From our heart to yours, THANK YOU for supporting Super Theo. We are so touched and incredibly thankful to work with such amazing friends, clients and colleagues. Because of you, (your “likes” and “posts”), Merlot will be making a generous donation to help Super Theo continue his journey for more “super cells.” We wish you a healthy, prosperous and joyous 2012! With sincere thanks, The Merlot Team
Julie Fraga, Merlot Marketing Senior Account Manager and Public Relations Society of America (PRSA ) California Capital Chapter Board Secretary, served as moderator of the PRSA July Luncheon panel, which featured special-event professionals sharing their insights and perspectives on planning the perfect event. Panelists included;
About PRSA California Capital Chapter
Chartered in 1947, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals. Nationally, PRSA is a community of more than 21,000 public relations and communications professionals, from recent college graduates to the leaders of the world’s largest multinational firms. Our members represent nearly every practice area and professional and academic setting within the public relations field. In addition, there are more than 10,000 students who are members of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) at colleges and universities here and abroad.
Locally, PRSA California Capital Chapter (PRSA-CCC) draws members from a wide area of northern and eastern California, including the communities of Sacramento, Placerville, Roseville, Napa, Fairfield, Stockton, Lake Tahoe, Chico, Yuba City, Redding, and other nearby areas. The chapter is lead by a 9-member Board of Directors who are willing and able to help new members thrive in their careers, become more active in their industry and network with other like minded professionals.
Last year, Merlot Marketing was hired by Smashburger to help launch the emerging “better burger” restaurants to the Sacramento region. Since then, the number of stores nationwide has eclipsed 100, and in that time Merlot has opened locations in Citrus Heights, Folsom, and as of this week, Roseville.
Using a combination of social media and public relations, the Merlot Marketing team helped turn Wednesday’s Smashburger grand opening in Roseville into a wonderful success!
On Tuesday, our team kicked off the grand opening festivities with Roseville Mayor Pauline Roccucci, city representatives and the Roseville Chamber of Commerce. We abandoned the oversized novelty scissors and yards of red ribbon. Instead of the traditional ribbon cutting ceremony, we did a ‘burger’ cutting ceremony! And what better way to celebrate than with a bite?
Merlot Marketing also invited select members of the Roseville community to preview of the restaurant before it opened to the public. Nearly 250 community influencers, bloggers, neighbors and burger fans packed the restaurant to enjoy dinner and dessert!
Doug Branigan , VP Franchise Operations and Roseville Mayor, Pauline Roccucci get ready to enjoy a burger cutting ceremony!
Then, on Wednesday (6/8/11) morning, the official public Grand Opening, Merlot Marketing secured coverage on KCRA Channel 3’s morning show. KCRA 3 reporter (and resident good sport), Mike TeSelle, joined us at the restaurant and learned how we put the smash in Smashburger.
The segment with KCRA aired live with Smashburger’s own David Cannon serving as spokesperson, and even included some additional coverage (thanks to the news team back in the studio) for Smashburger’s delicious fried pickles.
It has been a whirlwind this week with all of the activities and success. As a reward, we may just treat ourselves to another Smashburger. And maybe we’ll splurge on a side of those fried pickles as well. And for a limited time only, be sure to try the new Nutter Butter Milkshake. They are, well deliciously decadent!
Now that's the right way to celebrate a Smashburger Grand Opening!
Date: Friday, June 3, 2011, 3:00am PDT
Thinking about launching a social media program?
Start with a plan.
We’ve all heard the saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Yet that is exactly what most companies do when it comes to social media: They fail to plan.
You wouldn’t launch an advertising campaign without planning. And you certainly wouldn’t launch a public relations program without planning. Yet somehow many businesses, especially small businesses, launch social media programs without a plan. So, before you ask your intern or simply the person on your staff with the most free time, to start posting, blogging and tweeting on your behalf, follow these guidelines to get your program off to a successful start. (more…)
Merlot Marketing raises a glass to its own Julie Fraga in celebration of her promotion to Senior Account Manager. In her new role, Fraga will lead a team of Merlot Marketing’s top account executives, PR professionals and social media strategists as well as serve as a key contributor on the New Business Development Team.
“Julie’s leadership and talent have been an integral part of Merlot’s success and I’m thrilled to announce her well-deserved promotion,” said Debi Hammond, President/CEO of Merlot Marketing.
As Senior Account Manager, Fraga will be directly involved with a broad base of national and local clientele. She will spearhead strategic planning and oversee the day-to-day activities of the account and PR team she manages.
Fraga joined Merlot Marketing in 2008 as a Public Relations Account Executive. She quickly proved to be an essential component of Merlot’s success and achievement. A Roseville resident, Fraga has more than nine years of experience and has worked with a wide spectrum of clients from kitchen and bath appliance manufacturers and luxury stone and tile makers to solar power companies, restaurants and retail chains. Her career highlights include securing client coverage within publications such as House Beautiful and Better Homes and Gardens and the Wall Street Journal, as well as on NBC’s “TODAY Show” and CNN. She has also developed national marketing campaigns for clients and served as a key strategist in areas such as internet marketing and in-depth research studies.
Merlot Marketing is a growing and dynamic agency offering opportunities to work on local and national client campaigns. As an award-winning, full-service agency, we specialize in brand strategy, advertising, public relations, social media, media planning and buying, and events and promotions.
The Social Media Strategist is responsible for helping our clients map out Social Media strategies and initiatives to participate in the conversation, engage in meaningful exchanges and create lasting relationships and communities with clients’ customers. Our ideal candidate will be resourceful and detail-oriented. Any employee may be required to perform other duties which may be necessary or desirable to support the agency business.
