• by Larissa Faw , June 2, 2015

MRY is launching “Tuesdays with Toni,” a podcast that examines and discusses Millennial cultural trends. Host Toni Dawkins is an associate strategist and MRY's in-house millennial expert.

The podcast idea stemmed from her regular sit-downs with other MRY employees to discuss millennial Internet trends, memes or technologies. 

The first episode looks at how brands can leverage Dubsmash. Episode 2 looks at how teens on Twitter are trading access to celebrity direct messages. 

This trend-spotting insight serves dual purposes, per the agency. First, it enables the shop to demonstrate its expertise into a desired demographic and secondly, it conveys to potential Millennial workers that this agency understands them. 

"Everything MRY’s marketing team does address retaining and acquiring both clients and staff," says David Berkowitz, MRY chief marketing officer. "This actually started fully on the retention side -- a way to share knowledge here in a fun way that keeps our team’s skills sharp and ensures we are strategically advising our current clients. As the podcast spreads, we want to keep providing thought-provoking ideas for our current and future clients, and it should also help us stand out in a crowded marketplace for younger talent." 

MRY executives realized that others could benefit from Dawkins' perspective, so they encouraged her to pursue the podcast format. Now, each session of 10 minutes or less covers a wide range of topics, but always connects the trend to brands and advertisers to make it relevant to them. 

"I hunt for the most compelling, interesting trend, meme or topic that I’ve observed over the week by scouring my Twitter or Tumblr feeds, talking to my fellow 20something friends, and even chatting with my overly connected 8-year-old brother," says Dawkins. "If the 'kids' are talking about, I’ll talk about it."

MRY is supporting the podcast launch with paid media on MRY’s social channels and even leveraging its own internal influencers and clients to help spread the word. 

So far, only Dawkins and other MRY executives appear on this show. "Since this was born out of casual internal discussions I’d host every Tuesday morning at MRY, we’re starting initially with that same group of people," says Dawkins. "But once there’s more of a following and more episodes under our belt, I’d love to bring in the trend-makers themselves -- whether it be the founders of the hottest new app, or perhaps the tween founder of the next social meme." 

MRY also hopes this podcast will expand beyond its internal fans. "We’ve kept things relatively quiet externally until now, but we’re hoping that people enjoy our perspective on the latest trends and come back for more."