Building Winning Marketing Strategies with Lori Asbury

Lori Asbury: So the tactics are all the fun stuff, right? It's doing the video, it's doing the social, it's doing the digital campaigns. But, but all of that without a strategy doesn't work.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, and I don't know, I would, I would say the strategy is the fun part for me too.

 

Lori Asbury: I love the strategy. That's me. That's always on Lori's plate.

 

Chris Hill: Welcome to We Built This Brand. I'm your host as always, Chris Hill. And today we're talking with Lori Asbury. She's the founder and CEO of of CMOco and Lori started her career in marketing and TV advertising. Eventually that journey led her to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she became the senior vice president of marketing, creative and brand strategy for HGTV.

 

After her tenure there, she decided to strike out on her own and start CMOco, a full service marketing and advertising agency. In this episode, we get into the details about her journey, what kept her in Knoxville all these years, and some of her agency's recent work with the Smoky Mountain National Park.

 

And LCUB as they started their transition into selling high speed broadband internet services to their community. We'll also talk about CMOco's recent rebrand and the importance of that change to the business. To be very frank, I'm very grateful for Lori. She invited our team up to her office where we got to record this interview.

 

And I thought this interview was a lot of fun. The conversation was really good. And I think you'll get a lot out of it, as I always hope you do in these episodes. So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Lori Asbury, founder and CEO of CMOco. All

 

right, well, welcome to We Built This Brand. I'm here today with Lori Asbury of CMOco.

 

Lori Asbury: Hi, good to see you. Thank you for having me.

 

Chris Hill: Absolutely, Lori. Thank you for having us out here.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, you bet. You bet, I appreciate it. Welcome to our offices.

 

Chris Hill: Thank you. They're very nice. It brings back a lot of nostalgia for me as we were talking, getting ready.

 

I used to work at the AT& T office just across the way. And yeah, I just remember going in there every day, even driving over here today, like from my house to here. It's like, Oh man, I know. I remember this.

 

Lori Asbury: This location is awesome actually, because it's super centrally located and you have easy access to 40, easy access to the Pellissippi.

 

So in terms of going out. to be able to see clients it make it very convenient

 

Chris Hill: Oh I was so upset when they moved us to the downtown office with no windows.

 

Lori Asbury: I started in my business was downtown.

 

Chris Hill: Oh yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, and it was just and I was actually living in Lenoir City at the time. So imagine Lenoir City all the way to downtown every day was a bit of a drive.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah,

 

Lori Asbury: so it was nice to be able to move out West.

 

Chris Hill: That's awesome.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah,

 

Chris Hill: that's awesome. Well, we're here today to talk about some You, your background, CMOco., um, I think where I always like to start is just to learn a little bit more about your background, where you come from, and what led to you starting CMOco. So, to start out, where did you get your start?

 

Lori Asbury: So, do you want the long or the short version? I've been doing this a long time. I'll let you decide. Actually, I, um, I'm very blessed to be able to have worked in actually my field of study. Which was kind of rare, I know a lot of people go into a specific field in college and don't actually end up working in that field, but I did, um, I went to the University of Oklahoma for my undergrad and I majored in journalism, radio, television, and film, and out of school I started working in video production, actually for a toy company.

 

Producing and writing and, you know, training videos for that company, Salesforce. And then from there, I went to a TV station back in Oklahoma City and worked in a local TV station, actually on the promotion and advertising side though. So making promos for the shows that ran on that local station.

 

Station and, and a lot of news promotions. So working in newsrooms and working with news writers and news producers to actually promote the newscasts. Mm-Hmm. and my career just really kind of, you know, focused in that direction for a long time. So I went from Oklahoma City to Miami, Miami to. I have to keep this clear, Miami to Chicago, Chicago to New York, New York to D.

 

C., D. C. to Atlanta, Atlanta to Knoxville. So all really in the media side, all working for, uh, either local TV stations and then I actually started working for owned and operated groups. So I was head of marketing and advertising for, uh, A Fox owned and operated stations group. And what brought me to Knoxville was to head up marketing and advertising for HGTV.

 

Chris Hill: That's really cool.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah. So it's been a long ride, but a lot of fun and I've learned a lot of really great things along the way. And the other thing that was really, to me, that's been super instrumental, I think, and just helping. Kind of build my career, but also kind of build my perspective as having worked in so many different cities because there's just so many different cultures that exist throughout the country and trying to get kind of in the mindset, especially if you're working at the local level and trying to market to a local audience.

