Marina Maher Communications

The competitive spirit is alive and well at MMC!

For our annual summer outing this year, the HR team designed an Eastside Scavenger Hunt for the MMC staff. The “hunt” was to be followed by a delicious picnic-themed dinner; but before the chicken, salads, sangria and make-your-own sundae bar could be enjoyed, MMC’ers had an action packed 90 minutes ahead of them.

Our entire staff participated, from interns to Practice Group leaders, racing around the city snapping pictures and gathering “hunt” items to bring back. We knew that MMC’ers would put their PR skills to use but the resourcefulness, strategy, execution and creativity that we saw was inspiring!

Here are some of the winning strategies:

1. Plan, plan, plan: when the “hunt” guide went out at 3 pm, there was a mad dash by staffers to get their hands on it! With only 90 minutes to execute, teams had to make efficient use of their time and coordinate their efforts in a way that allowed them to gather the most points.

2. A picture is worth…..a lot of points if you do it right: while teams could only submit 10 photos, those that strategized to put multiple scenes in one picture were able to capitalize (think, entire team in yoga poses plus a bike messenger– in one shot!)

3. Masters of negotiation: with only a $10 budget and dozens of items to potentially bring back, most of our teams proudly gave the judges change! Apparently if you ask nicely enough, you don’t actually have to go for a cab ride to get a taxi receipt.

4. “Buttering up” goes a long way: make sure you know your audience! Teams could “bribe” the judges with “treats” – that translated into Australian chocolates for Maree, chicken wings from the Buffalo bar for Kate and beer (even if it wasn’t Irish) for MaryBeth!

5. Extra credit adds up: many teams went above and beyond to gain extra points and had a ball doing it. Team 1 stopped the Big Apple tour bus to get the picture. Team 2 flirted shamelessly with a firefighter – one member even wearing his hat and jacket!

We are delighted to applaud the winning team – who racked up points by bringing back multiples of every single item on the “hunt” list! Congratulations Patrick DeLisser, Joanna Garland, Sara Horowitz, Jackie Widrow, Robert Ricci, Annette Evans and Erica Nadboy (pictured above)!

Check out the rest of our teams in action, as well as highlights from the picnic!

Fresh off of a Virgin America flight, I am reporting to you from my home-sweet-home, New York, New York. Just last night, I was peeking out from the small oval window of my plane tickled by the sight of flashing lights and buzzing highways. My first thought came with a deep exhale and popping ears: “There’s no place like home!”

This past week, seven of my college “besties” and I, journeyed off into another time-zone in pursuit of bright lights, colorful shows and exciting nightlife. Being that we are all from New York, there was only one comparable option on the West Coast: Las Vegas!

Upon our arrival, we felt like kids in a candy store. There were shopping centers galore, gorgeous hotels, poolside piña coladas, a penthouse suite and all-you-can-eat sushi across the street from our hotel. Each day we would indulge in shopping trips and sight-seeing adventures. From standing beneath a 700-pound lion and holding a baby Simba to riding a wild rollercoaster called “New York, NY” that flung us out past a life-like setting of New York City, we had the time of our lives! Of course, my favorite part of the trip was seeing Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystere; the dancing and acrobatics were mind-blowing and inspired me to consider taking a trapeze class back home in New York.

Despite the glitz and glam of Vegas, I must say that throughout the trip I felt a lingering sense of homesickness. The Vegas Strip just could not compare to Times Square, and even the all-you-can-eat sushi didn’t compare to my beloved Asian Station. Not to mention, all the Elvis look-alikes in the world can’t trump the Naked Cowboy.

So, as my newly tanned girlfriends and I piled onto our Virgin America flight, we could not help but to break into a rousing rendition of “New York, New York” —complete with Rockette-style kicks!

Ok, if you recall – my cubemate and roommate, Alyssa and I were in a heated search for the ULTIMATE New York city apartment. I was all about location (okay maybe ONLY about location) and Alyssa had her head on straight and knew she needed to reign me in so I didn’t end up selling my soul for an address on Jane St.

