MediaPost | Just An Online Minute

My Fashion Week In 48 Hours

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:34:00 -0400

Fashion Week is all about the lovely clothes (of course!), the must-have accessories, the sky-high models, the front-row celebs, and the fabulous antics. It is the place to see and be seen for the glitterati, AND it is also a great place for brands to get their message out.

SheKnows Celebrates the Experts in New York City

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:23:00 -0400

Last night fall finally arrived and all that was beautiful, sparkly and smart gathered at the Astor Center in New York City to celebrate the launch of "Experts Among Us", a new influencer program from the online women's destination SheKnows. The influencer network is designed to give content producers a platform to share their passion via articles, recipes, how to's, and videos.

Fueling Happy

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:55:00 -0400

New York City, Aug. 1 --- It was raining cats and dogs on Thursday, but Elizabeth Elfenbein managed to bring the sun out. She's the founder of the new app Happy fuel aka ":) fuel." The app was launched at the venue Simyone, a lounge decorated with colorful balloons and decorative message boards -- and filled with a lot of happy people.

LA AdTech At OMMA Display

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 12:00:00 -0400

LA AdTech welcomed OMMA to Los Angeles with a networking reception at the OMMA Display conference here on July 24th. The evening event brought together several hundred of the best and brightest professionals from LA, a region that's proving to be a strong player in the ad and marketing tech industries.

In conjunction with LA AdTech, the reception was hosted by several Los Angeles area companies including: FastPay, GumGum, OpenX, Siemer & Associates and The Trade Desk.

LA AdTech is a Los Angeles-based organization that connects industry professionals and provides educational opportunities through programming focused on ad and marketing technology topics. To learn more you can visit: http://LAadtech.com/.

View more photos on the MediaPost Facebook page.

BuzzFeed Gets All DIY At The Thompson Hotel

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:46:00 -0400

It all started last summer with 31 Insanely Easy And Clever DIY Projects (who knew there were so many uses for nail polish!), followed by 22 Things You're Doing Wrong (life hacks to help you become the "highly advanced human you've always dreamed of being"). 15 million impressions later,Buzzfeed knew they were onto something with Peggy Wang's do-it-yourself lists.

Beauty, Brains & Great Shoes For Launch Of Raison D'Etre

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:56:00 -0400

On May 21, Click 3X feted the launch of its fashion and beauty division, Raison D'tre, with a panel series and cocktail party at The Stollway Space, in the heart of New York's bustling fashion district (complete with full operating knitting machines running next door!)

Forget Jay-Z -- Aren't Start-ups The NEW Rock Stars, Anyway?

Wed, 29 May 2013 15:46:15 -0400

On Thursday, May 23, I joined 100 advertising-tech lovers at 360i's Curation Nation, a special Internet Week installment of 360i's Startup Outlook. The industry-renowned program facilitates closer collaboration between brands and startups.

A Vulcan Salute For The Best Ad Campaigns

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:39:00 -0400

Last Wednesday, during Creative Week, The One Club held its annual One Show honoring the best ad campaigns of the past year. Creative folks know how to throw a good party (obviously), especially when it comes to an awards reception.

A Little Rain Can't Keep Email Insiders Down

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:15:50 -0400

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – Rapleaf’s Cecily Jaros wondered what she had missed at the Email Insider Summit, gesting on Twitter: “I can't seem to find 'monsoon' on the conference agenda -- can you clear this up?”

Sadly, only Mother Nature can and she seems exceedingly uncooperative. There is no sign that the nasty rain and wind, which has rendered the beach outside the Omni Amelia Island useless, will abate until attendees at the MediaPost event have skipped town.

Nonetheless, Jaros was in a jovial mood as she and boss Phil Davis made the rounds at the cocktail party Thursday evening. Jaros, a senior account manager, is attending her first summit.

But Davis, who sat on a panel about data mining earlier, is a mainstay. So is Acxiom’s Ryan Phelan. Even with the weather, he was happy with the decision to move the spring Summit some 400 miles in Florida from its recent Captiva Island home.

Before joining Acxiom, one of Phelan’s clients at BlueHornet was the Omni brand. He’d even done work for the Amelia Island property, but never visited.

The happy-go-lucky Phelan rode out the storm – which brought the cancellation of golfing, fishing and other activities – with about eight others in a hotel bar playing poker (no money involved) before hitting the hot tub.

Others took advantage of a pop-up game room as MediaPost staffers had ping pong and pool tables set up into an empty ballroom. A beer or two might have been consumed along with the competition.

