Groundbreaking at the
National Museum
of American Jewish History |
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| Getting their digs in at the groundbreaking of the new National Museum of American Jewish History.* |
(Photo by Scott Weiner) |
A sleek new six-floor museum will soon begin to rise at 5th and Market Streets on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall: the new home of the National Museum of American Jewish History – a museum dedicated to telling the story of Jews in America. Mangos is proud to be the museum’s agency partner to help re-brand this 30-year-old, little-known museum.
Founded in the Bicentennial year of 1976, the current museum is not well known outside the Philadelphia Jewish community. The National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) is about to realize its long-held vision of creating an international destination place in what is the most historic square block in America. The new museum will be a place where all people can see themselves and experience a tangible account of what’s possible when people live in freedom.
The 100,000-square-foot building will have a stunning glass façade that will literally be a window on to Independence Mall. It will include 25,000-square-feet of gallery space, The Center for American Jewish Education, and the state-of-the-art Dell Family Theater.
“This inspiring new museum will take its place alongside America’s most noted historical sites and will examine the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all Americans through the life experiences, struggles and triumphs of American Jews,” said Gwen Goodman, NMAJH Executive Director/CEO.
NMAJH recently held a grand public groundbreaking with a roster of officials, dignitaries and special guests on hand. Mangos work included a new brand positioning strategy for the museum, new identity, and promotion around the groundbreaking event featuring noteworthy American Jews who influenced American culture, business, education, and sports. Ongoing work includes identity, Capital Campaign support, membership support, and a new website.
“We were looking for an agency partner who would understand who we are and what we need to do from a branding and communications standpoint. We wanted a partner to help take our image and awareness to a whole new level,” said Goodman. “We found that partner in Mangos.”
*(from left) Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell; Ron Rubin, NMAJH Board of Trustees co-chairman; Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street; Dr. Jonathan Sarna, Jewish scholar from Brandeis University; James S. Polshek, of Polshek Partnership Architects, which designed the new Museum; Patrick Gallagher, of Gallagher & Associates of Bethesda, MD, which is designing the core exhibition; and David Grubin, the Emmy-winning filmmaker who is helping to shape stories in the new Museum.
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| Posted by Annemarie Armstrong |
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Pennsylvania’s
Largest Porsche
and Audi Dealer Chooses Mangos |
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Don Rosen Imports, one of the largest Porsche and Audi dealers
on the East Coast, hired Mangos as its agency of record in March,
2006. Located in Conshohocken, PA, Don Rosen Imports sells and
services new and pre-owned Porsches and Audis, and has served
the tri-state area for more than 15 years.
According to Jerry Miller, owner of Don Rosen Imports, “We
were looking for an agency that could give us strategic marketing
guidance as well as creative that will stand apart from the
standard dealership approaches. We found that partner in Mangos.”
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AROUND THE CAMPFIRE:
Once Upon a Time |
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Is it just me or is anyone else a little tired of reading all
the doom and gloom articles about how the traditional vehicles
used to deliver the message are hopelessly passé. That
the future is all about finding ever-more covert ways to intrude
on people’s lives. That branded content, the love child
of product placement, is the next new thing in marketing. It’s
marketing without — nudge, nudge — a consumer knowing
they’re being marketed to and it’s growing in popularity.
(Case in point, Martha Stewart’s own version of “The
Apprentice” had an average of 33 minutes and 51 seconds
of branded content per hour episode. Maybe that’s the
reason it skidded down the runway and came to a crashing halt?)
It’s the era of surround-sound marketing. And it will
save us all.
At the risk of sounding like an iconoclast or a throwback to
the Jurassic era of advertising, I find myself wondering where
it’s all going to lead. There’s a part of me that
says, let’s just call an ad an ad and get back to the
business of making sure they’re really good, tell a great
story and work hard — no matter where someone is eyeballing
them. Whether it’s in print, on one of the hundreds of
digital channels, or on that next big broadcast network, the
Internet. There’s something simple and straightforward
about knowing you’re being sold to, but not minding because
you’re being entertained.
The point is, and always has been, to get the right message
out in the right way to the right people at the right time.
Period. Over the years, thanks to technology, we’ve been
able to slice our audiences into proscuitto-thin segments enabling
us to create more personal and relevant communications. As Saul
Berman, global partner for media and entertainment at IBM says,
“The old standard demographics, like “males ages
18 to 35,” can be whittled down through tracking of online
viewing habits to something like “males, ages 18 to 21
who like motocross and snowboarding.”
At the same time, brands and their messages have mole-holed
into people’s lives in increasingly aggressive ways. So
brands are not only more laser-focused with their messages,
but paradoxically, they’re more ubiquitous, too. Everywhere
we turn we’re being sold to. Subtly, incestuously, embedded
under the cover of our favorite TV shows. Today “brand
brokers” (yikes!) hunt for product placement opportunities.
And they’ve found them. Product placements have grown
21% annually since 1999, turning TV programs into 30-minute
advertisements.
