Marian Salzman
Encyclopedia
Marian Salzman is an American advertising and public relations executive. She is currently president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR
North America and a member of the holding company, Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Executive Committee, with brand reputation oversight for the company and key executives globally. She rejoined Euro RSCG in August 2009, having previously worked for the holding company as executive vice president, chief strategic officer, from January 2001 to October 2004.
, New York
, and spent her childhood in suburban Bergen County, New Jersey
. She attended Brown University
, earning an honors degree in sociology in three years and graduating in 1980. She studied sociology at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
. In junior high school, she participated in a student exchange program and spent several weeks in council housing in West Midlands, England. This experience sparked her curiosity about the way people at all points on the socioeconomic spectrum live.
in 1991, to the creation of Cyberdialogue in 1992, to leverage instant messaging and AOL
chat rooms for social research. According to Adweek
magazine, she was the first advertising professional to use online focus groups.
In the early 1990s, she created and maintained a daily viewer feedback system for Channel One, the in-school television network that started the careers of Anderson Cooper
, Lisa Ling
, Serena Altschul
and Tracy Smith
. She was a key consultant on Esprit Holdings Limited’s 1992 “What Would You Do to Change the World?” campaign, which cast Gwyneth Paltrow
, then a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, in her first ad.
Some of her most innovative work was centered on the teen market, such as creating the National Teen Summit for Clearasil
in 1993; producing several books by, for and about teens; and casting and serving as a creative consultant on Pepsi
’s “It’s Like This” campaign, which ran on Channel One and MTV
in the early 1990s and was an early version of reality advertising.
In 1994 Salzman was the architect of the first “citizens of cyberspace” study, co-funded by Time Online, Atlantic Monthly Online and her company. The study produced a snapshot of early adopters and predicted that America would soon be online.
She contributes trends columns to Forbes.com’s CMO Network, CNBC.com, Adweek and Marketing Week
. She has blogged at pnintelligentdialogue.com and eurorscgprcampaign.com.
Salzman is frequently associated with the word “metrosexual
,” a term that was coined by British writer Mark Simpson. In 2003, as Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide, Salzman was part of the team that included the term in a marketing study. Subsequent to that study, the New York Times published a Sunday feature, “Metrosexuals Come Out,” which quoted Salzman at length, and the story then trickled into news outlets across North America.
In 2007 she talked about how “sleep is the new sex” for the Economist’s annual predictions and forecasted the prime crisis – how the drop in home values would drive consumers away from recreational shopping and toward a “less is more” mind-set.
Since 2007 she advanced the concept of “personal CPM
,” a valuation that expresses one’s influence and ultimately can be put out for sale, similar to the cost per thousand (CPM) measure used by online marketers to evaluate the reach of corporate brands. She blogged about this at Forbes
.com, and influential marketing blogger Charlene Li credited Salzman as the person who introduced her to the idea.
Euro RSCG Worldwide PR
Euro RSCG Worldwide PR is the public relations agency of Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the leading integrated marketing communications agencies in the world. In the United States, Euro RSCG PR provides consumer, business-to-business and pharmaceutical clients with strategic public relations solutions...
North America and a member of the holding company, Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Executive Committee, with brand reputation oversight for the company and key executives globally. She rejoined Euro RSCG in August 2009, having previously worked for the holding company as executive vice president, chief strategic officer, from January 2001 to October 2004.
Early life
Salzman was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and spent her childhood in suburban Bergen County, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. She attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, earning an honors degree in sociology in three years and graduating in 1980. She studied sociology at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is the academic unit responsible for many post-baccalaureate degree programs offered through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University...
. In junior high school, she participated in a student exchange program and spent several weeks in council housing in West Midlands, England. This experience sparked her curiosity about the way people at all points on the socioeconomic spectrum live.
Early Initiatives
Salzman’s early career was marked by the development of new research methodologies, from slumber parties for tweenagers, a project for Levi Strauss & Co.Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Franconia, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business...
in 1991, to the creation of Cyberdialogue in 1992, to leverage instant messaging and AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
chat rooms for social research. According to Adweek
Adweek
Adweek is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1978....
magazine, she was the first advertising professional to use online focus groups.
In the early 1990s, she created and maintained a daily viewer feedback system for Channel One, the in-school television network that started the careers of Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
, Lisa Ling
Lisa Ling
Lisa J. Ling is a Chinese American journalist, best known for her role as a co-host of ABC's The View , host of National Geographic Explorer, reporter on Channel One News, and special correspondent for the Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. She is the older sister of journalist Laura Ling.-Early...
, Serena Altschul
Serena Altschul
Serena Altschul is an American broadcast journalist, well known for her work at MTV News. She is the daughter of author Siri von Reis and Arthur Altschul, a former partner at Goldman Sachs.-Career:...
and Tracy Smith
Tracy Smith
Tracy Smith is a CBS News correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, in addition to reports she does for The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, and "48 Hours Mystery". Smith is a former Channel One News anchor and correspondent. She is married to CBS Sunday Morning producer John D'Amelio...
. She was a key consultant on Esprit Holdings Limited’s 1992 “What Would You Do to Change the World?” campaign, which cast Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
, then a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, in her first ad.
Some of her most innovative work was centered on the teen market, such as creating the National Teen Summit for Clearasil
Clearasil
Clearasil is the top-selling brand of skin care and acne medication, whose products contain chiefly benzoyl peroxide, sulfur & resorcinol, triclosan, or salicylic acid as active ingredients...
in 1993; producing several books by, for and about teens; and casting and serving as a creative consultant on Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
’s “It’s Like This” campaign, which ran on Channel One and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in the early 1990s and was an early version of reality advertising.
