Bob's Blog

Greetings from Denver! Many of you know that our headquarters are located in the beautiful city of Wilmington, Delaware. While I travel quite a bit, I love coming to Wilmington to see the team and enjoy the sights. I returned this time to hear about the company’s recognition by Inc Magazine. The Archer Group was ranked #596 of Inc magazine’s 5000 fastest growing companies. We raised a glass to the honor and quickly got back to work.

Our offices are a short walk from the train station, which I frequently use to reach NYC or DC. On one of those trips many years ago, I struck up a conversation with Delaware’s Senator Biden, who takes the train daily to DC from his Wilmington home.

This was a trip home, and I had picked up a bottle of wine for the trip. After a few pleasantries, I offered Joe some wine to continue the conversation. While we didn’t agree on every topic, I very much enjoyed the banter. On some positions I even took the other side simply to continue the spirited conversation. We stayed in touch over the years and became great friends, going to Delaware football games together or sharing a tailgate spot at the Point to Point races.

I happened to be at his home when he received the official call to be Vice President. You could see the smile on his face as he accepted. When he hung up the phone, he turned to me and said ‘Bob, time to open another bottle of wine, we are going to Denver’

I am sure happy to see one of Delaware’s own receive such an important nod. I’ll be in the background here in Denver, but smiling all the way!

Ni hao from Beijing! I’ve been pretty much parked at the Water Cube all week as a guest of Deborah Phelps, longtime friend and mother of the superstar swimmer Michael Phelps. Deborah and I met ten years ago when I was in Baltimore during the Dot Com days of the late nineties.

During those days, I spent a great deal of time helping internet start-ups that my friend had invested in. Looking back, many of the ideas had merit, but were simply ahead of their time.

These start-ups required a great deal of time and energy. To relax I turned to swimming at a nearby swim club called the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Little did I know that the star of that club would turn out to be the World wide star, Michael Phelps. I found myself coming to as many meets as possible to see him swim, and even followed him as much as possible when my work allowed. We got to know Deborah well from sitting in the stands, and I simply couldn't resist her invite to Beijing.

Looking back on those days in Baltimore reminds me of the goals of many firms that I was asked to review. Many had a goal to stay on the user’s desktop, screen saver or home page. Some required a complicated install, which was often a deal killer to reaching the mass market.

While I was hanging out in between heats at the Cube, I was reviewing a project that was almost complete for a major retailer. The solution created a rich desktop application that integrated video, great animations and was being updated via the web. This may not sound special, but I was able to download it and use it fully while disconnected from the web. When the application got a connection to the internet, it was able to update prices, images, news, etc. When it wasn’t connected, it still worked perfectly.

Adobe Air also allows us to break out of the browser to reach customers with a more dynamic experience than going through the browser. Many of limitations due to bandwidth concerns, browser standards and even fonts disappear with Adobe Air.

Enough about Air, back to the Water! Way to go Michael!

I wanted to make a stop in Portugal to visit an old friend. João Nicolau, who runs the Ramos Pinto Port Winery in Portugal. They make a fantastic Port Wine, and I love stopping down to catch up and sample some of their Port. I’m a fan of their 20 year old port, even more so than the 30+ year old ones we try. We joke that based upon the number of cases I have shipped back, that he wouldn’t have to see me for another 20 years, but every year, I return for more.

We were walking back from a spectacular lunch and this shiny ball stuck to the side of a building caught my eye. It looked like a disco ball had broken loose from a crane and slammed into the side of the building. I asked João what this was all about. He chuckled and took me closer for a look.

It turns out that this was all part of a promotion by Diageo for J&B Scotch Whiskey. When I got back to the office, I went to the site associated with the promotion. The site features J&B’s character, Mirrorball Man in crazy party scenes.

J&B has always been one of those brands that I associated with stodginess, oak panels and cigars. This campaign starts me thinking about as a more interesting, party brand.

That night, I went out with a few other friends and actually ran into Mirrorball man at a party listed on the site. I simply had to see more. While there, I tried a J&Bee Sweet Tea. They tried to tell me what was in it, but between the noise and the language barrier, I couldn't get it. I went to the site to find out, but I am hoping someone cold help me translate what I found.

Kudos to Diageo for surrounding the consumers on all fronts with a creative re-brand campaign!

Havana is one of those spots that is certainly stuck in time. While it takes quite a bit of paperwork to get there, I always feel that it is worth the trouble. I particularly enjoy seeing the classic cars on the streets. While I was taking my ‘Taxista’ from the airport, I snapped a picture of looked exactly like the old family ’58 Plymouth Savoy!


Unfortunately the rest of Cuba is also stuck in the pre-embargo era, making it tough to connect to the cloud via my laptop or shiny new iphone. I’m down here for some relaxation and to visit my dear friend and photographer Carlos Garaicoa.