 

It's really kind of understanding the culture and their mindset within that culture. So it's been really fun.

 

Chris Hill: Right. It's, it's a very, like, depending on where you go, you know, traveling all over the world. I think before we had this conversation, you were in Europe for a little while as well.

 

Lori Asbury: Yes, I was, uh huh.

 

Chris Hill: You'll, you'll know, like, it feels like you're almost going state to state depending on what part of Europe you're in or wherever else. But, um, yeah, learning those different cultures can be just as exotic in the United States, I think, as traveling abroad.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, a hundred percent. Because when I was consulting, when I was head of marketing for Fox owned and operated stations group.

 

Now this was a while ago, but, you know, they owned and operated 35 TV stations across the country. And so it wasn't cookie cutter. It wasn't like you went into one market and said, okay, this worked in Atlanta. Now we're in Birmingham and you need to implement that same thing. Now there may be some subtleties that, that could work or translate across, you know, both towns, but certainly if you were in New York and wanted to apply what you did in, in Birmingham, it would be a significant shift.

 

So it, it really was interesting to really kind of. Have to understand audiences and behaviors and really kind of what motivates people in certain, you know, in a variety of different cultures and in towns and across the United States.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. Well, what did you like about moving to Knoxville? I mean, HGTV, I remember having had a really interesting strategy with bringing you all here instead of New York or another major market.

 

Yeah, well,

 

Lori Asbury: I came long after they had already moved here, obviously. So yeah, I mean, it was Interestingly enough, it was kind of a transitional time in my life. I had just had my, my daughter, who was my second child, and I actually was going through an unexpected divorce at the time. And so just coincidentally, I had an old friend that I had worked with in Chicago and he was now president of Scripps Networks.

 

And he had reached out to me a few, I want to say a few months prior to kind of the shift in my life and, and had said, Hey, we're, You know, maybe looking to expand our marketing department. And we've got an on air group and an off air group. And we need somebody to kind of come in and oversee, you know, kind of unite the two groups, make sure our messaging in terms of how we're promoting the network is very consistent and congruous.

 

And, you know, I had just, uh, I just had my daughter, so I wasn't really looking for full time work. I'm set up, you know, just down the street, so I'll, I'd be willing to come consult or something and then kind of my life blew up, if you will, and, and he, I called him back and said, are you still, are you still looking for somebody?

 

Because I will definitely, um, be interested in talking to you about that job. So believe it or not, I did go through that process, that interview process, and it brought me to Knoxville and it was just really one of the biggest blessings. So I had a great run. Over at HGTV. Yeah, and which was a lot of fun.

 

I was there for not a long time about four years.

 

Chris Hill: Mm hmm

 

Lori Asbury: And there was a lot of organizational change just in how they were siloing the brands and moving things around And so I actually ended up losing my job over at HGTV and that's when I went out and started this company So every everything that happens in your life, you know leads you to the next thing and I always think that it's you know meant for a purpose.

 

Right. Yeah. So I had a great, great experience over there. I met some amazing people, people that I'm still very close, much in close contact with today. And, you know, it's been, it's been great.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. It kind of feels like HGTV is kind of like Whittle Communications 2. 0 in Knoxville. Yeah. Big media organization comes in, takes over the town, and then just kind of, you know, moseys on.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, now no one's here. It's, it's pretty much, it's pretty much shut down. But it really was a great opportunity because they were recruiting, you know, uh, senior level and, and, you know, experienced and trained media people. So they were having to recruit from outside the area. And then, you know, they have to, they have to pay those kind of executive salaries that, you know, Coincide with what the industry is, if you're, you know, a television executive, or I'm, you know, an advertising executive, or what have you, and you can, so in order to recruit people here, and then you get to Knoxville, and the cost of living, and the style of living is so amazing, no one wants to leave, you know, so it's like how you got here, you know, it brought me here, and I didn't want to leave, to be honest, you know, once I came to Knoxville to work for HGTV, and, and then that, you know, You know, I lost my job in that transition, it really was, how do I make it work?

