Brittany Norman

Sr. Communications Specialist on Visionworks –Ithaca, NY

Brittany is based in Ithaca, New York.  This has become a key area of focus for Visionworks expansion, especially in the Philadelphia market.  We are going to expand because of Brittany’s help with this market.  The two areas of focus for Brittany are Give A Kid Site Day(GKSD), and Grand Openings. Her job was to secure pre- and post-event PR.  In addition, she visited stores, got the token organized for public transportation, faxed orders, and worked with manufacturing to get the frame orders completed correctly.  She also smoothed over tensions between the three organizations.  Great job, Brittany! Mark, Nancy, Rachel and Ashlie Felts nominate her whole-heartily for employee of the month!

Pam Stutler

Broadcast Media – Sr. Broadcast Negotiator -Dallas

Since Pam was assigned lead on the Stage Store business for the broadcast team at the first of April, she has been an absolutely critical asset to the progress made on this new account.  When she was told what had to be accomplished in a few short weeks, she took it all in stride — and with an amazingly positive attitude.  She took on not only the leadership responsibility for setting up systems and processes, but also personally took on the buy placement and coordination for all the TV and cable markets.  Her knowledge and experience with SBMS and the integration with the accounting program allowed us to develop a system that could be applied to Stage’s billing needs.  In addition, she was negotiating the KTVT/KTXA buys for the May sweeps, as well as completing all her McDonald’s buys. We could not have done it without her!

Christina Blanco

Account Executive – New Orleans

Christina embodies what it means to be a Morochian. Her relentless work and relationship-building skills have the Region and Operators in New Orleans shouting her praises. This quote from operators Louis and Joyce Colin says it all, “Christina is very special to Joyce and I.  She is someone we know we can call for marketing and/or community support.  She has provided us with many resources and out-of-the-box ideas that have helped our organization become a part of our market.  She is the kind of person who knows how to make everyone feel like they are special with her down to earth personality.  Her spirit and joy overflows whenever we are around her. We are happy to call Christina a friend!” In addition to her daily responsibilities, Christina volunteers countless hours for our local Ronald McDonald House. Most notably, Christina founded the New Orleans Red Shoe Society, a group of young philanthropic professionals who provide support to the Ronald McDonald House of Greater New Orleans. These examples just scratch the surface of how Christina elevates the Moroch Brand and why she is so deserving of the Morochain of the Month Award.

Mattie Colson

Production Payable/Accounting – Dallas

To many of us, Mattie Colson is known simply as “Ms. Mattie.” She does the hard work of reviewing and processing all expense reports for Moroch and iNSPIRE! employees. No matter what day or time, there is always a stack of ERPO’s for her to review, and when you stop by her office to drop off (yet another) ERPO, Ms. Mattie is always there to greet you with a warm smile. In addition to the ERPO’s, Mattie also manages all of the clearing accounts (another very tough task). She is known for her lovely Southern charm and is a pleasure to have around. And, for the many of us who turn in our ERPO’s, they get processed very quickly. Mattie had big shoes to fill when she took over this position, and she has done it superbly. Thanks for all that you do, Ms. Mattie!!!

We are excited to announce that Moroch won “Most Effective Use of Mobile” at the 2013 DFW Excellence in Interactive Marketing Awards, held on May 9.

We won this award for our work with Hipcricket (a mobile marketing company) on the McDonald’s Morning Paper campaign. The award is judged not only on the creative quality of the campaign, but is also results-based. This campaign ran in 24 demographic marketing areas and over 29 million impressions were delivered yielding over 300,000 customer interactions, for an average click-through rate of 1.07%. The campaign also resulted in an increase of 1,500 new Twitter followers.

We are proud of this campaign and feel grateful to be recognized for our work by our peers in the DFW area.

