AMP Agency was named Public Relations Agency of Record for Nature’s Bakery, a snack company focused on delivering wholesome bite-sized goodies to it’s consumers in the market. AMP Agency will be providing a full range of services to the CPG brand such as: media relations, product launch support, partnership management, and contributed content development. "We are thrilled to be working with AMP Agency to expand our presence within the snack bar category and find new, exciting and meaningful ways to connect with consumers," said Vilma Livas, chief marketing officer at Nature's Bakery. "AMP's expertise in creative storytelling coupled with their ability to deliver results make them the perfect partner for us at this next phase of growth for our brand." "AMP Agency is honored to be working with Nature's Bakery, a brand committed to providing better-for-you snacking solutions for families on-the-go, friends hitting their local trailhead and individuals looking to satisfy a mid-day craving," said Doug Grumet, general manager, AMP Agency. "We look forward to getting to work and leveraging our expertise to amplify the activities, launches and product stories surrounding Nature's Bakery and why they should be on everyone's shopping list." Read the news here.

AMP Agency, a full-service digital marketing agency, has acquired Genome, an award-winning digital innovation, transformation and product development company. The addition of Genome will further AMP’s strategy to advance technology-enabled innovation and grow internationally. “Our technology practice has become a valuable resource for clients. It was clear from the start that Genome would bring necessary skill sets, so the acquisition felt natural. The addition of the Genome team’s expertise and its capabilities take our offerings to a new level.” said Michael Mish, President of AMP Agency Genome CEO Matt Fitz-Henry will serve as senior vice president of technology for AMP Agency, with the primary objective of building innovative technical solutions for clients. Genome’s Executive Vice President and General Manager Nate Herr will serve as senior vice president, technology services. Read the full press release here.

A buzzing topic in the world of data security and protection is the upcoming Google Chrome changes. That’s right, we will soon be living in a cookieless world. Technology solutions in the current landscape are optimizing their efforts much before the implementation as they’d like to get well-acquinated with what the future of advertising may look like. “We want to be early adopters and hand-raisers as a part of these cookieless and new ID solutions,” said Meghan Galligan, Stop & Shop’s director of digital marketing. (Source: AdExchanger) AMP Agency partnered with Stop & Shop and Dstillery to learn more about how to navigate through an ever-changing cookieless landscape. Read the news here.

“In a world where there are so many people shouting, I want to hear from the silent observer.” - Katelyn Crowley, Vice President Talent Management & Organizational Performance, AMP Agency and Advantage Solutions Katelyn Crowley leads AMP’s human resources department, as well as many other agencies in the Advantage network. The post-pandemic job market is a fierce one, and she has taken this time to increase her knowledge and create and implement talent acquisition strategies that can thrive in the current competitive landscape. Katelyn shared her insights with Authority Magazine in their latest article. Read the full article here.

PRESS RELEASE: AMP Agency, a full-service marketing firm based in Boston with teams in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Austin, will combine its capabilities with SmallTalk, a digital experience agency acquired by AMP Agency earlier this year. Bringing expertise in strategy, product management, product design and product development to an array of high-profile brands, the combined group will be known as AMPXD™. AMP, the 200-plus-person agency named to Adweek’s inaugural Fastest Growing Agencies list in 2019 with clients that include Facebook, Sam Edelman and more, envisions a seamless transition to support its growing national client base, furthering its insightful and innovative approach. “As our clients’ business challenges become more and more complex, it’s crucial that we demonstrate our expertise across the entire customer experience,” said AMP Agency SVP, General Manager Michael Mish. “With SmallTalk’s proven expertise in the space, this combination expands and enhances our experience design offer.” SmallTalk, based in San Francisco, California with more than 40 employees, names VMware as one of its clients, among other noteworthy North American and global brands. Some of the agency’s best work is in digital product design and enterprise CMS Websites with a focus on ADA-compliant experiences. SmallTalk always aims to align itself with the client mindset and long-term goals. “Designing and engineering creative, complex digital experiences is our specialty and SmallTalk truly feels we fit neatly into AMP’s wheelhouse of work—it’s a complementary relationship that felt right from our earliest conversations,” said Robert Balmaseda, founder and managing director of SmallTalk Agency, who has managed and sold several successful agencies. “We pride ourselves on serving immediate client needs, while offering progressive and extended solutions that might not have been considered within a short-term goal.” Balmaseda has a deep understanding of technology and market trends having spent more than 10 years at SolutionSet/Epsilon helping organizations like California State Lottery, Chevron, Cisco, eBay, UPS and Wells Fargo create digital customer experiences. Prior to SolutionSet, Balmaseda held key management positions for various agencies, startups and consultancies, including Carat Interactive, iGeneration, HardCloud, USWeb/CKS and Digital Planet. “AMP will continue to invest in UX, design, technology and digital solutions that enable us to transform and build businesses,” Mish added. AMP Agency also recently hired Kiki Takakura-Merquise as vice president of digital transformation to elevate its business strategy offering to better serve clients navigating emerging technology and media and complex shifts in business. Learn more about the new San Francisco team here and explore our mobile & web services here. Check out the story on Adweek, Campaign US, Little Black Book and MediaPost.

