BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Brandon Forschino from Out of Dust Marketing

Company: Out of Dust Marketing
Website Address: www.outofdustmarketing.com
Interviewee: Brandon Forschino
Short company description: Located in Jacksonville, FL, Out of Dust Marketing & Communication is a full-service online marketing and communication agency. Out of Dust Marketing & Communication exists to help organizations communicate their message effectively and brand that message over multiple types of media. We’re passionate about coming up with solutions that focus on simplicity, practicality, and impact. We adapt how your clients do business to the rapidly-changing marketplace.
What is your favorite advertising campaign that you have created for a client or participated in?: New Single Release for some of my Artists. Using Facebook/Instagram, we created a 30 second video ad with a snippet of their single to the defined audience. From there, led people to listen and presented the streaming platforms of their choice. This resulted in an exponential increase in reach, engagement, and online streams.
How does your marketing strategy change from working with a local advertising client to a national advertising client?: Our process works for any client, local or national. We begin by helping clients overcome their identity crisis. Following that step, we help them identify their audience. Once we understand their identity and audience, we can move to the final step – craft the message and deliver that message to the right channels.

David Sillick
Tell us a little bit about a Out of Dust and what inspired you to start the business and serve special meaning behind the name.

Brandon Forschino
The reason I started the business was actually inspired after successfully starting a business while I was in college. And when I was 18 years old I had kind of drafted up an idea in my dorm room. What later became a social networking application on campuses all throughout the nation and about three years or four years into that we went through a merger acquisition. I got a chance to continue on the marketing and branding side of of that company and I quickly realized you know the kind of passion that I had for building organizations.

David Sillick
So how do you do that. What types of industries or clients do you find as your best clients.

Brandon Forschino
Yeah our best clients and where we’ve seen the most success has to definitely be nonprofits. There’s a lot of stories to tell. Some other industries we really enjoy have been music and entertainment. So those are some of the industries that we have been focused on and specializing in and the services that we really favor are traditional PR and obviously translating that into more of a digital public relations strategy. Social media is as a big platform for us.

David Sillick
So can you share a recent success story.

Brandon Forschino
Absolutely. We’ve had so many and it’s hard to really pinpoint one I think some of the most recent one would be just in the music entertainment industry. One of the things I first proposed to a record label early on was to use digital media as a tool to really reach the right audience and guarantee some streams of plays. What we’ve been able to do recently is work with a couple of record labels and about 10 different artists collectively, we’ve been able to really take some of the music that they’re coming out with and exponentially increase their streams right off the bat.

David Sillick
How do you work best with clients?

Brandon Forschino
Our goal is to create a retainer based relationship which ultimately you know looks at a long term relationship and where we’re really you know constantly going back each month and meeting with our clients and on a weekly basis in contact with them.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Kurtis Loftus from Deck the Chairs

Company: Deck The Chairs
Website Address: deckthechairs.org
Interviewee: Kurtis Loftus
Short company description: Deck The Chairs is a non profit founded in 2013 to fill a void for the Beaches area during the holiday season. DTC promotes the arts and art education through development of a nationally recognized holiday display featuring decorated lifeguard chairs. Jax Beach Deck The Chairs is produced through public/private collaborations with strong volunteer support in an accessible family-friendly environment.

David Sillick
What inspired Deck the Chairs?

Kurtis Loftus
For whatever reason, about eight years ago we had no Christmas in Jax beach. I mean the place went dark and I’m talking no lights anywhere. The following summer I was running on the beach and looking at lifeguard chairs, one every half mile, and the lifeguard chair was hitting me as a beautiful symbol for Jax beach. Thinking back on the Christmas before and imagining what we could do in a decorative way, displaying those lifeguard chairs and putting something together for a Christmas event.

David Sillick
How do you keep the momentum going with it being an annual event?
Kurtis Loftus
A great question and I didn’t do a good job in the beginning. The first thing I had to do is just figure out how to run a nonprofit. We did that work a couple years, growing slowly and making mistakes. I did some more things with marketing. I mean I bought traditional marketing and that’s expensive. We still are learning the whole social media business. It’s kind of interesting. It’s interesting to look at last year and what we do with social media and what I started to do earlier in the year with the story of deck chairs. But simultaneously this big cultural experience that we’re putting on in the park that’s free

David Sillick
So what’s your biggest challenge and what are your pressing needs?

Kurtis Loftus
The bigger one is keeping the event fresh. We have a huge park space and we’re lighting you know lots of trees lighting space and we want the exhibits better. So you have to encourage people to invest a little more time and energy. And then there’s a whole build and decorate aspect, it’s a lot of fun.

 

BluHorn TV – “Digital Champions” with Jim Walker from CloudHesive

Each week on Digital Champions, our host Mike White talks to experts in the technology industry. This week, Mike talks to Jim Walker from CloudHesive. CloudHesive was founded in 2014 by veterans in the cloud computing space and provides helps our customers adopt and grow their use of the public cloud through consulting and next generation managed services with a focus on Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency and Cost Optimization. CloudHesive’s services help companies reduce their operating costs and increase productivity while improving their cloud security posture by deploying their mission critical workloads onto the CloudHesive Fabric. To learn more, visit cloudhesive.com

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Austin Van Horn, Direct Response Consultant

Each week on 5 Minutes with, our host Mike White talks to experts from the media industry. Today, Mike talks to Austin Van Horn who is a direct-response consultant. Austin has learned the ins and outs of the media industry over the course of his career, spanning decades. Today, we invite him on the show to pick his brain.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Chris Searles from Searles Graphics Inc.

