We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marcy Karpowitz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Marcy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?
At the time, I left my agency gig. I knew I needed a change, yet I was uncertain of what I was going to do next, another agency, start my own, be a consultant…I took off for Thailand and Cambodia and threw up my current career plight up to the universe. About three days before I was to return, I was relaxing in Hua Hin, a Thai beach town when a past client sent me a “I hear you went on your own, get back quick, I have a program I need you to run” message. I recounted what had just happened to my friend who was lounging in the pool. In the shimmer of sunset, I said I’m going to be an agency. My friend casually replied, “Of course you are,” looked at the server and said, “two cocktails please, we’re celebrating.” That moment remains in my mind like a still from a movie.
Marcy, 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?
MKMCreative stands for many things. Literal translation: Marcy Karpowitz Marketing & Creative. We’re often described in many ways: a creative, marketing, experiential, digital, production, activation, branding, event, influencer marketing agency. Yes.
By definition, MKMCreative is a consumer engagement marketing agency that focuses on building brands. We play across industries by design. We call ourselves generalized specialists. The general space we serve is brand and possess specialized expertise in all of its categories: identity & positioning, strategy, creative design services, live activations and amplification/awareness. Clients often call us their acquisition tool and appreciate that MKMCreative is where brand meets activation along with our intimate understanding of the space and its nuances. This 2-minute highlight reel is a compilation of what we do, how we do it and who we do it for — definitely worth the watch.
Born and raised in New Jersey, I grew up in a family business where I gleaned what I consider two of my greatest strengths: a tireless work ethic and the determination to never quit.
As an owner, the concept of stopping isn’t an option. There is only the opportunity to create or make something right. Sheer determination is always followed by some form of breakthrough.
Post college, I moved to San Francisco and kicked off my career in corporate retail, an organic take on the family business. After many years, I transitioned to the agency side where my attention to detail, big picture strategic thinking, flawless execution and top-tier client service paved a path forward.
I spent the next few years further honing my skills and enjoying the work. Living in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, my next move was to immerse myself in the world of tech.
I accepted a position at a large agency. Soon after, I found myself longing for true partnerships and building custom programs. As I contemplated my next move, with uncertainty, I let the notion of working as a high-level consultant or agency owner begin to take hold. Shortly after, I founded MKMCreative. To this day, it’s clear this is in my blood. In those moments that tested my mettle, huddled up with the team, I can be heard lightheartedly saying, “even when we hate it, we love it”, right before digging in to find the solve.
Decades in the brand, marketing and experiential sphere have brought diverse work, successful programs, talented team members, happy clients and a bragging-rights worthy roster. Our agency’s motto — surprise, no surprise — is Whatever it Takes.
Have you ever had to pivot?
On some level, the pivot became a global phenomenon beginning March 2020 when the version of life as we knew took a transformative turn. Changing direction in our line of work is baseline, it’s a Wednesday essentially. The exception is generally our norm, flexibility, fluidity, quick thinking, troubleshooting, these are well honed skills for our kind. We left 2019 profitable, prosperous and proud of the work. Among our clients that year, we had concepted and planned a technically and logistically complex integrated global tour for an emerging food company. It was flawless, highly produced and the metrics exceeded expectations. Everyone who touched it in the agency, client side and in the world at large was thrilled to be a part of cohesive expression of consumer engagement brand marketing at its finest. That momentum was fueling us as we kicked off the new year with exciting and challenging custom campaigns for a new set of clients.
Then the moment happened that would change everything. It was hard to digest that the thing MKMCreative did was now ‘outlawed’. I had built a business centered around gathering and here we were being told the only place we could be was at home. Wait. What. Explain.
Immediately I sprang into action and connected with clients whereby deals were currently in play or on the table, evaluated all of the expenses and made decisions that would keep the business healthy and respect clients, team members and perma-partners. It was a whirlwind of action.
In 2020, we just kept moving. If you keep creating, they can’t tell you’re dead, right?! We got through and were able to minimize the damage. The following year, 2021 was all about identifying opportunities in the market and where and how people were spending. We leaned into our branding expertise and found ourselves engaged in rebrands, launches and refreshes primarily, along with digital campaigns and epic, reimagined virtual shows. At the same time that was happening, in partnership with the Red Cross, MKMCreative sponsored complimentary blood drives to have a real impact. Blood shortage reached never-before-seen-levels and was struggling.
I was low-key on the move then and spent a lot of time traveling and with friends and family. I was in quaint Brattleboro, Vermont for an extended period when I was brought to dinner. Unbeknownst to me, the host had a yoga studio that she didn’t know how to reopen with all the false starts and the general climate of the world. Anxiety was beginning to overtake, the tears started to stream down her face when she asked me if I could somehow help her. It was that or she was certain she was going to lose her business. I was drained — emotionally, physically, financially – at that point myself. MKMCreative is known for engaging with established and emerging global brands, household names or soon to be as an output of our work together. Our clients and the work we generally do was on a different scale.
I knew that look and feeling that our host possessed, the one that has the power to paralyze. MKMCreative took on the yoga studio pro bono. During these 3-years, I’ve learned that the definition of ‘success’ that I measure myself against changes with life. Getting the notice of ‘how many lives we saved’ from the Red Cross as a result of the drives or having someone hold their baby on their hip as their lips quiver and they thank you for saving their studio and so much more became the currency that counted.
Pivot remains a part of our daily lexicon, way of being and story.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
The magic is with the team. Nothing happens without the group think and effort. There is nothing like a highly skilled group of people coming together to collaborate and create programs that take the breath away. For us, managing and maintaining a team begins with casting. It is so important to understand what motivates someone, what they are good at and their interests and desires for growth. We match the individual to those findings. When people love what they do, it organically comes through. The minute anything is forced, it shows up in multiple ways and places.
The team and I are tight. We trust each other implicitly, they run the day and I pulse in in an oversight position to maintain the throughline of programs, agency players and the client. The team is empowered to thrive, make key decisions and provide their recommendations of the best way forward. They appreciate that I am the final shot caller. We are highly communicative and collaborative to stay in sync and abreast of all the approvals, updates and changes. We know there are always going to be surprises. We work to mitigate and manage up front as many of those as possible. MKMCreative thrives when individual contributors come together to collectively shape their findings into one cohesive vision.
We call team members Loveable Weirdos and appreciate all those nuggets and nuances each person brings based on their own life experience, pleasure and references. It’s that magic that takes a program from good to traffic stopping and jaw dropping. We pride ourselves on being playful yet polished and always have time for a belly laugh, quirky moment and embracing everyone’s idiosyncrasies. We encourage people to be themselves and pride ourselves on providing personal style served up with professional polish.
The agency has core values, standards and mantras to keep us aligned. One of our favorites: No one ever regretted a workout or a run-through. Making space for these moments and playing to people’s strengths and pleasures is what keeps the morale high around our shop.
Success externally happens when the internal team is in like, lockstep, aligned and unconditional trust exists.
Contact Info:
- Website: mkmcreative.com
- Instagram: @mkmcreative
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MKMCreative/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mkmcreative/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/mkmcreative