Responsibilities
This person will be responsible for senior level leadership/guidance to key accounts and will serve as the primary point of contact for client social media programs and campaigns. They will spearhead ideation and strategy formulation to ensure strategy recommendations are in alignment with the client’s goals and brand positions. (more…)
It’s time to raise a glass to a new addition to Merlot Marketing! Merlot Marketing has hired Stephanie Macon as an Account Executive to manage several of the agency’s existing and new client accounts.
In her role as Account Executive at Merlot Marketing, Macon will be responsible for the project management of accounts including media buying and strategy development. Prior to Merlot Marketing, Macon was a Project Manager at Express Media LLC and worked with a wide variety of clients from the health and beauty industry to exercise and home products in every stage of development from an idea on a napkin to a package on a shelf. During her time at the previous agency, she went from serving as a Media Buying Assistant to heading up an entire marketing team.
“We are thrilled to welcome Stephanie to the Merlot Marketing’ team,” says Debi Hammond, President/CEO of Merlot Marketing. “With the addition of this new member combined with our established team, we are more prepared than ever to take on the new clients and exciting projects coming our way.”
Friday, March 25, 2011
Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all great options for small companies
Many companies view social media as a way to create connections with customers. But social networks also can help you reach a broader audience.
If you’re not using social media to enhance your public relations efforts, you’re missing out. Every major — and not so major — news outlet now uses social media to uncover leads and reach readers, viewers and listeners.
CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Fox News all have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Locally, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Magazine, Sacramento Business Journal and Comstock’s magazine (which just launched an iPad app) all engage in social media for business use.
Here are few tips to help get your public relations program more “social.”
• Follow: Start following editors and reporters who cover news important to your business. You never know, they just might start “following” you, too. Get to know what they cover and share appropriate information with them.
• Friend: A lot of media are surprisingly open with their Facebook accounts. This is a great place to learn more about them, both personally and professionally. If you’re not actually “friends,” this is not the place to try and become one. It’s a place to connect and learn, but leave the pitching to the appropriate venues and business hours.
• Connect: LinkedIn is a great tool for creating business connections, and the media is no different. Media outlets use it too for their own professional career connections as well as company information and news. LinkedIn is a powerful tool for doing preliminary research on media outlets and journalists. If you don’t have an account, sign up! And if you’re not currently using it to connect with the media, you should start. (more…)
We are thrilled to announce that we took home six CAPPIE awards at this year’s SPRA CAPPIE Awards. The ‘wins’ included:
GOLD AWARD:
BRONZE AWARD
Photo: Tim Engle
SILVER AWARD
BRONZE AWARD
BRONZE AWARD
Fox40's Bethany Crouch, with Dave & Buster's general manager Brandon Ball, gets some practice before going live to the Sacramento Area.
GOLD AWARD
Eldorado Stone's VinoWall featured in Sunset magazine's headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.
Congratulations to the entire Merlot team for all of their amazing work!
Let me tell you, as someone who drinks more than 128 ounces of water a day, I know a thing or two about the importance of clean water.
As a company, we at Merlot Marketing have taken small, yet significant, steps to become more socially responsible, by offering our employees, clients and guests filtered tap water instead of bottled water. We feel it is our responsibility to provide the highest quality of service, right down to the H2O we provide our clients.
We must say, we are a bit biased when it comes to the water filtration we use. Our client, Everpure, has led the water filtration industry as the number one provider of commercial grade water filtration throughout the world for more than 75 years. So, naturally, we serve Everpure filtered water to all of our guests from national, regional and local media representatives to industry influencers and beyond.
On a much more serious note, we shouldn’t take having access to the best-tasting water possible for granted. Did you know that wars have broken out for years around the world due to a lack of access to clean water? According to a report dating back to 1999 and sponsored by the UN Development Program, fighting over the scarcity of water, over the next 25 years, will possibly be the leading reason for major conflicts in Africa, not oil. This is why we are getting involved in today’s Blog Action Day 2010. 
During today’s celebration of Blog Action Day 2010, we ask you to take a moment and consider the amount of water you and your family consume each day. While we of course don’t recommend cutting down on (Everpure filtered) drinking water (yes, that’s a not-so-subtle hint), we do ask that you think about how much water you’re consuming other than drinking water. To get your juices flowing on how you can help reduce water waste, I’ve included a list below, provided by Treehugger.com, on the many products we each buy and how much water it takes to produce them. I realize that water is a necessity for the things we eat, drink and use everyday, so I’m by no means saying we shouldn’t manufacturer or consume these products, but the statistics below should at least get you thinking about just how water is consumed and how we might be able to help conserve it.
Car
It takes an estimated 39,090 gallons of water to make a car. It’s unclear if that includes the more 2,000 gallons used to make its tires–each tire takes 518 gallons.
Pair of Jeans
It takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular ol’ blue jeans.
Cotton T-Shirt
Not as bad as jeans, it still takes a whopping 400 gallons of water to grow the cotton required for an ordinary cotton shirt.
Single Board of Lumber
5.4 gallons of water are used to grow enough wood for one lumber board.
Barrel of Beer
In order to process a single barrel of beer (32 gallons of booze), 1,500 gallons of water are sucked down.
To-Go Latte
It takes 53 gallons to make every latte.
So, what do you think? Can we make changes in our lifestyle so that there is enough water for others in the world? I’m not saying to reduce your lattes, after all, your latte-drinking provides jobs; however, I am saying to think about your overall consumption and where we all might cut back, i.e. watering the lawn, letting your water run while doing the dishes and brushing your teeth. If we all make small changes, we all can make a big impact.
