Introducing MWB AMPLIFY
We’ve über-excited to announce a new service fully rolling out in 2019: MWB AMPLIFY. It’s a local influencer marketing service developed an managed by MWB with the objective of utilizing the power of social media and the reach of notable local influencers to help raise awareness of brands, services, and organizations. MWB has partnered with several dozen central Mississippi high-profile social media personalities who can maximize the positive visibility of brands and products in the 601 area code.
“Our influencers specialize in a number of interest areas including dining, fitness, interior design, fashion, lifestyle, nutrition, luxury brands, and more,” said MWB president Tim Mask. “We believe this service will be of particular benefit to more localized brands and services who don’t typically invest in the traditional services offered by advertising agencies.”
MWB Amplify matches brands with influencers whose interests are aligned with those of the brand’s audience, delivering authentic content across the influencer’s multiple social media platforms. It is a powerful new marketing trend, localized. If you’re interested in tapping into the power of MWB Amplify, contact us for a more detailed review of our services.
Check out some recent work…
We recently completed and launched a new website for Madison-based global aerospace services company Vertex Aerospace. Vertex Aerospace is a global single-stop solution for aftermarket aerospace services for both government and private sector clients. The company maintains over 100 locations and thousands of employees across the globe. In addition to the new website, MWB is also producing a series of corporate videos for Vertex. Click below to visit their new site.
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We recently visited the Meridian-based manufacturing facility of GRASSBuilt, a sustainable building materials company focusing on end products and building supply material sourced from North American bamboo. Tapping into the sustainable building and LEED architecture markets, GRASSBuilt is on the leading edge of creating a vibrant, domestic bamboo economy. MWB’s chief photographer/videographer captured the facility in action, along with some great shots of their finished products. We’re looking forward to helping GRASSBuilt realize their role as the leading, rapidly-renewable building materials source for 21st century sustainable architecture.
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In 2018 we helped Visit Jackson, the destination marketing organization for Mississippi’s capital city, fully implement a new strategic marketing strategy. The branding campaign focused on impacting Millennial travelers, now the nation’s largest generational group and biggest leisure tourism spenders. The effort incorporated travel decision drivers that are especially important to key Millennial sub-groups – foodies, career women, crafters, artisans, and lovers of indie music – and presented the brand in a manner especially friendly toward social platforms. The branded campaign is also supported by longer format content, including a “docutainment” series, original music video, the culinary-focused web show “Chefs with Soul,” and the entertainment program “Soul of the City.” Check out what it means to experience the City with Soul at JXN.ms.
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We’re proud to help these partner clients stoke their creative fires!
What’s new with the family?
Account Executive Erica Robinson recently completed an Advanced Grant Proposal Writing course courtesy of Mississippi State University. Erica is now a certified grant writer, and looks forward to putting this new skill set to work for partner clients and organizations under MWB’s CreateForGood initiative. If you’re interested in seeking grant funding for any of your projects, please feel free to reach out to us. To stay informed about grant opportunities, please follow @growMWB on Twitter.
As mentioned last newsletter, MWB Senior Account Executive Ray Harris has obtained her Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership. We’re bringing it up again because Ray actually walked in the graduation ceremony this month…so it’s official! Ray is an invaluable MWB talent who is active in strategic planning project management for MWB partner clients including Visit Jackson, HOPE, the Mississippi State Department of Health, Vision First Advisors, and the Mississippi Emergency Management Association. Props, Ray.
And the graduations keep coming. MWB president Tim Mask is now an alumni of Leadership
Mississippi, the second oldest statewide leadership program in the United States. Leadership Mississippi is a program administered by the Mississippi Economic Council. During the 2018 class, attendees visited Jackson, Tunica, the Gulf Coast, Columbus, and Oxford. For more information on the program, visit the MEC website.
MWB VP of PR Jana Bell has relaunched her legendary “Landmass” campaign on Instagram. If you don’t know the story, following the Weather Channel’s faux pas in 2006 referring to the Mississippi Gulf Coast as “the landmass” between Louisiana and Alabama. Jana’s Facebook campaign sold Landmass-related merch, raising several thousand dollars for the Salvation Army of Gulfport. Jana hopes to re-invigorate the Landmass Movement by re-starting the irreverent discussion of all things Mississippi Gulf Coast on Instagram. Check it out @thelandmass.
