Tag Archive for: Megan

Teamwork. Team energy. Team lunacy.

Last year, the McConnell Marketing Katie’s ran to raise support for the building of water wells through RUNWATER, a division of Mentor Leaders and a nonprofit working in a small village in Togo, West Africa. This summer, the office is embarking on a similar project—and this time with benefits a little closer to home.

McConnell Marketing is joining long-time client Winkle Electric Company, Inc. on their journey to Pedal to the Point raising funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. During the event the team will ride 100 miles to Sandusky, Ohio, locally referred to as “The Point.”

The event isn’t until August, so stay tuned for training updates and mishaps (as we’re not an experienced group of  bikers). Please share any biking tips or gear suggestions as we’re just getting started!

Help sponsor Katie or Megan’s 100 miles … or both!

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Four Trends That Can Benefit You, Our Client

McConnell Marketing’s Megan Sovik blogs about the hospitality trends she and Katie picked up from the IHMRS/BDNY Tradeshow in New York City.

Katie Williams and I recently attended to the IHMRS/BDNY Tradeshow at Javits Center in New York City. The goal was to see what’s trending in hospitality design and to also make sure that we, at McConnell Marketing, are marketing our clients in the best possible way. The show was broken up into two sides: one that was interiors (i.e. furniture, décor—basically, all the pretty stuff). The other side was more operational (i.e. soaps, room amenities, etc.). They also had many informational sessions and speakers.

To be honest, the show was very overwhelming, and we walked the floor multiple times to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We wanted to get everything out of it that we could. After taking a lot of time to process and go through every piece from every vendor we talked to, there are four trends we came away with that we think could benefit our clients:

Square
Square collateral pieces are in—they actually have been for quite a while (and we’ve done quite a few pieces for our clients). What I didn’t expect to see was that so many pieces were small. It used to be that larger 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pieces were the norm. Now we’re seeing printed pieces that are 4 x 4 or so, with tons of photos and little text. Nowadays, everyone’s trying to be environmentally friendly—and using less paper is a way to reduce your carbon footprint. At McConnell Marketing, we work with waterless printers and know quite a bit about recycled papers to take that idea even further.

Printing on Aluminum
One thing I didn’t expect to see is printing on aluminum. It may sound odd, but it’s a great for display materials. When I saw this, the first thing I thought of was posters and displays throughout a hotel. Rather than printing on a regular poster and coating it with a UV-resistant varnish or protectant, printing on aluminum is a great way to make these materials last longer. Images and sizes can be customized to whatever is needed. We’ve found a lot of vendors who do this. Let us know if you’re interested in seeing pricing!

Colors
Gone are the days of neutrals! Accent colors are everywhere! If this wasn’t evident by the choice of the last two Pantone colors of the year (tangerine and emerald green), it was very evident at the show. Katie and I saw lots of purples, royal blues, yellows and greens. Obviously you don’t want to go too far with too many colors, but McConnell Marketing will be happy to assist with picking out a color palette that works for you.

Technology
One of the coolest technologies I saw was for the bathroom (odd—I know). We first saw it working with The St. Regis Washington, D.C. years ago when they added TV’s to their mirrors. Well now it’s being taken a step further. Mirrors are now able to hook up to smart phones through blue tooth. They can play music, check your e-mail and play movies. We at McConnell Marketing are happy to provide you with ideas and collateral to instruct guests on how to use the technology.

 

Megan’s Visit to Watson Elementary

A while back, I was asked to read to one of the Kindergarten classes at Watson Elementary School in Austintown, Ohio (which I happened to attend a LONG time ago and where my mom currently teaches).

One class of 25 soon turned into two classes—with a total of 50 kids! Naturally, I was a little nervous to see all those little eyes staring up at me, and I was crossing my fingers that I chose the right books. I chose one book about dinosaurs and another about bears, and thanks to my mom, I had puppets to go along with them! The kids were amazing and so well behaved. We had a great time and made sure there some goodbye hugs …. 50 to be exact.