Anne-Marie Aigner, Janet Prensky Radiate Synergy
By Helen Graves/ Feature
Sunday, July 1, 2007
If all partnerships are as fun and successful as Aigner Associates’ Anne-Marie Aigner’s and Janet Prensky’s, then it’s a wonder all businesses aren’t run in tandem.
You can feel their synergy just listening to their take on why their partnership works.
Prensky, who’s senior vice president: “We have an obvious respect and trust for each other. I trust Anne-Marie implicitly.”
Aigner, the president: “That’s not to say that she doesn’t challenge me constantly.”
Prensky: “We’re very up front with each other.”
Aigner: “And we have a lot of fun.”
Prensky: “And we’re not in competition with each other.
Aigner: “And we’re not competing now, although she’s taking all my lines!”
That would be the fun punch line, but there’s more, the serious part of what makes this dynamic duo tick.
Prensky: “I think what’s really important in a partnership is that we have very separate skill sets but they fit each other like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Aigner: “We have very complementary personalities and interests and, honestly, I think we’re very lucky. How many times do you run into someone you can spend this much time with and also make a living doing it?”
Aigner and Prensky have been at strategic marketing for 23 years, although Prensky did take a year’s hiatus for a sports talk radio gig — another anecdote to tell in a series of many.
Both started their careers in broadcast journalism, Aigner as a researcher for CBS, then as a news reporter/anchor at WHDH Radio, WCBS and Channel 7 among others, and Prensky as a late-night radio talk show fill-in host on WBZ Radio and a newswriter at WEEI and WBZ-TV. They met when Prensky was a student in Aigner’s voice class at Emerson College.
“I was let go from my job around the same time that I was having a second child and going through a divorce,” Aigner says. “I had a 3-year-old child at the time so it was obvious that I wasn’t going to chase fires anymore. I did the only thing I knew how to do, and I wasn’t really sure how to do it. I pulled out my Smith Corona typewriter and put it on my little round kitchen table. I had been on the receiving end of pitches, so I decided to try my luck.”
Shortly before delivering her second child in the fall of 1984, Aigner landed her first client, then-developing Charles Square in Cambridge, and so Aigner Associates was born. Realizing she’d need help, Aigner asked Prensky if she knew anyone who’d be interested. Prensky, working the graveyard midnight to 6 a.m. shift, said she had her days free, she’d give it a try.
From the get-go, the partners realized they were doing more than public relations for their target retail clients and the messages they devised. Special events, direct access marketing, community outreach, public affairs, public relations and promotions became Aigner Associates staples.
The principals’ division of duties followed along the lines of their individual strengths.
Prensky is responsible for the PR side of the business and for managing the business itself as well as the staff of eight. She’s the worrier. Aigner does the events, the partnerships and the business development. She’s always glass-half-full.
Their collective nose for news has provided the instinct for finding the client, the story and the upcoming trends, and their connections to the media help get their phone calls answered. Of course, what they do next has ensured their continued success.
“We tend to do a lot more than the client asks for,” Aigner says. “We always say our clients usually hire us for the PR and but then keep us for the ‘everything else’ we do.”
“Sometimes we’re hired to do straightforward public relations,” Prensky says, “and before you know it, we’re doing the media training, we’re creating promotions, we just sense that even though the client wants us for one thing, they can truly benefit from other help.”
Like their early success with Charles Square, a 10-year client, many of Aigner Associates’ other clients represent longtime relationships and a multitude of marketing services.
Five years into their partnership, they took on New England Development, and their work, such as the grand openings of the Emerald Square Mall and CambridgeSide Galleria, had the media dubbing them the “Mall Queens.” When Simon Property Group took over, the mall relationships continued for several years.
Today, clients include Shaw’s Supermarkets, The Pinehills, iParty Stores, Panera Bread, myenergystar.com, Wilder Companies and Mount Auburn Hospital.
How the hospital became a client is, as Prensky says, “a classic Anne-Marie story.” In the emergency room prior to shoulder surgery, Aigner was so impressed with Mount Auburn’s service that she thought somebody should be telling the hospital’s story. She called the then-new CEO, explained where she was and what she was thinking, and set a date to meet. The day of that meeting, however, Aigner was back in the ER, this time with two broken legs.
