Times are changing, and so are internships. MK3 has been providing rewarding and hands-on internship programs since 2009, giving college students a chance to gain real-world marketing experience. And then, the “real world” changed…changing this summer’s internships along with it. Our work and workplace have moved online, and while our internships have gone “virtual” they are virtually the same – using screen sharing and conferencing platforms like Google Meet and Zoom to provide our intern team with a fully immersive educational experience. This summer, we have a unique batch of interns already thriving in this unique environment – meet Sydney, Alex and Noah!

Sydney is a rising senior journalism major at Emerson College. She quickly took to video production and design, and began pursuing opportunities in those fields. At MK3, she’s our Creative Marketing Intern and works with our team to help create blog posts, generate social media content and more. Beyond MK3, Sydney works as a graphic designer at Boston Tattoo Company, and vlogs in her free time.

Alex is a senior journalism student at Emerson College with a minor in psychology and creative writing. When she isn’t studying hard, she enjoys reading fantasy epics, finding and making delicious eats, and strumming on the ukulele. At MK3, Alex holds the position of Content Marketing Intern, helping to develop the written content being pushed out on blogs, eblasts, and social media.

Noah is a rising senior at Brandeis University, where he’s a double major in psychology and business. Outside of the classroom, he’s also the captain of the Brandeis Men’s Soccer team. Here at MK3, he’s our Marketing Project Management Intern, working on key marketing strategies, including social media management and our growing referral program.

Our interns are diligent collaborators, contributing to the fun and fast-paced MK3 environment. They’re already involved with MK3’s internal operations and some of our most front-facing projects, proving themselves essential in helping us maintain our blog, and keeping our social media fresh and relevant.

In this age of uncertainty, MK3’s commitment to Boston-area students remains constant; providing opportunities to improve their skill sets, and establish professional experiences and relationships. MK3 runs on creativity and enthusiasm, and our interns are a reflection of both. 

The age of interruptive advertising is ending.  With the internet and mobile devices, control has shifted from advertisers to audiences.  That means marketing today is about earning audience attention. And what captures and holds the attention of audiences?  Stories.

Great storytelling isn’t easy. There are well-understood principles to it, but it’s more art than science.  Fortunately, the same technology that has empowered audiences has given modern marketers the most engaging, ubiquitous storytelling tool ever: video.

Our clients understand the power of video to tell a story – to make a memorable impact, to evoke an emotional response.  And they know that audiences today love video, consuming it wherever it appears – on your website, in your social media, during your event, through your paid media.

Yet many clients come to us with just a single video in mind – a company overview, a customer testimonial, a product introduction.  Of course a single, high-quality video can be a powerful marketing tool.  But it’s just one asset, and the appetite for good content in this era of story-driven marketing is voracious.

What we see our more forward-thinking clients doing is thinking beyond a single video, and crafting a video storytelling strategy. We refer to it as “thinking bigger,” and it’s more than just making lots of videos.  It’s about taking a longer, integrated view of story content across your organization, and planning for it up front.

To develop a truly thriving video ecosystem, your video plan needs to be part of a holistic marketing strategy. And by thinking proactively and strategically, you can develop a creative approach that leverages shoot content to produce multiple high-quality videos across multiple channels. Working to break down inter-departmental silos is challenging, but that’s an important first step.

Here’s one way to approach it:

1. Start by looking at how different departments in your organization (Marketing, PR, Social, Sales, HR) use video and where.
2. Brainstorm with colleagues about their video needs and messaging, and how best to share content. Are there opportunities to collaborate?
3. Consider making multiples videos from one shoot, each tailored to their particular audience and channel.
4. Be sure to develop a clear creative plan and distribution strategy for each deliverable BEFORE the camera starts rolling. Each platform and channel is unique, and your stories need to be carefully crafted to connect with their audiences.

Thinking holistically about your video storytelling – over time, across departments and within productions – lets you tell more and better stories more efficiently. Not only does this approach yield more assets for multiple channels, your brand voice will be clearer and more consistent.

We’ve just re-designed our website!  I know that might be more exciting for us than it is for you, but when you have time…URL us at mk3creative.com.