 

And I also had two small children at the time, and I was raising them by myself, so I wanted to make sure that I, you know, was in a place where I felt like I could raise them comfortably, but also something that was familiar to me, because I grew up in the Midwest and this felt like home.

 

Chris Hill: You're in Knoxville, you have this transitional period in your life, and then you decide to start CMOco.

 

What was that initial journey like?

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, yeah. So, it was really interesting. It was just kind of all by happenstance, if you will. I had a friend of mine that I was connected to through HGTV. She was getting her executive MBA at HGTV. at UT, and invited me to come down and watch her do a presentation. She had worked in my team over at HGTV, and she introduced me to the executive director of the MBA, of the executive MBA program at UT, and he happened to be a Cornell graduate.

 

I got my MBA at Cornell, and so we were connected that I was like, oh, you're a Cornellian, and we got to talking, and I think when I, I, Lost my job. I had reached out to him and said, Hey, I'm looking for new opportunities. Can we get together for coffee? And so he and I met and then he ended up introducing me to a gentleman in town who owned a marketing company or really more of a web development and design company.

 

And, um, we started CMOco. together, um, and so we did that in 2011. And then in 2015, I ended up buying out his share of the business and going out on my own. Yeah. In 2015. All very amicable, all great. He's a great friend. Still a super dear friend of mine, but it was just time for me to kind of take the business to the next level.

 

And I just, you know, we felt that it was probably the best way for me to do it, uh, by myself. So yeah, it's all good. That's neat. Yeah. That's really cool. So 14 years. We're going on 14 years starting, 14 years it'll be, uh, starting our 14th year in May.

 

Chris Hill: That's so exciting. So every moment, every business I feel like has this moment of what I would call moment of validation with the business.

 

You know, you're starting it, you're not sure if it's going to work out, and maybe that was a little different working with a web designer who already had some business coming in. But like, what was that moment for you where you were like, Oh, this isn't just something I'm going to do until I find my next job.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah.

 

Chris Hill: This is going to be real for me.

 

Lori Asbury: Well, I think I was extremely determined first and foremost, because I really felt like I didn't want to go back to working in corporate America. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and have my own business for a lot of reasons. One, I felt like ultimately that was the best way for me to have financial freedom and financial independence.

 

But also, I felt like it was going to give me The best opportunity to be a present parent, um, to be able to have some flexibility and, and, you know, build my, a team around myself so that I could leave the office and go to a ball game or, you know, go to a horse show or go do something that my kids were doing and be a present parent.

 

And that was extremely important to me. So that was one of the main motivating factors for doing it. But I think. Really, it's been a journey. There's no doubt. So, to be honest, it's so interesting how the company has ebbed and flowed. Initially, it was successful right out of the gate and very strong. And in fact, I think that's what inspired me to kind of take the business and go out on my own was because I was, you know, Developing the company, we were growing very quickly.

 

I was passing through work to my partners, not making a lot on the margins. I felt like if I internalized that, started building my own staff. Initially, my partner company was the, my backend infrastructure. And, um, and I would bring accounts, manage the accounts, do the strategy, but pass through a lot of the execution.

 

And so I decided, you know, I think I can, Start to build my own support staff, manage the execution more in house and make more money. And so, uh, in doing so, you start to, you know, reduce your profit margins, right? You're building your staff, you're bringing on more people, you've got more expenses, you've got bigger overhead.

 

So, after we kind of expanded and I started hiring staff, there was, there were a few years that were tight. But we never missed payroll. We never were in the red. We were always operated in the green. And then it wasn't honestly until about six, seven years in that we really started to hit our stride. And to be honest, interestingly enough, the last two years have been our very biggest years.

 

And this year's pacing to be even bigger than than last year, which is great. We thought COVID was going to be tragic. You know, because the first thing people love to do when things get tight is cut their marketing budgets. We did have some clients come to us, some retainer clients come to us and say, hey, we're going to have to pause our services.

 

And so we were just trying to be scrappy about things that we could do, um, you know to make up for that lost income. But those clients actually came back to us within like three or four weeks and said, you know what, we need to continue to move on. Continue to market in this downturn economy and just, you know, push through.

 

And so we were able to maintain those accounts, but we also did generate some really clever partnerships that proved to be pretty lucrative for us during that timeframe to help us not only maintain any income that we did lost or that might be strained, but to also grow the business.

