Full Transcript

Tom Garrity: Welcome to the April edition of the Garrity group water cooler. Of course I was at the water cooler and I was the only one there. So then I realized, oh wait, this is still on zoom because we’re all remote. So a welcome Andy and Amanda, we have a lot to talk about today. We have three things we’re going to go through. We’re going to talk about something new. We’re going to talk about PR in the news, and then we’re going to talk about some client things that have gone tremendously well for our clients here in recent days or recent weeks. So, first off, let’s start off by talking about something new. Um, I’ll go ahead and start with that. I’ve been, uh, training for an ultra marathon. That’s going to be taking place this June up in this black Hills of South Dakota. And as a part of that, I’ve been needing to find places to get, to basically run like stairs or run, um, huge inclines and stuff.

Tom Garrity: And so I was reintroduced with pat Hurley park in Albuquerque and pat Hurley park is just, uh, it’s in the Atrisco neighborhoods. And I used to play there a long time ago, play softball. And of course now I went back there for the first time because they have all these stairs. I called the Albuquerque StairMaster because you have all of these stairs that go up and down the side of the, uh, uh, of the Mesa. And it’s really it’s provides a great workout, uh, in about maybe 45 minutes. I was able to get just about a thousand feet of elevation gain, uh, just by going up and down the different types of stairs and paths that they have there. So, you know, that’s something new that’s for me and I, as I get to discover different parts of Albuquerque all over again, Amanda, what do you have?

Amanda Molina: Well, since you brought, brought up fitness, I’m going to stick to that one too. I’ve joined a fitness challenge at the JCC here in Albuquerque, and it’s been really fun to be around people again, and it’s outdoors and everybody’s masked, but we’re doing fun things like, you know, turning over tires and carrying sandbags, you know, kind of those crazy things. Um, but it’s, it’s just been fun to, to be with, you know, groups of people again and, and get out. And, um, I like so many of us was a little too, uh, you know, not active during the COVID, so it’s exciting to be back up and, um, I’m ready for summer and things to open up again.

Tom Garrity: Out-state so does that mean you’re going to like all of a sudden bring sand sandbags home and giant tires to seek and throw them in the backyard with the kids or

Amanda Molina: That’s the plan? I think my husband rearranged the backyard and going to have a set up. No, no, I’ll keep it at the JCC.

Tom Garrity: Andy, what do you have going?

Andie Mirabal: So my wedding is next month officially. We’re almost 30 days out. So I finally we’ll get to, um, celebrate my bridal shower this weekend, which I’m looking forward to. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen family, um, in about a year. So I’m excited to have a COVID safe gathering.

Tom Garrity: That’s fantastic. Lots of excitement there. Let’s talk about PR in the news. Uh, something that’s been that has caught my eye has been Facebook, actually it more caught my ear. Um, one of the podcasts I listened to, uh, each day is a wall street journal in the news. Uh, and they have it it’s a morning and an afternoon podcast and Facebook has been on there talking about how much they are into transparency these days and what they’re doing to make everything more transparent. And I just thought that was interesting how Facebook who has control of, you know, pretty broad social network. I would S I would say, I don’t know, but, uh, that they’re relying on advertising in traditional media as traditional as podcasts are, but the wall street journal to get their story out. And so that was just something that caught my mind, caught my eye. What about you all, Andy? What has caught your attention?

Andie Mirabal: Um, so sticking with the social media theme, um, clubhouse, they just hired on Spotify guys, former communications lead. Um, I think his name is gray Munford. Um, so just kind of keeping an eye on that. I’m interested to see if clubhouse continues to kind of be a powerhouse of social media or how this kind of helps, um, helps them leave their mark.

Tom Garrity: That’s great clubhouse. I have not, I have not opened and full disclosure. I’ve not gone into clubhouse since we last talked about it on this podcast. I’ll have to do that this week. Um, Amanda, how about you?

Amanda Molina: I haven’t either gone into clubhouse, but I do get the alerts and it still looks pretty cool. Um, you know, something local. I, I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about, uh, from the New Mexico restaurant association about restaurant leadership, having difficulties being able to hire people right now. Um, and I just been kind of listening to the messaging that’s going out, and I’m curious to know how their efforts to get the word out about this, if it will change anything, whether it be, um, you know, our legislature doing something to where folks still get benefits or, um, I don’t know what the solution is, but I am curious to know how the efforts will pay off. And I’ve been paying special attention to those messages, messages that they’re putting out. And, um, you know, then you Mexican restaurant association and sticking behind their members. And it seems like they’re really, really fighting kids to get it out there that they need to hire folks. So sorry, I’m following.

