Everything Is a Story
Mary Cirincione started out in national security, analysing border threats and disaster response for the federal government, before a master's at Northwestern's Medill turned her into a national-security reporter. The reporter never left. Now Managing Director, US at Propeller Group, the B2B PR and content agency she launched in New York, she treats earned media and executive thought leadership as storytelling first: find the message, simplify it, and make the right audience care. She coaches reluctant founders through their first byline, builds thought leadership that quietly doubles as new business, and guards client retention as fiercely as the next pitch.
I always think back to the thought leader, back to the leadership. I think the news should start with them.
Mary Cirincione is Managing Director, US at Propeller Group, the specialist B2B PR, content, and growth marketing agency for the media, marketing, and technology sectors. She founded Propeller's US business in late 2021 and has since grown it to a multi-person New York operation delivering joined-up transatlantic programmes for clients across advertising, technology, and media.
A proud Georgetown Hoya, Mary graduated just in time for the financial crisis and spent six or seven years in strategic communications consulting for the federal government in Washington, DC. She then returned to one of her original passions and earned her master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School, where she reported from Chicago, New York, and Pakistan. After freelancing for a year, she built a hybrid career blending strategic communications consulting with her journalistic training, eventually moving into PR on the agency side.
Before joining Propeller, she spent about three years as Head of PR, North America, at Getty Images, leading its B2B and B2C communications. A former client, now a partner at Propeller, recruited her to build the agency's US presence from scratch. She launched the New York office and has risen from Vice President to Managing Director, US, growing it into a multi-person senior team serving clients across advertising, technology and media.
At her core, Mary is a reporter and editor who happens to work in PR. She brings a journalistic sensibility to everything from contributed bylines to spokesperson preparation, spending significant time on messaging before any content is created. Her approach centres on simplifying complex ideas for the right audience, using active verbs, first-person voice, and genuine emotion to cut through the noise. She has placed thought leadership content in publications including Fast Company and is a firm believer in LinkedIn as the most powerful platform for B2B executives to build authority and authenticity simultaneously.
There's no substitute for being able to share something in your own words.
First and foremost, I am a reporter and editor at heart. That will never change. One of the things our agency is uniquely able to provide is a journalistic sense or approach to contributed content. These aren't opinions. They should be firmly rooted in experience and expertise.
Mary spent six or seven years in federal strategic communications and then went to Northwestern's Medill to become a journalist, reporting on national security from Chicago to Pakistan. When the industry wobbled she moved into PR, but the reporter never left. It shows in how Propeller approaches contributed content: a byline is not an opinion piece, she insists, but something rooted in experience and expertise, reported and edited with a journalist's discipline. That editorial sensibility is what she thinks sets the work apart, treating thought leadership as craft rather than a marketing exercise.
Always be thinking with every piece of content you put out there, who are you talking to? If this thought leadership made it to the exact audience you want to reach, what would you want them to do? You're giving them a taste of what they could expect from working with you. It's not salesy, but you're almost giving them a preview.
For Mary, a piece of thought leadership is never just broadcast. Before anything is written she asks who it is for, and what she would want that exact reader to do once they finish it. The answer shapes everything, because a well-made byline gives a prospective client a taste of how you think and what working with you would feel like, without ever sounding like a pitch. She will even weave in or tag the brands a client most wants to work with, thoughtfully and a little provocatively. Done right, the content does double duty: it builds authority and it opens a door.
We get them 800 words or so, maybe 600, and they help us get it to 800. They feel like, these people really know me. They've listened to me. And I wouldn't mind having my name attached to this. Then you get that first piece out there and it starts to feel better. That's where you create confidence.
Most executives, Mary has found, do not enjoy writing, so Propeller does the heavy lifting and leaves the last stretch to them. The team will draft six hundred words and ask the client to help carry it to eight hundred, in their own voice and on their own passion points. The effect is that the person reads it back and thinks, they really listened to me, and I would happily put my name to this. That first published piece changes things; the next spokesperson session is easier, and before long they trust the team to turn a quick comment around on their behalf. What she is really giving clients is confidence, built through partnership.
Everyone thinks when you talk about the customer journey it's all about new business and outreach. You need to be focused on retention as well. Especially during an economic situation like this, without retention you can sink yourself very quickly. I place a more significant emphasis on retention.
Ask most people about the customer journey and they talk about new business. Mary pushes back. In a tight economy, she argues, retention is what keeps an agency upright, and she puts more weight on deepening and expanding existing relationships than on chasing the next logo. That is why the in-person moments matter so much to her, the clients who fly into town for a week, the face-to-face conversations, the dinners and panels she engineers around an event. She even tracks them as a measure of success: how many current clients she saw in person, and what those conversations opened up.
Stay close to the conversation.
New leaders and insights. No noise.
Thanks, you're subscribed.
Look out for the next edition in your inbox.