Company: Searles Graphics, Inc.
Website Address: https://www.searlesgraphics.com
Interviewee: Christopher Searles

Short company description: 2 companies, Searles Graphics does commercial print and graphic design, Searles Media is our agency arm that handles planning, buying, and digital media.
In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?: That it won’t really change. Marketing is about effective storytelling – it always will be. Yes, the mediums we use to tell those stories change frequently, so trying to predict those changes is an exercise in futility, but they don’t shift as fast as we’d like to believe. TV advertising still works, direct mail is as valuable as ever (maybe more-so), and the cost of digital marketing is on the rise while reach on most of those platforms decreases. Doubtful many felt that would be the case 10 years ago. It’s more important to understand what your story is and who it resonates with, and then find the places that allow you to most effectively communicate with your audience in a genuine way. Jumping on the next medium bandwagon and abandoning what’s working for you now is a quick way to lose your audience. There can be a lot of value in early adoption, but there can be a lot of wasted time too.
What percent of your advertising service offerings does media buying make up?: Very little, we primarily focus on creative.
When buying media, what percent of your advertising investment is spent on traditional media and how much of your advertising budget is spent on digital advertising?: For ourselves it’s probably about 70 / 30 if you’re looking strictly at buys, however we dedicate a lot more time to our digital outlets than traditional which would skew that ratio in the other direction.
Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?: We often find owner-operators and/or internal personnel get too enamored with their own company and have a hard time removing themselves from that role to view their organizations objectively as an outsider. Hiring an agency helps cut through they hype to bring an objective perspective.

Wes Benwick
When did you open your business and why did you open?

Chris Searles
Searles graphics actually was the original company and has been in business since 1974 been around for about forty five years now. And so we started as a commercial print company. But with that we kind of very early on got into graphic design and we are now getting into the digital side.

Wes Benwick
What are your thoughts about digital. Is it an effective form. Is it the future form. Are we going to forget about the days of broadcast years from now?

Chris Searles
I mean I think in terms of you know if you want to compare digital versus traditional, if you want to call traditional or digital versus print. I mean digital certainly is not going anywhere. I think that that print is still going to be around for a long time. I mean really there’s there’s nothing that has kind of replaced that tangible connection that you can make with a brand by just being able to hold something. You know the tricky part of digital is it just it has the ability to change very frequently and it does. So trying to keep up with that and stay current with that I think is the challenge that a lot of people have and especially a lot of small businesses and small business owners that don’t really consider themselves very technical.

Wes Benwick
Do you think it’s best to be an early adopter and jump on the latest newest digital social whatever platform or tech there might be?

Chris Searles
I mean follow quickly is I think it’s good advice. You know the being the first person there has can have some really really huge benefits. I mean if you think about if you were one of the first Twitter users and you were able to build a following that way. You know there’s there’s a lot of advantages. Same thing with Instagram. The problem is there are how many other platforms like that that either don’t go anywhere or went somewhere and then just disappeared. I mean you think about how many people spent time building a vine following and where where has I’ve gotten them today.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Sharon Miller Extend Marketing Partners

Company: Extend Marketing Partners
Website Address: www.extendmp.com
Interviewee: Sharon Miller

Short company description: We are a full scale digital marketing company with a grow with Google partnership. We under stand it all starts with Google.
How does your marketing strategy change from working with a local advertising client to a national advertising client?: With a small business we normally start with making sure they have a strong Google presence and build out from their. With a large client we will have an in depth meeting to understand thier wants, needs and budget. Then we build out a pitch and proposal.
How do you define success?: Success comes from helping our clients grow. For some the growth is in new business and for other the growth comes from having a more attractive presences online so their existing client base has a positive experience when engaging with them.
The biggest change that your predict will happen in marketing in the next 5 years is what?: That marketing will continue to become more and more digital and staying ahead that growth.
Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?: A company’s job is to be great at what they do and for most marketing takes a back burner. Our job is to be great at marketing for our clients. We have a team of employees constantly understanding what is going on in the marketing world so we can take that burden off their shoulders.

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

Mike White
So tell me a little bit about the background of Extend Marketing Partners and how you guys got started.

Sharon Miller
So Extend is actually four different businesses that recently came together back in May. So all of us had our own independent businesses and did a lot of work together and just decided that it made sense to be one big business versus four small ones.

Mike White
What are the biggest changes that you think are going to come to the digital industry.

Sharon Miller
I think right now one of the biggest things we’re seeing is the Google My Business page. Google has made a significant amount of changes to that in the last 18 months.

Mike White
The page is becoming such an important part of a business’s way of marketing. Number one I mean Google’s over ninety four percent of every search done every day. And you know Google Maps is just increasing in search. So if you don’t have an or take the time to make that Google business page listing be the best representation of your company. You’re really missing out.

Sharon Miller
Well I appreciate you joining us on the program today to find out more about Sharon and her company visit BluHorn.com and Sharon. Thank you for joining us on five minutes with today.

BluHorn TV – 5 Minutes With Susan Walsh from Sales Link Inc

Company: Sale-Link,Inc.
Website Address: www.sales-link.net
Interviewee: Susan Walsh

Short company description: Changing the sales role by taking a grass roots rather than a top down approach. Traditionally, sales always commanded the high pay, the high clout when in fact many hunters (also known as lead generators) are the ones carrying the heavy load, bringing in the new business.
How does your marketing strategy change from working with a local advertising client to a national advertising client?: We are an international company.
How do you define success?: Blowing up the “norm”.
The biggest change that your predict will happen in marketing in the next 5 years is what?:That marketing tools and processes will replace traditional sales.