We put a fresh coat of paint on our brand, with a newly designed site – but what does that mean for you?  A site that’s cleaner and easier to navigate – and hopefully easy on the eyes as well.  As always, our site will offer you a chance to find out more about who we are and what we do.  You’ll find a refreshed MK3 logo, a peek at a few new team members, updated samples of our VIDEO work, and examples of our STRATEGY, INTERACTIVE and EVENTS capabilities.

MK3 has gone through a few changes recently and we wanted our website to reflect that.  This is the first big step in our own visual rebrand.  But don’t worry, we’re not changing too much – we’re still here to pitch and produce fresh and bright creative for you – new website and all!

As a marketing professional, it’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day of the “everyday.” New challenges, new ideas, and new solutions await us with every new project. In an industry driven by the “new” there is one thing that remains constant, the one variable we can control – great service.

After all, we are in a service industry, and success isn’t achieved without great service. There are many different ways to provide it, and sometimes it’s worth taking a step back to experience it through the lens of another.

MK3 was afforded this opportunity when we produced the annual SHI Global Sales Conference in July, spotlighting major software service providers like HP, Dell, Microsoft and Apple. With keynote speeches focusing on new ways of motivating and inspiring sales, MK3 would like to take a moment to recognize one inspiring perspective.

Marcus Luttrell, the former Navy Seal and author of the book-turned-movie “Lone Survivor,” recently was a guest speaker at this year’s event, commanding the stage in his understated way, telling us his story and what it meant for him to do his job. It was an inspirational speech that delivered a message of service – no matter what you do or what situation you find yourself in, you are in control of the service you provide. And that level of service is what makes a difference.

So as we focus our eyes through our own respective lenses, we should remember that clients, projects, and ideas change, but no matter what you do, great service should remain the constant.

By Mark DiTondo, Creative Director

How do you get to the Boston Garden?  Practice.
And a creative eye for marketing strategy, graphics, and animation.  

We’re paraphrasing an old joke to help sum up a new project at MK3 Creative.

Recently, one of our clients tasked us with creating a bold visual presence for them in the TD Boston Garden.  UG2, a facility services management and solutions provider, needed a set of animations to be displayed on the arena and concourse video screens in the Garden.  

The challenge was engage a distracted audience with the UG2 story through an animation package with no sound and animation elements only 15 and 20 seconds in length.  MK3 created simple, clean bullet points highlighting UG2’s services and eye-catching animation environments that featured the text, and circular framing devices that created a consistent visual home for the varied imagery supplied by the client.  

So the next time you get to the Garden, check out the action down on the ice, the talent out on the parquet floor, and our style up on the video screens.

What does the MK3 Creative team do when we get together in Stowe, Vermont? We stand outside in 7-degree weather for a group photo, naturally! Well, we also go skiing, snowshoeing, enjoy each other’s company, and appreciate a successful 2016.

Standing from left to right starting with the back row are Rodrigo Philbert, Jonathan Markella, Tim Whaley and Mark DiTondo. Posing in the front row are Ann Gennaro, Goldmond Fong, Joel Kaplan, Adam Marx, Ted Wayman, Amanda Haselton, Mo Effron and John Lawrence. Missing from this photo is Kate Quigley, who unfortunately couldn’t make the trip.

All of us at MK3 Creative wish you a happy holiday season and a happy new year!

MK3 recently had the opportunity to produce a television commercial for Big Papi’s Kitchen, a line of chips, salsas and hummus by David Ortiz. The opportunity to work with the Boston baseball legend and the creative challenge of producing a “for Broadcast Television” spot thrilled the whole team.

With a tight budget and a quick turnaround time, we needed all hands on deck. My colleague took the lead as the main producer and I volunteered to step in as food and prop stylist, a role I secretly love.

Food and prop styling is a lot more than simply pouring chips into a bowl. You need to ensure the food looks fresh and the colors are appetizing. I used a variety of textures to give the spot a fun, bright appearance. Southwestern chip and dip bowls, rattan platters, textured placemats, and table runners helped add to the overall look and feel.

The food itself, while delicious, needed some assistance to look aesthetically pleasing. Hummus is the one color you do not want to see on-camera….brown. To distract the viewer’s eye, we paired it with bright red peppers, beautiful petite orange carrots, lemon wedges and, of course, garnish. Garnish is a food stylist’s best friend.