If you’re reading this, it probably means that you, or your brand, are interested in becoming a stronger ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. Welcome! We’re happy you’re here. To our LGBTQIA+ readers, we hope this blog post will be a helpful resource for specific strategies and information that you can share with your brand, colleagues, employees, partners, or clients. At AMP Agency, we believe that people of all genders, sexual orientations, and romantic orientations deserve to feel safe, respected, loved, validated, and represented. Through this lens, we’ve curated a list of actionable ideas that your brand can incorporate into your workplace and year-round marketing efforts. 1. Establish an Atmosphere of Respect within Your Workplace Before your brand can be an LGBTQIA+ ally to the general public, it must be an ally to the LGBTQIA+ people behind the scenes. No matter how inclusive a campaign appears on the surface, it will feel inauthentic (and perhaps even disrespectful) if the brand that created it doesn’t treat its own employees equally and with respect. In addition to the following sections of this blog post, which include tips for brands to use internally and externally, here are a few more tactics you can use to make inclusivity a key component of your company culture: Hire LGBTQIA+ employees and work with LGBTQIA+ influencers, partners and clients year round. Did you know there are professional recruiting events specific to this community? There are also employment programs for community subgroups, like the SF LGBT Center’s Transgender Employment Program. Create employee resource groups to foster a sense of community among workers. For example, our parent company Advantage Solutions created the group PRISM to nurture personal and professional growth among our LGBTQIA+ employees and their allies. 2. Learn the Language and Use It Thoughtfully Like other cultural groups, the LGBTQIA+ community has its own language, which includes slang, acronyms, personal identifiers, and more. Learning appropriate terms and using them considerately in your workplace and marketing efforts can build authenticity, loyalty and respect. However, please keep in mind that your brand’s historic and internal use of the language will impact how the public receives your current, public usage of it. For example, if you use the term “yasss” on a branded Pride shirt — a phrase that originated in 1980s ball culture among LGBTQIA+ people of color — and your brand has never previously spoken or acted in support of LGBTQIA+ individuals and/or people of color, that would not be a respectful or authentic use of the language. And more importantly, this surface-level celebration could come across as exploitative. When it comes to branded support, walking the walk must come before talking the talk. So, what does it look like when a brand thoughtfully uses language to support the community? Check out the inclusive work that Sephora has created in recent years, like their “Identify as We” campaign. Not only does it spotlight LGBTQIA+ people, their lives, and their pronouns, but it was also created by and for the community. Allure reported in 2019: "Both in front of and behind the camera, the campaign is populated with exclusively members of the LGBTQA+, transgender and gender-fluid community. Activists and influencers like Fatima Jamal and Hunter Schafer appear, putting on makeup, showing off beautiful hairstyles, or just plain old making out." It’s a great campaign on its own, but it’s even more powerful if you take into account Sephora’s continual allyship efforts. For example, they have beauty classes designed specifically for the transgender comunity. Authentically using language is important, but it’s most effective as part of a larger allyship initiative. With that in mind, here are some great resources for learning basic LGBTQIA+ terminology: The Trevor Project’s glossary of key terms The Safe Zone Project’s glossary of LGBTQ+ vocabulary “LGBTQ definitions every good ally should know” from USA Today GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Transgender Before we dive into the next section, we want to call out a few additional tips for thoughtfully using LGBTQIA+ language. First, language is fluid. The words we use are constantly changing in connotation, usage, and relevancy. For example, the term “queer” has historically been used as a slur, but many in the community have since reclaimed it. Still, others find the word offensive. Check out this article from them, a next-generation community platform, for a nuanced look at the term. Second, every member of the LGBTQIA+ community is an individual, and thus has their own unique cultural identifiers, preferences, and opinions. Think about which other cultural groups someone might identify with. This intersectionality may impact the language they use, like how the term “Two-Spirit” is used as a gender/sexuality/role identifier among some Indigenous North American communities. 3. Make Sharing Pronouns as Easy and Comfortable as Possible Across Your Brand Experience Pronouns can dramatically impact how an LGBTQIA+ person feels about themselves and others. Schuyler Bailar, the first trans D1 NCAA men’s athlete and owner of the popular Instagram account @pinkmantaray, explains the feeling of being misgendered in a 2020 blog post: When [you] call me the pronouns & name I no longer identify with, it says: You don’t exist. It says: I don’t see you and I value my view of you more than I value your comfort and safety. Misgendering me hurts my feelings a great deal. I know I might look a different way now than I did but I am still me. And I have always been me. And [you] using the name and pronouns that I use now – always, even with old pictures – is a way to validate that. To validate me. To say you see me. Click the links below for resources you can use to better understand pronouns and how to apply them in daily life: LGBT Life Center’s “Understanding pronouns” guide “Pronouns 101: Why They Matter and What To Do (and Not Do) If You Misgender Someone” from Medium “Why You Should Put Your Pronouns in Your Bio” by Schuyler Bailar Once you’re more familiar with pronouns, start incorporating them into your company culture and brand strategy. How? Share your pronouns when introducing yourself to new clients, partners, or members of your workplace. Whether or not you’re a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, this can create a safe space for people to share their pronouns, if desired. Add your pronouns to your social media bios, email signature, Zoom title — or anywhere else that might be relevant — as a sign to others that you support the LGBTQIA+ community. When your brand partners with an openly LGBTQIA+ individual, make sure you know their pronouns and how they identify before you post anything that specifically references their pronouns, sexuality, or gender. Be especially cautious when working with transgender and non-binary partners to