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

Mike White
Good morning. Tell us a little about what you provide customers.

Susan Walsh
We provide our customers with an opportunity to gain more business and we do that by bringing in tools to them so that they can learn to use the tools.
Mike White
What is kind of your rebuttal on why they need to bring you in as an outside contractor or vendor to assist their business and sales.

Susan Walsh
I first asked them, Did you make your sales numbers and then they always say no. We always want more. And so then the next thing I do is I ask them what is the relationship like between sales and operations. I start asking those important questions that can help you see if the company is sales centric.
Mike White
How are you advising businesses to stay ahead of the shift.

Susan Walsh
First I’m advising them that they always have to be ahead of it. And I have recently been doing some talks about how the industry is changing with social media with videos with ways that customers can learn about you before you’re even talking with them. The email campaigns of the past, even though you still have to do them, they aren’t enough. I always tell them there’s a three hit process. It’s got to be email campaigns, it’s got to be a call center, and then it’s got to be Linked In.

Mike White
What sets you apart from the other companies that are doing similar tactics.

Susan Walsh
I really appreciate that question because there is something key with our tool called form of VDI. It’s an information system we has a half a million texts in our system and we have 15 people in our back office that keep that data fresh and clean. So you will not find another organization, another company like mine, that has the information readily available so that salespeople can access it. We’ve got 21 years, three million dollars into the system, and it’s ready to go and sales people can access it tomorrow and get going on creating new business opportunities so that’s our key differentiator.

Mike White
Well Susan thank you very much for joining us on the program today. If you’d like to find out more about Susan’s company and Sales Link, visit us at BluHorn.com. We look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Daniel Burstein from MECLABS

Company: MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute
Website Address:  https://meclabs.com/
Interviewee: Daniel Burstein
Short company description:
Here are some FAST FACTS about the MECLABS Institute:
– Built the first and now oldest conversion marketing research program in the world
– Publishes through MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments
– Pioneered the conversion industry, established its concepts and principles, and launched the first certified courses in the field

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

Mike White
Welcome back to BluHorn TV. I’m Mike White. Joining us today my co-host David Sillick and remotely from Jacksonville Florida we have Daniel Burstein with MECLABS. Welcome to the program.

Daniel Burstein
Thanks for having me.

Mike White
On Five Minutes With, we focus on different industry leaders to really talk about tips and trends. Tell me a little bit about MECLABS to start off.

Daniel Burstein
We’re a research institute dedicated to finding out how you can get more customers to say yes while we make the choices we do. We’re doing it over 20 years. We have some patented methodologies around it and we also publish what we learn.

David Sillick
Tell us more about Marketing Sherpa.

Daniel Burstein
So if you’re Marketing Sherpa, as the name suggests, we try to be alongside of marketers and help them make that difficult climb up to successful marketing tactics, successful marketing campaigns.

Mike White
So a typical customer that would come and hire MECLABS, who are the main targets?

Daniel Burstein
We work with companies of all sizes. Start ups, major companies, Fortune 500 companies I think really the biggest commonality is they’re looking to improve conversion.

Mike White
What do you see some of the biggest trends going on with data collection digital that’s going to affect the industry in the next two years.

Daniel Burstein
So I think you know companies are overwhelmed. On the one side they’re overwhelmed they’ve got all this data and they don’t know how to make sense of it. And so the biggest thing that they can do is really find separate the wheat from the chaff.

David Sillick
What single piece of advice would you give to someone that was asking for it.

Daniel Burstein
Well the biggest piece of advice is you only succeed by putting the customer first. So we spend so much time with our own products our own brands, we get so attached them. We are so passionate, we know Web sites as well, we have to ask ourselvescan we do to step out of our own minds where our own brands really look at it in a customer centric way.

Mike White
Well I appreciate you coming on the program today and speaking with us! To find out more about MECLABS and head over to BluHorn.com. We look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Mary Jo Van Horn from Van Horn Media “Drama in the Workplace”

Company: Van Horn Media, Inc
Website Address: https://maryjovanhorn.com/
Interviewee: Mary Jo Van Horn

Short company description:
As a Media Buying Expert turned Life Coach, Mary Jo Van Horn helps business owners and professionals significantly decrease work-related stress and increase creativity and productivity.

In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?:
The shift from “fear and scarcity” messaging to “creative and positive change” messaging.

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

Mike White
Welcome back to BluHorn TV on Five Minutes With, we have a guest coming back and joining us today is Mary Jo Van Horn from Bismarck, North Dakota. Mary Jo is with Van Horn media and is a media buyer transitioned into a life coach that helps business owners, CEOs, executives, eliminate stress and handle different things in the workplace. Today we’re going to talk with Mary Jo about how to handle workplace drama.

Mary Van Horn
Thank you Mike.

Mike White
So, workplace drama. Tell me a little bit about how you come in and help coach CEOs and executives to be able to reduce this in the workplace.

Mary Van Horn
Sure. So we’re all aware I think of workplace an office drama. The employees complaining, gossiping, maybe flying off the handle with some angry outbursts, and how that can really slow down or even shut down at times the creativity and the productivity at work. And what’s important to note is that the thing that they are complaining or gossiping or fighting about that they think is at the heart of the matter is almost never at the heart of the matter. And what I can do for you is as help get to what that real root cause is. And it’s almost always this old stuck thought pattern that’s playing this endless loop you know in the back of their mind. And so getting to that and becoming aware of what they’re really thinking and what they’re really feeling is the first key to letting it go.