Classy. Classic.
To kick off the Holiday Season, we’ve launched the #MWBClassicCovers series. Our MWB talent re-creates classic vintage vinyl album covers from years past. In our initial outing, Tim Mask, Ray Harris, and Linzy Gressett pull off icon impressions of Lou Reed, Diana Ross, and Frank Sinatra, respectively. Stay tuned through 2019 as we roll through out talent pool paying tribute to the great crooners of the 20th century. (Sneak peak – vintage Stevie Nicks and Bob Dylan are on deck…)
Marketing, with IMPACT: Flashback Edition
We like to highlight projects that align with our company’s CreateForGood mantra. Here’s a great case study from our recent past that demonstrates how creativity can lead to positive impact:
Rise Up Mississippi: College Access
From 2005 – 2016, MWB developed and managed a college access outreach initiative for partner client the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. MWB developed a brand, Rise Up! Mississippi, and a sophisticated web portal that featured a number of interactive tools, including the first ever web-based state-specific database-driven scholarship finder. In addition to television and web advertising, MWB developed a reality-TV style multi-year web series called College Discovered, designed to give aspiring college students a view to what college is actually like, from the students’ point of view.
College Discovered was birthed from the realization that incoming college students had a totally different set of questions and preconceptions that had nothing to do with admissions and financial aid. They were curious about what, exactly, to expect from a college experience. We cast a group of incoming college students, each with a unique backstory, who were each going into different college situations. Some were transferring from community college. Others were traditional freshmen. Some came from challenging economic conditions. Others had been the BMOC in high school and were now facing an environment in which they were essentially another face in the crowd.
There’s really one key result that reflects the success of the Rise Up Mississippi initiative. In the original grant proposal, the main evaluation metric used to measure the campaign was how many individuals actually used the Rise Up Mississippi website. Upon the conclusion of funding for the effort, registered users for the web portal topped 212,000 individuals, far exceeding the original goal.
Click here to see more College Discovered.
#CreateForGood
Walking the Walk
At MWB, we invest our own resources into powering initiatives that reflect our CreateForGood mantra. Here’s an update on some related projects.
Kids Code Mississippi
Randy Lynn, MWB partner, creative director, and co-founder of Kids Code Mississippi, was the subject of an interview for The MagPi, the UK-based magazine published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The article focused on efforts to promote and implement coding and computer science training for students and teachers across the state. Click the spread below to read the piece.
Tangents: These are Things worth checking out.
The Mississippi Light Collaborative is a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) oriented organization that was responsible for the first ever Mississippi Light Festival in 2017. Since that time, the organization has launched a STEAM lab, an education program, and has been planning the next light festival for 2020.
The organization is also raising funds to help bring opportunities in programming, STEAM exhibitions, and enhancements in the STEAM Lab to benefit the creative youth of Mississippi’s capital city. If you’re interested in helping, please consider donating a little to this worthy cause. Click the image below to learn more.
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From Around The Web: Our Obsessions
Education. Apparently, there’s something to this “good night’s sleep” thing. Also, teenagers might not actually be THAT lazy. A Seattle school district has experimented with starting its school day just a half hour later, and the results have been extremely encouraging. Test scores are up, absences are down, and students report feeling less stressed. Read more about it here, and follow us on Twitter at @MWB_ed.
Public Health. A new study released by the National Institutes of Health indicates that over exposure of screen time for kids may be even more mentally harmful that we all supposed. Check out results from the research here, and follow @mwb_pubhealth.
Sports. Extreme Sports athlete (emphasis on “extreme”) Ross Edgley recently became the first person to ever swim AROUND the island of Britain. That’s 1,780 miles of non-stop water. It took him over five months, swimming up to 12 hours a day, and never touching dry land. Upon finishing the feat, his tongue was partially dissolved due to prolonged exposure to salt water, and he had to re-learn to walk. Take THAT, Aquaman. Read more about Edgely’s crazy impressive feat here, and connect with us @MWB_sports.
Space. Awesome story. In March 2019 South Africa will launch the continent’s very first private satellite. The best part? It was designed by teenage school girls who were participating in a STEM bootcamp. Learn more here, and join us over at @MWB_cosmos.
See you next month, er, year!
MWB is an idea + creative content company that focuses on creating positive impact in helping partners maximize their brands.
#CreateForGood