot of support from WHV or Vertical Marketing as this was Brothers-All-Natural's first such sweepstakes and WHV wanted to gauge how much effort would be provided on Chase's end.

Sweepstakes and Cross Promotions

The "Brothers-All-Natural / Yogi Bear DVD Release Sweepstakes" was a success by generating publicity for both the Yogi Bear DVD and Brothers-All-Natural's Fruit Crisps. This sweepstakes brought in over 10,000 entries, which equated to about 3,000 individuals (as entrants could enter multiple times) and 20% of the entrants joined the brand's Email Marketing List (an option on the sweepstakes form). So the real benefit for Brothers-All-Natural was having 600 new email subscribers and 3,000 people potentially hearing about the brand for the very first time. Though Chase has mentioned more than once that the effort necessary to make this happen quickly and successfully in less than 3 months was a little daunting.

Within just a few months after the "Yogi Bear" Sweepstakes ended Chase was contacted by Chris Gordon, the Vice President of Promotions with Classic Media LLC. Classic Media was responsible for creating and managing promotions for Big Idea Entertainment LLC, the owner of VeggieTales. Gordon mentioned to Chase that "the folks over in Burbank spoke well of him and the brand Brothers-All-Natural." So after many conversations, Brothers-All-Natural was contracted to conduct another Sweepstakes. Thiough this project also included true Cross Promotion components such as on-packaging stickering, DVD insert, and on-bag promotion (on the Fruit Crisps packaging). This came about because Chase wanted to up the ante and make the second Sweepstakes something more grand than the first one. (Press Release published November 16th 2011 - click here to view.)

The "Brothers-All-Natural / VeggieTales: Little Drummer Boy DVD Sweepstakes and Rebate" brought in over 18,000 entries, which equated to about 5,000 individuals. Of these 5,000 people once again 20% joined the Email Marketing List and thus one of the immediately quantifiable benefits for Brothers-All-Natural was the 1,000 new email subscribers. However, additionally each of the 250,000+ DVDs from VeggieTales included an outside sticker with the Brothers-All-Natural logo as well as an inside insert that included imagery and detailed information about Fruit Crisps as well as promoting a cross-rebate (for purchasing both the DVD and a bag of Fruit Crisps). Brothers-All-Natural was reaching far more people within their primary target demographic ("Moms with Toddlers") than they had previously achieved from the first Sweepstakes.

Major Success May Take a Few Tries

Once Warner Brothers Home Video (WHV) became aware of the new situation achieved with VeggieTales and Brothers-All-Natural, they too wanted to push the envelope and make the next WHV Sweepstakes more of a true Cross Promotion. And so in March of 2012 the "Brothers-All-Natural / Happy Feet Two DVD Release Sweepstakes and Rebate" was launched.

The Happy Feet Two movie had not done as well as anticipated in the theaters and so it was conjectured that the cross promotion may not do as well as the previous ones had done. This fear was presented by the Co-CEOs and the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Brothers-All-Natural. However, due to Chase's tenacity and acumen, their fear was unfounded. In fact the "Brothers-All-Natural / Happy Feet Two DVD Release Sweepstakes and Cross Promotion" was the most successful Cross Promotion that the brand had ever enjoyed. The Sweepstakes brought in over 60,000 entries, which equated to about 15,000 individuals. Of these 15,000 people, again 20% joined the Email Marketing List and thus 15,000 subscribers joined the list. The immediate and monetarily tangible results beyond the branding were found in the orders generated by the 15,000 email subscribers.

Each time a sweepstakes was conducted about 20% of the entrants joined the weekly Email Marketing List. Of these 20% approximately 33% would go on to become regular recurring customers, which happened due to the quality of the Email Marketing channel that was also conducted by Chase. (To read more about Colin Chase's Email Marketing Efforts please click here.) This entailed BrothersAllNatural.com receiving hundreds and then thousands of new customer orders by investing time and effort in cross promotions and sweepstakes. And these cross promotions and sweepstakes had their start due to well crafted Press Releases due to Chase's ability and follow-through.

Other Success - Social Media Promotions

Colin Chase also conducted various Social Media Promotions utilizing the brand's very popular Facebook page and connecting with other popular connected brands. For instance in May 2012 Chase spearheaded the concept of offering a book-giveaway on their Facebook page and then promoting it with Facebook Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. The result was a huge response from their connected Facebook fans (over 200 LIKES and Comments on the posting) and a surge of over 400 new fans (LIKES) on Facebook. Of the resulting 400 new Facebook Fans, approximately 33% went on to become new customers (135 new orders from these new Fans within about 3 weeks of the contest).

Plus Brothers-All-Natural drove hundreds of people to the Naturally Savvy Facebook page (as a condition of entering the contest) as well as the book's web page on their website. There were so many visits to both that their statistics showed the increase and one of the authors sent a message to Chase, a very short and sweet email and it began like this "Your contest for our book is going AMAZING" (received from Andrea Donsky on May 16th). Chase acknowledges that hundreds of new visitors can result in dozens or sometimes even hundreds of new customers if the marketing channels and follow-up are done properly.

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