MMGY NJF supports travel and hospitality clients from their North American offices and MMGY Global resources in London, and this year saw the introduction of new programs supporting both internal and client growth. On the client front, MMGY NJF deepened their comprehensive crisis management, introducing their Risk Assessment system that includes risk analysis, past crisis response audits, brand sentiment measurement and the creation of crisis communications plans. Internally, the agency addressed recruiting and retention challenges exacerbated by the Great Resignation by offering a Travel Reward program, a new program offering employees greater travel rewards in less time with the agency. To further demonstrate the value of PR to clients, the agency developed an innovative evaluation program that goes beyond traditional metrics like media impressions, creating a customized measurement system that provides tangible metrics and qualitative insights. This approach has been successfully adopted by clients and is helping reinforce the effectiveness of PR efforts across their roster.
Leadership team:
Julie Freeman, EVP & Managing Director
Lauren Kaufman, SVP & Director of Operations
Andrea Braunstein, VP & Director of Crisis Communications
Maggie LaCasse, VP
Derek Klaus, VP
Ines Cano, VP
Sara Gorgon, VP
Notable long-term clients:
The Algonquin Hotel Times Square, Amtrak, American Queen Voyages, Aurora Expeditions, Berkshire Hathaway Travel Insurance (BHTP), Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, British Virgin Islands Tourist Board & Film Commission, CheapCaribbean, Apple Leisure Group City Experiences, Destination Greater Victoria, Discover Newport, Explore Worldwide, Etihad Airlines, Fort Myers Islands Beaches and Neighborhoods, Go City, HEI Hotels, Hotel Vermont, LATAM Airlines, London & Partners, Marriott International, Marriott Marquis, Meet AC (Atlantic City), North Carolina’s Crystal Coast, Oceania Cruises, Planet 9 RoofTop at Exchange Place, Sensei, The National World War II Museum, Travel and Adventure Show, Travel Texas, Visit California, Visit Corpus Christi, Visit Costa Rica, Visit Dallas, Visit Elizabeth City, Visit KC (Kansas City), Visit Grand Rapids, Visit Greater Palm Springs, Visit Santa Barbara, Visit SLO Cal, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, Visit Steamboat Springs, Visit Traverse City, Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort
New client wins:
Airshare, Concord Hospitality, Fifty Grande, Fairmont Empress, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Organization International (HSMAI), International Insurance Group & International Citizens, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), Mondee, Student Universe, Texas Historical Commission, Tourism Richmond (British Columbia), Visit La Paz (Mexico), World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
Explain how your agency is pushing the boundaries of PR and communications by integrating innovative strategies, tools, or technologies to enhance your offerings and benefit your clients.
“Demonstrating the value of public relations continues to be a challenge, especially when showcasing results to the C-Suite or Board of Directors of our PR clients. Our agency has taken an innovative approach by re-imagining the evaluation of earned media coverage for one of our long-standing state destination clients. We piloted the program initially within the U.S. market, and it is now being used to measure the return on investment of their PR efforts globally and has helped set the industry standard for several of the local DMOs throughout the state. Our customized bespoke measurement program boils down KPIs into tangible metrics that C-suites understand. Our goal was to demonstrate the value of public relations beyond media impressions and ad equivalency with a model that had to not only monitor and measure but also analyze coverage and provide more qualitative metrics, insights and context. results. The highlight of the measurement program is the Media Quality Index, which was customized to measure against coverage components of importance to our client such as experience pillar inclusions, mentions of multiple destinations or regions, calls-to-action and more, and the Opportunity to See metric which is an unbiased measurement of digital reach and value of the site containing coverage based on Alexa rankings. Our client has repeatedly told us that this model has helped reinforce with real metrics that the journalists hosted in destination have yielded the most effective coverage.”