The thing is, the pendulum swings one direction and then the
other. There’s bound to be a backlash to this “pay
for play” model. Sell to me or don’t sell to me,
but don’t act like you’re not, when you are. Come
on, will I ever buy a Ford just because everyone on my favorite
show, “24”, drives one? It takes the show down a
notch. And, as Andy Donchin, a media buyer at Carat says, “The
risk is that viewers will eventually get turned off by all the
commercial clutter in shows.”
As everyone searches for new ways to reach the Millennials,
the next generation of tech-savvy, forward-leaning consumers,
we have to remember that it’s not how we reach people
that matters, but what we say to them once we get there. Yes,
advertising will have to morph right along with the delivery
formats being invented as I write. But, at the end of the day,
it still comes back to Rule #1 for our business — tell
a good story. As reality show king, Mark Burnett writes, “storytelling
will always be the most important aspect. It will be the same
online as it is around the campfire: if you can’t tell
a good story, nobody will listen.”
I feel hopeful for our industry when my super-connected 18-year-old
son yells for me to see his favorite commercial on TV (yes,
network TV), a 15-second Emerald
Nuts spot. Weird, quirky, but traditional in both its medium
and in its classic way of building its brand. These spots are
just plain memorable. My son knows he’s being sold to,
but he laughs and wants me to buy the peanuts anyway. And I
do.
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Mangos Wins
the Cannondale Business |
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Mangos recently beat out over a dozen other agencies to win
the Cannondale account.
As agency of record, we’ll be handling creative development
for their advertising, collateral, online marketing and in-store
promotions, both here in the U.S. and around the world.
Why did they choose us? According to David Budd, Marketing Director
of Cannondale USA, “Mangos presented unique, smart creative
with a clear compelling strategy. Their passion shined through
in the work and really hit home.”
I don’t know, maybe that was it. Or maybe it was because
Mangos owners Bill and Bradley Gast are such rabid cycling junkies
and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Together
they own 13 bikes – not to mention seven motorcycles –
including three Cannondales, four custom Spectrums, two Merlins,
(one of which has the serial number 0) and a 1961 Hercules 3-speed
English bicycle (Bradley’s first bike and still in very
nice shape.)
Or maybe it was because the rest of us here at Mangos are indiscriminately
competitive and couldn’t resist the opportunity to help
Cannondale create a new image and build their brand in a way
that would surpass the industry’s heaviest hitters.
What I do know is that as a result I’ve rediscovered the
joy of biking and plan on riding my new Cannondale regularly
with my husband and my kids. So look out Lance….
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| The New Idea |
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Where do ideas come from? How is creativity impacting the global economy? How do you turn the brightest business minds of today into the creative leaders of tomorrow?
They’re the types of questions that fueled the creation of The Miguel Angel Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at The University of the Arts.
The premise of the Center is simple: to encourage the application of creativity and creative thinking to solve problems in business, government and society at large. The Center’s workshops, seminars and consultative services are designed to help business people (and other left-brain types) break out of their usual thought patterns and start thinking in different and more creative ways. The idea is that this will free them to come up with innovative yet practical solutions to “real world” problems.
Working directly with Miguel Angel Corzo, the then-President of UArts, I came to understand the vision that inspired the Center. President Corzo believed deeply in the idea that the most important force in business today is the growing power of ideas. That in the future, our economy will be based more on creative intellectual capital than on physical capital. The imperative was to help business embrace a new kind of creative thinking with the goal to transform the way people invent, produce, and work.
As an agency account manager, the concept of promoting creativity and innovation in the corporate world is one that has immediate appeal. After all, our charge, day in and day out, is to help our clients, through creativity, enjoy a competitive advantage.
The scope of our assignment included the development of the Center’s identity, a vision brochure, website and exterior signage, which would provide a visual presence for the Center along Philadelphia’s renowned Avenue of the Arts. And here’s where the creativity would really be required. We had only six weeks to launch date.
But we did it. The Center was publicly launched in May at an event where best-selling author of the groundbreaking book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida, spoke to a crowded Solmssen Court. The evening was topped off with Dorrance Hamilton’s gift of $5 million in support of the Center.
The University of the Arts has been a trailblazer for young artists over the course of its 130-year history. And it continues to carve new paths, as it prepares artists and business professionals for the future.
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| Business as Unusual |
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 Okay.
So here’s how it goes. The agency lands a new piece of
business. Don
Rosen Imports one of the largest Porsche and Audi dealers
on the East Coast. A great organization with a vision to change
the car dealership experience.
Sounds good. I’m in.
And they want to do things right. Invest in marketing. Stand
apart from the competition. Change operations so that they can
deliver on the promise we’ll make in advertising.
Sounds good. I’m in.
The owner of Don Rosen Imports, a maverick in the industry,
invites members of the agency to join him in a team-building
program. One that promises to help his leadership group feel
good about trying new things, to not fear failure, to trust
each other – and the equipment.
Sounds good. I’m in.
But there’s a catch. Our fearless client decides the best
place to build the team is the rain forest of Costa Rica.
I was hoping for the Four Seasons.