Mike White
So a lot of times of executives CEOs and people who are managers will look at an employee and think that are bad apple and need to move them aside. But in the case it might just be dealing with some of their stress points and being able to coach them out of it. Is that possible that takes someone who an executive thinks might be a bad apple and actually bring them back on track.

Mary Van Horn
Oh absolutely. And not just like you know what you would consider a bad apple but perhaps an employee that lacks self-confidence or lacks some self-esteem. Right. And it really is to get to that root cause and and becoming aware of that and then helping them to see the untruth.

Mike White
So is this like an intervention where you come into a meeting together with the employer and employee or how does this this work?

Mary Van Horn
It kind of depends on the circumstance and what’s really going on with the employee or the team or the client and the employee. So it can be a combination perhaps first working one on one. That’s where I found I get the the most compelling and best results is first working one on one with that individual and then it can we can bring in some of the other members and kind of guide them through a new process in a new way of thinking and communicating.

Mike White
What happens if the issue lies with not necessarily the employee but their manager. How do you handle a situation like that?

Mary Van Horn
Absolutely. So in that case I would do the work with the manager as well. So if if it’s showing up right in the manager’s world so to speak I will always work or always recommend that we work with all individuals involved in this situation.

Mike White
Excellent. Well Mary Jo if they want to find out more about your coaching services and how you can help eliminate the stress as well as the drama from the workplace where is someone gonna go?

Mary Van Horn
You can go to my website maryjovanhorn.com. You can also find and connect with me on LinkedIn also at Mary Jo Van Horn.

Mike White
Well Mary Jo thank you again for coming on the program it’s a pleasure as always. And to find out more about Mary Jo visit our Web site or visit BluHorn.com. We look forward to having you as a guest and look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Mary Jo Van Horn from Van Horn Media “Handling Stress”

Company: Van Horn Media, Inc
Website Address: https://maryjovanhorn.com/
Interviewee: Mary Jo Van Horn

Short company description:
As a Media Buying Expert turned Life Coach, Mary Jo Van Horn helps business owners and professionals significantly decrease work-related stress and increase creativity and productivity.

In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?:
The shift from “fear and scarcity” messaging to “creative and positive change” messaging.

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

Mike White
Welcome back to Five Minutes With on BluHorn TV. I’m Mike White and on Five Minutes With we interview business executives advertising people in the industry all over the country to talk about industry trends hot topics and what’s going on. Joining us today remotely from Bismarck, North Dakota Mary Jo Van Horn with Van Horn media. Welcome to the program.

Mary Jo Van Horn
Thank you Mike. I’m happy to be here.

Mike White
Tell us a little bit about Van Horn media and some of the services you provide clients.

Mary Jo Van Horn
Well as a former media buying expert turned life coach, my services today focus on helping people deal with stress, with office drama, and with bringing their life’s purpose into their work.

Mike White
So let’s talk about stress. I’m on my third team meeting today. The employees are running around like crazy. I’ve had nine cups of coffee. I got to the office at 4:45 and I’ve got a meeting at 6:00 p.m. tonight. So how can you help me cope with my stress.

Mary Jo Van Horn
Absolutely. You know for most people the stress shows up just you know with that type of a schedule. For me personally, the biggest way stress showed up for me was in trouble sleeping and high blood pressure and neck and shoulder and back pain. You know others will have maybe those symptoms plus headaches or migraines. All of which are symptoms that that can really distract you from doing your best work, from serving your clients at at your highest level. And what most people think is that stress is circumstantial. But what I’ve found is that the root cause of stress is an old thought pattern that’s kind of playing like this endless loop in the back of your mind, mostly subconscious. And so when we get to that thought pattern and you become aware of that that’s the first step to being able to let it go.

Mike White
How can you help me from Bismarck.

Mary Jo Van Horn
I work virtually using the zoom video platform. So as long as you have internet and a device we’re good to go.

Mike White
So some tips and advice if someone doesn’t engage you but wants to do a few tips or tricks on their own to eliminate alleviate I guess alleviate their stress points. What’s a some advice you would give them?

Mary Jo Van Horn
Best advice I can give is to just, as best you can, try to become conscious of the thoughts that you’re thinking. Those things that trigger you, when you feel your body tense or you feel some of those symptoms coming on, start telling yourself the truth about things we often make situations so much worse in our heads than what they really are. And to just like give yourself a few minutes to just take some deep breaths know that everything is going to be okay and keep moving forward.

Mike White
Mary Jo if someone would like to talk to you and have a consultation. Is that a free consultation or how do you engage.

Mary Jo Van Horn
Yes there actually is a free consultation on my Web site page, maryjovanhorn.com. There is a stress management free consultation that you can book right from that Web site page.

Mike White
Well Mary Jo it’s always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for joining us today. And thank you for watching us on BluHorn TV. For more information visit BluHorn.com. We look forward to seeing you next time.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Jordun Paster from the American Marketing Association

Each week on “5 Minutes With,” Mike White interviews media experts. This week he sits down with Jordun Paster from the American Marketing Association (gojarrett.com). The American Marketing Association focuses on providing marketers around the world with industry updates and also partners with large companies to provide the collegiate chapters a project to complete.

Company:  American Marketing Association

Website Address: gojarrett.com

Interviewee: Jordun Paster

 How does your marketing strategy change from working with a local advertising client to a national advertising client?: When working with a local advertising client, we tend to focus more on community events, website optimization, social media tactics, email marketing, and trade shows. We have never worked directly with a national advertising client but if we did, we would focus more on paid advertising. As in Google Ads, TV Commercials, etc. Also focusing on increasing brand awareness with the social media accounts.