 

Chris Hill: That's really cool.

 

Yeah. So, what, what kind of customers do you serve? I know we talked a little bit about serving a lot of the businesses here in East Tennessee, but like, tell me a little bit more about that.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah. So, to be honest, it's completely all over the map. So, we're not industry specific and we do have extensive experience in some industries, but we're, we're really very diverse.

 

Our client portfolio is extremely diverse. So, we have both, uh, business facing. Organizations that we work with and, and consumer facing organizations, but anywhere from a hair salon to a composite manufacturing company and everything in between. Um, so it's, it's really fun. That's what keeps it really interesting.

 

We're, you know, charged with getting our arms around companies very quickly, really, really being forced to understand their business, understand the nuances, understand a lot of the unique differences that apply to specific industries, you know, make sure that we understand it so that our tactics and our strategies are applicable, but it does keep it really interesting.

 

It keeps my team on their toes and we really do a lot of market research. A lot of industry research. We're very focused on strategy first. So I would say what really differentiates us between a traditional advertising agency, where an advertising agency, I feel is more focused at a point in time in an organization's life cycle.

 

So a company may come to an ad agency and say, I need a campaign to launch this specific product or to address the specific service. And it's going to be a campaign for a point in time. In most cases, we're working with companies where. We're their strategic partner. We're working with them long term. We are their marketing department.

 

We just don't happen to sit inside their organization. And we always like to start with a strategic plan. So we always like to say, you know, where is this company in its current life cycle? How is it differentiated? What is the competitive set look like? What marketing tactics are you currently using, if any?

 

What are the goals of the organization, both quantitatively and qualitatively? We look at everything in a very deep dive. And we actually write. 15, 20, 30, 40 page strategic plan, um, and we use that as a road map to really keep us on point and to make sure that every marketing tactic that we're employing is rooted in something thoughtful.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: So it, it, it does differentiate us and then we get to the tactics. So the tactics are all the fun stuff, right? It's doing the video, it's doing the social, it's doing the digital campaigns, but, but all of that without a strategy doesn't work.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, and I don't know, I would, I would say the strategy is the fun part for me too.

 

Lori Asbury: I love the strategy. That's me. That's always on Lori's plate. Everybody else kind of, you know, they all participate in developing the strategy. We kind of divide and conquer, but I love putting that together. And I love kind of, you know, really focusing on, okay, what's the ideology of this organization? And really, What is the path forward for this company to be successful?

 

And to me, that's a lot of fun.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, and I like that approach a lot because, um, there's nothing worse than someone coming to you and saying, I've got 100, 000 to spend on an ad campaign. Just go spend the money. And you're like, well, I don't know a thing about your business.

 

Lori Asbury: Right. I would take that money, however.

 

Chris Hill: Oh, of course, of course.

 

Lori Asbury: Exactly. But, and we would come up with a way to make it successful. But, but no, exactly. I think that That is, and a lot of people do want to jump to that, and that's something that we really try to warn our clients. They get very excited about, let's just do this, let's just push email campaigns, let's just post social media posts, let's just, and that's all good and well, and we say yeah, we're going to do that, and we can start doing that immediately.

 

But let's take the time to develop a strategic plan because I think once we get into not only your business, but your space and your competitive set, we really find a way to have a clear message and one that is compelling to their target audience that will hopefully drive leads and sales. And without that, you're just throwing stuff up against the wall and seeing what sticks.

 

And so it's, it's inefficient.

 

Chris Hill: Let's talk about some examples of that, just the diversity you've done. You came into this, you mentioned, well actually not just mentioned, I saw on LinkedIn you were sharing about the, um, the Smokies campaign that you've done. And of course I love the Smokies and you know, that new, I think it's, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was for the new.

 

Um, Parking Passes.

 

Lori Asbury: For the Parking Tab Program, yes.

 

Chris Hill: Which was a big push and a big change for the park. I think a good one and a needed

 

one.

 

Lori Asbury: Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. The park's an amazing brand. I mean, you know, it, it's, it's like we started from a great place to begin with. And actually, I don't know if you know this or not, because a lot of people, when I tell this to people, they're just surprised, but the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has more visitors than Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon combined.

 

So they have a lot of traffic coming through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There's no entry fee and there's no, there's no paid parking or there was no paid parking. And just the wear and tear on the park kind of, you know, warranted that, you know, it was time to create a parking tag program.

