Meet Senior Account Executive Kerry Petrocelli!
Katie Bourke joined VPR in 2019 as Director of Strategy
Katie joined in 2019 as the first member of our team solely focused on the growth of VPR. Thanks to Katie’s dedication and leadership in this role, we’ve continued to meet our growth goals and set new ones, even through the challenges of 2020.
Not only has Katie led the growth charge here at VPR, she’s also been focused on the growth of her family. She welcomed her second child in August, a beautiful boy named Max, and in late November she returned to work after her maternity leave proving once again that nothing can stop a working mom with a vision.
Read on below to get to know Katie:
1. What do you love most about working in PR?
I love coming up with creative ways to tell a story that will resonate with the target audience.
2. What is your personal PR Victory?
As director of strategy I’m involved in developing the strategies for many of our clients that help guide their PR. For one of our clients, I led the development of a campaign that needed to bridge our PR efforts and the client’s internal marketing team. I then got to witness the VPR account team and the client’s marketing team beautifully execute the campaign (and making it even better as it evolved) and hit every goal we set. On top of everything else, the work that we are doing will positively affect the lives of thousands of families. Being able to work with clients/brands that are making the world a better place is always a victory for me!
3. What advice would you give to someone hoping to leverage PR to grow their brand?
I have a lot of advice but I will narrow it down to my top three!
Understand the true value of PR before you engage. Data is amazing to track, but also don’t forget to look at the layered benefits you get from media. PR helps tell your story for long-term brand building. It builds trust with your audience because of third-party credibility. Its high-value content can be used in so many ways to enhance your marketing. It also contributes to SEO.
Be engaged with the media AND your publicist. The best media magic happens when you work as a team and collaborate.
Make sure your PR team is integrated with your marketing team. Disjointed campaigns lead to confusing communications and missed opportunities.
4. What advice would you give to someone hoping to land a job in PR?
Show energy, initiative, and creativity. If you want to be a publicist the first thing you need to know how to do is pitch yourself and the value that you bring.
5. Is there a trend in PR that you're particularly excited about?
Virtual events are certainly a PR trend and one that I have a love/hate relationship with. There is nothing better than building a genuine in-person connection with someone. However, virtual events have opened our audience potential so much more.
6. What do you do to unwind?
I love to be on or close to the water so if I’m on a boat, going for a swim, or walking by water I’m at peace. If I can’t be by water, put a glass of wine in my hand and we are good. Better yet, put me on a boat with a glass of wine and my family and I’m good to go!
7. What is your favorite motivational quote?
“The cookie jar is a place in my mind where I put all things bad and good that shaped me. Some people try to forget the bad in their life. I use my bad for strength when needed, great lessons learned. In that cookie jar, I pull out whatever I need for the task at hand.” – David Goggins
I use this mindset in life and my career. With my career, I’m usually the proudest of the work that challenges me the most. It may be painful to get through it but once I do I’m usually very proud of the outcome. If you are not challenging yourself you are not growing. Each challenge you get through will come along with learnings that help motivate and strengthen you to get through the next.
8. What is your go-to takeout place and favorite order?
When I’m home in Pearl River, NY there’s no question. I’ll never say no to a Munnos Italian sub with the works!
Connect with Katie on Instagram @KatieBourke1 or reach out directly via email!
Christina Gorini was the very first hire at VPR but she was a part of the heart and soul of the company even before that - she and Andrea met at an agency in NYC years before. This year she’s celebrating 9 years at VPR and we’re thrilled to share a bit of Christina’s charm, humor, and PR prowess in the next installment of Getting to Know!
Meet Christina Gorini!
1. What do you love most about working in PR?
Dreaming big! I love sitting in a meeting with a client and listening to their brand story and what their dreams are and then pairing it with my own professional dreams to create something magical.
2. What is your personal PR Victory?
Since I am the VPR OG there have been a few! The most recent was in the later part of 2019 I was struggling as a working mom while VPR was on an intense growth spurt. In hindsight, I was finding it difficult to keep up with the rocket speed and was barely keeping it together. After a few difficult but eye-opening conversations with Andrea, we unpacked what was happening and came up with a plan. The plan consisted of me finding myself in a different role which resulted in me securing one of our clients in a premiere segment on The Dr. Oz Show. Victories are not always pretty but I am so happy that during the darkness I was able to find the light. I knew there was more to my own PR story so I can continue sharing my clients’.
3. What advice would you give to someone hoping to leverage PR to grow their brand?
Hire VPR!!! Lol - but in all honesty, the best campaigns are ones where the client works closely with their PR team to create impactful and thought provoking media messages. Teamwork really does make the dream work when it comes to PR.
4. What advice would you give to someone hoping to land a job in PR?
Applying for your dream PR job is the perfect opportunity to show your pitching style. Be creative, bold, and smart with your approach. That is what an agency is looking for in a publicist so why not show them right away the type of team member they are investing in.
5. Is there a trend in PR that you're particularly excited about?
I think right now is a big moment for female thought leaders especially in this COVID world. Women, at every phase of their lives, need strong female voices for encouragement and inspiration. Thankfully the PR industry has caught up and the voices of women are huge story drivers. I hope this trend is here to stay so that the next generation of female leaders can inspire not only me but my daughter.
6. What do you do to unwind?
I BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO! I unapologetically love myself some reality TV and if it's on Bravo it is for me. I also love a good pedicure, a hot cup of coffee, and listening to a woman in business podcast.
7. What is your favorite motivational quote?
Stay far from timid
Only make moves when your heart's in it
And live the phrase sky's the limit
~ Christopher Wallace
Cheers to 9 incredible years and many, many more!
