Kristina McMahon ’96
McMahon oversees marketing for Hearst’s Youth + Wellness Group, which includes Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and Clevver, a YouTube-based entertainment brand.
One of the ways Kristina Stefanelli McMahon ’96 connects advertisers to consumers is by putting on events. For example, during her time as a senior associate publisher at Women’s Health magazine, she launched an annual 10K in New York City that built visibility for the brand as well as for the advertisers sponsoring the race. As an alum who was drawn to Muhlenberg partially for its vibrant arts culture, she sees plenty of parallels between her work and her lifelong passion for performance.
“Producing an event is like producing a show,” says McMahon, who was a history major and dance minor at Muhlenberg. “All the preparation and the work leading up to it is identical. You do all this storyboarding of exactly what you’re going to be doing and figuring out, what is the vision? What is the whole thing going to look like? And how do all these pieces fit together? … It’s not completely the same, but there’s a very artistic approach to everything we do on the advertising and marketing side.”
McMahon oversees marketing for Hearst’s Youth + Wellness Group, which includes Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and Clevver, a YouTube-based entertainment brand. Her team puts together ideas for advertisers that go beyond simply buying ad space. For example, she’s worked on a branded streaming service for workouts, a variety of contests and sweepstakes, branded print and digital content developed in collaboration with editors, collaborations with social media influencers and more.
“How I prepare for things, how I study for things, how I present my best work … all of those skills, I learned at Muhlenberg, and I didn’t even know I was learning them at the time.”
“An important piece of my job is understanding from the advertiser what it is they’re looking to achieve,” she says. “Then, I will go into my bag of tricks and see what I can deliver to them that will meet their objectives but also tap into the brand essence.”
McMahon has spent her entire career in the magazine and publishing space, first as an advertising sales assistant at New York. Her second role, at SELF, introduced her to the marketing and event production side of the business, where she’s remained ever since. She credits her liberal arts education for giving her a strong foundation as a communicator and a lifelong learner.
“Learning how to write and edit and how to formulate your thoughts in an organized way, and tell a story in an organized way, still helps me literally to this day,” she says. “How I prepare for things, how I study for things, how I present my best work … all of those skills, I learned at Muhlenberg, and I didn’t even know I was learning them at the time. I was writing history papers — that doesn’t sound like anything that would be related to what I’m doing today. I think that you don’t even know what you’re learning when you’re learning it. It sometimes could be five years, 10 years or more later that you realize the lessons you learned and the skills you gained through something entirely different are now coming into play and helping you in your current situation.”