Fast forward to where we currently sit, planted in front of the new season of The Rachel Zoe Project (gotta love Brad) in our new apartment…downtown. Okay maybe that really should read “a bit” downtown. 5 blocks to be exact. But, as I excitedly pointed out to Alyssa, WE LIVE ON THE SOUTH WEST SIDE OF THE BLOCK.

In the end, we fell in love with an Upper East Side gem – super cute on the 5th floor where each of us gets a door, 4 walls (one we had to build – but that’s a separate story), and north-facing WINDOWS – an NYC luxury. I checked my village obsession at the door as Alyssa and I looked at each other and said “Are we home?”

After racing to the leasing office, and basically signing over our first born in order to get the apartment – we are settled and now the fun begins…DECORATING. Good thing Urban Outfitters makes table wall decals because we really don’t have room for a real one.

So maybe we are rocking our UES headbands for another year – but only the ones with gem stones – those are totally on trend.

NEW YORK — Marina Maher Communications, Inc. (MMC) announced two new client wins in the Consumer and Food & Beverage practices: luxury bridal apparel company Priscilla of Boston and Post Foods, LLC, a subsidiary of Ralcorp Holdings.

MMC’s strengths in marketing to women were among the key factors in the awarding of both the Priscilla of Boston and Post business.

Priscilla of Boston is a company steeped in rich tradition that offers premier brands, legendary service, and superior quality. Each of the company’s six designer collections offer an extensive selection of exclusive styles each season at retail locations across the country. MMC will support Priscilla of Boston’s Bridal Fashion Week, retail events and ongoing outreach to media and celebrity bridal influencers.

Post Foods is the manufacturer of iconic ready-to-eat cereal brands including Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Post Grape Nuts, Post Shredded Wheat, Honeycomb and many other great tasting cereals. MMC supports Post’s Bowls of Hope program, a partnership with the hunger relief charity Feeding America, to help supply a balanced breakfast to struggling Americans. MMC will also communicate the health and wellness benefits of the company’s adult cereal brands (Post Shredded Wheat, Post Raisin Bran and Post Grape Nuts).

Marina Maher Communications is an independent, marketing public relations agency known for building brand relationships. The agency was named a best agency to work for by the Holmes Report during 2009. The New York-based firm creates award-winning communications programs for clients in the packaged goods, healthcare, HBA and food/nutrition categories. MMC is a member of the Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s largest consortium of independent public relations firms.

I’m about to embark on a ten day vacation to Turkey/Greece, and have never felt more disorganized! Normally, I am the queen of lists. I mark down every item I intend to pack, errands I need to run, and my necessary beauty appointments for my big trips. I typically purchase travel guides and even take the time research my destinations online. But, for whatever reason, I have not gotten my ducks in a row and now it’s crunch time!

While this lack of organization may keep me up at night panicking that I forgot to pack my passport, I can at least rest knowing that my work projects are moving and that everyone knows where things stand. This is not the first time I have left the office for a significant length of time, so I know just what it takes to get my teams and clients prepared for my absence.

Here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you find yourself heading out for vacation. Whether it’s a two week honeymoon, a week-long adventure, or just a weekend trip, there are some basic steps you can take to put your mind (as well as your supervisors’ and teams’) at ease. Happy travels!

1. Assign a person (or persons) on your team to serve as the point of contact for any urgent matters and/or ongoing client initiatives that require immediate attention…empowering others is one of the best ways to keep the trains running
2. Notify your teams, management committees, and reception that you will be out at least a few days prior to your departure
3. Alert your clients that you will be unavailable and assure them that there will be appropriate team coverage while you’re out
4. Set up account team meetings to cover off on your assignments and discuss next steps
5. Set your out-of-office assistant on email and inform people the dates you will be unavailable
6. Don’t forget to change your voicemail too
7. And, finally, enjoy your time off… coming back refreshed and rejuvenated is what a vacation is all about!