Ali Swerdlow, who had wanted to go kayaking, spent the day working and going to the gym. The LeadSpend executive, who previously worked at the Email Experience Council, is attending at least her eighth summit (that includes winter ones in the Utah mountains).

A pregnant Kelly Briggs, a director in corporate communications for the Dallas Stars, napped. Much to her dismay, she didn’t happy to worry about forgoing networking to watch her team in the playoffs at night as the NHL team didn’t make it.

Looking at his name tag, one could be forgiven for wondering if Andrew Harner had anything to do with the awful weather. Was it part of some financial scheme he’d cooked up?

After all, he works for Monsoon Commerce.

Harner, an email production manager at the ecommerce firm, joked about the Sunshine State offering far worse conditions than back home. “I left 80 degrees and sunshine to come here,” he said regarding the Bay Area. “I should ask for a refund.”

More seriously, though, he said the conference has provided a good venue for networking and he appreciated a presentation made by CareerBuilder’s Scott Burdsall on responsive design and mobile marketing.

Considering her hometown, surely someone who would not be complaining about the rain would be Responys’ Wacarra Yeomans. But, hold it …

“Did you know it’s sunny in Seattle this week?” she said.

Nonetheless, the email design expert said she appreciated Thursday’s keynote from fellow Seattle-ite Donald Parsons, who oversees global email for Amazon. Parsons spoke about the need to make email a two-way conversation with a sense of personalization even if millions are sent out at once.

“Sometimes marketers do forget you’re talking to an individual in a very intimate place,” Yeomans said.

Oracle’s Dennis Dayman, a summit veteran, estimated 80% of the attendees are first-timers based on the show of hands that went up earlier in the day. Dayman said the summit’s collaborative dynamic continues to engender networking tailor-made to building long-term connections.

“I like the size,” said Katherine Youngblood of the InterContinental Hotels Group. “It’s not overwhelming.”

Youngblood was mingling with LivingSocial’s Alan Clifford at the cocktail party sponsored by StrikeIron. Yes, she was not alone. Which might not always be the case on the job.

Earlier on a panel, she suggested email marketers don’t get much attention until executives have product to move and realize there’s benefit in cost-effective, ROI tactics.

“People think of our team as kind of like rich Uncle Bob,” Youngblood said. “Everyone wants to go to them when they need money, but nobody wants to hang out with them.”

You Don't Need to Search Far for Fun on Amelia Island

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:52:00 -0400

On Sunday through this morning, search experts descended upon Amelia Island for MediaPost's bi-annual Search Insider Summit for three days of learning and networking in sunny Florida.

500 Women Strong At Horizon Media

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:54:00 -0400

On Tuesday, April 23, Horizon Media opened their doors and their amazing roof deck to 500 women in media, advertising and entertainment for cocktails and networking.

Redefining The Meaning Of Housewarming With Yext

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:08:00 -0500

On March 5 I headed over to Yext's housewarming party to celebrate their new digs, located in the area that I think is one of New York City's newly defined neighborhoods: NoMad, aka north of Madison Square Park.

An Evening with the Skinnygirl

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:44:40 -0500

On Tuesday, February 5^th, Warner Bros. Brand Networks celebrated their fall line-up at Amy Sacco’s newly opened club, No. 8 with their newest talk show star Bethenny Frankel.

Being a huge fan of the Skinnygirl and the empire she created, I could not miss this event! The evening began for me with a couple Skinnygirl margaritas (the bottled drink that put Bethenny on the map) and I earned these drinks, let me tell you, getting to the bar was no easy task due to the crowd. But everyone was in great spirits awaiting Bethenny’s arrival.

After snacking on mini foods: crab cakes, burgers and something tasty in a cone, I set out to find a couch and some good convo. My plus one and I met some great gals from Zenith Optimedia where we swapped a few agency war stories and they educated me about the TV buying process, since I’ve always been a digital gal. They also humored me in listening to my multi-brand TV commercial idea…maybe one day!

In addition to the smart gals from Zenith Optimedia, we also had smarties from Mindshare, Starcom World Wide, Initiative, Maxus Global, The Media Edge and Group M representing -- I was thrilled to see that the majority of attendees were women!

Warner Bros. Brand Networks was excited to have Bethenny join the family and Michael Teicher (pictured), Executive Vice President of the company gave her a glowing introduction for the crowd. She was clearly very excited, too after a very successful 6-week summer test run on Fox-owned networks in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix and Minneapolis.

After Bethenny’s intro, she worked the room chatting with everyone and taking pics with the crowd. I was very excited to see that, in person, Bethenny is healthy and even better- very gracious! No divas here!!

