21st Century Catch Phrase

As many of you know, we are fond of playing Catch Phrase on Fridays. Well last week, Maggi's sister Katherine surprised us with 2 new games: Catch Phrase Music Edition and Electronic Catch Phrase! They don't even come in a box like our old antiquated Catch Phrase and the timer is built into the game -even the scoring system is too! No separate pieces. What a great surprise - thanks Katherine, you really know MBM!

Of course we had to play one of them right away and went for the new Electronic version of Catch Phrase, since we are used to how that works. It's a bit harder than what we're used to - it seemed that there were a lot more phrases and harder words to describe(like "fingernail decal"?), but we welcome the challenge and the fact that we have new words to describe to our teammates (we had cycled through all of the words on our old game)!

Since we had not yet played the Music Edition, we decided to give it a go yesterday afternoon. The objective is to have your team guess the song name - you can sing the lyrics and describe the song, but you can't say the artist or the song name. I'd say we did OK, but it's pretty challenging! We chose a mixed category of songs and got everything from Vince Gill to Jethro Tull to 50 Cent. Megan and Courtney won the game, but who knew that Courtney knew so many pop music lyrics (Genie in a Bottle)?

Tempus Fugit

In Stephen King's Hearts In Atlantis the mother is always encouraging her young son to get moving, because time flies. And, as mothers always are, she is right.

I just realized it's the last week of February (I thought there was one more coming), and I haven't been to a Mysore session yet. Our trip to Madrid is less than a month away, and there's lots of research and planning still to be done (not to mention the packing and repacking).

As a team, MBM has accomplished a lot already in 2010 and we're feeling good about what's ahead of us. We have some big proposals sitting out there waiting for a thumbs up (or down). And we're staying busy and challenged with the work we already have.

So, what's the point? Use your time well. Organize, prioritize and keep moving forward. Oh, and watch out for low men in yellow coats.

Peter and The Wolf

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that loved the arts. I was introduced to the ballet, symphony and theater as a child and therefore have an appreciation for these that was founded before I could fight it. Add to that a liberal arts education and it makes me a good fit for marketing. In our profession we have to know a little bit about everything in order to have the right reference points for our varied audiences.

I'm taking my 5 year old nephew for his formal introduction to the symphony via Peter & The Wolf tomorrow. We're both excited, but it's only as I write this that I realize there will be 100's (perhaps 1,000's?) of other small children in attendance. That's a point of reference I may need to do some homework on between now and then.

Go do something artsy this weekend - and if you see me listing on a barstool at Penny Lane Pub at 1:00 in the afternoon you'll know why!

Champagne!

It's almost time to pop open a bottle of bubbly - MBM is celebrating a new client this afternoon! Not a bad way to start the week!

I've been very bad about keeping up with my blog entries but I have a good excuse. I've been too busy! Between proposals and annual reports and photo shoot planning (oh and snow!) the blog got pushed to the bottom of my priority list.

I'm back and recommitting myself to all of my avid fans out there. Or at least to the fellow MBMers who are expecting me to do my part!

Through New Eyes

I'm the honored host of Flat Charlie - the Flat Stanley version of my godson in Chicago. It's been great fun trying to think of places to take him in Richmond, as well as making sure he travels with me. So far, he's made it to our cabin above Shenandoah, to meet up with my family near Emporia, and he's survived 2 major snowstorms (well, major for us). I wanted to take him to see the Terra Cotta Warriors but he doesn't pack well for short trips on the train. But he'll get to DC for a photo shoot next week for sure.

The point of this? I've really enjoyed viewing my surroundings through the eyes of a second grader. Richmond, Virginia, my travels and my life are a little more exciting than I thought. Thanks Flat Charlie!

PS - Unfortunately, Flat Charlie was not so good at making a snow angel, but he did enjoy hanging out in the backyard with all the snow.

Like Our Prezi?

I uploaded our Prezi of recent work yesterday, so I hope you get a chance to see what we've been working on here at MBM over the past few months.

We first learned about Prezi in a recent article in Richmond BizSense - see the article here. I have taken on the title of Prezi Guru and have learned lots of tips and tricks for creating a presentation much cooler than the old PowerPoint. And, it's just as easy - maybe easier!

You can add pictures and art files, zoom into text, and rotate anything you want, all with one easy-to-use tool. And you can save it to your desktop or embed it in your blog. I highly recommend Prezi, especially if you're going for the WOW factor.

Create your own Prezi at http://www.prezi.com/.

Let us know what you think about our Prezi.

Cookies & Milk?

We're meeting with a potential new client tomorrow afternoon - a little show and tell, get to know you kind of meeting. At 1:30.

Will they be full & tired after lunch? Will they be worried about the weather and their drive back? Will they have already met with the other potential agencies and basically made up their mind?

One never knows, so we'll greet them warmly, be honest about what makes us different, show them some samples of our work, ask questions to uncover what they're looking for in an agency, and have some afternoon snacks ready. Apples? Cookies & Milk? Choco tacos? Espresso and biscotti?

Any other suggestions? Time's short and it would be nice to have a new client and an excuse for champagne! And some chocolate-covered strawberries maybe?