Let’s meet our March Fan of the Month: I Am The Maven!
1. Tell us a little more about your company.
I Am The Maven, a Miami-based marketing company that targets families with school-aged children, was founded in 2008 by a mom-entrepreneur and former cosmetic industry executive, Whitney Zimet. After having lived in six cities in fourteen years (Atlanta, DC, NYC, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor and Miami), Whitney started to notice that people called her their “Maven”, asking for advice on everything from doctors to donuts. She decided to combine her “Maven-ness” with her affinity for small business & corporate marketing expertise to help exceptional local businesses create polished and effective marketing programs that cut through the clutter of traditional advertising. Since then, over 60,000 signature black & pink “MavenBags” with custom-designed die-cut coupons have been distributed to 35 Miami-area preschools & elementary schools. I Am The Maven’s website & email newsletter have become go-to destinations for moms looking for the best quality shops, services, food, activities & online deals. Social media, local events & guerilla marketing round out the services that I Am The Maven provides.
2. What is your favorite promotional product?
Our favorite low-cost, high-impact promotional product is 3″ x 3″ sticky notes with the I Am The Maven logo “ghosted” or “watermarked” on it. We use the square version of our logo and make it very sheer so people can write on and actually USE them. Even in this digital world, everyone needs little pieces of paper. They usually hang around near the refrigerator or on the moms’ desks, getting good visibility. They are relatively easy to transport to events, too, and don’t melt in the hot Florida sun! We’ve also had good results with eco-friendly lip balm, nail files and matte black pencils with crystals glued on the end, but those are more expensive premiums.
3. What kind of promotional products would you like to use in the future?
We try to pick useful items that moms will keep on hand and don’t appear cheap. I’ve been keeping an eye on these reusable bandage holders. Every mom carries a little ziploc of emergency band-aids in her purse. It inevitably gets really gross and falls apart. We’ve been pretty underwhelmed with the plastic ones in the promotional marketplace, but there are some metal ones that are REALLY awesome but just too far out of our price range per unit. If we could wave a magic wand and bring that price down, and allow 2 color printing (in our “Maven-Pink” and black) onto the little white tin, we’d be SUPER happy! Pinnacle Promotions, can you work some magic??
4. Tell us a fun fact about yourself or your company!
The I Am The Maven logo was developed using an actual photo of the founder, Whitney Zimet, taken by our fabulous graphic designer Frank Casale. Whitney was inexplicably nervous at that morning photo shoot in summer 2008 and had to have like 2 shots of vodka to loosen up– at 10AM! The logo is very recognizable as her, but still many people approach Whitney and can’t quite place her– and this is at the grocery store where they have like 5 MavenBags in their shopping cart!
Thanks for working with Pinnacle, I Am the Maven! Keep on the look out for a fun prize pack in the mail.
If you’d like to be our next Fan of the Month, just interact with us on one of our social media avenues – Facebook, Twitter, Google plus or LinkedIn and we’ll choose one friendly fan from those who do!