The script also called for a large wiggly Jell-O mold, a pyramid of cheese cubes, and a very droopy, boring sandwich. The cheese cubes and droopy sandwich were easy, but the Jell-O mold proved to be more of a challenge. Practice was in order. We tried bowls, bunt pans, and Pyrex dishes. We tried orange, rainbow, and cherry. We tried it plain and with canned fruit. By shoot day, we had mastered the mold. I arrived on set over prepared with three large, very wiggly red fruit-filled, bunt cake Jell-O molds. (For those interested in the secret to my success, you must layer the fruit in stages, refrigerating in between layers. The key to getting the mold out of the bunt pan and not losing any Jell-O is a three second dip in boiling water before flipping the pan over.) A large, flawless mold for the shoot. I have never been more proud!

The final television commercial spot looks fantastic and the extra time spent on the food and prop styling really paid off. I had a blast working on this project, but one thing is for sure: food and prop styling is a lot of work. All my respect to those who do it every day!

Kate Quigley, Senior Producer at MK3 Creative

MK3 has had another great year!

Check out some of our favorite work in our updated demo reel!

“Clutch” is the new commercial produced for Big Papi’s Kitchen by MK3 Creative.  In baseball, Boston slugger David Ortiz always came through in the clutch, and when it comes fresh and festive flavors, his Big Papi’s Kitchen tortilla chips and dips can “save” any party, dinner, or afternoon snack!   MK3 worked with the Big Papi’s Kitchen team to create the concept, write the script, cast the talent, produce and direct the shoot, and handle all of the post-production.

If a company doesn’t use video marketing and strategy, they are only limiting themselves and their outreach.  After all, video is more likely to attract attention, be shared, and go viral.  YouTube advertising has become one of the most popular sources of outreach in terms of accessibility and consumer traffic. Forbes has reported that “over 89 million people in the United States alone are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today — a number that continues to grow”.  With numbers as high as these, video advertising ensures reaching a larger audience.  Video also relieves potential customers and clients of doing the work- people are more likely to sit back watch a video than read an article.  Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text- no wonder Single Grain has proven that engagement rates are, unsurprisingly so, significantly higher with video marketing than print marketing.  Because video advertising is 600% more effective than print and mail combined, 60% of consumers will watch a provided video before reading any provided text…“none of this is really surprising when you take into account that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words”.

A prime example of how video marketing and production can advance a company is by looking at BuzzFeed (you know, that website we go on when we’re supposed to be doing something else).  The company started a video division back in 2012 and quickly became one of the fastest-growing video publishers.  BuzzFeed videos “regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube…the last 10 videos BuzzFeed created have view counts between 221,000 and 1 million on [their] primary YouTube channel.”  Through uploading videos on YouTube, featuring advertisements prior to these videos, and working with sponsor companies such as Gillette, Ocean Spray, and Ford, BuzzFeed has been able to create a platform that would have otherwise been challenging and potentially unreachable.

If a company cares to grow their following, strengthen their credibility, and gain consumer and client interest, video marketing, production, and advertisement is without a doubt the way to go. There is now the ability to reach people all over the world, why not take advantage of it?

Written by Caterina Januzzi, Marketing Intern.

As a digital marketing agency, one of our primary strengths is video. Visual storytelling is our “thing”, so it’s no big thing to find us out and about, shooting and editing video for the healthcare, high tech, and high finance industries. But it’s not everyday we get ushered into the State House for a video shoot with the Governor of Massachusetts. Recently, the team at MK3 Creative got the call from the Governor, on behalf of our client Lahey Health, to shoot a short “thank you” video with Governor Charlie Baker. Directing on-camera talent is one of the many challenges of shooting video, but MK3 didn’t need to flex that muscle with the Governor. Charlie took one look at his talking points, and then tossed them aside and ad-libbed his way through a great on-camera address; on target and off the cuff. It was a great morning at the State House for MK3, working with a natural communicator.

What do Bank of America, Santander, Oppenheimer Funds, Brown Brothers Harriman, Fidelity and State Street have in common? Let Ted Wayman, our VP of Sales tell you!

https://vimeo.com/171767359%20