New marketing rep looks forward to helping businesses build their brands
Published in the November 21 – December 4, 2018 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Char Marrazzo
It’s a sad goodbye and a happy welcome aboard for Life Media Group.
Last month, Char Marrazzo left her position as advertising/marketing director with Gilroy Life to start a new job working at local nonprofit organization Work2Future doing workforce/business development.
The transition went very smoothly with new advertising/marketing director Jessica Ewing stepping into the job serving local businesses and nonprofit organizations to help them connect with the community through the pages of the newspaper as well as our website.
Marrazzo has worked for Gilroy Life since the publication was launched in June 2016.
“The past two and a half years have been so much fun,” she said. “I have enjoyed working with Marty, Robert and Mark (Fenichel), but my true love has been working with local business. An opportunity came up that I just had to take.”
Work2Future helps South Valley residents who are unemployed or under-employed find better opportunities through workshops, career counseling and training.
“I will be working with employers to place these newly trained candidates,” Marrazzo said. “I look forward to seeing all of you in my new role.”
Jessica Ewing
The team is excited that Jessica will be taking her place at Gilroy Life. She has been running the sales team for San Jose State University’s Spartan Daily newspaper and will be graduating this December with a degree in advertising management.
“I love marketing because it perfectly combines different aspects of psychology and business,” she said. “I hope to help local businesses effectively establish a connection with their surrounding community and build a long lasting business to consumer relationship.”
Ewing grew up in the Almaden Valley region of San Jose.
“I still have a lot to learn with my transition from the hustle and bustle life of San Jose to the more down-to-earth South Valley atmosphere,” she said. “My first day when I was interviewing with Marty, we not only ran into someone he knew inside, but before we took two steps out of GVA cafe we were greeted by another couple he knew. It seems that here everybody knows everybody and that is a very pleasant change.”
Ewing comes to Gilroy Life with a significant amount of talent in using the technology of media she gained as a student at SJSU, publisher Marty Cheek said.
“Jessica will bring a fresh perspective to helping local businesses market themselves effectively with her skills in social media and production of content using the latest apps,” he said. “On her first week with Gilroy Life, she’s shown a wonderful enthusiasm for the job — and no doubt Robert and I will learn much from her knowledge in marketing media she gained in her college years.”
One goal for Gilroy Life is to develop the newspaper to bring to readers stories and advertisement that show the South Valley as a region that is united in its unique culture and in various issues and concerns that collectively impact the people of Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill, he said.
Gilroy Life is sent to the mailboxes of nearly 22,000 Gilroy households and businesses through direct mail. They do not offer paid subscriptions but provide the publication free of charge. They see this as a strength in the quality of coverage of Morgan Hill and Gilroy news because they do not select their content in order to “sell newspapers.”
They rely on the support of local businesses and organizations to market themselves through purchasing advertising on our print and website pages.
With Ewing’s help, we hope to continue to grow Gilroy Life into a quality-of-life news source local people can trust and respect.
“We care about the South Valley communities we serve,” Cheek said. “We hope you will partner with us and help us celebrate life in Gilroy in the stories and news that appear every other week in our community newspaper.”
Interested in marketing your business? Contact Jessica at [email protected].
