MP&F had a great showing at the awards ceremony this week for the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. We won more Parthenons than any other agency, collecting a total of 36 awards (15 Parthenons and 21 awards of merit). Our work on behalf of the U.S. Marine Corps for Marine Week Nashville collected the most hardware with eight Parthenons and two awards of merit and also was a finalist for the Best of Show award. Below is a total list of MP&F’s winning projects. Parthenon Winners Project Media Relations-Media Placement: Marine Week Nashville New Media: Marine …

It was a real honor to introduce MP&F partner Alice Chapman as a new member of the Downtown Nashville Rotary Club recently. The experience reminded me of something very special about our workplace as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our company. People stick around. I talked about how Alice was the first, and so far only, person to start here at the entry level and become an equity partner. Alice is a true success story, landing here after graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1995. Sixteen years later, in 2011, she became a partner, and this marks her …

It’s taken me a long time to ideate this piece of snackable content. After all, I was working to craft a cutting-edge, viral blog post with perfectly synergized messages aimed at exposing pain points around the pervasive use of jargon and buzzwords in the world of communications. All right, who needs a translation? That first paragraph incorporated a number of frequently used communications buzzwords. In fact, I’ve come across nearly all of them within the last week. Many professional communicators frequently use words that most outside of our business don’t understand. I’m guilty of it at times, too. But more …

MP&F Partner Katy Varney was among 40 women nationwide recognized by PRWeek as Champions of PR, for her coalition-building, government affairs and communications work. Read more below or by clicking here. From helping defeat an ill-advised English-only referendum that would have been a national embarrassment to literally saving the life of a battered wife on Tennessee’s death row, Katy Varney is proof that effective PR pros can do great things. In her 24 years as partner at MP&F Public Relations in Nashville, Varney has built a strong background in government affairs, communications, and building coalitions. She’s led grassroots campaigns supporting a …

MP&F is celebrating 30 years in business, and we realize that most anniversary news is met with responses like: Oh, really? That’s nice. Yes, I got the release. No, my readers don’t care. Shoot … I forgot. I’m sorry, honey. Yes, I’ll do the dishes. No, I wasn’t watching the game. I love Gilmore Girls … will you turn up the volume? So … for one part of our yearlong celebration, we will be holding regular events to engage the community. For example, we’ve just kicked off our “View From 30 Lunch Series,” a free, quarterly lunchtime professional development series …

Social media evolves daily, and it can be a challenge to predict the next turn it will take; but I’m willing to make a few predictions based on what we saw in 2016. Here are my predictions for the state of social media in 2017. 1.) Virtual reality will expand from gaming industry into social media  After watching this Ted Talk by Chris Milk, I am convinced that VR will have the ability to humanize social media and create a whole new experience – one that will make someone far away seem quite close. In 2014, Facebook purchased the main …

An avid reader of the New York Times, I logged on to get my daily morning intake of business, environmental, science, political and world news. The first thing that grabbed my attention was a Patagonia call-to-action ad. It wasn’t imploring me to purchase any of Patagonia’s clothing; instead it was asking me to put my support behind the protection of public lands in Utah, an issue important to the company, its employees and, most likely, the vast majority of its audience (consumers). Patagonia is in the midst of an integrated communications campaign, using paid advertising, earned media and owned channels …

MP&F is a longtime member of the Public Relations Society of America’s Counselors Academy, an organization whose purpose is to enable collaborative peer relationships among senior-level public relations counselors. Counselors Academy board president Tom Garrity’s February blog post celebrated two member agencies celebrating 30 years in business and included reflections from MP&F’s Mark McNeely. Here, Mark looks back on 30 years of MP&F and the firm’s successful model of transparency and inclusion. Create a culture of inclusivity “Two things my partners and I have learned to cherish as our firm celebrates its 30th anniversary are transparency and inclusion. We’ve always …

MP&F started as a one-man consultancy in 1987. Thirty years later, we are the largest independently owned, full-service PR firm in the state, have more than 70 employees, and are the winners of numerous local and national awards. Basically, it’s worked out. Many things have changed since 1987. For instance, I “hyperlink” certain words below that, when clicked on, take you to another “page” of the “internet.” Many things haven’t changed since then, though, like our core values, our commitment to our clients and our excellent work. Outside of work, I’m an avid music collector and still DJ when I …