In 1994 Salzman was the architect of the first “citizens of cyberspace” study, co-funded by Time Online, Atlantic Monthly Online and her company. The study produced a snapshot of early adopters and predicted that America would soon be online.
Career
- 1992: Co-founded Cyberdialogue, the world’s first online market research company, with partners Jay Chiat and Tom Cohen
- 1993–1995: Director of Consumer Insights and Emerging Media at Chiat\Day
- 1995–1997: Worldwide Director of TBWATBWATBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. The Agency is a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's largest advertising agency holding company. It was founded in 1970 in Paris, France, by William G...
’s Department of the Future - 1997–2000: President, Intelligence Factory, Young & RubicamYoung & RubicamY&R is a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting.-History:...
- 2001–2004: Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide
- 2005–March 2008: Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at JWT Worldwide (member of 12-person worldwide executive committee)
- March 2008–August 2009: Partner and Chief Marketing Officer at Porter NovelliPorter NovelliPorter Novelli is a public relations firm that is part of Omnicom Group. Its original clients were primarily social causes and nonprofit organizations. Today, the company works in crisis management, health care, technology, corporate affairs, consumer marketing, and more. The company has...
(member of 10-person worldwide executive committee) - 2009–present: President of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR North America (member of Euro RSCG Worldwide Executive Committee with oversight for global communications and reputation)
Works
Salzman is author or coauthor of 15 books, including:- Next: Trends for the Near Future (Overlook, 1999)
- Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand (Wiley, 2003)
- The Future of Men: The Rise of the Ubersexual and What He Means for Marketing Today (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
- Next Now: Trends for the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
She contributes trends columns to Forbes.com’s CMO Network, CNBC.com, Adweek and Marketing Week
Marketing Week
Marketing Week is a magazine focused on the marketing industry in the UK. The magazine is based in London.The magazine is owned by the LSE-listed company Centaur Media plc. Among the senior staff are Publisher Sarah Gilchriest and Editor Mark Choueke. Its circulation is approximately 40,000, with...
. She has blogged at pnintelligentdialogue.com and eurorscgprcampaign.com.
Trendspotting and pop culture contributions
In 1998 she highlighted the power of “millennium blue,” a much-talked-about fashion and branding trend for the next few years. That same year, in an interview with Fast Company magazine, she drew attention to “experience collections,” the idea that people are placing less value on material goods and more on personal and professional experiences and skills.Salzman is frequently associated with the word “metrosexual
Metrosexual
Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
,” a term that was coined by British writer Mark Simpson. In 2003, as Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide, Salzman was part of the team that included the term in a marketing study. Subsequent to that study, the New York Times published a Sunday feature, “Metrosexuals Come Out,” which quoted Salzman at length, and the story then trickled into news outlets across North America.
In 2007 she talked about how “sleep is the new sex” for the Economist’s annual predictions and forecasted the prime crisis – how the drop in home values would drive consumers away from recreational shopping and toward a “less is more” mind-set.
Since 2007 she advanced the concept of “personal CPM
CPM
CPM may refer to:Advertising*cost per mille, the advert cost per thousand views*Cost per impression, the online advert cost per thousand views M=1000 in roman numerals so CPM = C=Cost P=Per M=1,000 as in banner advertising you pay for each 1,000 ad views your banner getsProject Management*Critical...
,” a valuation that expresses one’s influence and ultimately can be put out for sale, similar to the cost per thousand (CPM) measure used by online marketers to evaluate the reach of corporate brands. She blogged about this at Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
.com, and influential marketing blogger Charlene Li credited Salzman as the person who introduced her to the idea.
Honors and awards
- Author of War and Peace in the Persian Gulf: What Teenagers Want to Know, selected to be one of the New York Public Library's “Books for the Teen Age,” 1992
- Named one of the “40 Under 40,” Crain’s New York Business, 1995
- Named one of the “Cyber 60,” New York Magazine, 1995
- Honored as one of ten people named in “Job Titles We’d Like to Have” column, Fast Company (magazine)Fast Company (magazine)Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
, 1996 - Named one of the world’s top five trendspotters, VNUVNUNielsen is a global marketing and advertising research company headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Nielsen is active in over 100 countries, and employs some 32,000 people worldwide...
, 2004 - Top awarded futurist/trendspotter (10 out of 10), The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
(U.K.), 2006
- As CMO of Porter Novelli, Salzman was the force behind the creation of jack+bill, a pop-up fashion PR agency, which won the industry trifecta of awards in 2009:
- PR Innovation of the Year, PRWeek
- PRAgency Initiative of the Year, Iron Sabre Award, The Holmes Report
- PR Innovation of the Year, Gold, Bulldog Reporter
Social media expertise
Salzman organized the Pepsico Tweetup (#peptrends) corporate communications twitter event in May 2009, and created TweetToReMIND, a large Twitter-based fundraiser to support U.S. troops wounded while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.Other activities
Salzman sits on the board of directors of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which works to assist injured U.S. service members returning from war. She is an adviser to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership’s M.B.A. program and a member of the mentoring board of Brown University’s Women in Business.External links
- www.eurorscgpr.com
- mariansalzman.wordpress.com
- www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i224997d33ab2d0148fc49a5a9418f090/
- www.americanwaymag.com/marian-salzman-new-york-city-jwt-worldwide-salzman-protégé
- www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/08/mondaymediasection3
- www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/29/society
- www.independent.co.uk/life-style/interview-marian-salzman--the-future-is-in-her-head-1044688.html
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/18/science.business