Simpli.fi

Erin Strong, Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, BrandMuscle

In this episode of Simpli.fi TV, David McBee interviews Erin Strong, the Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing at BrandMuscle, who has worked with brands such as BMW, Toyota, T-Mobile, Verizon, and many others. They discuss the top tactics utilized in 2022 by local marketers, including social media posting and engagement, email marketing, and paid social advertising. They also talk about the perception of what’s effective and the investment of time and money in in-person marketing tactics versus digital marketing tactics. The discussion provides valuable insights for businesses looking to make the most out of their marketing budget.

Stephon Jacob, Strategic Planner at The Martin Agency

Stephon Jacob, a strategist at the Martin Agency, discusses various aspects of advertising and marketing. Jacob is a graduate of VCU Brandcenter, the top master’s program for advertising and branding in the US. He works on campaigns for clients such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Virginia Tourism, and Santander Bank. According to Jacob, social media is the biggest opportunity in 2023, and he believes it is still slept on. He also discusses the importance of creating interesting ads and using AI to help with content creation. In addition, he stresses the need for businesses to focus on their audience when creating ads and campaigns rather than their internal teams. Overall, Jacob’s insights provide a fresh perspective on effective advertising strategies that businesses can use to improve their results.

Anthony Clarke, Founder of ACC Unlimited

In this interview with Anthony Clarke, founder of ACC Unlimited, a marketing and creative agency, David and Anthony discuss the hospitality and restaurant industry, with Clarke giving insights on why restaurants fail and how marketing can be used to help them succeed. Clarke cites lack of marketing and a poor location as the top reasons for restaurant failure. He emphasizes the importance of understanding what makes each restaurant unique and customizing marketing strategies to suit the individual needs of each business. Clarke recommends using social media to promote restaurants and taking advantage of the fact that food and cooking are popular topics on the internet. He also suggests that content production is crucial and that producing videos and photographs of food is a way to engage audiences and increase reach.

Marcie Cerillo, BrandBlaster Manager – Media Buying Team at Treehouse Marketing

Ann Kraus interviews Marcie Cerillo, a brand awareness marketing professional from Treehouse Marketing. Cerillo works as the BrandBlaster manager for the media buying team, using out-of-home, traditional broadcast, social and programmatic marketing techniques for their clients who work in the area of home contracting. She has over 20 years of experience assisting small to medium clients with their marketing needs. Cerillo discusses her favorite marketing techniques, which include programmatic advertising and the obstacles of marketing for small and medium businesses, such as limited budgets. She also describes Treehouse Marketing’s unique office space, which features cubicles set up in miniature treehouses, and the challenges of managing a growing team.

Sierra Walker, Media Director at The Karma Group

David McBee interviews Sierra Walker, Media Director at The Karma Group, who discusses the importance of media strategy in industries where human encounters and interactions are critical. These industries, such as healthcare and financial services, require a long-term relationship with their customers and a strong sense of trust. Sierra explains how creative storytelling and understanding customer pain points are crucial in persuading customers to make a change. The Karma Group emphasizes honesty in messaging and works with clients to make sure they deliver on their promises. Sierra also discusses being a woman in the media industry and advises other women to seek out companies that align with their values and to not be afraid to speak up and make their voices heard. The Karma Group, a woman-owned agency with 90% female employees, provides a unique and supportive work environment for Sierra.

 Michael Martoccia, Vice President of APG Digital and High Road Digital Agency

David McBee hosts Michael Martoccia, who is responsible for revenue growth, digital audience development, and solutions, partnerships across 125+ brands and markets in 15 states. The conversation covers Michael’s experience of building successful digital sales and advertising teams, revenue growth, and audience development across media group markets of all sizes. Michael advises companies to start creating their own full-service digital agency team internally by finding some folks outside of the company who bring a different mindset and recruiting them. He also discusses his company’s experience of equipping their people in all markets with a digital onboarding program and an agency team that can quickly pull the trigger for any size of business in any state. The agency team has worked with a national Kubota campaign that’s well above six figures in spend and a naval airtime museum in Wyoming with $50,000 in statewide grant money.

Matt Brandenburg, CEO of Brandendo, A Clutch Solutions Company

Brandenburg talks about how Clutch Solutions, an Indigenous-owned and recognized MBE (Minority Business Enterprise), has been successful in offering marketing solutions to different tribes and other larger businesses while Brandendo provides the marketing fulfillment. Brandenburg attributes his success to being okay with failing and choosing to have a positive mental attitude every day. He emphasizes the need to focus on making money instead of past failures.

Lasana Smith, Founder GAROI Media

Lasana Smith, founder of GAROI Media, discusses how her full-service advertising agency focuses on delivering a positive return on investment for its clients, whether it be financial or through traffic or awareness. The company’s secret sauce is research and data-driven strategies that are unique and not intuitive. GAROI Media specializes in multicultural audiences and understands that the Hispanic and Black diaspora are not monoliths, so they break down into subgroups with different dialects and cultures. The agency’s targeting and creative strategies aim to be as granular as possible to reach the right audiences effectively.

Jason Holmes, Founder and CEO of Thrivefuel

David interviews Jason Holmes, the founder and CEO of ThriveFuel, a marketing agency specializing in targeted digital advertising. Holmes discusses how the shift to streaming television and video has disrupted the traditional broadcast model and has allowed smaller businesses to afford video advertising, which was not possible before. With the ability to target specific markets and locations, clients have seen an increase in orders and engagement. Streaming TV also allows for more local ads to be shown, leading to a better viewer experience, and small businesses are finding success in this space, leading to a migration from traditional broadcast to streaming TV.

Matthew Kilmurry, CEO & Founder of Intrinsic Digital

In this interview, David McBee speaks with Matthew Kilmurry, the founder and CEO of Intrinsic Digital, a company that works with over 1,000 apartment, hotel and restaurant locations nationwide, providing a specific geo-fencing approach for each location that helped grow Intrinsic Digital from $900,000 in revenue to over $6.5 million. Matthew’s strategy involves neighborhood-level targeting and custom creative strategies that help his clients find and target where their customers live, work and play in their neighborhoods. Additionally, Matthew shares how he leverages reporting that proves the value of campaigns and keeps his customers coming back.