My only sadness of the evening… no Skinnygirl products in the swag bag. Regardless, the next time I pick up a bottle of SG, I’ll be toasting to the tremendous success that women can achieve with an idea and ambition.

Cheers!

Photo Credits: Warner Bros./ Jamie McCarthy

'Check Out My Web Series!': NATPE In Miami

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:18:02 -0500

It's the end of January -- and while, yes, there have been some unseasonably warm days up north, I do recall my Twitter and Facebook feeds being inundated with "I'm done with the cold" updates. These updates didn't come from me, however, because I am based in the Miami area now, where networking cocktails are served outdoors with the crush of the ocean rambling behind you while palm fronds tickle the sky. As was the case this week at NATPE Miami: Content First.

Agencies Tie One On At Creative Media Awards

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:08:00 -0500

Last Wednesday over 200 agency big thinkers, decked out in their dapper best, descended upon The Yale Club for MediaPost's Creative Media Awards dinner and presentation. Now in its ninth year, the awards show recognizes that the process of media buying, planning and strategy is every bit as creative as mocking up a print ad, or creating snazzy online campaigns.

Vibrant Media Reinvents Halloween

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:31:00 -0500

What happened to Halloween?! The effects of Hurricane Sandy caused major devastation, loss and inconvenience - not to mention the fact that we skipped my favorite holiday. But even I wasn't in the mood to celebrate this year, Halloween just felt so trivial in comparison to what we had all collectively gone through in the wake of this disaster.

So what is a company to do when their annual Halloween Party bash was scheduled in the midst of all of this? Reschedule & Recreate, of course!

Held at Studio 450 in New York City, Vibrant Media morphed their Halloween party into a Hurricane Sandy benefit. Their party/fundraiser donated to the Team Rubicon charity to help Hurricane Sandy Victims.

We'd never heard of Team Rubicon before, but learned a lot about them at the party. The non-government organization is made up of first responders, medical professionals and military veterans that deploy to global disaster zones in need of assistance. To date they've responded to disasters in Alabama, Haiti, Chile, Sudan, Pakistan and now to areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy! Learn more about the work they are doing here.

Now back to the party!

Surrounded by an amazing view of the city, attendees noshed on pizza, enjoyed a full open bar and listened to tunes by resident DJ Agencies were in the house and talked to me about Vibrant's offerings which include a mosaic ad. I've never seen unit before, but it sounds like it is hard to miss --- this ad can include video, images, tweets and other social content -- and understandably is quite large.

Everyone at the party was in great spirits, I think we all needed a drink after last month (or at least I did)! The folks from Vibrant were especially thrilled to be helping out such a worthy cause and surely those in need will be happy beneficiaries of their generosity.

In A Word, BuzzFeed Music Event Was So OMG (Okay, So It's An Acronym, Not A Word, But You Get My Drift)

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:00:00 -0400

The digital elite were out on the town Tuesday night to fte the launch of BuzzFeed's new music vertical, BuzzFeed Music and their partnership with Rdio, a Web-based music streaming service. The partnership will allow BuzzFeed to use its music channel and homepage as a place where users can discover new music through sponsored Rdio posts and units.

This Happened In Vegas: The ECHO Awards

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:15:00 -0400

LAS VEGAS -- The DMA celebrated the most exciting international response marketing campaigns of the year here last night durin the 2012 edition of the annual ECHO Awards Gala.

Man Bites Downward Dog: Health Mag Teams With Wanderlust For 'Yoga In the City'

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:52:03 -0400

When as many as 3,000 participants gather for a yoga/music festival, a yoga hip-hop artist like MC Yogi becomes the new rock star, and yoga teachers are the new celebrities. This month Health magazine's Associate Publisher Lana LoRusso, who previously worked at sister Time Inc. magazine People (see, yoga is the new Hollywood!), partnered with Wanderlust for a free one-day urban yoga event in NYC, LA, and SF called Yoga in the City.

COREMedia Puts On Its Crazy Game of Poker Face To Celebrate 20 Years

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:41:00 -0400

When Glenn DeKraker, COREMedia Systems CEO, floated -- correction -- effervesced the idea to me of shooting the company's 20th anniversary event, Response Responsibility, I thought two things: "Crap sandwiches, I'll have moved to Florida by then"; and "How can I make this work?" Glenn solved it for me by whisking me from Miami in what I like to call "a bounce house in the sky" (what others call a plane). The next thing I thought, this would be perfect for Just An Online Minute, my old column that I love and miss! So hello, here I am, on assignment from CoreMedia. I've missed you.

