We recently connected with Annette Malkin and have shared our conversation below.

Annette, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Many people think of Public Relations as just publicity and we offer our clients so much more than that. We are strategic storytellers and brand builders and utilize the power of culture to help our clients grow their business, do social good and build a community. We believe the most effective way to raise awareness for a brand (personal, organization or company), to build loyalty and to create a two-way dialogue with stakeholders, is to integrate the brand in culture. We take a human-centric approach to storytelling help our clients make cultural connections and wanted to convey that prominently in our company ethos and name.

We are also big advocates of marketing efforts mirroring the communities our clients serve. We take a holistic and inclusive approach to communication and marketing and our ideas lie at the intersection of insights and creativity, hence the name Culturewise.

Visually we also wanted to communicate that culture is constantly evolving and shifting and so our logo conveys the motion and flow of culture.

Annette, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my career 18 years ago at a consumer lifestyle public relations agency in New York City. I primarily focused on lifestyle PR for Fortune 500 wine + spirits and food + beverage brands. After a decade in New York City, I relocated to my hometown, Miami. During this time, I primarily focused on Hispanic marketing before I founded Culturewise Collective in mid-2019.

At first it was a big mental shift in how to go from marketing global CPG brands that are household names versus independent start-ups and mid-size companies that have little to no brand recognition. Our work varies from coming in early to help develop a brand from concept to inception and really shape the brand story, values and then ultimately publicizing once it is ready to launch. In most cases, we work directly with founders and CEO’s and it’s gratifying to see how our counsel, communications strategy and results are making a positive impact on our clients’ business.

The best decision I made in my professional career was to become my own boss and start my own company. Culturewise Collective is a boutique agency comprised of mission-minded communicators and marketers. I truly work with the best in the business and I’m so grateful for my colleagues. We focus on the wine + spirits, food + beverage, travel + hospitality as well as cannabis industries.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As I mentioned, I started my PR career working with global Fortune 500 companies and had healthy PR budgets to work with. The PR programs I developed were robust and integrated, they included publicity, partnerships, sponsorships, influencer marketing and more. Many of my peers did as well, whether on the agency side or doing in-house PR. At Culturewise, we focus on working with independent start-up and mid-size companies who have limited marketing dollars. We have to work creatively to help our clients’ stories cut through the clutter to secure that valuable air + ink time.

A lesson I had to unlearn is that you need a large PR budget to be successful and that you also need to have all those tactics active simultaneously in order to be successful. Our team at Culturewise is nimble and can be scrappy in order to get our clients results. We jump on relevant trends and insert our clients into timely conversations by newsjacking to keep them relevant and in the news. We negotiate partnerships with other small businesses and often collaborate with other PR pros to create co-branded news for our clients.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As a business owner, I now have the power to decide who we work along with my colleagues. We vet prospective clients as much as they vet us as a partner. We evaluate every new business lead together to ensure it makes for us and aligns with our business objectives, company mission and values. We are strategic about our growth and are not just in it for the financial gain. We want to work with brands who do social good via their marketing efforts and who are committed to building community and enhancing culture. We want to partner with companies that have a compelling and authentic story and who will allow us in guiding them on telling the best version of their story. Not to mention, we have to personally be able to enjoy the product if we are doing to endorse it to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.culturewisecollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culturewisecollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/culturewiseco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/culturewise-collective/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/culturewiseco
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annette-malkin/

Image Credits
Photos Courtesy of Culturewise Collective