Tom Garrity: Yeah. And backed the Albuquerque journal had a nice story on as well. And it included, uh, twisters, uh [inaudible] who is one of our clients, uh, over there was featured in the article where he was just talking about how difficult it is to hire employees with that with unemployment being so apparent, you know, uh, apparently lucrative, you know, as much easier to collect that unemployment than it is to go into work. So a big challenge there, for sure. How about you Andy PR in the news?

Andie Mirabal: Oh, for, um, actually speaking of twisters, we had a launch there, um, brand new scorpion ranch chicken sandwich this week, um, which, um, we had some initial good coverage, I mean really good sandwich. So I’m glad that it looks like people are really enjoying it. It was a fun much.

Tom Garrity: And you actually had some really good success with, um, uh, gosh, the influencers, social media influencers. And so, you know, I mean, not necessarily to call them out, but how, how successful was that?

Andie Mirabal: Um, it was really successful. We had, um, a fun little influencer event, got them out to taste the sandwich on the day of the launch. Um, and we had some fun tip talks and Instagram stories, um, which were made and just kind of showed the kind of a behind the scenes of the chicken sandwich. So a lot of fun there.

Tom Garrity: And so Amanda, uh, as far as talking about client projects, what is the number one question you’re getting these days about any of our clients?

Amanda Molina: So his balloon B hasn’t really happened. Really. I hear you, you all get it through and I know the balloon Fiesta team gets it, but, um, folks are excited and they they’re. So that’s what I’ve heard is people are, um, you know, they saw the big announcement about ticket sales going out and, uh, you know, we have a lot of news that’s been, been talked about lately. So, so it’s been, it’s been fun, hearing people start asking more questions and what’s going to change and balloon Fiesta team and our team is, is going through all of that right now in preparing for the event. But it’s yeah, it’s full force and it is, there’s not a lot of harder working teams than that team over there. So it’s a, it’s moving and being a part of the media relations team. I can tell you that we’re starting to see those media registrations increased. So people are starting to think about traveling and working, you know, being re being there to cover, cover the event in October. So it’s been an exciting couple of months with, with them, for sure.

Tom Garrity: Indeed. In fact, our media tower, I have it on very good authority that our media tower is being rebuilt. Uh, not that anybody who’s just tuning in, um, it was, is structurally sound before now. It’s just, it’s has to get updated to bring it back up to code on a couple of different things. And so we’re excited to be able to have media in the new and improved media tower out at balloon Fiesta. The item that is really kind of caught my attention, uh, just kind of playing off of balloon Fiesta is a podcast that we actually just started in that podcast is called a view from liftoff lane. It’s on wherever you get your podcasts, just type in balloon Fiesta, and it will pop up. We’re going to start promoting it through balloon Fiesta in the coming days that the Genesis of it though was really unique because we just found that it was a great way for balloon Fiesta. Of course. Now Amazon decides to go ahead and come in. So why don’t we break real quick? All right. So, you know, obviously we were interrupted by the doorbell. I thought it was an Amazon delivery for me, but now Andy, what was the interruption all about

Tom Garrity: A special delivery. Very nice. It’s a beautiful arrangement. Yeah.

Amanda Molina: Hmm. Anything else you want to tell us? Oh my gosh.

Tom Garrity: Uh, so back to balloon Fiesta and the podcast we initially started it, uh, so we could have a way to let all of our guests and inquiring minds of the media know what the latest status was with the event. And so the podcast includes interviews with balloon, Fiesta leaders talking about the kind of criteria that they’re looking at as we move forward to the October 2nd launch for the 49th balloon Fiesta. So, uh, if you are into podcasts and I think we all are in some form, um, I would encourage you to download and listen, and of course leave a rating. So, so anyway, uh, what else did we cover? All the topics, Andy. Amanda, what else did you guys want to be able to share before we wrapped up for the month of April on the podcast not working?

Amanda Molina: I think, I think that was a good overview of the month. Got a lot of great things going on.

Tom Garrity: Yeah, we do. And Albuquerque and New Mexico is opening back up and we’re starting to see that in many different forms. So, uh, we would first off, thank you very much for watching our podcasts around the water cooler it’s chance for us just to kind of get together and touch base on a daily basis here at the Garrity group for more content like this, and some really more other informed content. We have it all over@garritypr.com. And so with that, thank you for watching. Okay.

Published April 28, 2021