 

Uh, very reasonable, very affordable. The people at the park are so smart. They are, they had, Done lots of studies, lots of research, planned, you know, planned for this for a long time and we were just honored to be able to kind of, you know, help them with their messaging and making sure that their message got to consumers.

 

It was just a very comprehensive public service campaign that ran over two states. So, over Tennessee and North Carolina where the park stretches, they had already worked on some of the messaging in advance of working with us, um, Park it Forward was the, was the slogan of the campaign and yeah, which was really great and it allowed us to, to to really have a lot of legs with that and do some really fun, creative things with it.

 

But there's just so many great stories to tell from the park and people love the park and they want to be engaged with the park. And just to tell about all the great things that, that exist in the park and to do that and to say, Hey, you know, your parking tag, you know, your 5 daily pass or your 15 pass for the week or your 40 tag for the year, you know, is, is really a small price to pay for all these amazing benefits that you get.

 

And for us to be able to maintain the park. in the manner in which it needs to be maintained given the traffic that's, that's through there. But

 

Chris Hill: right. And I mean, that's a challenging campaign too, because as I'm thinking about it, like recalling from my own family, having conversations around, well, this is a great thing for the park.

 

No, no, no, no, no. It's terrible. It costs money. Why would you want this? And like all those things, um, you have to have a compelling message for that.

 

Lori Asbury: You do, you do. And I think that was the whole vision from the park behind them making sure that they communicated. What the program was for and what it would benefit.

 

And they've been extremely diligent and, and extremely transparent, which, you know, is the most important thing I think you can do in a public service campaign is just to be open and honest and direct about, you know, what the, what the proceeds will, why they're needed and what they'll be used for. Um, so they've been extremely transparent and the campaign has just been a blast to work on.

 

And, you know, we were able to leverage, you know, television and radio and, Multiple forms of digital and to be very honest all of the response was overwhelmingly positive

 

I mean very few very few negative sentiment very positive people understood it If and in fact if people commented and anybody commented negatively like on a social post there were ten people to Answer to that negative comment saying this is yeah.

 

So like I said, it was a great I mean, we really, I feel, to be honest, the brand is so fantastic, like, we were starting from such a great place, but it was really a true pleasure to be able to work with such smart people over at the park that they had the foresight to be able to think, hey, this is a public service campaign that needs to be evangelized.

 

And so we were just honored and blessed to be able to help them execute that.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, because if you didn't have that awareness campaign, I think the challenge, especially for locals, would be just showing up to the park and getting a ticket.

 

Lori Asbury: Right. And being surprised and then being angry. So to be able to inform people, educate people, let them know exactly what they needed to do in advance.

 

And they actually had no problems last year. And so this year we've run a campaign. In fact, we're in the process of that campaign right now. A much shorter, a much more condensed, it's just a more of a reminder campaign. Yeah, because the campaign that we ran last year was pretty comprehensive and we did get a lot of reach, frequency, messaging out there, uh, to be able to tell that story.

 

And then obviously the press was great in supporting us and getting that story across, you know, local media and that type of thing. So, um, There weren't a lot of people that didn't know about the Parking Tab program, so.

 

Chris Hill: It's a program well run.

 

Lori Asbury: Well, yeah, it definitely is. They've done a great job. And we've been, like I said, so honored to work with them.

 

Chris Hill: And then also you mentioned Lenoir City Utility Board. I've mentioned AT& T already, so you can probably guess.

 

Lori Asbury: Telecom. Telecom, in my background.

 

Chris Hill: I had Chattanooga as part of my sales territory. Right as I came into that market was right after they had put fiber in the ground there. Yep, for EPB. For EPB.

 

And we lost a lot of business. And we lost a lot of business to other places. But the interesting thing about my account base during that time was I also had electrical companies. I had Sequatchee Valley Electric. Um, I had, uh, was it Holston? I think Holston Electric. Yep. And then, um, and then I had LCUB for a little while, too.

 

So, I've actually been on the other side and had conversations with smaller organizations. It's been interesting to see how that conversation has evolved over the years because at first it was like, no, we don't want to, we don't want to We don't want to touch that. We don't want to mess it. But you know what, actually,

 

Lori Asbury: right.