Delaine Farr
Little Rock McDonald’s Account Coordinator

Delaine Farr joined the Little Rock office as Account Coordinator a year ago. Coming from a McDonald’s crew background, she has been able to adapt her in-store knowledge to the day to day management of POP (Point of Purchase) and operator communication, quickly building relationships with our operators and earning their respect.  Eliecer Palacios, McDonald’s Owner/Operator, said “It was a great pleasure to have worked with Delaine on my recent grand opening of my new McDonald’s. Her contributions with creative marketing materials, coordination with vendors and media, and her ongoing support throughout the grand opening, helped tremendously in its success. Her contribution emphasized the true meaning of supplier/owner partnership.” This is just one example of the dedication that Delaine shows on a daily basis to deliver on what it means to be a Morochian.

Monique Davila
San Antonio McDonald’s Account Supervisor

Monique is true Morochian in every sense of the word. She is the ultimate team player, always willing to help anyone. Monique has been working hard at integrating PR from the marketing side, preparing for Co-Op meetings, and keeping all the processes and timelines in place. This is all in addition to managing the Austin and Waco Co-Ops, working on the San Antonio and Laredo Co-Ops, and keeping the team pointed in the right direction. Whether it is rehearsing for a planning meeting or doing a mud run with her team, she is always encouraging. If you don’t believe me, try not to smile when you hear her burst out in laughter 3 or 4 offices down the hall.

Sarah Duncan
Dallas Oasis Brands / Solaris Paper Account Executive

Sarah Duncan has been a dedicated Account Executive on the Oasis Brands/Solaris Paper account from the moment she arrived over a year ago. Sarah always steps up to the plate to help in prep to make our meetings a success — all of this on top of her normal duties. Sarah has also taken the lead on multiple Mouser projects over the past year, and she receives client accolades on a normal basis for her timely and flawless work. 2013 has been extremely busy and we wouldn’t be surviving without her. Thank you Sarah for your hard work and dedication!

Serge Esteve
Dallas Media Planning Director

Serge exemplifies the type of attitude and approach we want at Moroch. He has two distinct roles within our team: leading client business and leading a team of planners. In the first role, Serge has been recognized as a confident and knowledgeable partner on the client business. Particularly with the DFW McDonald’s Co-Op, Serge has been credited with bringing great plans to our clients and executing consistently. Beyond that, Serge leads a team of media planners that support four McDonald’s regions. He has done a great job of establishing relationships with account leadership and getting to know the business to help effectively lead the team. While all this is going on, Serge always has a calm, even approach that keeps things moving in a positive way.

Diana Allen, New Orleans Entertainment Account Supervisor [by Cristi Sliter]

Diana doesn’t let any opportunity slip through her fingers. She was conducting an event walk-through at a theatre last summer and struck up a conversation with a stranger.  Who knew that he would turn out to be an independent filmmaker who had recently wrapped his film in New Orleans? After a few months of courting, we came to an agreement to manage publicity/promotions for his picture, which was a great new business score for us. Diana not only juggled that campaign, but she recently secured two floats (each one representing a film) to run in a parade during Mardi Gras for free. The studio clients were thrilled. One major studio client said that they plan to use what Diana did as an example for the rest of their agencies of what they should strive to achieve in their home markets. Diana accomplished all of this while locking in a key Associated Press feature for that little indie film mentioned earlier. We couldn’t be prouder of Diana’s contribution to Moroch Entertainment!

Hilary Plendl, Sacramento McDonald’s Account Executive [by David Kaeser]

Hilary Plendl exemplifies what this award is all about.  She started with Moroch nearly two years ago and has grown from Account Coordinator to Assistant Account Executive to newly appointed Account Executive in this short time period. Hilary has demonstrated tremendous growth in less than two years, now overseeing all account service aspects for nearly 200 restaurants. Hilary challenges our team to think about things differently and is a great contributor to our team brainstorming sessions.  She is a passionate go-getter.  Moroch is a better agency with Hilary in it!