How do you define success?: Success is hard to define because everyone has their own opinion of what being “successful” is. My opinion of success is being able to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you are giving every ounce of effort you have into whatever it is that your doing. Ones idea of success could be providing for their family, thriving in your current position, winning Fortnight tournaments, etc. There are endless scenarios to what one can call a measure of success.

The biggest change that your predict will happen in marketing in the next 5 years is what?: I think one big change that will happen in the marketing world is increased consumer visibility to their own data that marketers collect. Making the consumer feel better about what data is being tracked and stored will lead to more trust and ultimately more brand loyalty (depending on the data that is being collected).

Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?: I love this discussion! It is important for a business to hire an outside ad agency opposed to having just an internal marketing director because your business will have a TEAM of trained industry experts working with your resources opposed to one person/small team working with the resources. Also, An ad agency most likely has a deeper network of people that can assist in the marketing strategies. Picking between the two would come down to how much resources you have set aside for marketing purposes and also, what you plan to achieve with your marketing strategy.

Mike White
Welcome back to five minutes with on BluHorn TV, a program where we talk about the changes in marketing advertising and the people who are running agencies as well as in marketing. Today, joining us remotely, we have Jordun Paster who’s the president of the American Marketing Association at Kent University. Welcome to the program!

Jordun Paster
Thanks for having me.

Mike White
So we’ve interviewed people at the beginning of their career, the end of their career, right in the middle. So you are at right at the very beginning. You are what year at Kent State?

Jordun Paster
I am gonna be a senior going into this year.

Mike White
What made you want to go into marketing.

Jordun Paster
So I actually started off as a business management major and I took a principles of marketing class and realized how much more fun and hands on marketing is compared to the business management courses. As I progressed through my coursework, I just started to fall in love with it even more.

Mike White
Tell me about your experiences getting involved with the American Marketing Association.

Jordun Paster
So one of the former presidents came into one of our classrooms and gave a recruitment speech and I thought, I’m not really a part of any organizations, I don’t really have any interest in joining a fraternity. So I was like I might as well just kind of show up to the meeting. I showed up to the meeting realized all the benefits I had to offer kind of got an idea of what was going on during the meetings and how it could help me grow as a professional. And that’s kind of how I got into the American Marketing Association. And then from there I just started kind of getting more involved. I got a position as a director of research and did a huge case study for the Wall Street Journal for the American Marketing Association which like a little competition. And then when the former president left I got nominated as president and got it.

Mike White
So as you go through and you’re seeing different changes happening in real time and marketing, looking ahead five years what do you think the biggest changes that are going to come within the marketing industry.

Jordun Paster
That’s a good question. So it’s kind of a stretch here but if you had to ask me I think it’ll be a lot harder for companies to collect data. With all the privacy issues going on so many different controversies. I feel that the rules and regulations for collecting consumer data will be a lot more regulated and a lot harder to obtain.

Mike White
What services would you provide in your own business?

Jordun Paster
So I’m actually writing out a business plan. Me and one of my buddies from college are going to focus on smaller companies that aren’t really up to date with their websites yet and kind of go in there and create a better or more optimized Web site for them and then teach them how to track data on that Web site and how to make decisions based off that data.

Mike White
So once you’re in business what’s your exit strategy.

Jordun Paster
So I’d like to keep it going for as long as I possibly can and continue to help out the community and kind of help businesses out build relationships. I would say my ultimate goal in life is to become a professor at a at a university. After I get my undergrad I’m gonna go get my MBA and then a few years after that once I kind of get more practical experience in marketing I want to get my HD and teach graduate level courses while also running my own business.

Mike White
Well it sounds like you’re very ambitious. Thank you for joining us on the program today. To find about more about Jordun and the American Marketing Association at Kent State University, visit BluHorn.com We look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Mike Osborne from MediaMobz

Each week on “5 Minutes With,” Mike White interviews media experts. Today he sits down with Mike Osborne from MediaMobz. MediaMobz and its GLXStudio Platform enable businesses to easily and quickly communicate their message internally and externally using video.

Website Address: mediamobz.com

Interviewee: Mike Osborne

 In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?: Marketing will be more experiential instead of promotional

What percent of your advertising service offerings does media buying make up?: We don’t directly do Media Buying – we enable the rapid curation of content that can be used in Media Buy

Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?: Outside agencies have reach and capabilities that most internal marketing groups don’t have

Mike White
Welcome back to five minutes with on BluHorn TV where we find industry experts and talk about what’s coming up and what changes in marketing are going on. Joining us remotely from Denver Colorado, we’ve got a digital executive that comes in and helps provide production and a whole lot of other fun stuff, Mike Osborne with MediaMobz. Welcome to the program.

Mike Osborne
Thanks Mike. Glad to be here.

Mike White
So tell us a little bit about MediaMobz and your background.

Mike Osborne
Yes. So MediaMobz is a five year old company. About two years ago, we did a pivot from being a services organization, where we used our platform with larger companies, to turning it into a software as a service to enable more and more people to utilize the tool suites that we had created that allow you to quickly edit content and curate additional content as well as collaborate and find professional shooters and animators and others if you need those services.

Mike White
So you provide other marketing departments and ad agencies the opportunity to utilize your software to provide great content for the clients?

