Not a bad way to start off the new year – with new work and the need to immediately hire two new people!

Himmelrich PR has two openings we are looking to fill as soon as possible: Account Executive and Associate.

Account Executive: The AE will take a leadership role in generating media coverage for our clients, developing creative promotions, and managing relationships with some of our largest clients. The ideal Account Executive candidate will have at least 3-4 years of public relations and media experience, including developing and pitching stories, and creating media relationships. He or she should be a strong and quick writer for all types of media and have experience managing projects and staff teams, preferably at an agency or within a communications department. This position includes some occasional travel.

Associate: The Associate will support our client teams by conducting internet research, developing media lists, distributing media materials, tracking media activity, responding to media inquiries, maintaining schedules, and preparing reports. The Associate will also participate in the development of marketing strategies and plans, and will manage office functions. Qualified candidates should know all Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, is exceptionally well organized, and is comfortable handling multiple projects and working with many people at once.

Both positions offer a unique opportunity to be part of our growth. We have some great new clients and will be working on some pretty exciting projects. The vibe in our office is fun and collaborative. We are always learning and trying new things. And we produce award-winning work that achieves success for our clients. As the firm grows, so will you!

To apply for either position, please send a resume and cover letter to jobs@himmelrich.com. Please indicate in the subject line of your email which position you are applying for.

In the spirit of the holiday season, we feel like sharing – with interns! Himmelrich PR is looking to bring in a couple of good interns for the spring semester.

Internships at Himmelrich PR give college students public relations experience and an amazing opportunity to contribute and grow professionally, as well as earn academic credit. Our interns work directly with our staff on client projects – researching, writing, brainstorming and producing good work. Our internships are unpaid, have flexible hours and they’re fun!

So, why not impress Mom and Dad over winter break by showing them you’re doing something related to school and/or preparing for the “real world” (not the TV show, we mean life… not the cereal)?

If you want to build your portfolio, get some solid PR experience and learn a lot from some pretty nice people, give us a shout – or better yet, a resume! Email it to Garrett Berberich at garrett@himmelrich.com.

Ho ho hope to hear from you!

Now we can begin our holiday shopping!

The final Sugarloaf Craft Festival of the season was this past weekend in Chantilly, Virginia. Lines of eager shoppers extended out the door to get into the show, and once inside, they were buying! Local media seemed to be buying it too, especially the online outlets important to local craft lovers. Check out these features on the Kingstowne Patch site and DC Metro Mom blog. And an even better holiday present was that attendance was up 20% over last year!

Also this past weekend, we concluded the holiday events we coordinated around the country for one of our financial clients. We were in Frederick, Maryland, to see the Kris Kringle Procession - and the thousands of residents at the event.

Today feels a little like the day after Christmas. And we got everything we asked for.

The holidays began at Himmelrich PR this past weekend; we promoted three holiday kick-off events and are celebrating their success.

Oklahoma City welcomed the season with the lighting of its Bricktown Canal Lights on Saturday night. Hundreds of Oklahomans enjoyed water taxi rides, refreshments, live music, Santa on a Segway, and the official switching-on of the lights along the mile-long canal in downtown OKC. We were there coordinating our client’s title sponsorship. The only drawback to the event was that the fleece jackets we ordered for their employees went unused – no one anticipated 80 degree weather in November.

The fleece jackets did come in handy in Columbia, South Carolina, at Saturday’s opening of Santa’s Village at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden. We arranged our client’s sponsorship of the main attraction here, too, (although Santa had to use his own two feet to greet the hundreds of kids at this event).

It wasn’t just the start of the holiday season for us, but also for more than 20,000 craft-lovers who attended the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival (our client) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. With holiday lists in hand and noticing scads of media mentions, attendance was up 10% over last year… a wonderful start to the holiday season.

We’re back to boating – and in a big way.

Himmelrich PR has been retained by the National Marine Manufacturers Association to handle media relations and social media for three boat shows this coming winter. We have promoted the Baltimore Boat Show for many years, and last year, handled the TV for two other shows - but this year, we are charting the media course for the Progressive Insurance Baltimore Boat Show, the Progressive Insurance Atlantic City Boat Show, and the Progressive Insurance New England Boat Show.

Full steam ahead!

This time of year, our weekends are as busy as our weekdays, what with our clients’ events and festivals. Take this weekend, for example.

