Sid Mashburn and Ann Mashburn NYC Madison Avenue Opening

Atlanta-based men’s and women’s brands Sid Mashburn and Ann Mashburn opened a new storefront on Madison Avenue in September of 2024. The team brought me in to spearhead the marketing and PR efforts for the store opening to garner local buzz.

As it turns out, my first job was as a retail intern at Ann Mashburn in Atlanta a decade earlier. The Mashburn brand is near and dear to my heart, so I was highly honored when CEO Jean Cho approached me with this opportunity. There is a particular rush with advocating for a brand you know and understand well. I immediately developed a three-tier marketing plan to promote the south-eastern brand to discerning New Yorkers.

First, I employed an influencer strategy. I have extensive experience in influencer seeding, and I know you can’t pick just anyone to represent your brand. The influencers I chose to help promote our store opening were quintessential to the Ann and Sid Mashburn target customers. In our influencer efforts, we secured over 500,000 unique Instagram brand interactions.

Next, I organized an event to get people into the store. We teamed up with Matt Hranek of WM Brown Journal to throw an opening party promoting his new cookbook, A Man and His Kitchen. This event drew in over 250 customers and VIPs throughout the night. The social media coverage of the event was laudable, and the store saw a noticeable increase in traffic in the event’s aftermath.

Lastly, I focused on press coverage. Through my press connections and pitching, I secured feature articles in The New York Times, GQ, and The Robb Report, focusing exclusively on the Madison Avenue store.