As we’ve seen from my fellow MMCers, most New Yorkers travel to The Hamptons, Fire Island, The Jersey Shore, or similar beach-y destinations to escape the infamous NYC summer heat. But my family decided to spend a few blissful summer days in the cooler mountainous region of The Poconos for an a-typical summer vacation.

After a five hour drive (normally only two and half hours), we arrived in complete darkness, to our rented family cabin. The little house wasn’t actually so little with six bedrooms, a finished basement, wrap around deck and family room. The house smelled like a musty summer day with an alluring trace of scented vanilla candles. It was deep set into the woods, surrounded by forest and wildlife (including a few bears which roamed our front lawn). Everything in the house was made of dark oak wood – the beds, the cabinets, the chairs and even the house itself – matching flawlessly, and perfectly appropriate for its surrounding country feel.

Excluding our quick, but necessary trip to the Shopping Outlets, we immersed ourselves in country living. We bbq’d on the deck by night, sat by the lake with our bagged lunches and walked around the historic town of Jim Thorpe by day. We also went White Water Rafting along the Lehigh River, where, much to my dismay, we were handed a life vest and a paddle and told to go explore the waves of the river on our own. A fun, and interesting, way to learn how to travel through the rapids!

My favorite part of my a-typical summer vacation was the scenery. Leaps of mountains and pastures of green for miles upon miles. And while there wasn’t much “beach”, there were beautiful lakes and rivers that ran throughout the towns of middle Pennsylvania, almost hidden between and amongst the forests.

So what’s the moral of my story? Well, sometimes “a-typical” can actually be quite refreshing. After a not-so-hot-until-recently summer in the city, escaping for a few days to experience the comfort of home surrounded by nature was almost…energizing. So as the summer dwindles down, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to get the engines roaring with something, anything, a bit out of the ordinary.

Why do the majority of consumer product marketers continue to only market their products to women, 18-49?

I’m asking that because today is my birthday and I’m past that 49 mark. And I still exist! And there are plenty more women like me. In fact there are more American women over 50 than the populations of Australia, Argentina or Canada.

The number of reasons to include 50+ women is amazing. Women, 50+ are 22% of the US population. Eighty percent of all purchases are made by women. The 50+ are among the healthiest, wealthiest and most influential among the group. Women, ages 55-64, spend more on apparel than any other age group – 64% more than women ages 25-34!

Female heads of households over age 45 make 70% of cosmetic purchases in the mass merchandiser channel. These woman also affect the purchase decisions – if not buying for them – of many others (daughters, friends, etc.).

Women over 45 are also the fastest growing segment online, while women over 55 are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. Marketers seem surprised by this. Why?

Laurel Kennedy on www.agelessons.com addresses a top 10 of common misconceptions about Boomers (both men and women). A few of my favorite myths:

• Boomers (men & women) won’t switch brands – when studies such as Yankelovich show that consumers 50+ were less risk averse than those 16-34.
• Boomers just aren’t cool – the list of females, beginning with Oprah – is a long one.
• Boomers won’t try anything new – but this has been an age group demanding new products to fit their needs since birth.

So why is this powerful buying segment being relatively ignored? Marketers are underestimating the market potential here. My age group has been treated like a niche without much potential – but it’s rich (pun intended) with potential. Just ask More magazine (www.more.com) – aimed at women 40+. It may be one of the few magazines with a growing circulation (it’s over four times its original circulation size).

I would really like to get online, watch television or listen to the radio or read newspapers with something aimed at me. Instead I consider everything marketed to someone younger to see if it might fit my lifestyle.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are some marketers marketing products to 50+ women. But many of those products, as a whole, are depressing. They are largely products to combat aging or prescription drugs for diseases or age-related issues. Although we may want or need some of these, we do have lives and other interests.

Marketers should keep in mind that many of my friends and I would like a brand to come after us as much as AARP does (and we’d like AARP to back off). Remember: we’re not the 50+ psychographic of yore. We could be just the avenue to help those brand managers move cases.

