Outdoor play is beneficial to the health and development of children. This is a reasonable, fact-based statement, and is backed up by everyone from nationally recognized free play advocates to internationally renowned research universities. It’s a simple realization, rooted in visions of kids on playgrounds or asphalt courts, and now expanded across the ambitious expanses…  Read more

Music can be many things for legions of people. It’s the rhythm and blues through days, nights and weekends. It’s a time portal, evoking long-forgotten memories with a single spin. And, as noted in a May 2020 story published by University of Michigan Medicine, it can be a powerful healer. Music therapy—the clinical and evidence-based…  Read more

We’ve got a long way to go. Our partners at Albany Times Union Women@Work have created a national survey examining gender attitudes that shows how far the nation still has to progress in the fight against implicit gender bias. The 2020 Women@Work View on Women poll, conducted by the Times Union in partnership with the…  Read more

In a matter of months, the tone of our country has shifted from the debilitating horror of COVID-19 into an enraged passion for social justice reform. As Americans grapple with the virus and adjust to our new way of life, a much older plague continues to upset our nation—systemic racism. While millions across the country…  Read more

As digital media buyers, it’s second nature to shift quickly and reevaluate projects based on real-time data in order to best spend our budgets as efficiently and effectively as possible on behalf of our clients.  When the world experienced the impact of COVID-19, pivoting and reevaluating was the name of the game. The paid media…  Read more

On June 2, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Western New York’s entrance into Phase Two of the state’s ongoing economic reopening. It was a big step forward in a health and economic crisis unlike any other seen for generations, but it also signaled another forthcoming reality. For tens of thousands of upstate workers…  Read more

In a matter of two months, the entire world has been turned upside down. Office spaces are empty, with floors of staff members working from makeshift home offices. Normal interactions—from simple greetings at the grocery store to informal meetings over coffee—have been replaced with quick glances and necessary cancellations. Large public gatherings? Now a seemingly…  Read more

How did you get started in your profession/the industry? Paul Schmidt: I always knew I wanted to work in this industry. Graduating from Northeastern University with a Communication Studies degree and working on the ecommerce team at Reebok was how I got my foot in the door. From there, I continued my education and attended…  Read more

Let’s begin by swallowing a hard pill: you can’t be prepared for everything. Even as marketing experts, social media requires a balance of being prepared and knowing how to be reactive. How do you react to a global health pandemic as a brand on social media? Unfortunately, there isn’t a guideline that dates past March…  Read more