This week MMC hosted our first event for Oneida.com! The theme, which focused around at-home entertaining tips, featured incredibly diverse and well designed table settings created by a premier NYC event designer, Angela Giannopoulos.
Angela, who has worked with celebrities and brands such as Donna Karan, Missoni and Estee Lauder, used Oneida.com dinnerware and flatware to build four different table themes; Classic Picnic Table Twist, Fanciful Formal, Asia to Cuba and World of Whimsy (pictured clockwise in above images).
Each of the tables represented a different design style and showcased Oneida products, which corresponded to these of-the-moment tabletop trends. Angela was present at the event to answer questions and describe her inspiration—her message—take chances when setting your table at home. When speaking about the Classic Picnic Table Twist she explained “not everything should be conventional with tabletop design. I encourage you to pick a bold pattern that is a little risky and surprise your guests with something other than traditional gingham or checkered picnic patterns.”
Another trend Angela highlighted during her discussion was the Asia to Cuba theme. This modern, minimal design has become popular in recent years and can be seen at restaurants such as Asia de Cuba in NYC or Philippe Starck’s Delano Hotel in Miami. Angela set this table with the new Chef’s Table collection from Oneida.com explaining that, “the warm white porcelain color and ability to mix and match the plate shapes is just what you need to complete this look at home.”
All in all it was a lovely evening of entertaining that left us all inspired. What inspires you to entertain?
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Last night was the first Cannes Lions award ceremony of 2010. It also marked the second year PR Lions were awarded.
Since arriving, I’ve anxiously anticipated this event and the chance to see great PR campaigns from agencies around the world. As I began sifting through the Lions short list in the morning, my excitement was tempered. I found myself asking the question many in the PR industry are now pondering: Why the low number of submissions by PR agencies?
The Cannes Lions committee noted that there was a 32% increase this year in PR entries. Yet many of the PR campaigns were submitted by non-PR agencies. Even more curious: the PR campaign that received the Grand Prix was actually submitted by an ad agency!
Check out my PRWeek blog post to hear more about the awards: http://www.prweekus.com/prweek-insider/section/1255/
Stay tuned for more insider info on Cannes Lions.
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So far, the Cannes Lions Festival has been very exciting! Between the awards ceremonies, seminars, classes, workshops and panel discussions, there’s so much creativity and inspiration all in one place. Being here is also a chance to see old friends in the industry and make new ones.
Speaking of friends, today I attended an interesting “Master Class” titled Five Secrets for Inspiring Your Clients, presented by Mary Beth West, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer of Kraft Foods, Inc. Mary Beth started her discussion with a bold statement, “I hate being called a client because it’s formal and clinical. I prefer to be thought of as a friend.”
Mary Beth values the power of personal relationships, which are at the heart of the partnerships she can count on. With every relationship, there’s give and take, and here are the five things Mary Beth is looking for from her agencies partners:
1) Teach us something new: Our role at agencies is to be out there, exploring the world and bringing that learning and creativity back into the company.
2) Don’t digitally bug us – talk to us:
Technology is all around us, but you can’t forget that emails don’t inspire, people and their ideas do. Be present!
3) Get to know us without blinders on:
Take the time to get to know who we are and what we do as broadly as possible.
4) Look outside the category for inspiration: Find an analog in a category the brand is aspiring to and get to know it. Mary Beth shared the work Kraft did with Crystal Light — how they looked at it as a health and beauty brand vs. a simple drink which inspired the team to reach outside the usual confines, and spend a day at the Fashion Institute of Technology, tour beauty and fashion retailers and work with a design team that specialized in beauty not beverages. As an agency that specializes in marketing-to-women, BRAVO for getting the Crystal Light brand’s “reinvigoration” so right!
5) Move it forward fast: In today’s marketing world, the need for rapid innovation is ever present. Mary Beth talked about “hot house” ideation sessions that Kraft has held where teams spend two or three days together and run through three steps, Stimulate, Ruminate and Activate, coming out ready to go with an idea.
Who could argue with a CMO wanting these five things from her agency partners? These “secrets” are at the core of building supportive and sustainable relationships with our client partners, and are tenets to live by.
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This week, I’ll be reporting from the Cannes Lions 57th International Advertising Festival. It is one of the most exciting industry events of the year, where corporate and agency leaders come together to learn, debate, celebrate success and consider “what’s next?”
In thinking about how the industry is evolving, nothing makes us happier than CMOs who fully embrace PR as an integral part of holistic brand building – a norm rather than an exception these days. To read more, click here.