Mike Osborne
Yes. So we built the tools with the idea being that instead of needing to go to the video edit creative department for every piece of social content and for every piece of campaign content that that a group wanted to do, you could curate based on those larger programs quickly with our drag and drop utilities and the software as a service platform that we’ve created that makes it so that anybody can quickly edit professional content.

Mike White
Where do you see content going and marketing changes over the next five years from your experience and what you’ve been seeing in the trends in the industry.

Mike Osborne
Well there’s kind of two phases with that. One is there’s a lot more that’s going to be kind of what I call self curated content. So it’s you know the the middle line semi-professional creation is going to be replaced with more raw with more individual driven content. But more importantly I think that the content is going to be it’s going to fall into an experience all category more of a edutainment if you will you know where it’s going to get the message across. But it has to be something that drives some type of of learning or interest level for people beyond just advertising.

Mike White
So when a company comes on and uses other SAS companies what is important for them to know when researching a software to add on to their service offerings their clients.

Mike Osborne
Well it’s really important for them to understand what they get for what they’re buying. To make sure that that there’s not a lot of of kind of buried fees and charges because as a SaaS company you’ve got everything’s cloud based which means there’s storage and bandwidth in all of these other elements. So first and foremost make sure you’re not going to get into something that’s going to cost you far more than your budget allows. And second make sure that when they say it can be used from anywhere that in fact it works on tablets and and operating systems like you know whether it’s IOW Mac OS Windows.

Mike White
What assurances do they have that that person is qualified. What kind of research or test projects do you do with those vendors.

Mike Osborne
Yeah so for everybody who joins the marketplace for us, having spent the number of years I spent in production, we have a vetting process that they have to go through. They’ve got to provide a reel to me, I’ve got to be able to see previous professional work. we do in an on camera interview. Because at the end of the day they are carrying our flag.

Mike White
Well I appreciate you joining us today on the program and to find out more about media mobs and Mike’s company business go to BluHorn.com. We look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

Media Buying Software

After brainstorming and deciding what media outlets align best with your company and advertising style, the only thing left to do is buy! While media planning and buying typically happens consecutively, BluHorn ensures a smooth transition for you or your team.

What’s the difference between Media buying and media planning?

The main difference between the two is media planners select and test different medias to pair with a customer’s marketing strategy. On the other hand, media buyers negotiate media prices, rates– and affordability in order to purchase media, which is then used to advertise a company or their product. Media buying includes strategic and correct placement of ads, in addition to researching future potential ad placements. The role of media in advertising is almost mandatory; without media, there is no advertisement.

Media planning plays a large role in the media buying process. It ensures that before buying, customers are satisfied with their choice of media. It allows media planners to research, gather, sort, and analyze media outlets. This is ultimately the most crucial aspect of the advertisement process. It sets the foundation for media buying later on down the road.

Many companies create software that focus solely on media planning. However, BluHorn is one of the few that emphasize services for both media planning and buying, canceling confusion and saving the pockets of customers.

So, what IS media buying?

Media buying is simply taking a commercial, billboard ad, newspaper ad, or other sales message and making sure it is exposed by an audience. In this day and age, the list of media available to use seems almost infinite. Due to the exponential growth of the internet, many other types of digital media is being utilized for advertising. Including social media, email marketing, Pay-Per-Click, YouTube/video ad, and more. Fortunately, BluHorn is compatible with most media outlets to give customers a wide variety of options to choose from and test what works best for their company. Our software also allows customers to see what mediums will work for them and those that do not necessarily fit their goal.

Okay, so why should I choose BluHorn for my media buying and planning?

BluHorn is a great choice if you are looking to manage budgets, track your spending, and maximize resources. Our software is not only modernized and continually updated, but we also pride ourselves in being wicked fast and reliable (not to mention our super customer service).

 

“I chose BluHorn because it actually is a process that fits within what I’m used to seeing as far as planning media and buying media. It’s very dynamic. The great thing about BluHorn is their customer service. I like the open source of the product. The customer/user experience is considered in the evolution of the product.” –Brenda Bowman

 

BluHorn knows that there is always room for improvement. We allow suggestions and feedback to better serve our customers and potential customers. We want to ensure that your media buying process is both commendable and effective. BluHorn offers many opportunities and capabilities that are always made available to our users.

We understand that searching for ad placement and compatibility can get tedious and overwhelming. BluHorn was created by media buyers for media buyers, so we know all your struggles and frustrations. That’s why we have made it easy for you to try our software first-hand so you can see how life-changing it really is.

We not only look at the data and numbers, but we also take into consideration the impact of your advertisements and that your money is being used for what it should be. BluHorn wants to be sure that your product and advertisements are performing at the highest efficiency possible. Customer and product satisfaction are equally important to us. We want your confidence in us to be as strong as your confidence in your business, project, or product. In our software and services, we provide Brand strategies, data analytics, advertising campaigns, content marketing, and advanced technology, which are all designed to help achieve your end goals.

 

We’re always here for you!

BluHorn is always willing to work with customers as they continue to learn the software along the road. We know that it can sometimes be difficult to learn new software on your own so we are always available to help. You’ll benefit by using our software by saving time and money. Start by taking our software for a 14-day test drive and see how it can benefit you.

 

BluHorn TV “Five Minutes With” Mary Jo Van Horn from Van Horn Media, Inc

Company: Van Horn Media, Inc
https://maryjovanhorn.com
Interviewee: Mary Jo Van Horn

As a media buying expert turned Life Coach, I help Ad Agency Owners decrease stress and increase productivity.

In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?:

Channeling fear and scarcity into creative and positive change.