Amy Pesoli, Midas Assistant Account Executive [by Shannon Morrison & Nikki McDonald]

Amy Pesoli has made an immediate and visible impact on Team Midas over the past few months. During our transition to a new creative campaign, she has been a champion of the brand and our franchisees by ensuring that every direct mail piece in the entire U.S. made it to print just in time and without error. This was no small feat! It required extended hours and persistence on her part to coordinate a large, constantly moving task force of client and internal team members. In addition to her contributions on this major initiative, Amy always volunteers to take on additional assignments and has a genuine desire to learn any and all information that a team member is willing to disperse. Her ability to absorb and apply knowledge very early in her tenure at Moroch immediately earned our trust in her capability to work independently and effectively on anything.

Celia Zambrano, Media Jr. Broadcast Negotiator [by Pam Stutler]

Celia Zambrano is such a great coworker and has done a wonderful job the last two months.  Celia changed groups/teams recently and has taken on the challenge of assisting three media negotiators in another office, plus two in Dallas without any complaints or communication problems.  She has done many tedious projects for us, matched invoices, and anticipated all of our needs before we have asked her to. Anytime anyone has a request, she is quick to respond and if there is a problem, she has no fear in calling to figure out a solution and is thorough about following up with everyone until everyone has what they need.  Celia’s can-do attitude and ambition has made all of our jobs easier.  Her reps for the markets she is buying have enjoyed working with her and her fresh approach to the McDonald’s business.  The amount of business our group does is massive and Celia doesn’t blink or miss a deadline.  She is a great asset to our team and I am so glad to have her in our group.

Photo credit: yumsugar.com

We’re all part of somebody’s target audience. As we know, clients and agencies value the importance of potential customers by placing these demographics into different buckets based on a variety of measures – gender, age, income, etc. One group that feels like it’s been slighted (and quite honestly, made to look like morons, incapable of managing any facet of their lives) is speaking up. Dads are uniting and telling companies to value them, too.

A recent article in the New York Times, entitled “Don’t Call Him Mom, or an Imbecile,” shows us that 30-something and 40-something fathers are quickly influencing major, consumer-based companies that traditionally valued the wife’s or significant other’s opinions more.

As a 42-year old father of two, I look forward to more companies taking us seriously rather than using us as a overused and ineffective joke in a commercial.

Tony Martinez is a Senior Partner in Moroch’s Atlanta office. For more from Tony, follow Moroch on Twitter at @MorochAgency.

via @Oreo

News publications have utilized social media platforms as a way to inform consumers of hard hitting news at the moment they happen. Lately, social media has all but taken over as the source for breaking news. Brands have recognized the power of instantaneous responses to timely topics and have applied the strategy to their own social media profiles in order to engage consumers.

A good example is Oreo’s response to the Super Bowl blackout. Oreo sent out a tweet with a picture saying “you can still dunk in the dark,” which was re- tweeted over 10,000 times in the first hour. This viral post left quite an impression on those in the advertising industry and clients that spent millions for a :30 second spot.

Since the Super Bowl, Oreo’s social media team has created other clever tweets to send out during large media events. After Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” Grammy performance, Oreo quickly posted a picture of an Oreo dressed in a bow tie with copy that read “Bringing Tasty Back.” Oreo’s social media team has done an impressive job of recognizing the marketing opportunity these real-time posts have and acting on it at a moment’s notice.

Other brands have attempted to tap into this real-time strategy, but some fell flat. Oscar Mayer attempted to play up its first name during the Oscars with the hopes of getting consumer engagement, but the posts seemed forced and received very little attention. These real-time posts are not right for every brand and can be ineffective if they don’t parallel with the brand’s personality.

It is important for brands to understand that the target consumer of their product is not necessarily the same as their online following. The agency and the client should take this into consideration and tailor content to be relevant to the online audience. Brands should also make sure the focus of these tweets is more about their brand and less about the event.