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I’m writing this from the Worldcom Annual General Meeting in Shanghai.
What an exciting time to be in this city with our Worldcom partners from around the world. The World Expo has 400,000 visitors a day and the growth and development in this country is mind boggling.
James McGregor, author of “One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China,” was one of the presenters. He’s an American who has lived in China for more than 20 years and a former Wall Street Journal bureau chief in Taiwan and Mainland China.
Here are some of the interesting facts about China we learned from him as well as some of our colleagues from Asia.
China was not prepared to take on the global leadership role it’s been asked to assume since the world economic crisis. Because China has such aggressive ambitions for development in its own country, McGregor predicts that it will be challenging for China to “put what’s good for the world in front of its own agenda.”
The cost of Chinese goods and labor are increasing. China will not be able to continue to afford to sell goods as cheaply as in the past.
Traditional media are very vibrant here, despite continued control by the Communist Party. McGregor believes that governmental censorship won’t change for a long time.
Think the internet and social media aren’t important here? Think again. China accounts for 20 percent of all internet usage globally. While YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are blocked in China, social media is alive and kicking. The Chinese have developed their own social networking platforms like QQ.com. Like practically every other global market, bloggers are growing in importance and the government is having a difficult time controlling their influence.
Chinese companies are eager to understand how do to business in Western markets but have a ways to go in learning the value of building a brand. Traditionally, they’ve focused on increasing sales and market share and consider the long term investment in brand building too “intangible.” While they understand the value of luxury brands, many manufacturers feel that a brand is only a “name on a box.” This is expected to change in the next 10 years and we have a fantastic opportunity to help our Chinese colleagues understand Western-style marketing.
But there are many upsides to this mindset. One is the speed at which things happen here. In the last two years, for example, the government has built 10 subway lines in Shanghai. And we’re still waiting for that Second Avenue subway line to be built in New York!
Our agency is often referenced for our well-known beauty clients, so when a fork comes in the house many of our employees look at it curiously while daydreaming of that scene from The Little Mermaid when Ariel immediately uses hers as a brush. While we also have a plethora of health and wellness, as well as food and wine clients under our belt, the newest MMC client – Oneida Ltd. – falls under our home and entertaining team expertise. Our MMC home team could not be more excited to add Oneida to our decorative wall of fame.
To give you a little background on our home team…let’s get you formally introduced! Cooking connoisseur, Corrie Wollet (center), keeps up with all the latest trends in the kitchen. You can often find her throwing together a last minute Valentine’s Day dinner party or fleeing off to purchase more cooking tools. Annette Evans (left) is a craft queen who loves everything from making jewelry to critiquing her sister’s handmade stationary products. Though she is a vegetarian at heart, she doesn’t mind slapping a steak on your plate if it means good entertainment. All about aesthetics, Ashley Bain (right) gets right down to the details when it comes to entertaining. After recently planning her Louisiana wedding, she’s mastered the art of choosing the perfect color palette and dreaming up ideas that will keep people talking for years.
These ladies are thrilled to take their personal passions and experience in the entertaining arena to serve Oneida’s needs. They kicked things off at the Oneida showroom last month and upon walking in, the team knew they had news to spread! The elegant table settings provided a first-hand look at all of the offerings from Oneida. It definitely taught them that this brand can be taken anywhere from hosting the in-laws to a backyard barbeque. Once they left the showroom, they placed an order for the latest and greatest products they saw.
As you can see above, the whole team gathered when the first product shipment arrived at MMC. The large boxes seen here are full of Oneida’s newest roll out, Chef’s Table. This chic, new line is designed to be chip resistant and creates a clean look for tables as it is made of all white porcelain. The team loves this product for entertaining because you can mix and match the different styles – creating a new look each time you use it.
Stay tuned as the beauty parlor at MMC expands it’s expertise in home entertaining with Oneida!
During the first week of April, the Dial team had an opportunity to work with Top Chef host, Padma Lakshmi, in launching Dial NutriSkin, a new line of Dial body wash that delivers intensely hydrating moisture with light and refreshing fruit-oils. Beyond the healthy, fragrant new body wash launch, our team was also very excited to work with Padma in support of her charity—The Endometriosis Foundation of America.