“So I make the call and say, ‘I’m downstairs again and can’t make the meeting, but you still need PR,’ ” Aigner relates.
Even the principals’ one-year split eight years into the business is turned into an amusing anecdote. WEEI had called Prensky when it became all-sports and asked if she’d do a sports talk radio show.
Prensky: “I went to Anne-Marie and I presented the situation and I said, ‘Our friendship is very important to me.’ ”
Aigner: “As her best friend I said, ‘Take it, Janet.’ I knew she’d regret it later if she passed it up.”
Prensky: “But as my business partner, it turned out she really didn’t mean it.”
Aigner: “She broke my heart.”
Prensky: “We didn’t speak for a year.”
Aigner: “I’m only human.”
Prensky: “When my year was up, I called her up and said, ‘Well, are you talking to me? Do you want to work together again?’ She took her time responding, although I think she was happy I called...”
Aigner: “I was very happy.”
Prensky: “...and she said, ‘Of course.’ She had boarded up my office. I’m not kidding. I came back and said, ‘Where’s my office?’ and she said, ‘Oh, I rented it out.’ ”
Aigner: “Again, I’m only human.”
So you get the gist of the patter you’ll be hearing when their new radio show, Boomer Broads With Attitude, is back on the airwaves after a positive test run on WBIX. Realizing that no one is speaking to the largest, wealthiest demographic in history — boomer women — the business partners have their sights set on a second business that they expect will include broadcast, print and new media. The show will begin airing again in August on Internet radio network VoiceAmerica.
Of course, they’re still gung-ho on continuing with Aigner Associates.
“The business is solid,” Prensky says. “In the old days I was worried, but I haven’t said, ‘Tomorrow’s the day, shut the doors,’ for 15 years now.”
“And we’re continuing to have fun,” Aigner says. “As someone who has done it both ways, the business was fine when I was alone that one year, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. If you’re starting a business, try to find a partner, someone to laugh with. And, then, don’t give up — ever — because it’s the only way you stay in business.”
Radio Gals Have ‘Broad’ Audience
Talk Show Dials Into Female Issues
Friday Oct 20, 2006
By: Jessica Heslam
The Boston Herald
www.bostonherald.comBreaking new ground in an industry dominated by men, sports and politics two local women are hosting a talk show on Boston radio for an audience they say no one is talking to -- female baby boomers.
Called “Boomer Broads with Attitude,” the two-hour weekly program has been on the air for just over a month but it’s already being eyed for syndication.
The show’s hosts and creators are Anne-Marie Aigner and Janet Prensky, who works together at Aigner Associated, a marking agency in Allston founded by Aigner in 1984.
“We scoured the country. You find me another show that is proud to say that their focus is on the 40-plus woman,” said Aigner, who just turned 60. “ We think that this demo is under-served.”
While women over age 40 make up a big, rich, demographic, advertisers are obsessed with catering to the 18- to 34-year-over crowd.
We’ve never been more active. We’ve never had more money,” Aigner said. “We’ve never been more excited about where we are - and nobody’s speaking to us.”
Industry insiders say there’s a growing interest in talk radio programming for women. Oprah Winfrey recently launched her won radio channel on XM Satellite Radio. Jane Fonda and Glorida Steinem recently started GreenStone Media, n national talk radio network for women.
Guests are lining up to get on the program which airs 3 to 5 p.m. Sundays on WBIX-AM 1060.
Both women have broadcasting backgrounds. Aigner is a former radio and TV reporter. Prensky was a sports talk radio host on WEEI.
The sassy, smart duo were inspired to create the show by last year’s Time magazine cover story called “A Female Midlife Crises? Bring It On!” When no one else launched a radio show for boomer women, they decided to do it and approached WBIX, an independent business station.
The pair dish about topics ranging from relationships to health to - of course - hot flashes. “We don’t want to listen to politics and we don’t want to listen to sports and we don’t want to listen to people yelling at each other,” Aigner said.