So, deep in the rain forest I go for five days. I’m wet
more than I’m dry. I’m doing things I’ve only
dreamed of (in nightmares). I repel down a waterfall, not once
but four times. Each time the 75-foot drop feels like a 1,000-foot
drop. I zip-line across the jungle suspended by a cable that
I’m not entirely sure will hold the weight of my trembling
body. And I sleep in a platform tent with no electricity on
the side of a mountain. In the pouring rain!
I return home with scars on my legs, bugs in my clothes and
the everlasting vision of my 60-year old boss in a bathing suit.
What can I say? Sounds good. I’m in.
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| Lost and Found |
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I grew up on the great northern plains of the US – where
everything endures heavy snowfall and long, cold winters. Slush
mires the streets for six months of the year. Cars all look
two-toned, wearing a thin coat of dried salt up to their door
handles. It’s a harsh environment. Road brine eats vehicle
parts, which regularly fall off and become pulverized by traffic.
These metal scraps are surprising in their beauty. Dazzling
surfaces, gritty textures, subtle shapes and colors which no
one could ever dream up. In 1990 I began to collect striking
examples of these relics to assemble into small medallions.
I have come to think of them as merit badges of our throw away
world.
Trained as an art director and painter, I never dreamed of making
jewelry, much less jewelry from objects that have been run over
countless times on the street. Mindful of the abuse they have
already endured, I don’t solder, drill or mar them in
any way; I simply wrap them in wire, binding them in a lasting
embrace.
As my technique has developed, a style is emerging which presents
the objects very simply from one side, but shows a more complex
relationship on the other side. Just like people. The result
is both the front and back of each piece is unique and interesting.
This also lets the wearer choose which side to display.
Before the finished jewelry leaves my studio, I compose a short
history of where it came from and what its significance is – written on found scraps of interesting paper. Each piece and
its description are packaged in a recycled Altoid tin and mailed
off to be enjoyed by the new owner.
For me, these objects have become studies in the larger lessons
of life; that the best is missed when we only see what is bright
and shiny. And that some things, deemed valueless, can be filled
with a beauty that only comes from going through hard times.
A kind of beauty not seen on easy street.
Metal Metal
& Stone Stone
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Mangos and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance |
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Walk into the lobby of Mangos
and the first thing you’ll see are
two motorcycles. A bright red
916 Ducati
with a full road race
fairing and desmodromic valve
gear juxtaposed to a vintage BMW
R69S with classic black
paint and white pinstripes on an
oversize, handmade gas tank. Two placeholders on the timeline
of motorcycle
development. Each a study of form following function. A contrast
between
history and contemporary thinking. A testament to the fact that
the search
for quality never really ends.
There is a purity to motorcycles. Everything has a purpose.
With simply no
place for superfluous nonsense. They beg you to get close. To
look. To question.
To understand. To touch. To ride. To smell. To feel the wind.
And the land. They
let you massage the balance between power and handling. Logic
and adrenalin.
Time and space.
Motorcycling is so much more about the journey than the destination.
It’s
symbolically an endless trip by oneself, yet somehow magically
shared with
others. It’s a bond that reaches across the gaps that
normally divide. Like age,
race, wealth, and religion.
Four of us at Mangos ride motorcycles. With well over a quarter
million miles
collectively, we’ve been rained on, plastered with bugs,
and nearly frozen.
But mostly we’ve been happy. So we keep riding.
I think we’re better for it.
Wayne’s
ride Bill
gets torqued Bradley’s
Buell
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| Recommended
Reading |
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Orbiting the Giant Hairball
-by Gordon MacKenzie
It’s an oldie, but goodie. Orbiting the Giant
Hairball is an ode to creativity, to freeing your inner
rebel, to thumbing your nose at boundaries, the word “no”
and always doing what’s “appropriate.” A refugee
from the corporate world, Gordon MacKenzie exuberantly writes
and illustrates his way through this truly original book. His
premise, that most of the corporate world is snarled in a giant
hairball (you know, that tangled mass of hair that somehow grows
and grows) is metaphorically, well, gross. But it also resonates.
We get so knotted up in process and policies and procedures
and politics that we can’t get out of our own way to actually
think and create and fail and try again. Just read Chapter 19
entitled “Orville Wright.” It’s a quick read
since it’s exactly one sentence long: “Orville Wright
did not have a pilot’s license.” MacKenzie’s
whole book is about how to de-tangle yourself from bad strategies,
unfounded biases, old grievances, and safe thinking. Yeah, Orbiting
the Giant Hairball is a little New Economy, but any book that
helps us remember how amazing it was to be a kid and feel like
you could do anything and go anywhere is okay by me.
Now go clean your hairbrush, take a deep breath, let go and
fly.
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| Monster Mangos |
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In this photo provided by the Porter family, Colleen Porter,
in this photo taken in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in October 2005
shows off her record-setting mango, which was harvested in October.
Porter has a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records
for growing the world's heaviest mango, 5 pounds, 7 ounces (about
2.5 kilograms).
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