Marcy Polanco is the Senior Director of Corporate Communications of BET Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB). Polanco is a highly driven executive with a diverse background in Public Relations. She has experience in crisis management, social media, television publicity, consumer, special events, publishing, new business launches and entertainment PR. She has over 15 years’ experience and a high success rate for creating, implementing and executing publicity and social media campaigns with placement in national print, consumer press, broadcast, radio and online media outlets.
As Senior Director, Polanco leads and executes creative press campaigns for all of BET’s music programming and specials, including the network’s most popular original programming shows and mini-series. Polanco has spearheaded media campaigns for both Centric and BET Network’s first music festivals; "Soul Train Awards" in Las Vegas and the BET Experience in Los Angeles, the network’s largest grossing initiatives and mega specials. In her role she serves as key PR advisor to Stephen Hill, BET’s President of Music Programming and Specials and two on-air hosts, Bow Wow and Keshia Chanté. Throughout her time at BET, Polanco has directed communication efforts for the Urban World Film Festival and BET International. Her communication efforts and strategy has resulted in notable placement with influential outlets, such as The New York Times, USA Today, Associated Press, LA Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN, E!, "Entertainment Tonight," "Access Hollywood," and "The Tonight Show," generating millions of dollars of free press.
Early Career
Prior to joining BET Networks, Polanco managed the worldwide launch of "Taina," Nickelodeon’s first series featuring a Latina lead. As Communications Manager at Nickelodeon, Polanco was at the forefront of executing publicity campaigns for Nick Jr.’s popular series "Dora the Explorer," Bill Cosby’s "Little Bill," and Nick’s "Slime Time Live."
Preceding Nickelodeon, Polanco served as an Assistant Account Executive at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, where she worked with new business clients, AT&T, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and a number of other energy and environment based companies. However, Polanco began her productive career in public relations as the Executive Assistant to Richard Edelman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Edelman PR, considered one of the world’s most innovative public relations agencies.
Experience
After 15 years in the business, Polanco’s creativity and "outside of the box" thinking has molded her successful career in public relations. She is a graduate of Le Moyne College and is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS).
Marcy Polanco and her family reside in New York City.