Carlos is helping me work on some photography inspired by the upcoming Studio Archer art exhibition. While I might not be able to get something back in time for the show, Carlos is a great coach. For those who don’t know Carlos, he is a tremendous phtographer in Cuba who has been featured in the Guggenheim.

Studio Archer will be this Friday August 1st. We will be featuring artwork from employees and close friends. The offices will be a major part of the Lower Market (LOMA) Design District’s summer art loop. When I do get internet access, I’ve been able to see some great work being produced for the night. The team continues to impress me with their abilities and creativity.

One afternoon on a photo shoot in Havana, Carlos pointed to a bar called ‘El Floridita’ where Hemingway discovered the Daiquiri. Of course, having my summer drink quest, I put down the camera and ushered Carlos in to explore.

Apparently, Hemingway was such a regular that they modified their normal Daiquiri for his tastes, creating what the regulars know as a ‘Hemingway Daiquiri’, which has no sugar in it. I got the bartender to write down the recipe, which Carlos translated.

Hemingway Daiquiri
2 ounces Bacardi
1 Teaspoonful Grape Fruit Juice
1 Teaspoonful Marraschino
The juice of 1/2 lemon (sic)
Frappe ice
Shake well and serve frappe.

Carlos and I had one (to start) and a couple of ‘Fritas’ which are a Cuban version of a traditional Hamburger. Both the drink and the sandwich were awesome. Needless to say, we continued sampling the menu and put our afternoon photo shoot on siesta.

I hope to see everyone at Studio Archer this Friday to celebrate the creativity of the team and enjoy some food, fun and friends!

While many consider Memorial day as the start of summer, I like to consider July 4th weekend as the start for me. The 4th is my birthday (thanks to all of those who wished me well on my facebook page!) and I always try to extend the festivities until labor day.

This year I decided to add some intrigue to my travels and try to find the perfect summer drink everywhere I go. I’ll try to get the recipe and some back story on them for you unless I get overserved and forget! I make it a point to keep my driver on call or stay within walking distance of my hotel.

I stumbled into my first drink, the Southside, while in Baltimore to speak to a room full of area executives on how to embrace the social conversations happening about their brands online. During my speech, I mentioned that I was on the quest for a perfect summer drink. Afterwards, a few executives invited me to join them for dinner.

Over dinner, we spent a lot of time exploring one tool I featured named Summize. Summize peers into Twitter conversations. For those not familiar with Twitter, check out my post of it last year. It was comical to watch the reactions of executives as they read all the twitter comments people have posted about their brands, their companies, and for some, themselves. Summize should be a key tool for any marketer looking to measure brand power.

While we huddled over the screens, entering terms on the patio of the M&S Grill on Pratt, the waitress brought us all a lemon drink known as the Southside. One of the executives called this his favorite summer drink growing up. I’d have to agree. I pulled the recipe and verified with the bartender before ordering another one for everyone.

We spent the evening enjoying our Southsides with our dinner. I know I will have many contenders, but my first leg of the summer drink quest is off to great start!

Have a drink you want me to try? Post it here!

No matter how luxurious business class is, long flights always take it out of me. The recent flight to Singapore was no exception. What started as a leisurely trip from San Diego to Singapore became a crazy mad dash from the hotel to the airport after Tiger’s amazing playoff performance at Torrey Pines.

I had planned on staying in San Diego through the weekend and catch a flight to Communicasia, the Singapore Tech Expo. Garmin was rolling out new device which is supposed to rival Apple’s iPhone, and Garmin’s co-founder and dear friend, Gary Burrell, asked me to come speak to his sales team about the future mobile landscape.

Everything changed once Tiger made the tying putt at the U.S. Open on Sunday afternoon. On 14, I sent a note to my assistant to begin planning alternatives if there was going to be a playoff round on Monday. Two minutes after Tiger’s putt went into the cup, I received a new itinerary to Singapore. (Right after that I received another email with a photo from my friend at Getty who saw me in the background of one of Tiger’s shots. If you look over Tiger’s left shoulder, that was me with the yellow shirt!)


The long round Monday had me hustling through the airport to make the flight. I fell right asleep and apparently missed a great meal on the flight. Once we landed, I needed to get something to drink so I sought out the nearest soda machine. I was stunned with a soda machine unlike any other and had to take a photo. Talk about creative delivery.see it up close

The soda’s were even more unusual. My only two options were ‘Whatever’ and ‘Anything.’ Whatever is flavored tea and Anything is carbonated soda, but both come in a range of flavors that you wont know until you taste it.

While the soda machine was memorable, it also reminded me of something else. I sent a note to my assistant to be sure and reschedule my doctor’s appointment later this week!

Greetings from Beantown!

Doc Rivers, head coach of the Celtics invited me up to sit courtside for Game 2. We go back to his days as a basketball analyst on NBC with Al Michaels. Al introduced us at a end of season party in LA and we connected ever since.

