Friday Fab Foto: Yum!
Happy Friday! A shout-out to our friends at D’Ellies in Boothbay Harbor (also at Sugarloaf!). Several of us from NMC were in Boothbay for a meeting earlier this week and we had a delicious D’Ellies lunch on the pier. Matt Rideout ordered this amazing lobster roll and Emily Deane took this photo of it. Doesn’t it look absolutely delicious? Matt said it was! My Greek Salad Sandwich on Anadama was pretty darn good, as well.
Monday Maine Maven: Darcy Morse
Happy Fourth of July! Continuing with our weekly features, today’s Monday Maine Maven is Maine native Darcy Morse from Sunday River.
1. Darcy, people must think you have the most amazing job since you get to work at a resort, ski all winter and play golf all summer. Is it non-stop fun? Is it stressful? Tell us about what you do.
Don’t forget napping and tanning – I get a ton of sleep and vitamin D throughout the year (wink, wink).
In all seriousness I do have an amazing job but it can certainly be both stressful and busy though I like to think that both characteristics help keep it interesting. As the Director of Communications for Sunday River, I manage everything from the media relations, crisis communications, social media messaging and copywriting for our email newsletters, to managing the snow report, its team of reporters, and serve as managing editor for our resort-issued newspaper. It’s a lot of work and it’s constantly evolving, but it is also a lot of fun and I feel fortunate to be able to work with some really smart and interesting people. For example, right now I am working with a well-known Maine artist on producing the images to coincide with a children’s book we’re producing. Yesterday, I was busy updating all of our various channels of messaging with information about weekend events, the day before that, walking the new Tough Mountain Challenge course to make sure it’s tough enough for this month’s upcoming race. Oh, and in a couple of weeks I’m heading to New York City to meet with media and talk about the winter ahead. Needless to say, you never really know what tomorrow will hold. And while I can’t say I ski or golf every day, I am able to do it a lot more often than most. After all, you really need to be able to test the product in order to market it intelligently.
Friday Fab Foto: Ducks in Camden
Our Friday Fab Foto this week is an office favorite. These two ducks were spotted by our summer intern and resident photographer Emily Deane on the Camden waterfront this week.
What do you think they were saying to each other? The best caption, as selected by the NMC staff, will win a complimentary “Things To Do Today” pad from NMC! Submit your caption in the comments section and we will select a winner next week.
Happy Fourth of July weekend!
A Wonderful Workshop On Maximizing Your Marketing Dollars with Franklin County Businesses
This morning, Greg Glynn and I met with 25 small business owners and managers from around Franklin County, Maine to present a workshop on “how to maximize your marketing dollars.” The workshop was sponsored by the Franklin County Community College Network and the Franklin County Tourism Network. I’m sharing the PowerPoint presentation that we put together for the workshop here.
Over the course of 90 fast-moving minutes, we talked about how social media and public relations complement each other, because you can build an “army” of fans and followers through social media, then share stories with them from traditional media like newspapers and television. We covered a lot of topics this morning and we were pleased to see people feeling so excited about the possibilities of promoting their businesses in an extremely cost-effective way. Greg talked about how important it is to have a consistent look and feel for your brand, and how you should tell your brand story in the same way each time. Continue reading
Blizzard is Good for Some, not so Good for Others
It’s snowing hard in Maine today. My dog, Carrie, isn’t even sure she can make it down the stairs. In this photo, which I took about an hour ago, she was pondering her options. She did finally get down the stairs for a brief trip around the yard but then came right back into the house to get on her warm spot on the couch.
Since then we’ve gotten about two more inches. I’d say we have had over a foot of snow today and we may get another foot before the snow subsides.
It’s great for the ski business, but it’s not so great for traveling. My two sons are about to get in their car and drive two hours for a ski race tomorrow. I wish they wouldn’t go, but they are committed to their plans. Fingers crossed that they have a safe trip. At least they have good snow tires.
