Case Studies

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens,
Delray Beach

We worked as creative and marketing consultant with The Morikami Inc.'s board of directors and the Palm Beach County Department of Parks and Recreation for more than 10 years, from groundbreaking to grand opening to major positioning as a world-class destination for cultural tourism. Our initial challenges included a strictly limited budget, media indifference, and cultural barriers to generating public awareness.

Achievements

• Branding theme: Created a distinctive, award-winning branding theme consistent with the Museum's mission of introducing contemporary and traditional Japanese art and culture.
• Extensive media coverage: Increased and broadened media coverage for major events such as seasonal festivals and exhibit openings; maturation of Japanese gardens; feature story interest; placements spreading from local to regional, to national and international media.
• Collateral development: Wrote, designed, and coordinated all aspects of production for cost-effective collateral materials for visitor information, fund-raising and membership campaigns, and special events.
• Quarterly newsletters: Established protocols and templates and ensured timely production for 16-page quarterly newsletters.
• Team work: Supported and encouraged interdepartmental staff and board communications. Worked closely with executive director, curators, education director, development staff, and board of directors.

Whitehall Boca Raton, Boca Raton

Public relations consultant to this premier skilled nursing facility over a 20-year period. We created several permutations of its "corporate" brochure as well as a family of publications, in current use, for specialized services.

Jewish Community Services of South Florida, Inc.,
North Miami

As public relations consultant for this comprehensive social service agency, which provides assistance for more than 30,000 clients a year at more than a dozen locations, we encountered the growing pains of an emerging organization with a variety of leadership styles and points of view. We worked with JCS for several years before, during, and after its establishment by a merger of three separate entities. The merger was a complex process that created internal challenges for personnel and board integration, and external
challenges for rebranding and image development. Working with a board marketing committee, we developed and gained consensus on a new logo, branding theme, and informational brochure that detailed the comprehensive nature of services, locations, funding partners, and professional affiliations in a cost-effective manner. We worked with various development officers to support fundraising campaigns and events. We created marketing collaterals for individual service programs, including a JCS subsidiary, Gourmet Kosher Catering.

Nova Southeastern University, Alvin Sherman Library, Davie

From groundbreaking through its first five years, we worked with the Library's staff to develop marketing collaterals and to raise public awareness of the Library's unique joint-venture role as both academic resource and public institution. We created and coordinated a quarterly newsletter for the public. We worked closely with the director of development to assist in the formation, publicizing, and sustentation of its Circle of Friends auxiliary group. We developed innovative annual reports. In the first issue, we created a photographic center-spread timeline of the Library's construction from earth-churning to celebrated completion as Florida's largest library building. In the second issue, we explored the role of libraries as the cornerstone of democracy and the foundation for enduring civilization.

Clients

• Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center.
• College of Osteopathic Medicine.
• Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences.
• The Fischler School of Education and Human Services.

Nova Southeastern University, The Fischler School of Education and Human Services, North Miami Beach

Working closely with the School's Executive Director of Creative Development and Innovation, we developed a 60-page magazine, The Fischler Effect, designed to position the School as a leading academic institution on a par with the nation's traditional Top Ten. In doing so, we selected more than a dozen outstanding individuals connected with the School, whose distinguished careers have taken them to destinations around the world, where they've made a positive impact on society. The magazine celebrates these singular personalities with photos and in-depth feature stories. As managing editor, Myra provided feature writing for more than half the stories, editorial management and revisions for the remaining stories, and coordinated and directed photography, graphic design, and print production.

Concert Association of Florida, Judy Drucker, President, Miami Beach

As public relations consultant for this esteemed cultural organization, our role was to maintain and advance media relations, develop press releases, provide photos, and promote feature stories for local media. We assisted throughout the concert season at media events (such as Pavarotti's Concert on the Beach) and after-concert parties, dinners, and banquets (celebrating stars such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pinchas Zuckerman, Van Cliburn, and Isaac Stern).