The reality is that the pace of social media will only continue to increase and both industry professionals and clients need to adapt to this change. On the agency side, we can focus on strengthening our relationships with our clients in order to gain trust and freedom to post timely content on their social media platforms. By proving we are subject-matter experts of our client’s industry we can slowly move toward a balance between pre-meditated tweets and the flexibility to respond to off-the-cuff opportunities.

Rachel McCartha is a Communications Coordinator for Moroch PR. For more from Rachel, follow Moroch on Twitter at @MorochAgency. 

Morochians of the Month: February

Cristina Amurao, Lexington McDonald’s Account Supervisor [by Natalie Shepard]

Cristina is terrific. She moved to Lexington and joined the Moroch team back in June of 2011. As my supervisor, Cristina has taught me so much and has been so invested in my growth. She always tells me that if I never ask the questions, the answer is always “no.” And that sometimes, you have to reach for the moon and be a little “unreasonable” to get things done in the best way for the client.  That is the way that she approaches any problem or tricky task. At the end of 2012, Cristina sat down with our team to discuss better ways to keep our plans integrated and communicate best. Cristina finds ways  to empower me daily. I am so blessed to have Cristina as my supervisor. Her determination and passion for this business are palpable and she sets such a great example for those who work with her.

Joanne Sireci, Philadelphia Sr. Media Planner/Supervisor [by Matt Powell]

Joanne has been a true asset not only to me, but to the media department as well. She has a positive, can-do attitude that she brings to work every day. She was a huge help to the department in streamlining the Post Buy Analysis (PBA) process. She got a huge ovation after her Post Buy presentation from all operators — and that’s not easy to do. Her account teams and operators value her media expertise and recommendations. Joanne is always willing to help out anyone in the department, regardless of her own workload. She works tirelessly to produce A+ work and service to all her clients. She is a true Morochian!

Katie Skarke, McCom Account Coordinator [by Beth Pom, Angie Banks, & Bruna Saavedra]

Katie Skarke has that infectious positive attitude and attention to detail that defines the Moroch spirit.  Katie joined the McCom team right after graduating from the University of Texas and stepped right in with a “do what it takes” attitude. And thanks to that, she’s been able to learn things very quickly. We’ve been training Katie the Moroch way: trial by fire! Her first assignment was to work on a large digital job for McDonald’s Co-ops coordinating offers, working with creative/production, and approving several banners all while learning how the Moroch processes work. She has stepped right in on several projects (many last minute with very quick turnarounds). Katie approaches her tasks with a calm demeanor and commendable professionalism. She is always willing to go the extra mile and help anyone on the team. She is proactive and a quick learner. Katie has been critical on several projects, and is always up to take on additional out-of-scope projects as they come — all the while, with a smile. She is learning the ins and outs of TV, radio, and digital production, and mastering every task we throw her way. Other than being an exemplary account service professional, Katie is a joy to be around and has become a true Morochian.

Chris Calhoon, Digital Producer [by Andy McErlean & McCom Team]

Chris came to the digital department at a difficult time and jumped right in, full force. His transition to Moroch was seamless – Chris hit the ground running, managing several large-scale McDonald’s projects that were in the middle of production. Chris’ can-do attitude allowed him to ask the right questions, find the right solutions and get projects under control. The percentage of people who comprehend the importance, difficulty, and scale of our digital business is small, which is why Chris deserves this recognition. While he is still fairly new to the Moroch family, he is someone you can count on and always go to for a reliable, honest answer. He is very receptive to feedback; he is willing to learn and is solutions-oriented. He has been extremely helpful communicating between departments while keeping projects on track. Aside from getting us what we need, he is never shy to request something he needs for a project to keep it moving forward, which we appreciate. Chris’ approachable personality makes him a pleasure to work with. He is a great asset to the digital team and to Moroch.

Moroch Wow Award Winner: Andy McErlean

Moroch’s Wow program rewards employees who make outstanding contributions and acts of kindness above and beyond expectations.  Managers can nominate employees for awards, every employee is eligible and awards are made continuously throughout the year. 

