MSI The Agency

10/06/2026

MSI The Agency has been named a 2026 NJBIZ Empowering Women honoree.

The NJBIZ program recognizes New Jersey organizations for tangible work to advance women in the workplace and the community, from recruiting and promoting women to mentorship and community support. Honorees are chosen by an independent panel of judges.

For us, this honor is personal. Monica C. Smith founded Marketsmith in 1999, and we have been 100% woman-owned and independent ever since. We are also an SBA-certified Woman-Owned Small Business.

Thank you to NJBIZ and the judges, and congratulations to our fellow honorees. We look forward to celebrating together at the awards ceremony on November 17.

🔗 https://njbiz.com/njbiz-empowering-women-honorees-2026/

What is one thing your organization does that has made the biggest difference for the women on your team?

NJBIZ honors more than 40 New Jersey companies advancing women through hiring, mentoring, promotions and community initiatives.

09/30/2026

A premium coffee machine launched into a category one enormous brand already owned. Everyone else was competing on price. This one cost more.

MSI did not sell it as a kitchen appliance. We sold it to people who care about coffee the way some people care about w**e.

That changed everything about where the ads ran. Long form television where someone could actually explain what the machine does. Short form to remind people. Search, social, and display underneath. Every placement tested and adjusted.

In the first six months.

$100 million in sales. Ten percent of the category. And during the holidays, growth of 163%.

The product was always good. What changed was who it was aimed at and how the story got told.

Is your product being sold to the people who care most about it, or to everyone?

09/30/2026

Two of our own went back to where it started.

Jyothi Penukonda and John Canlas recently returned to their alma mater, NJIT in Newark, for the Fall Career Fair. They spent the day with students at the Martin Tuchman School of Management talking about internships, first jobs, and what working in marketing looks like today.

For Jyothi, who graduated from MTSM in December 2024, it was a full-circle moment. "Just two years ago, I was on the other side of the table," she said. "It really felt like I was giving back in some way." Students asked her about everything from finance to marketing to AI, and she said the conversations felt like talking to friends.

John noticed how much interest NJIT's new B.S. in Business with AI is drawing. "It's impressive what students have already accomplished by blending real-world experience with AI," he said. He met strong internship candidates and several soon-to-be graduates ready to enter the workforce in the coming months.

They came back with new LinkedIn connections and a lot of confidence in the next generation of marketers. Thank you to NJIT and MTSM for having us, and good luck to every student who stopped by our table.

If you get the chance to talk with students at an upcoming event, take it. As John put it, hearing their goals is inspiring.

09/23/2026

Four ski mountains, run by a public authority, up against national resort companies with much bigger budgets.

They could not win by spending more. So they had to make each visitor worth more.

Website traffic stayed flat all year. 6.4 million visits, about the same as before.

Revenue went up $3.6 million.

Here is how. MSI stopped buying broad ads across whole regions and started buying by drive time, by highway corridor, by ZIP code. We built audiences from people who already held passes, and separate ones to avoid showing ads to people who had already bought. Creative was timed to the weeks when people actually book.

The results, year over year.

Revenue per visit up 11%, on flat traffic. Season pass revenue up 34%. Event revenue up 306%. Single ticket sales up 20%. About $10.95 back for every $1 of media.

Same number of people showed up on the website. They just spent more once they got there.

If your traffic stopped growing tomorrow, could you still grow revenue?

09/17/2026

A few pictures from last night at the Jersey Awards.

Seven wins for the MSI team, across audio, print, out of home, digital, and AI.

🥇 1st Place
Audio & Music, Single Spot (Any Length) — Delaware Lottery Holiday Campaign

🥈 2nd Place
Print & Direct Marketing, Self Mailer — DOBI/GetCoveredNJ Open Enrollment Period
Out of Home Transit, Rail — DOBI/GetCoveredNJ Open Enrollment Period

🥉 3rd Place
Creative Excellence, Creative Use of AI & Emerging Technology — DOC Custody Recruitment Campaign

🥉 Award of Excellence (3rd Place)
Digital Media — "What You Need for Where You Are" Email Marketing Campaign, My Career NJ
Design for Good — "Annual Appeal" Print & Direct Marketing, JBWS
Out-of-Home — "SportsPick" Outdoor Billboard, Delaware Lottery

What we like most about this list is the range. Seven wins across five disciplines, for five different clients.

Thank you to the New Jersey Advertising Club for the recognition, and congratulations to every team honored last night. There was a lot of good work in that room.

To the MSI team: this one is yours. Amazing job, and here is to many more.

What is the best piece of work your team shipped this year?

09/16/2026

A health system had 15 service lines. Cardiology, orthopedics, primary care, and a dozen more. Each one had its own leader. Each one measured success its own way.

So nobody could answer a simple question. Where should we grow next?

MSI put every number in one place. Money, patients, staffing, wait times, competitors, marketing. Then we picked one score that all 15 service lines would be measured by. One score, for everybody.

Here is what happened.

For every $1 spent with MSI, $17 came back in revenue.

Enterprise revenue came in $15.6 million above the year before.

The physician group alone brought in $7.8 million more, running about 12% ahead of last year. In one month it was up 29%.

And the system went from learning how it did every three months to learning in 30 days.

That last one matters more than it sounds. Find out a decision was wrong after three months and you lost three months. Find out in 30 days and you fix it.

How long does it take your team to find out whether a decision worked?

09/11/2026

A retailer's paid search was sliding: rising costs, falling conversion. The obvious move was to cut spend. The evidence showed something else, costs were climbing in branded campaigns while conversion was only falling in non-branded ones.

MSIActivate™ ran against conventional best practice: a bid cap on brand to bring down cost per click, and a tiered, conversion-based structure on non-brand.

The result: a 27% improvement in cost per click and a 36% increase in conversion value. Evidence is worth most when it gives you the confidence to act against the grain.

Is a number in your paid media not behaving? Message us.

09/08/2026

Today on , we're honored to recognize the lifesaving impact of New Jersey's 988 Su***de & Crisis Lifeline and the dedicated professionals who help ensure no one has to face a crisis alone.

At MSI The Agency, we're grateful for the opportunity to partner with the New Jersey Department of Human Services on this important awareness campaign and help share a message that could make all the difference: If you're in crisis, call or text 988 to connect with a trained counselor. In some cases, free, in-person support can come directly to you through Mobile Crisis Outreach Response Teams (MCORT).

Launched last week, this animation we created for NJ DHS reminds us that feeling overwhelmed can affect anyone, regardless of age or stage of life. Whether you're a student, a parent, a professional, or an older adult, help is available, hope is real, and you matter.

09/02/2026

Executives do not lose sleep over dashboards. They lose it over capital: where it goes, and whether it will work.

DecisionOps™ ties every action to a projected, then measured, business outcome, so investment is decided on evidence rather than instinct, with the whole leadership team working from the same reality. Patented attribution proves the total business impact of spend, not the last click.

Evidence your leadership team can sign their name to.

What future are you building, and can you prove your spend supports it? Let's talk.

08/28/2026

A decision that never becomes action is just a slide.

MSIGenerate™ ranks the actions worth taking. MSIActivate™ is how they get done: media, creative, CRM, research, and optimization, executed against the projected result each action was ranked on.

Strategy and ex*****on run off one shared reality, so nothing is lost in the handoff and every dollar answers to a business outcome. Intelligence earns its keep when it produces action.

Sitting on a decision you haven't acted on? Let's talk about executing it: msitheagency.com

Where insight becomes action. Modern marketing solutions designed to drive measurable growth across channels, audiences, and markets.