make sure you don’t misgender or deadname anyone. (Deadnaming is when you refer to a transgender or non-binary person by their birth name or other former name. It’s often harmful and can be traumatic.) If your brand is creating a contact form or hosting a survey, consider adding a section for people to provide their pronouns. If you ask for someone’s gender, provide a variety of options to choose from, as opposed to the historically binary choices of “male” and “female.” Many governmental and medical forms still use this binary structure, which excludes many members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 4. Be Mindful of News, Cultural Events, and Legislation That Might Impact Your LGBTQIA+ Audience Since American marketing and advertising began, the LGBTQIA+ community has had to deal with exclusion, harassment and discrimination — both inside of and outside of the industry. That’s still true today. When we create campaigns targeting or spotlighting this demographic, we should make sure we consider the personal, societal, cultural, and political issues our audience may be dealing with at the time they encounter our marketing. This is a tactful act of strategy as much as it is an act of allyship and empathy, because this insight makes your brand appear more in touch, aware, and authentic. At AMP, we loved working with Eastern Bank to bring their “Join Us For Good Good Votes” campaign to life. When transgender rights were being debated on a Massachusetts ballot in 2016 and 2018, Eastern Bank provided support to the transgender community through lobbying and rallying support, employee engagement, philanthropic assistance, and community engagement. This wasn’t just a one-time act of allyship, it’s consistent work. And we’re so proud we get to be a part of it. While Pride Month is an important time for the LGBTQIA+ community, allyship moments can arise at any time of year. Stay in the know, and act when something resonates strongly with your brand’s values and capabilities. 5. Resist “Rainbow Capitalism” and “Rainbow-Washing” When Designing Your Campaigns Custom Pride collections can be fabulous. Who doesn’t love a rainbow hoodie or “Y’all means all” bumper sticker? But they don’t often help a brand stand out from its competitors, especially not in June. And more significantly, these merchandise-based initiatives can occasionally worsen a brand’s reputation among the LGBTQ+ community, if they’re seen as rainbow capitalism or rainbow-washing. A recent CNN article defined rainbow capitalism as “the idea that some companies use LGBTQ allyship for their own gain.” In that same article, digital communication expert Chris Stedman is quoted as saying the following about Pride merch: "It feels like a violation in some ways because these companies are taking our language, our memes and our norms and using them for their own gain without fully understanding them or investing in the community. This language and imagery emerged in spaces that have been a refuge for people who haven't been safe and welcome in other communities. And I think that's why people are so bothered by it." Similarly, rainbow-washing “allows people, governments, and corporations that don’t do tangible work to support LGBTQ+ communities at any other time during the year to slap a rainbow on top of something in the month of June and call it allyship,” according to Social Media Coordinator Justice Namaste in this 2018 WIRED article. If your brand is exclusively supporting the LGBTQIA+ community through branded Pride merch, you might want to rethink your strategy. Here are some starter questions to get you headed in the right direction: What has my brand previously done to support the LGBTQIA+ community? How were those efforts received? Do I feel like my brand is genuinely helping with this campaign, or does it feel like we’re checking a box? How can my brand’s unique product or service improve the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community specifically? Is my company inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community in the work environment it creates, hiring tactics it uses, and resources it provides? Are there any openly LGBTQIA+ individuals on the client team, creative team, strategy team, etc. for this project? If not, might this be an issue? Does this campaign feel authentic? Authenticity is especially important here — partly because consumers in 2021 crave authenticity, and partly because this value plays a huge role in the LGBTQIA+ community. Embracing one’s LGBTQIA+ identity means letting your real self show up in a world that doesn’t always get you or respect you. That’s incredibly authentic. This year, Getty Images partnered with the non-profit GLAAD to improve LGBTQIA+ representation in advertising. We love this campaign because it tackles a relevant issue (increasing visibility of an underrepresented group), it’s authentic (campaign links directly to the Getty Images brand), and it’s creative. Another example of authentic marketing is Verizon’s moving “Love Calls Back” campaign. In both of these campaigns, the brands have innovatively used their products and services to make the world a better place for LGBTQIA+ individuals. 6. Keep Accessibility in Mind When Creating or Sharing Content According to the CDC, 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has a disability. And PRNewswire reported in 2018 that “among lesbian, gay and, bisexual adults, 30 percent of men and 36 percent of women also identify as having a disability.” Creating accessible content is essential to allyship because many members of the LGBTQIA+ community (and their allies) have a disability. And if you want to have the most inclusive, intersectional and visible content possible, you should consider accessibility. A few starter ideas for making your brand content more accessible: Add alt text to your brand’s Instagram captions. You can either select automatically generated alt text, or customize it to add your brand’s personal flair. Use Instagram’s new automatic caption feature for Instagram Story. Learn how to improve your brand’s digital accessibility with the A11Y Project. Follow ADA-approved design guidelines. Final Thoughts Whether you’ve been an LGBTQIA+ ally for decades or are just getting started, we’re excited you’re putting the work in to become an ally year round. Remember that you and your brand aren’t always going to get it right, and that’s OK. All allies make mistakes, whether they’re individuals or Fortune 500 companies. It’s because we’re human. Making mistakes is a part of our growth process. What matters is that you hold your brand accountable in an authentic way and work to do better going forward. For example, if you accidentally misgender someone in a client meeting, apologize, correct yourself, then move on. Allyship matters all 12 months of the year, not just during Pride. How your brand shows up will be unique and ever-evolving, but it matters that you are showing up. Thank you.