When buying media, what percent of your advertising investment is spent on traditional media and how much of your advertising budget is spent on digital advertising?:

100% – Digital

Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?:

For the objectivity and multiple areas of expertise that an Ad Agency (that’s the right fit for the client) provides.

BluHorn TV – “Making a Difference” with Alex Alexander from KCo Ad Agency

Company: KCo Ad Agency
kcoad.com
Interviewee: Alex Alexander
They are a full service advertising agency that helps businesses be successful.
What nonprofit do you feel makes the greatest impact in our community?:
Breast Cancer Awareness. We have been part of a nonprofit organization called Bikers for Ta-Tas for over 10 years.
What volunteer experience has impacted you the most?:
Marketing for Bikers for Ta-Tas organization (BFTT.org)
How do you define success?:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               At the end of the day as long as we tried harder than yesterday to make a difference in someone’s life (whether personal or business).
What’s your favorite way to get involved in the community?:
Paying it forward.
Who inspires you and why?:
Wounded Veterans.. who don’t get up, get out and get going. #respectforourwoundedvets

BluHorn TV – “Digital Champions” with Ryan McDonald from Shade Digital

Each week on Digital Champions, our host Mike White talks to experts in the digital media sphere. This week, Mike talks to Ryan McDonald from Shade Digital. Ryan McDonald has managed advertising budgets over $2,000,000/month for large ecommerce companies, built lead generation programs, worked on political campaigns, grew local businesses & was a keynote speaker at a mobile conference. Now his talent & Shade Digital, are standing by to accept your company’s challenge.

Short company description: Shade Digital is an online advertising agency built with the struggles of the small business owner in mind.

In the Next 5 years, the biggest change to marketing will be what?: Continued automation in regards to algorithmic targeting with larger government interference in industry practices.

To learn more, visit https://shadedigital.com 

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Darren Magarro from DSM

Each week on 5 Minutes With, our hosts Mike White and Gary Spurgeon talk to experts in the media industry because they usually know a thing two. Today, Mike & Gary talk to Darren Magarro from DSM.

We are a group of creative marketers who share a steadfast conviction to innovation in marketing. We take risks, push back on bad ideas and use data to influence every decision we make. We take your success personally and operate with brutal honesty. We love to win, hate to lose and believe that empathy and ego, together, are the keys to great marketing. This is why we choose to work exclusively with companies that believe in our brand of disruption. We won’t work with everyone, but when we do, we’re all in. To learn more, visit https://www.thedsmgroup.com.

BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Dan Pincus from World Golf Network

Each week on 5 Minutes With, our hosts Mike White and Gary Spurgeon talk to experts in the media industry who know a thing or two. Today, our hosts talk to Dan Pincus from World Golf Network. World Golf Network is a 16 year old executive networking organization that focuses on relationships (because that is how business happens). WGN is unique because in addition to members having access to thousands of business owners and senior executives they also network regularly with the other members. To learn more, visit https://www.worldgolfnetwork.com

Meet The Team – Customer Support

BluHorn® Media Solutions is proud to introduce another new member of our customer support team, Shirley Austin.

Here is the short bio Shirley provided to introduce herself to you:

Shirley Austin is a Media Director with over 22 years of experience in successfully managing client relationships and media budgets.

She is well versed in both media planning and buying. Her role includes planning and buying TV, radio, digital and social. In her free time, Shirley enjoys fostering for a cat rescue and spending time with her family.

---

Just like in our prior “Getting To Know You” posts, we wanted you to be able to read a little Q&A about our new staff:

 

What is your role at BluHorn?  Customer Support Representative 

What did you do before you were with BluHorn?  Media Director

What are you looking forward to working for BluHorn/in the software biz?  Helping customers learn our software, so they can feel confident while using it.

What’s your favorite feature of BluHorn? How easy the worksheet is to use.

Where do you live?  Lake Balboa, CA

How long have you lived in Florida?  27 years

What do you like to do in your free time? Cat rescue and spend time with my family

Describe the media industry in one word.  Exciting

 

 

Shirley will be providing BluHorn users and potential users with the same level of customer support that you’ve grown to know and love.  She’s an experienced BluHorn user and we are lucky to have her as part of our team!

BluHorn TV “Five Minutes With” Lyn Wineman from Kid Glov

Company: KidGlov
Website Address: www.KidGlov.com
Interviewee: Lyn Wineman
KidGlov is a group of boutique advertising agencies that offers personalized, passionate client service and insightful creative.

How does your marketing strategy change from working with a local advertising client to a national advertising client?:
Historically, local clients have forgone formal branding work, while national clients have leveraged their brands. We like to say “Branding is not just for the Big Dogs.” and apply proven principles to strengthen local brands so they can enjoy the benefits of a strong brand (warding off competitive threats, commanding a higher price and setting the stage for a more positive internal culture. )
How do you define success?:
We use the term “advancement” and ask ourselves, “Have we advanced the brand toward meeting their goals.” Likewise we use the same yardstick for our team, asking ourselves, “Have we individually and as a group advanced in our skills?”

 

 

Mike White
Welcome back to Five Minutes With on BluHorn TV. I’m Mike White and on five minutes with we interview CEOs executives media buyers and planners from all over the country and talk about what sets them apart and what great things their companies are doing. Joining me today all the way from Lincoln Nebraska we’ve got a company called KidGlov and talking today is Lyn Wineman, the president and chief strategist. Welcome to the program Lyn.

Lyn Wineman
Hey Mike! Thanks for having me on your show.