Agencies Grab Honors, Look Toward Super Bowl And Beyond

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:12:00 -0500

Top executives from winning agencies such as MPG Global CEO Maria Luisa Francoli, GroupM Interaction COO John Montgomery and Saatchi & Saatchi X CEO Dina Howell were in attendance Tuesday as "Media" Magazine handed out its annual Agency of the Year awards.

Dealing With Costumephobia In A Room Full Of 'Superheroes'

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:43:03 -0500

My stomach was turning as I stood outside of Crimson on Broadway, waiting for the doors to open for MediaMind's 10th Annual Rich Media Awards. A few days earlier, MediaMind's communications and media relations manager Alice Suh told me that it was superhero-themed. Worse - people would be in costumes. They had even hired superhero actors to perform. This would be great if I didn't have an irrational fear of costumed people.

Pinging That Pong With Thought Equity Motion

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:00:04 -0500

I went to Though Equity Motion's 2nd Annual Ping Pong Show Down at SPiN NYC the other week. This write-up has been in the works for a while, but I hurt my back and spent the past few days whining and staying in bed (send flowers, please).

Geeking Out In Soho

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:50:00 -0400

Last Wednesday's GeekChicDaily and TOKYOPOP launch party at Kidrobot in SoHo was the perfect way to escape the fall drizzle and NYC mud/crud puddles. I had been skipping around the office all day saying that I was going to a party at a robot store (note: Kidrobot is definitely not a robot store, but a geek-friendly destination for collectible tchotchkes and silkscreened hoodies and whatnot), so I was a little disappointed that Rosie from "The Jetsons" didn't greet me at the door to put my wrist band on.

Just An Online Minute... Ace-ing A Night Of Karaoke

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:41:07 -0400

I'm blaming Richard Blakeley and the entire staff of ShareThis for the reason that I'm writing this article from my couch instead of my office. I've written about Websdays in the past, but this one was different because ShareThis was sponsoring it, which meant open bar and a night of karaoke at the Ace Hotel. If you know how obnoxious I am, it should come to no surprise that karaoke is my favorite party activity, which naturally lends itself to losing one's voice -- especially when you're already wrestling serious allergies in the first place. So here I am, at home, squeaking and coughing. I was bested by Internet Week during Advertising Week.

Just An Online Minute... Ad Club Honors Feeding America

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:30:13 -0400

Kicking Advertising Week off at a luncheon at the Plaza's Grand Ballroom isn't too shabby, especially when the wine starts flowing at 11 a.m. (although I'm sad to report that no one was drinking it, not even this lush reporter who showed up sauced on codeine and allergy meds). Gayle Taryn does PR for the Advertising Club of NY and always throws great events. When I finally trick a man into marrying me and letting me spend all his money, I'm calling Gayle to have her plan the wedding.

Just An Online Minute... Socializing With The Social Media Stars

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:16:02 -0400

Tuesday evening found me running through Times Square like a tourist, even asking a cop for directions to the Marriott Marquis before he pointed right in front of me. I hate Times Square so much. But there was a party and a bar that needed emptying, so I did my duty as a hard-hitting party reporter and showed up.

Just An Online Minute... Exploring All The Meanings Of 'Get Served'

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:15:09 -0400

Last Friday night, I deviated from my usual routine of ordering Thai food, turning off my phone and watching "SVU" and instead smeared on some makeup and headed over to the W on Lex for the Get Served event after-party sponsored by The Daily and The Macallan. I was supposed to go to the event itself -- the opening of the Vanderbilt Tennis Club in Grand Central Station -- to smack a few balls around the court, but I frown on all sports that don't take place in bars, so I declined the invite and just showed up for the after-party.

Just An Online Minute... An Unnaturally Glamorous Wednesday Night

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:01:01 -0400

I'm always amazed at how great girls look after work when I go to parties. I usually show up with my hair tied on my head, tired eyes and a less-than-fresh attitude, so I don't know why I was so surprised when I showed up at the launch for new jewelry line chloe + isabel to find every girl there (except me) looking bright and happy, with perfect hair. It was, after all, a fashion-y event.

Just An Online Minute... Lounging on Leroy

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:31:32 -0400

On Wednesday, my BFF from Canada came to town and I immediately dragged (luggage in hand) her to MediaTrust's Peter Bordes gorgeous townhouse on Leroy Street. Peter was hosting a cocktail party on his rooftop garden in honor of the first night of LeadsCon. We walked in around 7 and I was blown away by how beautiful the place was, and wanted to weep at the thought of going back to my Brooklyn walk-up after I realized the place was five stories.