Meet our Director of Accounts
by Andrea Samacicia Mullan
At the start of the month, we at Victory PR made a commitment to be active listeners and dedicate ourselves to learning about how we can be even better allies to Black people. During that time I personally made some discoveries about myself and the company that were both difficult and empowering.
Specifically, it became clear that my feeling that VPR is “too small” to meaningfully help improve the unacceptable reality that Black people face is nothing more than a cop-out. My moment of clarity came when I realized that in order for progress to be made, it is essential for even the smallest company to internalize the importance of racial equity in all elements of their business. While it’s true that the pursuit of racial equity must be its own effort for all companies, including VPR, we are passionately working toward a time when the principle of racial equity is an ingrained part of our company culture. My failing is that it was not already.
During this time, we’ve established our commitment to having frank discussions surrounding race and holding ourselves and each other accountable. We made a contribution to The Loveland Foundation, an incredible organization focused on providing therapy to Black women and girls, and have made an active effort to surround ourselves on social media and in real life with powerful Black voices. We’ve also committed to actively seeking the understanding and education necessary to ensure that this drive, which is so strong in the immediate aftermath of inexcusable violence, does not waver with the passing of time.
There are a couple of steps I took on behalf of VPR before this movement took hold that I believe will help to ensure we stay on the right path. They include our partnership with IFundWomen, which enabled us in June to contribute funds to five Black-owned businesses. They are:
We also recently hired a new director, Jenan Matari. In addition to the traditionally impressive credentials she shared on her resume, Jenan is the founder and editor-in-chief of MissMuslim and in 2017 gave a TEDx talk entitled Embracing Your Identity.
Her candor regarding her own struggle for acceptance and her longstanding commitment to vocally advocating for human rights, racial equality, and female empowerment are inspirational. While the decision to hire her was made solely based on her many impressive professional achievements in the fields of PR and journalism, having someone in a leadership role here at VPR who so fearlessly champions causes faced by BIPOC is crucial to our ability to do better.
Surely all of this is utterly inadequate, which is why it’s just a start. I welcome any feedback on how VPR can more effectively support the Black community and I will personally continue to actively seek the education and guidance I need to be the type of leader I aspire to be.
Are virtual desksides here to stay? Read on to learn why that might not be a bad thing.
VPR marks its 10th year by contributing 10k to IFundWomen’s monthly grant program
VPR announces an exciting new client!
Helping clients understand the long-term value of digital placements can lead to much more successful partnerships.
We won!
BELLA NYC featured our owner and founder, Andrea Samacicia Mullan.
Our founder was recently included in an article written by the talented Aly Walansky in which she asked a group of female entrepreneurs to share what they're most thankful for this Thanksgiving. The only rule was that it have something to do with their career. Read on to see what this group of incredible women (including the iconic Buffy herself!) had to say.
Get the full story HERE.
@PracticePathMD is the essential guide to growing an aesthetics or dermatology practice.
"The thing about PR is that while everyone has heard of it, surprisingly few people understand its many nuances. That misunderstanding often leaves doctors confused about how PR can work for their practice and in the worst cases, disillusioned with public relations as a whole."
Get the whole story HERE
Being a work from home mom has many advantages. It means you have a job flexible enough to allow moms to be present for their families and still pursue their career ambitions. Our founder, Andrea Samacicia Mullan, was a work from home mom until her oldest son was five and shared one of the funniest, and most enlightening, memories from that time with the Alice's Table blog.
Read the whole piece HERE
The VPR team recently spent the day at the PRSA's annual Tristate Conference titled, What Now? Maintaining you PR Integrity in the Post-Truth Era.
Don't worry. We'll break it down for you.
We're publicists and we're sharing our media monitoring.
When hard work pays off.
Fall is always an exciting time for us at VPR. Like everyone else, we'll miss the beach days and summer Fridays but there’s something about the crispness of the back to school season that revs us up. This fall is no different - if anything it’s even more exciting than ever since September 2016 officially marks the launch our new partnership with Points Group. Points Group is an award-winning consulting and marketing company with offices in New Jersey, Florida, Germany, and The United Arab Emirates.
Points Group solely focuses on the healthcare industry and provides a broad range of services from marketing (SEO, web design, referral marketing, blogging, media buying, etc.) to consulting (patient experience improvements, growth strategy development mergers and acquisitions and operations improvements, to name a few) - under one roof and managed by one team. They didn’t have a PR department, which is where VPR comes in.
We are just giddy over this partnership for a number of reasons.
First, we are proud of ourselves. We worked hard. We persevered. We created lives that we wanted to live. We did work that we believed in. And someone noticed. Then they made an offer. Then we made a counteroffer. And despite fear of the unknown, and the fear that we weren’t good enough, we marched into this new world and met and exceeded expectations.
Secondly, we believe this partnership is an example of PR and marketing done better. In our industry, as in most, there are many hurdles and (we feel) far too few solutions. Yes, social media has forever changed the way publicists and other marketers do business. It’s also true that the media landscape barely resembles what it looked like merely five (two!) years ago. And it’s easy to become discouraged - we know, because we have. But despite those hurdles and the many changes we all have had to keep up with, we are passionate about PR. We love the magic of it, and the practice of it, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to make killer public relations services more widely available to dental and medical practices here in NYC and beyond. Although our practice area has expanded since 2009 (we cover all brands that fall into the beauty/health category), our mission is the same. The only difference is that we are now a better agency because of what Victory Public Relations and Points Group is together.
Lastly, we are thrilled to work with such a smart, talented, driven team. At VPR we believe that a rich career is one in which education is ongoing and in the short time we’ve worked with them, we’ve learned so much from our new colleagues at Points. We’re thankful for this next chapter in VPR’s book and are excited to see what the future holds.
Happy Fall!
There's a lot to be learned from each and every media placement.