Padma, with her glowing skin and gorgeous smile, started her day with us bright and early when she appeared on WPIX morning news to announce her partnership with Dial NutriSkin—encouraging viewers to “fan” Dial on Facebook where $1 will be donated to her charity. The morning continued back at MMC headquarters, where we filmed a Web site video message for our Facebook fans and a Public Service Announcement for Padma’s charity. Media outlets such as People.com and Shape Magazine arrived shortly after 10am to interview Padma about her work with Dial as well as her new busy mom beauty routine.
We wrapped our morning shortly after 10:45am, feeling as though we’d worked a full eight hour day! This initial program kick-off has been a huge success so far with over 800 (and growing!) Facebook fans.
Please help Dial reach their donation goal to The Endometriosis Foundation of America by becoming a fan of Dial on Facebook.
I love visiting factories! While not the typical pastime of NYC women in PR, a trip to a plant where products are actually made has always excited me. As a young girl I watched with fascination as many family members went to work turning trees into paper at the Cantonment, Florida paper mill. Working in marketing communications today, I am still enthusiastic about the process of creating consumer goods.
This week I had the opportunity to visit the Post Cereal plant in Modesto, California. The producers of a new television series asked to film the process of creating Post Grape Nuts for an upcoming segment. I jumped at the chance to help bring the 100-year-old all natural cereal to life for consumers.
The pride at the Post plant was apparent starting with the employee of the month parking space located at the front door to the safety award clothing worn by many workers on the line. Ty, the plant manager, expertly walked us through every step of the simple, yet ingenious, cereal-making process from unloading the grain truck to wrapping pallets of finished product. Every box of Post Grape Nuts eaten in the world is made in this Modesto facility!
As a PR pro, I spend a great deal of time informing and influencing consumers and meeting business objectives. But, this week I was inspired by the opportunity to turn my attention to the joy of actually creating consumer goods. My goal is to retain the thrill of creating great products as I look for new and exciting ways to market them to consumers.
It’s launch week and the U by Kotex buzz has certainly begun!
News about Kimberly-Clark’s latest line of boldly-designed feminine care is spreading rapidly thanks to an outstanding placement in The New York Times, the launch of the brand Web site, the distribution of the corporate press release and MMC’s media outreach and influencer mailing. Just four days in and media impressions have already surpassed the 100 million mark.
As part of this exciting campaign, MMC created an integration on “The Tyra Banks Show” that aired yesterday. The program served as a platform to spark a much-needed national conversation on vaginal health. The result — more than 35 minutes of air time, at least ten mentions of the word “vagina,” U by Kotex logos and product visuals, as well as key brand messages delivered by two U by Kotex advocates. A true success! But for several reasons…
- The Right Integration to Reach our Young Female Target: MMC recommended an integration specifically with Tyra Banks because she has a reputation as an outspoken advocate for issues that impact young women. She doesn’t shy away from real talk, and isn’t afraid to tackle embarrassing topics. In addition, Tyra resonates as a peer among our target audience of women aged 14-22, even though she is viewed as a celebrity.
- Integrated Effort: We worked closely with our colleagues at Mindshare, the media buying agency for U by Kotex, to negotiate the terms of the buy. As a joint team, we recommended purchasing multiple segments on the show to ensure depth of messaging for the brand. We also worked with the team to make sure our integration air date coincided with the brand launch.
- Driving Content: Once the integration was locked in, one of the most important items became the brand document, which the show uses as a guide to develop the segments. MMC was able to own this document and outline our wish list for content. We summarized our campaign elements, key messages, call-to-action, requests for U by Kotex advocates to appear on the show, and suggested branded placements for product and logos. Key reason whyt it was so strong!
If you didn’t get the chance to watch the integration live, you can view a portion on the Tyra Show Web site: http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/kotex/ Enjoy!!
The Roper Center has concluded that more than 90% of all consumers say that a recommendation of a friend, family member, or someone they trust is the leading influence in their purchase decisions. Those recommendations take the form of both offline and online communication.
Marketing professionals are taking this data seriously and using the insight to shape their budgets. In fact, according to a research study commissioned by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), which MMC is a proud member of, spending on word-of-mouth marketing is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2009 to $3.04 billion by 2013.
Through my Social Media work, I am fascinated by the way information travels on the Web. For example, take a look at my MMC blog post on Techno-Fashion (which just so happened to include a product recommendation). As a result of sharing the link on my Facebook page, my brother shared the link on his page. Then other friends and family members saw the link and shared the content via multiple channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with their circle of friends.
Developing word-of-mouth campaigns can’t be effective unless you identify concrete measurement parameters upfront. Technological advances make sharing information as simple as one-click. Do you know how far your content is traveling?