Andy McErlean, Production Artist

For a visit from students interested in advertising, Andy McErlean stepped up to the plate and after- hours overnight, created a fun, targeted  and relevant presentation called “Andy’s Advice” that was humorous, used storytelling techniques and was well-received.

Moroch made quite an impression at the ADDY Awards last night, where we took home 12 awards. It was a great night for the agency and we feel so honored to be recognized for our hard work by industry experts and peers. We are incredibly proud of the success of our agency and want to offer a big congratuations to every Morochian that contributed their blood, sweat and advertising chops to this award-winning work.

In case you weren’t able to attend the ADDYs last night, here is an overview of the awards we brought home:

GOLD:

Digital: McDonald’s—Catch Lunch

Integrated Campaign: McDonald’s & Coca Cola—Unique Event, Fountain Joy and Pursue Happiness

SILVER:

Digital: McDonald’s & Coca Cola—Fountain Joy

Television Single: McDonald’s—DMV

PSA Television: Make-A-Wish—Hitting Wishes

BRONZE:

Billboard: McDonald’s & Coca Cola—Unique Event

Television Single: McDonald’s—Fish Finder
Television Single: McDonald’s—Donald’s McDonald’s

Television Single: McDonald’s—Room Service

Television Campaign: McDonald’s—Wings

photo credit: hashtagsandstilettos.com

You know how people say personal relationships aren’t real until they’re “Facebook official?”  Professional relationships are following suit; it’s much easier to build professional relationships if you’re online. It sounds simple, but that’s the business of personal branding: controlling how the world views you. And it’s a full time job. A recent article by Rex Huppke in the Chicago Tribune broke down the importance of building and maintaining a personal brand. According to Rex:

Our ability to create and control our brands is a great power, but utilizing that power requires far more than creating a Twitter account and occasionally letting the world know that you’re “eating a burrito.” You need to bring something to the table.

Influencing how others see you is extremely important for professional growth. Just like the brands we work with every day, we must fight to be noticed (and taken seriously) in the cluttered social media realm. A successful, respected personal brand requires more than creating a LinkedIn profile or Twitter account, it means utilizing that presence to differentiate and position ourselves as experts in our field. A few of my favorite tips from Rex:

• Do not, under any circumstances, shamelessly self-promote yourself. This does not make you look good in the eyes of others…in fact, it does the opposite.
•  Bring something to the table. Interact with people in your industry, share links to articles, comment on others’ posts, write your own posts (on professional topics, please) and go out of your way to help people in your industry who have questions.
•  Live your brand promise. Spend time thinking about how to be respectful and part of conversations that mean something.

Your employers, clients and coworkers will all reap the benefits of engaging with someone who has an established personal brand. Follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn to see how I’m taking Rex’s advice to heart.

photo credit: thedoublethink.com

“Communication Breakdown Around Volvo Points to Industry Problem,” by Rupal Parekh, is a great little piece from this week’s Advertising Age that confirms what many of us have felt is happening in our industry. Namely, that pressures of all sorts can lead to people not being in the loop — between client and agency — or sometimes even within a client or agency.

This is especially true in an environment where there are multiple clients at the client and multiple agency partners as well.

However, the value of a genuine relationship (vs. a simple vendor/buyer arrangement) is more valuable than ever, to both the client and agency. The more an agency knows, the more insightful and better calibrated the ideas will be.  Better work done faster with less re-work. Better integration, more success and fewer mistakes for all parties.

Clearly, it takes more effort nowadays to keep open the relationship channels that are core to trust, but it is critical to any agency’s sustained success.

And, simultaneously, those clients that actively encourage closer relationships are so often receiving the best work and the greatest rewards in the marketplace.

Jack Phifer is Chief Marketing Officer at Moroch. For more from Moroch, follow us on Twitter at @MorochAgency.