I tried to not bother Doc during his team warm ups, so I sat in the team’s locker room with my laptop to get some work done. While Doc’s team, the Celtics, were putting the finishing touches on their game plan, my team, The Archer Group, was putting the finishing touches on another effort, called Hoagiefest. Hoagiefest is a summer promotional campaign for Wawa that everyone looks forward to each year.

We had some catchy songs created for the website, which I kept playing on my laptop in the locker room. As players would come in, they would be drawn to the music and soon a crowd formed behind me as I gave everything a final once over.

Pretty soon, Doc came in to figure out where his players went. Seeing that I was the cause of the distraction, Doc bounce passed a basketball right onto my laptop, shutting it with a bang. The crowd immediately dispersed and poured back on to the court. He gave me a smirk and turned without saying anything.

The guys must have sensed my anxiety. As they sat on the chairs in front of me on the floor, the team began humming the Hoagiefest theme song in unison. Doc finally looked at them and then back to me. I shrugged my shoulders, and he finally broke down laughing.

Thankfully, his team did a great job and won the game. My team did a great job as well, and Hoagiefest is live!

Greetings from California

Springtime may be my favorite time of year. We have just shaken off the winter blues, the flowers are all blooming, and the weather is warm and sunny, but not too humid. My annual Pebble Beach golf classic is always in the spring to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather.

I always play with my dear friend and golf champion Johnny Miller at Pebble Beach. We met at 94 Pebble Beach Pro-Am. I won a spot at the pro-am in a charity auction and was very excited. I gave Johnny my golf towel after he left his in his car, and played a terrific round. Thinking that the towel had something to do with his round, he asked ot hang on to it. He ended up winning the entire Pro-Am and felt that the towel had something to do with it. We traded phone numbers and stayed in touch ever since.

Johnny met me at the airport in his new Mercedes and took me to the hotel. We wanted to try this new restaurant in Napa. We fired up Yahoo maps and got the directions. Johnny moved me aside from the laptop and said, “Bob, I think you will love this.” He proceeded to pull down the ‘send’ menu and select an option that I hadn’t noticed before titled ‘send to car’. He entered a number and then said “Let’s go!”

We sit in his Mercedes and he presses a button up top. Then after a few seconds, a map with directions to the restaurant appear on the display. His car has a new service called Search & Send, which allows drivers to stop printing out directions and instead load them directly into the navigation systems.

This connectivity between the web and the car is a great sign of things to come. The future of the internet will increasingly include devices in interesting ways.

At the restaurant, the hostess took us to our table and proceeded to sit me at a seat with an odd looking placemat. Johnny had given my legendary golf towel to the restaurant earlier that day and had them set up the return to me. We enjoyed the evening, and I proceeded to shoot my best round at Pebble with my lucky towel!

While I travel the globe from meeting to meeting, I am always mindful of the team hard at work back in the States. Recently, they have all been ‘heads down’ finalizing the launch of our most recent website for the legendary Wawa food markets. While Wawa has a loyal following in the Northeast United States, many outside the area are struck by the unusual name and associated passion from its customers.

I’m in Taiwan checking my mail when pictures begin rolling in from HQ. The team is deep in the throws of launching the new site, www.wawa.com. I try not to bother everyone, but I am anxiously awaiting. The team feeds me these pictures along with progress reports so I don’t call or email constantly with ‘so hows it going?’

The team went well into the night with final touches. As the night progressed, the pictures got more and more entertaining. I was having lunch with some old friends and kept handing the phone over to share. We were laughing quite a bit, and finally raised a toast to the team when it went live.

After a few more drinks, one of my friends leaned over to me and asked: “Bob, just what exactly is this Wawa that we have all been drinking to?” I’m not sure my use of terms like Sizzli and Shorti cleared things up, but we celebrated none the less.


The next day, the team sent me a shot from the front of our offices where they told the world about the launch.

Great job team!

No matter how nice the airlines make business class, flying from Singapore to LA is a long time. I had received an invite to the opening night for what I thought was this new TV mini-series “Scarlet”. I was looking forward to it since it was supposedly directed by “Sopranos” director David Nutter.

I initially wasn’t going to make the flight, but during my business in Singapore, I saw a number of billboards for Scarlet. After seeing a trailer online, I asked to have my plans changed and RSVP’d the event. I couldn’t wait to see the new series.

So my assistant meets me at the hotel with my tux. After a quick change, we head over to the Pacific design center in LA. For the red carpet opening night. My assistant was head over heels for sitting next to Tila Tequila during the event.

So the lights go down, and the stage lights up. the curtain pulls back and a the show is about to start. But instead of the mini-series I flew in to see, I am watching a commercial for LGs new line of TVs named ‘Scarlet’.

The lights came up to reveal a bunch of flat panel TVs and LG’s North American point person. A collective sigh and then applause erupted from the packed house as they explained how the campaign promoting the mini-series was all just a hoax to promote the new line of LG tvs.

While I enjoyed the evening and didn't even mind the long flight for a hoax, I still really wanted to see the new Mini-series!