AMP Agency’s VP of Business Development and Marketing, Andie Tilden Jewett, was recently featured in an Ad Age article discussing the impact the pandemic has had on working mothers in our advertising agency. Here’s what Andie had to say about it: “My first son was born at the end of February, and the world turned sideways only a few weeks later. When I returned to work, I felt severe pressure to find ways to immediately provide value to my team and company. I felt any free moment between meetings should be spent with my son, and every moment the baby was sleeping should be spent working. It’s taken many months, but I have invested time in establishing rules for myself. It’s territory I never thought I would have to navigate, but ultimately has made me a better mom and employee.” Check out the full article and feature here: https://adage.com/article/advertising/amp-spotlight-how-she-cession-has-transformed-advertising/2336626

AMP Agency recently received a Gold Distinction and an Audience Honor in the beauty category at the13th annual Shorty Awards for our work with Amway’s Artistry Studio. The work had Amway and AMP working together to promote their new skincare product line through socially relevant and creative brand storytelling across various mediums. Check out the full award-winning submission here: https://shortyawards.com/13th/work Also, be sure to check out the full Amway Artistry Studio case study here: https://www.ampagency.com/amway-artistry-studio-case-study

We’re excited to announce that Jessica Dancewicz has joined the AMP team as the new Vice President of Account Management. Dancewicz will manage the agency’s relationship with clients and leading initiatives that go beyond digital-marketing campaigns, using personalization technologies and deepening connections with customers across all touch points. Dancewicz joins AMP after a long career with MullenLowe. Check out this featured spotlight in Ad Age’s People on the move: https://adage.com/people-on-the-move/jessica-dancewicz

We’re excited to announce that Kiki Takakura-Merquise has joined the AMP team as the new Vice President of Digital Transformation. Takakura-Merquise has split her career between client and agency, and her life between Japan and the United States, bringing a depth of experience to AMP's clients. Take a look at some of her career highlights: Her vision has helped shape strategies at Alphabet/Google, Dell, Microsoft, T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom) and Toshiba. While in San Francisco, earlier in her career, Kiki worked at Nokia in CX strategy and product management, leading a global, virtual team, uncommon at that time. At a global strategic design agency in San Francisco, she was instrumental in rethinking a luxury retailer's complicated customer segmentation strategy. During the last seven years in Japan, she worked at the giant data analytics company, Alliance Data Systems: Epsilon International, now a unit of Publicis Groupe. Here’s what she had to say about the new role: "Frankly, what I have found is that a lot of clients will spend millions of dollars with some of the major, global consulting firms, for strategic plans that are not attainable," she said. "These clients basically have flushed a lot of money down the toilet. At AMP, there is a heavy focus on pragmatism. Our point of view is to help a company transform and get to the next stage in a way that is in tune with who they are and in a way that is authentic to them as an organization." Learn more about Takakura-Merquise’s position and what it means for AMP in this Adweek rundown. https://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/revolving-door-roundup-amp-agency-deutsch-ogilvy-and-more/171780/