I hope that if it’s snowing where you are, at least you can either enjoy skiing or sledding or snowboarding, rather than driving in it!
New York, New York
Yesterday I traveled to New York City for the annual holiday gathering of the Society of American Travel Writers. I haven’t been to Manhattan since March when we organized the Taste of Maine Media Marketplace for our client, the Maine Office of Tourism. There was a period in my life that I traveled to Manhattan on a montly basis and that got old fast. But now that I haven’t been into the city since March, it felt reallly great to be there for a quick 24 hour period. New York is energy. It is inspiration. It revitalizes me and inspires me. I suppose it’s because it’s such a mecca of media and business. It’s fast paced. I must say, I love New York.
That said, I was very happy to return to my beloved state of Maine.
Northern Forest Canoe Trail Celebrates Tenth Anniversary
One of our great clients is the Northern Forest Canoe Trail , which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer. We’re helping plan and sponsoring their anniversary celebration weekend in Rangeley, coming right up on July 24 and 25th. If you haven’t visited Rangeley lately, if you love to canoe or kayak, and if you are looking for a really great way to spend a day or a weekend, I encourage you to join us in celebration of the trail and its wonderful heritage.
It’s also the weekend of the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum’s Logging Festival so you will get to see the crowning of Little Miss Woodchip and Little Mr. Woodchip and enjoy some real Maine Bean-Hole Beans. Pageants, meals, and celebrations like this are iconic events in our state’s summer schedule!
(Pictured is a beautiful photo of Flagstaff Lake, a section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail near Rangeley Maine. Thanks to Clyde Smith for this photograph.) Continue reading
Linkbait: It’s Like Fish Bait, But It Doesn’t Stink
This is going to date me, but when I was a teenager, while spending summers at our cottage on Damariscotta Lake, I used to collect S&H Green Stamps and paste them into the little green stamp books. Then my mom and I would go to Rockland where I could redeem my books full of stamps for “stuff.” I don’t remember what “stuff” I used to get, but back then, it was pretty darn exciting.
This brings me to the subject of fish bait. Rockland used to smell like fish bait. Mainers would say “that smells wicked.” I didn’t talk like a Mainer back then, so I would just say, “Mom, it stinks here!”
Well Rockland has cleaned up its act. It doesn’t smell bad there any more. It is a beautiful town with lots of boats, restaurants, and shopt so visit, not to mention the Farnsworth Art Museum where you can see works by the Wyeth Family and the Maine Lobster Festival where you can eat plenty of my favorite crustacean. Continue reading
It’s a Privilege to Work with Really Nice People
One of the things I love the most about having an agency where we work with lots of different clients is the opportunity to get to know some really nice people. We had that opportunity recently when the owners of Northeast Merchandising in Skowhegan asked us to come in and talk with them about a new logo and a new Web site. We actually ended up renaming their company as well, from Northeast Merchandising to Northeast Coffee Company. Jen Libby,one of my great graphic designers, came up with the cool new logo design and she also did the design for the new site through our Marshall Interactive Division. We did a press release about the new logo and site that you can see on Mainetoday.com. Continue reading
Paul Schipper, February 23, 1923 to February 16, 2009
I helped the Schipper family write this obituary for Paul, so I decided to post it here on my blog. His story was the first national story I ever publicized in my career, and it sure was a fun story to tell. Paul enjoyed being interviewed and telling his story because it helped Sugarloaf to gain national recognition. That made him happy. I sure will miss him.
Paul Schipper, Ironman of Skiing, 1923 – 2009
Paul Schipper, age 85, of Carrabassett Valley, died on February 16, 2009 at Veteran’s Rehabilitation Center in Bangor, Maine. Also known as “The Ironman of Skiing,” Schipper was widely covered in the media for his 24 year skiing streak at Sugarloaf, where he skied every day that Sugarloaf was open from 1981 until 2005. Continue reading
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