The Sugarloaf Crafts Festival is in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with more than 250 artists displaying and selling their handmade creations. Sugarloaf (and Himmelrich PR) is expecting a great crowd, due in part to media coverage including features in the Washington Post, the Gazette newspapers, lots of coverage by Patch websites, and a live paper-making demonstration on WJLA-TV.

We had an early morning at the Maryland Home and Garden Show as we helped WBAL-TV and Fox 45 film their segments about the weekend show. There are more than 300 exhibitors offering everything you could want for getting a home ready for winter - through Sunday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

The Maryland Science Center is hosting the annual conference of the Association of Science and Technology Centers - 2,000 museum professionals gathered in Baltimore for four days of seminars, speakers, and socializing. The highlight of the conference so far has been the full-size model of the Webb Space Telescope, as reported by the Baltimore Sun, the Daily Record, and dozens of national and international media outlets.

We are ready for the weekend.

This past weekend, Sugarloaf Crafts Festivals kicked off its Fall season of shows - and we kicked off our season of promoting 14 shows and events in nine markets over the next nine weeks.

We are all off to a great start. Attendance at last weekend’s craft show in Timonium was up 20% over last year and set records for artist sales. On Friday, Jennifer Franciotti of WBAL stopped by the Festival to check out the latest fashion accessories and gourmet food, WJZ’s Mike Schuh had hands on fun on Saturday morning, and WBFF-TV spent a morning meeting artists.

After seeing the packed booths, happy exhibitors and eager visitors, we are excited for the rest of the season. See you in New Jersey… and Philadelphia… and Dayton… and Oklahoma City…

After a whirlwind first week at Himmelrich PR, new Account Associate Jamie Wagner is off to celebrate the first day of fall, and her birthday… but not before reflecting on the incredibly busy, incredibly productive past five days she’s had.

“This week flew by (as I’m sure most will)! Between meetings, research, press releases, and morning news segments, I really couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to Himmelrich PR and our awesome clients. (Plus, the doughnuts, burritos, sushi, and cupcakes didn’t hurt.)”

What can we say? We love a good excuse for good food. And we love talented and energetic people joining our team.

Welcome, Jamie!

Ahhhh…..there is nothing like live TV in the morning. Although some would call us crazy for enjoying a 3:00 am wake-up call, here are the top reasons we love to do morning TV.

1) The roads are empty at 4:00 am. Perfect for setting records on home-to-work drive times.
2) We get to watch the sun rise.
3) Spending five straight hours with camera people, clients, and on-air talent is not just a good way to build relationships—it’s fun!
4) We are the first to get coffee when Dunkin Donuts opens.
5) If we can’t fit everything we want to say into the 5 o’clock hour, we can say it in the 6 o’clock hour.
6) We are the first ones to make the switch to “good morning” tweets in our Twitter feeds.
7) Most importantly, morning TV is a great way to get our client messages out to the public.

This morning, the WBFF morning crew camped out at the Maryland Science Center observatory to talk about NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite falling to earth. Jim O’Leary, Maryland Science Center space expert, discussed where, when, and how the satellite will return to earth after 20 years of orbit. We loved setting up these eight live segments and we loved being there—for all of the reasons listed above.

This has been one of those weeks that reminds us of who we are – and how we are. Here are some reasons why, and what we believe it says about us.

Happy to be Here: Summer vacations are over. Kids are back in school (and the traffic is back, too.) And we are all genuinely happy to be back in the office – together. We believe that good people do good PR. We like what we do, and we like doing it together.

Back to School: Two of us returned to class – one to complete a master’s degree and the other to start earning one. We believe in smart people doing PR, and we always want to be smarter.

Cancellation Notice: One of our clients asked us not to renew his media monitoring contract. His reason: “My goal isn’t a book of clips. It’s people through the door and sales. If you are generating enough media coverage and buzz, then the results will be in the attendance, and you won’t need to provide it with clips. You don’t need to show me the clips – I see the sales.” We believe what blogger Rebecca Denison wrote this week - “the granularity of your metrics and measures should depend entirely on your goals.”

Coming Soon: We received a pretty nice email on a rainy Friday afternoon from a soon-to-be-client: “Himmelrich is our PR firm of choice for our upcoming shows.” We believe she made the right choice.