 

Well, when

 

they see, you know, there's, there's actually a lot of reasons and we're just getting deeper and deeper into the kind of the broadband space, not just through LCB, but through some other clients as well. But you know, when COVID hit, it really exposed how many people, uh,

 

in, in rural and underserved communities.

 

We're not connected. And they had no access to broadband at all. And so, it's been a big federal government push to make sure that every American is connected. And so, there's a lot of municipalities, a lot of utilities, a lot of rural telecoms, telecos are starting to get into the broadband game because there's a lot of government funding that's about to hit the market.

 

What's interesting is a lot of these municipalities and, and you know, smaller telecoms or electric co ops that are getting into fiber. You know, it's, it's their first time in a competitive marketplace.

 

You know,

 

they're not, they're used to being a monopoly, you know, based on where, you know, based on their service area or what have you.

 

So it's new territory for them. So not only are they looking for guidance from an infrastructure build out and how to build a fiber optic network and tapping into. You know, consultants and organizations within the fiber space, but they're also looking to how do I message this and how do I market this and how this is the first time I actually have to go out and compete for business, you know, so it's a completely foreign territory for them.

 

So it's really been a great opportunity for us to walk alongside LCUB in this process. And they were our client prior to getting into broadband. And so, you know, we had to go and pitch the broadband business. Um, you know, that's something that was very unfamiliar to them and getting in a consumer. Kind of, you know, marketplace where they actually had to compete.

 

So we went and pitched the business. Fortunately, we won that business, but there again, I'm super blessed with great clients, but they're very great strategic partner for us. But it's been an education process. I think on both sides, we've learned a lot from them on kind of what goes into kind of building out that infrastructure because it's a four year build out.

 

And so our job is to create awareness, but not create demand so quickly that people are frustrated and waiting forever to get it, you know, because there's, it's, there's just a timeline by which some people will get it. So the, the, obviously the goal is to serve those most underserved first. So, you know, who doesn't have it, you know, who's not able to have access to broadband.

 

and get those people connected first. And so the beauty of it is though with the digital tools that we have at our disposal now, we can easily go in and just hyper target by zip code advertising. And so we're not creating, you know, too much demand. We're, we're trying to make overall awareness. So we're, it's coming, it's out there.

 

So we have done some just overarching You know, big campaigns where we'll run a spot in a big event like March Madness or, you know, the Super Bowl or an NCAA event and just to have mass awareness, but really where we're pushing, hey, you're now live or it's coming quickly. We use our more hyper targeted digital tools.

 

So it's been a great, um, kind of a great experiment for us as well.

 

Chris Hill: And it's, uh, from what I've seen, it's a very savvy campaign too. Like the, the, the media you've produced for it and everything, which you have to be to compete with, you know, Cox and yeah. Whoever, I think it's Cox that's the cable competitor in that area and unfortunately,

 

Lori Asbury: AT& T.

 

No, AT& T. I mean, there's, there's probably 15. I can name off the, you know, there's, there's a lot of, uh, internet providers out there. And that was part of what we pitched to LCUB was like, you, you have to know that you're now in a competitive environment. Competitive environment in which you're competing against global companies,

 

Chris Hill: right

 

Lori Asbury: but it also gave them a unique value proposition, you know, people don't want to deal with a global company They get frustrated by it. You know, everyone dreads having to pick up the phone to AT& T and waiting I mean, I have to got AT& T's my provider. They've been great But I mean you pick up the phone you're on, you know How long is it gonna take for you to reach somebody?

 

Yeah, will my issue be resolved and our overarching message is about LCUB's broadband is that it's local and that it's from a utility provider that you've known and trust and that's been with you for years and, you know, so that's been one of our overarching themes. We're a local provider that you can pick up the phone and reach somebody.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, and having worked for corporate companies in rural communities, because that's a lot of the business that I served in telecom, was working for like Windstream Communications. My first sales territory was Windstream Communications in London, Kentucky. Hazard, pretty much that whole triangle between that and Lexington.

 

Um, it was an experience and those people, they want people they know and trust and that trust means a lot to them. So building that and generating that, especially when it's like a local company, because I, the other thing I know too from working with power companies is They also have a very local feel that you don't get from the phone company.

