Field Trip!!

Today was such an awesome day. We took our first field trip to mark.'s PR (Public Relations) firm--Kaplow. Their main job is to communicate messages from mark. to the media and present mark. favorably to their target audience. Kaplow has been with mark. since the beginning (7 years ago). In 2009, Kaplow created 2.3 billion impressions for mark. I'd say that's pretty impressive! They showed us a video highlighting mark. in the media and I realized how much I have missed. mark. is all over the place!! mark. has been featured in WWDFriday, The New York Times, Lucky, Elle, "O" Oprah's Mag, Glamour, and on many news stations and other broadcasts.

The founder and CEO, Liz Kaplow, also took some time to talk with us. She shared her story, and how Kaplow began, and her own words of wisdom. Here are a few of her thoughts: "Don't look too far ahead into the future--take this opportunity." "Discover who will support you." "Find your career and make it something you love." "Doing good work should always be the #1 priority." "When someone gives you an opportunity--TAKE IT. Drop everything and TAKE IT."

Other partnerships that Kaplow has are with: St. Ives, Nexus, Timex, Nero, Coupons.com, CVS, Skype, Netflix, etc.

Kaplow also shared a few of their past cases with us. They have worked with Timex, updating and re-inventing the brand to make it more fashion forward. Kaplow did this by pairing Timex with a spokesperson (Amy Goodman), creating a look book, and revamping timex.com.

Other accounts they have worked for have been State Farm with their "50 Million Pound Challenge" and "Target to Go" with Target. Both really cool initiatives.

After the presentation, my mentor Elena, and I went for a bite to eat. Because she is very close to her Greek roots, she wanted to introduce me to her world. We went to one of her favorite Greek restaurants--Kellari Taverna on 44th Street. She and I shared Traditional Greek Salad and Spanakopita as appetizers followed by our regular meals. I can't believe I have been missing this food all my life! It was delicious! And the restaurant was so so so pretty inside too. A great place to go!

And back at work...In preparation for the video I will be producing, the film crew was at the mark. offices today, so we took advantage of it and did some screening! Each girl got up in front of the camera and had make-up applied to their faces. We had to stare into the camera and "smile with our eyes". This was to help us determine who will be models and who will be actresses in the video. I hope I will be an actress because staring into the camera was harder than you think. We also had to smile (with no teeth) into the camera after each make-up application. I give make-up models credit--they are good! It was awesome to work with this crew; they were so great. (And they had even worked with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz the weekend before. We got to see some of the footage on his computer!)

Tomorrow is a packed day as well, beginning with lunch with Claudia (the President of mark.) Can't wait to share what I learn!