MARKETING AND PUBLICITY

SARAH McMULLEN, PUBLICIST/PRESIDENT/OWNER, McMULLEN & COMPANY

With interests in music, acting, and writing, Los Angeles seemed an obvious destination for Sarah McMullen to seek her fame and fortune. “My cousin was already in L.A. working in the music business and she said, ‘Come out to the wealth of creative opportunities in California. You won't be alone. I'll help you.’” McMullen recently had graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English and speech. She had postgraduate writing courses in creative, feature and non-fiction genres, and had done a brief stint at a Dallas advertising agency. She felt ready to take on the world. McMullen started out as an actress. She showcased in little theater productions, then graduated to spokesperson in a long-running television commercial series for a local nursing school, and finally appeared in an American Film Institute production. Eventually, she grew tired of the “struggling” part of being a “struggling actress.” When faced with the choice between waiting tables and a job offer at BMI, she chose the latter. As assistant to a department head, she faked her way through many of her duties. “I had no training in dictation, but I had been memorizing scripts for plays. So when my boss dictated letters, I would pretend to be writing it down in shorthand, but I would memorize them. Of course it didn't always work; I could never remember the important figures he gave me, but because I was a writer, his letters were always beautifully composed.” After a year on the job, her boss retired and McMullen became assistant to the directors of writer relations, where she learned about the business of songwriting and publishing. After three years at BMI, she was recommended for an assistant's job at Planet Records, which proved to be short-lived.

Out of work when her boss was let go, McMullen's business contacts rallied to help her find a job. One of the interviews they secured for her was in the publicity department at RSO Records. On the strength of her friends’ glowing recommendations, and the college writing portfolio she brought along, she was hired as assistant to the vice president of publicity. She learned her craft publicizing the label's monster sound track album Saturday Night Fever and the subsequent career relaunch of the Bee Gees. After being promoted to director of public relations, she found herself out of work once again, when the label closed in 1979. This time, it was her boss that recommended her for a job in the music division of publicists Rogers and Cohen.

Now the account executive over more sedate corporate and theatrical events, she was surprised when rock acts like Wham and Rod Stewart began requesting her services. In 1983, she took on her biggest project to date as publicist for Elton John. Encouraged by the managers of artists she had worked for, McMullen went out on her own in 1985, but when the dust settled, she was left with Elton John as her sole client. Once again, a business contact stepped forward to help. While the two were planning a strategy over lunch, the contact introduced her to an attorney who had worked with Wham. He recommended client Roy Orbison and set up a meeting for that afternoon. Borrowing the contact's office, and quickly making it appear she had been in business there for years, McMullen signed her second client, and landed two more the following week.

For the next few years, McMullen devoted herself to re-establishing Orbison's career; mounting a successful Grammy Award campaign for Jefferson Starship that won album and song of the year honors; publicizing the ongoing career of Elton John, and taking on special fundraising events for clients from her days at Rogers and Cohen. In 1990, McMullen began producing the fundraising events for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the first year in conjunction with World Team Tennis, and the second year as an alternative Oscar Awards night party. At that point, devoting nearly all her time to John's career and foundation, she effectively closed her doors to all but a few long-term clients.

In 1998, McMullen took stock of her life and starting dividing time between Los Angeles and Austin while making plans to eventually relocate. She and John amicably parted ways professionally the following year, but she maintained her position on the executive board of his foundation. She was retained as a consultant to the college of communications for the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, she returned to her earliest interest in music publishing when she joined the Internet entity Supertrack, which protects the interests of songwriters, publishers, and artists by providing secure solutions for the digital downloading of recorded music.

MARK PUCCI, PUBLICIST, PRESIDENT/OWNER, PUCCI MEDIA

In high school, Mark Pucci pursued his three major interests—music, playing basketball, and writing—and dreamed of being a sports journalist. After graduation, he worked for an insurance company by day and took business courses at night, saving up enough money to attend college full time. He earned a degree in personnel administration from the University of Tennessee at Memphis, hung around the city's music scene, and wrote articles for fanzines and various underground publications. A job as music editor for River City Review led to writing and producing radio advertising for regional promoter Mid-South Concerts. He also submitted articles on speculation to national magazines, two of which were published in Rolling Stone.

Through writing local music reviews, Pucci got to know the head of publicity at Capricorn Records, then the home of bands like Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker, and the Allman Brothers. A huge fan of the music, he accepted the job of tour publicist at the label's Macon, Georgia home office in 1974. As the label expanded, he was handling up to 20 bands on the road. He was promoted to department head in 1978, but found himself out of work the following year when the label filed for bankruptcy.

Wanting to remain in the area, Pucci opened Mark Pucci Associates in Atlanta in 1979. Initially he worked out of the offices of a music publisher client, and within two years his business grew and he moved into his own location. Gaining clients through word of mouth, he worked with some of the great alternative bands emerging out of Athens, Georgia in the mid-1980s: R.E.M., Guadalcanal Diary, and Love Tractor, as well as roots and blues musicians like Delbert McClinton, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musclewhite, and Jimmy Dale Gilmore.

Late in 1991, Capricorn Records had reopened in Nashville, and Pucci was brought in as vice president of publicity. He worked with such artists as Hank Williams, Jr., Kenny Chesney, Widespread Panic, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He rose to the position of vice president/general manager of the label, but six months after being promoted, he was let go when Capricorn began having financial difficulties. The same afternoon, he called HighTone Records, with whom he had a long-standing relationship, and secured his first publicity client. He returned to Atlanta in January 1996 and formed Mark Pucci Media. Pucci's firm has handled publicity for HighTone Records, Trainwreck Records, and Blue Bella Records, as well as individual artists on BNA and Columbia labels. His clients reflect his own musical tastes, running the gamut of blues, jazz, R&B, rock, alternative rock, rock-a-billy, hillbilly, country, and alternative country. www.markpuccimedia.com