Key Takeaways:
After a decade in business, most agencies mark milestones by looking back. For Melissa Palmieri Maniscalco, the 10-year anniversary of MP-IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) and its rebrand to MP Connect is something else entirely. It represents a deliberate pause, a reassessment of how the beauty industry now operates, and a strategic pivot designed for where brands are going next.
Founded nearly 10 years ago, MP-IMC was built on a belief that traditional public relations alone was no longer sufficient for modern brands. “When I started, I called it an IMC because I didn’t think just calling it PR was a proper description of where the industry was going even 10 years ago,” Maniscalco explained to BeautyMatter. “I wanted to make sure that it was very clear that we were offering comprehensive services to our clients.”
At the time, those services meant earned media and influencer partnerships, long before TikTok, before Instagram Stories, and before creators became a dominant commercial force. “It was very much trying to be on the cutting edge at that time of what was going on in the industry,” she said. MP-IMC worked with brands at pivotal moments, from early-stage launches to acquisition-ready businesses, helping to define their identity and visibility through storytelling, expertise, and cultural relevance.
That founding philosophy hasn’t changed. What has changed is the industry itself.
A Decade of Change and the Limits of the Old Playbook
Over the years, MP-IMC’s client roster has reflected Maniscalco’s instinct for identifying brands with strong DNA and unrealized potential. From early work with Westmore Beauty, built on the legacy of a Hollywood makeup artist family, to launching LYS Beauty during the height of COVID, the agency’s role has consistently gone beyond press placement.
“What helped to put Westmore on the map was really pairing up experts with brands that didn’t have a talking head,” she explained. “We worked with a lot of the makeup artists to really bring to life their body coverage perfector, showing their flawless skin, and partnering with movie productions.”
However, as Palmieri Maniscalco noted, the environment brands now face is fundamentally different from the one MP-IMC entered 10 years ago. “Gone are the days that you pay a small agency retainer, get some press in a magazine, and people are flocking to the makeup counter. That just does not exist today.” Instead, brands are operating with leaner internal teams, tighter budgets, and a fragmented consumer journey. “You have to have all the lights on, all the boxes checked in order to really get a brand off the ground,” she said. “You can’t just cherry-pick some tactics.”
MP Connect is not positioned as a rebrand for novelty’s sake. Rather, it reflects how Palmieri Maniscalco and her team are already working as a connective hub rather than a siloed service provider. “As this industry has evolved, what we’ve seen is that brands have leaner teams,” she said. “They can make one phone call, one email, and we can help pull all of their needs together collectively with our external partners.”
In practice, that means functioning as a fractional communications and marketing department, assembling best-in-class specialists depending on a brand’s stage, category, and goals. MP Connect works closely with partners such as digital agency Phidel, retail consultancy Crème Collective, and others, as integrated collaborators. “We don’t do the same thing for every single client,” Maniscalco emphasized. “What a brand launching in skincare needs is completely different from a fashion brand rebranding or a beauty brand relaunching.”
From Agency to Connector: The MP Connect Shift
Central to MP Connect’s philosophy is Maniscalco’s insistence on remaining deeply involved in the day-to-day. “One of the things that I’ve learned along the way is it is crucial for me to never step away from the day-to-day of the business,” she said. “If you’re not in the day-to-day of the brands that you’re working with and the industry itself, it’s really difficult to understand how things are working today.”
That ethos extends to Managing Director Jennifer Conlon Pavelchak, whom Palmieri Maniscalco describes as “the ying to my yang.” Together, they balance strategic positioning with pop-culture fluency, a combination that informs how MP Connect approaches creators, experts, and earned storytelling. “Our junior team are the ones that are really the target customer today,” Maniscalco noted. “They bring us what’s trending, what’s cool, what’s hot, what’s not, and because Jen and I are here, we can look at it from a strategic lens.”
The MP Connect model is already being tested in the market. For example, it is piloting an “invite only” social media channel, where they deliver brand news to key writers and editors, landing directly on their social feed rather than their inbox. Equally important, Maniscalco noted, is audience transformation. For the brands it represents, MP Connect is now in collaboration with community-based platforms to drive continuous conversation with creators and consumers, interacting with them where they already are, versus email or crowded social feeds.
“If you look at the numbers, our brand's audience on Instagram has completely shifted based on the work that we’ve done.” For Maniscalco, success isn’t about visibility alone, but about alignment and making sure that brands show up in the right places, for the right consumer, with the right message.
What Stays the Same
Despite the structural shift, some elements remain foundational. Editorial relationships remain a core pillar. “Our editor relationships will always be our gold star,” she said. “We know their teams are lean. We know they’re running all over the place, and we’re constantly still in touch with them on how they’re crafting their stories.”
Creator seeding and organic discovery also remain critical. “There is always the chance that organic coverage will happen, especially with cool products,” she noted. “That’s not going to change.” What will change is the refusal to stay fixed. “We won’t stay stuck in those regular box-checking ways,” Maniscalco said. “We really will evolve and pivot where we need to."
Ultimately, Maniscalco hopes brands see MP Connect not as a reinvention, but as an invitation, one rooted in trust. “I think it’s really important to trust your partners,” she said. “We are going to tell you if something does not feel right. We are extremely honest and open, and we want clients that are going to be honest and open.”
That transparency, she believed, is what unlocks the strongest results. “The clients who have just trusted us and said, ‘You guys know what you’re doing, just do what you need to do’—those have been the most successful campaigns we’ve had to date.”
Ten years in, MP-IMC’s evolution into MP Connect emphasizes a broader industry truth that communications today is no longer about isolated tactics, but about connection between platforms, partners, culture, and consumers. For Maniscalco, the future lies in owning that role fully. And if the last decade is any indication, this next chapter is less a pivot than a progression. It’ll be one shaped by experience, adaptability, and an unwavering commitment to meeting brands exactly where they are.