Recently, COVERGIRL hosted an event with our makeup artist Molly R. Stern and key LA-based beauty bloggers that gave a behind-the-scenes look at how red carpet looks are created. Actress Rashida Jones partnered with COVERGIRL to be our celebrity “live demo” and worked with Molly to create the perfect red carpet beauty look in front of the 13 bloggers in attendance before Rashida left for her MTV Movie Awards parties later that evening. It was truly a great example of bringing online influencers together for an in-person experience.
I really enjoyed executing and being part of this new and unique event dynamic showcasing step-by-step makeup application with a celebrity in front of a live audience. One of the things I love about working with COVERGIRL is that we engage with makeup artists constantly and are able to elevate our brand through red carpet “get the looks,” artist relations and celebrity seeding. This event allowed us to take our red carpet pitches truly to the next level by engaging bloggers with customized and authentic content in an in-person setting, the media in attendance raved about it as well!
Rashida proved to be the perfect celebrity to anchor our event. Her chemistry with Molly was only made better by the fact that she was already a fan of so many COVERGIRL products, especially the Outlast Lipstain. It was great to hear her speak with Molly and the bloggers candidly and organically about her beauty routine, she was such a delight to work with. As you can see, Molly chose to create a colorful smoky eye utilizing COVERGIRL LiquiLineBlast, Smoky ShadowBlast and LashBlast Fusion for Rashida, she looked gorgeous and definitely red carpet ready!
Two weeks ago, MMC hosted an NYC editor event for Arnold and Oroweat Breads to launch a new sliced bread, Health-full, and help reenergize Sandwich Thins. Food Network Chef Claire Robinson, host of “Five Ingredient Fix,” and Registered Dietitian Christine Palumbo hosted the Arnold and Oroweat Sandwich Slim Down, giving 22 editors, producers and social media influencers a taste of our products.
The Glass Houses raw space was transformed into a Nantucket cabana, complete with oversized white couches and chic beach accents, to reflect that this summer, you can still have your bread and eat it too. We added a test kitchen with stainless steel chefs’ tables to give media an area to actually work with the products. Christine spoke to the nutritional benefits of both Health-full and Sandwich Thins, highlighting current food and wellness trends that revealed the relevancy of each. Claire demonstrated the breads’ versatility through preparing two of her signature five ingredient recipes. She then led the editors in a Five Ingredient Fix Challenge, charging them to break into teams and create their own recipes for Sandwich Thins and Health-full, based on themes pulled out of a white sand bucket. Themes like Surf vs. Turf guided the editors and helped inspire their culinary creativity. Editors departed with picnic baskets full of products, sandwiches in branded to-go containers, and a custom bikini memento to remind them that bread and bikinis really can go together!
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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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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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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!
For obvious reasons, the Food & Beverage Team at MMC loves any excuse to partake in eating and drinking (see Amy’s post about Bacon Bash). So when we learned that April 12th was National Grilled Cheese Day, we knew a celebration was in order. What’s more, we wanted to use this opportunity to showcase our client Arnold/Oroweat breads and share them with our co-workers.
Fellow foodie Amy Grosheider and I set out to the local grocery store, armed with a grocery list and a dream. I headed straight to the bread aisle where I carefully selected some Sandwich Thins, a loaf of Arnold Country White, and one of Arnold 100% Whole Wheat. We chose several different types of cheese: mozzarella, cheddar, American, and Pepper Jack as well as bacon, prosciutto, tomatoes, and apples (is your mouth watering yet?)
Upon returning to the office, we broke out the panini press (yes, we have one at the office for these types of occasions) and started to prepare all the fixings for a grilled cheese feast. All it took was the scent of cooked bacon wafting from the microwave to quickly pack the 12th floor kitchen with hungry co-workers.
I found myself in somewhat of a conundrum—what do I put on my sandwich? I decided to go with a little of everything: cheddar, bacon, tomato, and apple on Arnold Country White bread. Well, I didn’t hate it!
National Grilled Cheese Day 2010 = success!
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.
You learned from my last post that I am not one to book regular salon visits to get my hair cut, or trimmed for that matter. I am thrilled to share the news that on Thursday, March 25th I overcame my fear and not only got a trim but got my hair colored and styled as well!
The Aussie and Clairol teams celebrated the warm weather and kicked off the spring season with a Spring Trend online influencer event. Myself along with my fellow MMC’ers Lisa Reindl and Jess Spano had a tough job that evening to be the hair models donning the latest spring hair trends. Naturally, I was hesitant to undergo a hair transformation for my critical role, but all of my doubts disappeared once I discovered that my hair was in the hands of miracle workers: Aussie celebrity stylist, Sarah Potempa, and Clairol’s Global Director of Color and Style, Marcy Cona.
After a quick color application using Clairol Perfect 10 and a few spritzes of Aussie hair spray to complete the look, I was ready to model “The Modern Remix of ‘Old Hollywood’ Brunette”. Here are three quick and easy steps to get the look:
- Using a styling pick (or a household item like a pencil or a chopstick) follow the line from the middle of your nose to get a clean middle part.
- Then spray Aussie’s Hi-Hold + Hi-Shine Hairspray to each 2” section.
- Curl away from the face on both sides.
NOTE: The key to getting a great vintage-inspired wave is to follow a pattern and make each curl identical. Clip each section with a small silver clip to allow the hair to cool before releasing.
High profile beauty online influencers attended the event and created buzz in the Twitter world using the hashtag “#PGHair” that was designed specifically for attendees to comment on the evening’s activities in real time. Many of these influencers had flip cams in hand as well to capture the demonstrations for their blogs.
I have to say, with my hair freshly cut and colored I feel refreshed for spring! It looks like Sarah and Marcy may have changed my outlook on frequent salon visits. Stay tuned…
One of the greatest parts of my job is being able to not only work with such creative and inspirational people within the agency, but the brilliant influencers and tastemakers in the beauty industry. I had the opportunity this week to spend some time with legendary Makeup Artist and Global Creative Design Director for P&G Beauty, Pat McGrath. Pat sat down with top print and online influencers to talk about the latest beauty trends from the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter 2010 runways. Pat is a mastermind and creates the most fantastic beauty inspiration seen at all the top shows in New York, London, Paris and Milan. Here are 4 beauty trends and tips she has for Spring:
- Pastel eyes: as seen on the runways of Versace and Christian Dior, create a colorful pastel eye to brighten up your Spring look. Try COVERGIRL Smoky ShadowBlast in Purple Plume to get this fun look.
- Shiny lip: create an impactful, yet playful lip with a lot of shine as seen on the runways of Prada and Rochas. Try COVERGIRL ShineBlast Lip Gloss for the perfect glossy, sculpted pout.
- Lashes and Lines: Spring/Summer is all about thick, dramatic lashes and intense black liner. As seen on the runways of Anna Sui and Lanvin, try COVERIGL Smoky ShadowBlast in Onyx Smoke and new COVERGIRL LashBlast Fusion Mascara in Black** for the dramatic look.
- Rosy Fresh Skin: keep it light and fresh for Spring with a natural rosy glow. At Stella McCartney it was all about being a positive and real woman. Try COVERGIRL Simply Ageless Blush in Lush Berry for the perfect flush of color.
Now I can’t wait for the weather to catch up with my new fresh beauty looks!
**Beauty Insider exclusive news: be the first to check out the new COVERGIRL LashBlast Fusion Mascara at the online presale going on right now, click here to order yours!
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.