Mike White
What is the importance of branding not just for the large companies but why is it important for small business to brand themselves appropriately.

Lyn Wineman
Sure sure. We focus on local marketing for companies that are maybe mid-sized or non-profits and in the past, branding has been more for generic companies. We all think of Apple and Starbucks and the car brands et cetera. But really with all of today’s technology and resources, branding is very important for local companies and it can put them on a level playing field.

Mike White
When did you start the company?

Lyn Wineman
We actually just had our ninth anniversary, we are very much looking forward to that 10th year.

Mike White
So what are the ideal candidates to get into the group that make KidGlov’s 12 member team.

Lyn Wineman
Yeah. It’s that’s a great question because I like to say at this size, I get to hand pick everybody who’s on our team and so the first thing we look for is somebody that’s got a positive world view. Sometimes people in the creative business can be skeptics and we’re looking for smart people who have a positive world view. We look for people who have fire in the belly. They have a sense of urgency and a sense of wanting to accomplish things. We look for courage, because our industry is changing so rapidly that you have to be willing to try new things all the time. And then last but not least we look for people that love what they do. I mean if we’re gonna be in these small teams together we need people who can’t wait to get up and come to the office every day.

Mike White
Lynn why should someone hire an outside marketing consultant to come in and do their branding and not just satisfy their position with their in-house marketing person.

Lyn Wineman
Sure absolutely. One of my favorite marketing books is called Orbiting the Hairball and it talks about how when you’re on the inside of an organization it can be like a hairball and you can get sucked into it and therefore you’re not advocating for the target audience. And I always think as agencies we’re advocating for the target audience so we can step one step away from the organization and really look at things objectively without having to worry about office politics etc. but then also we can bring a team of best of breed creative and strategists. We can bring a top notch creative director who has experience in their industry as well as other industries, a top notch strategist, a top notch writer, a top notch chart director, so they can without paying for a best of breed team they can get a best of breed team. As a matter of fact a few of our clients instead of having a marketing director or a marketing department we serve that function for them dealing directly with the owner or the president or the executive director of that organization.

Mike White
Well that’s amazing. While I appreciate you joining us on the program today! To find out more about KidGlov and the wonderful branding they’re doing visit BluHorn.com. We look forward to seeing you next time on BluHorn TV.

BluHorn TV “Digital Champions” with Robert Knop from Assist You Today

Company: Assist You Today Consulting
Website Address: assistyoutoday.com
Interviewee: Robert Knop
We help companies avoid becoming the next Sears by modernizing the way they approach marketing and sales.

What makes your company unique?:
We’ve actually done the work internally at large and small companies and now are out helping other companies from an external perspective.
How do you define success?:
Bottom-line short-term success and setting companies up for long-term growth and stability
Who inspires you and why?:
The visionaries. The ones that can see two steps down the line and have the guts to make the radical moves early and corner the market as that is what I aspire to be.

Mike White
Welcome back to digital champions on BluHorn TV. I’m Mike White and on digital champions we interview companies from around the country that focus on helping people in digital marketing social strategies. Joining us today all the way from Anaheim, California is Robert Knop with Assist You Today Consulting. Welcome to the program.

Robert Knop
Hey thanks for having me, appreciate it.

Mike White
So what is Assist You Today Consulting, what do you guys focus on?

Robert Knop
Yeah well our big focus is we help companies avoid becoming the next Sears and we do that by modernizing what they do from the sales and marketing perspective. So many companies are stuck in the 20th century where they’re just cold calling in blast e-mailing and they’re seeing less and less results every day. So we help them come in the 21st century by doing more mobile more social more digital make more data driven decision and really focus on their customers and create customer centric experiences.

Mike White
So with with your company how does social media gain clients?

Robert Knop
You know, a lot of what we do is from B2B space and there’s no better space, no better channel, I should say to use than LinkedIn from that perspective. What social media does is help develop a relationship, start to build some trust, and actually schedule appointments between companies. I know for myself personally I think about LinkedIn and I’m on there probably two three four hours a day. I still get maybe five to 10 messages in a day. It’s still a fantastic opportunity to utilize a channel that you’re not going to get a lot of noise and other from other people I should say.

Mike White
So talk about your process with your firm on sales enablement.

Robert Knop
What we teach a lot of people to do is to utilize tools like LinkedIn or Twitter or Facebook depending on what your business is if you’re b to b b to c financial services technology. We really analyze what your company does and look at your objectives your target audience and figure out the best the best ways to go after that audience and then from there once you build that plan then we teach your sales force how to do that.

Mike White
Answer this question, in the next five years digital marketing will…

Robert Knop
Well I think it’s going to be drastically different. I think you know, using social media as an example again, I’ve already seen examples of what it’s going to look like five or 10 years from now where it’s mostly virtual reality instead of looking at your phone 24/7 scrolling through your phone and pressing like for example on Instagram post that seems like archaic now to be honest. Why would we spend our time doing that. But that’s what everyone does. People spend what two three hours a day globally on social media. That’s what most of it is engaging with other people. That’s kind of the future of interactions between peoples. We think about that. How drastically is what we need to do from a marketing perspective going to need to change to be effective in that environment and maybe a little bit more in the short term. I think video for example by the end of next year. Studies have shown that a large majority of Internet content is going to be video. So if you don’t have a video strategy today you’re already behind the game and then more mid-term.

Mike White
Thank you for joining us on BluHorn TV today. If you want to find out more about Robert’s company visit BluHorn.com and we look forward to seeing next time on BluHorn TV.