One of the most famous weeks in television recently came to an end. It is watched by fans like an addiction, it all started in 1987 when the Discovery Channel aired for the first time, Shark Week.

I am a huge fan, every year I wait in suspense to see what new sharks will be discovered and the action that keeps me glued to the television One thing to note…. I am deathly afraid of sharks! Their massive size, strength and teeth leave me petrified every time I am in the water.

My family and I take two tropical vacations a year. During those vacations, I am always in the sea water and every time I think a shark will come and snatch me up. Yes, I know that I am more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a shark, but the fear still gets to me.

I love to snorkel and scuba dive and until this past year the only shark I had seen was either dead or in an aquarium. Well, my family’s recent trip to Turks and Caicos lead me to go diving in one of the best reefs I had ever seen and I didn’t believe anyone when they said “you will definitely see a shark, no question.” Well… I did!

During the dive, my guide stopped me abruptly. When my eyes came into focus, a six-foot reef shark was merely four feet in front of me. I was petrified, I was in the middle of his kingdom! You know how they say, “don’t move” when you see a shark and everything will be fine. Well, I took that to the most literal sense. I froze in the swimming position I was in, my arms up and legs spread. My father had to pull me back by my flippers because I refused to move for fear that he would get me. So I faced my fear, literally, and I can say it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Obviously, he didn’t eat me.

I am still afraid of sharks, but I am still going to get in the water and whenever August rolls around, I will continue to tune in for shark week. Maybe even one day I will fully conquer my fear and appear shark week!

Two Months ago, I blogged about preparing for my upcoming wedding in Israel. Regardless of how much I knew about Israeli weddings or how much I prepared, my wedding was beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of or expected! As promised… here are a few of the highlights from the day.

To start, we had a traditional Israeli ceremony under the huppah (wedding canopy). Unlike ceremonies here, we were able to face our family and friends throughout the whole thing, which made it even more special seeing all of our loved ones looking back at us. The ceremony was more lively than I could have imagined – people were singing and clapping along to the prayers – which made it truly feel like a celebration from the moment I started walking down the aisle.

Up next… the dancing! It started at 8:30 pm after the ceremony and didn’t stop until 2:30 am. I was advised by many Israelis to stay on the dance floor throughout the wedding – the bride never leaves – so any time I went to a table to say hi to friends, I was pulled right back in to be at the center of the action.

We were also extremely fortunate to have some very special guests join us that evening – the President of Israel, Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense stopped by to give their well wishes. It was truly an honor to have them there and meet living legends.

Although 550 were expected to arrive (remember, no RSVP cards!), 570 showed up! The number used to scare me, but I think it made it a much better party having that many people there… the dance floor was never empty!

Kobi and I look at our pictures and video constantly and remark about what a magical day it was, from beginning to end. The food was great, the flowers were beautiful and the music was perfect, but the day was truly special because of all our friends and family we had by our side!

Some friends and I started a book club almost a year ago now… (BCers, we better get started planning that posh one year anniversary event!) We rotate the professor position, the one who introduces four picks and then we all cast our vote, while enjoying a few bottles of wine and a delicious meal. Some might say it’s a dinner & drinks club dressed up as a book club.

The literary choices are quite diverse in this book club; some selections include Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast, Twilight and most currently the Sir Richard Burton’s translation of The Arabian Nights. We typically organize gatherings at restaurants (new ones and old favorites) where we discuss the week’s reading assignment and propose our predictions for future chapters.

With all of us in somewhat similar industries, the club is an opportunity for us to stop talking “shop,” stop all that friendly gossip and dive into topics we might never have ordinarily thought about. And these discussions can get heated! This weekend was especially hot since book club took a road trip to the Jersey Shore.

This weekend we chatted about The Arabian Nights over hummus and delicious Middle Eastern inspired cocktails, while burying our feet in the sand. It was the perfect escape from the city and the usual. Book Club has inspired an old group of friends to keep things new again and depart from the norm; it’s also our excuse to make a point of getting together regularly even when life becomes hectic. What do you do to escape from the day-to-day norms?