 

Lori Asbury: A hundred percent. And you hit the nail on the head, and that's actually some of the language that we even use in our television spots, is we work where you work, we live where you live,

 

Chris Hill: we've been

 

Lori Asbury: with you for years, we're with you now.

 

Chris Hill: That

 

Lori Asbury: people, you hit the nail on the head, people in rural communities live differently.

 

And they're very much connected to their community. Um, they know everybody that lives in their community. They trust people in their community. And they want to give business to people in their community. So that was something that we definitely wanted to make sure that we Hit that message home.

 

Competitively priced, just like everybody else. So we're right there, you know, they're right there in the game as it relates to pricing. So really, what is the differentiator? It's, you know, fiber, obviously, to the home, which is not the case in some of their competition. They'll say it's fiber, but it's not true fiber to the home.

 

As LCUB is offering and now KUB is offering and so, but also just the experience, the overall experience of being able to have your broadband fiber from a utility company that you know and trust is what we felt was really the key differentiator.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah, I think, I think it definitely, um, you know, again, going back to the, the materials and stuff that I've seen in the footage, it's like, yeah, you're hitting that nail on the head as you talk.

 

Lori Asbury: Well, thank you. And we've worked with some great partners along the way. So we do all the ideation, the The creative in house, all the script writing, all the design, the look and feel of all the spots, we source the production. In this particular case, we worked with PopFizz Productions on the, um, on the actual production.

 

So they helped us with the shoot and the editing, and they've been great partners with us on this campaign. In fact, we're doing a shoot on Thursday with them for LCUB. That's

 

Chris Hill: exciting.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah. That's really cool. Another, we're having, uh, doing some customer testimonials. So some of the people that are now live that were, had no service whatsoever, um, and were really completely isolated during COVID.

 

And what's interesting, it's just right off of road area.

 

Chris Hill: Oh yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: I mean, even in those pockets back there, it's there. They had nothing. And, you know, and some of the bigger, um, you know, companies were wanting to charge astronomical rates in order to connect them. And they were just, they'd have to take their computer and go to Waffle House.

 

But, you know, a lot of these places weren't open during COVID and, you know, people still had to work or still had to do school. And so they were very isolated.

 

Chris Hill: I can definitely speak to people just trying to get DSL in areas where it wasn't provided yet. And the, you know, Horror show that that was in price if you even tried to price it out.

 

Yeah. So I know, I know exactly what you're talking

 

Lori Asbury: about. Like thousands and thousands of dollars.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: No way could an average person afford to, to, to pay for the line to be run.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah.

 

Chris Hill: And the logistics sometimes, like, I always was perplexed by it. Thankfully, I got to see behind the scenes at AT& T and understand why.

 

It's way too nerdy for this podcast, but, but it, but you know, like once you understand what they're doing, like it makes sense as to why it takes a little while, but also like it does become that much more frustrating when you know the people to call or when people know, you know, the people to call. to get that stuff done.

 

So the fact that they're doing that's really awesome.

 

Lori Asbury: No, it is neat and it's, it's just, it's evolving so much now. In other words, like you said, utility providers, smaller rural telecoms, they're all getting into the business because of this federal funding that's coming in. And so, I mean, there's a very big push through the infrastructure bill to be able to have every merit.

 

American Connected. And so, we've learned a lot in this process, um, which has been great, and we're even doing a deeper dive into it because we're trying to leverage what we've done for LCUB to get more broadband business. We're really educating ourselves in kind of what's going on with the government funding and the BEAD program, which is the build for broadband.

 

If I say this per, it's building, I, you'll have to Build Back

 

Chris Hill: Better, I think. No, well,

 

Lori Asbury: it's Build America, Buy America, that's, there's the BABA requirements, but then there's BEAD, which is, I'll have to look it up, but anyway, it's the BEAD funding, it's, it's, yeah. We'll

 

Chris Hill: put the, we'll put the acronym in the screen.

 

Yes, I'll have to tell

 

Lori Asbury: you. Or I can tell you when I can look at it. This is my, this is my old lady brain not computing because I was talking about it this morning. But that's the government funding. It's under that, it's under that, um, it's something equity, something, uh, oh, broadband, equity, access.

 

Development or something like that. Okay, but don't quote me on that as I say it into a podcast. But yeah, that's the, that's kind of the umbrella that the funding's under. So, it's just coming out

 

Chris Hill: there. It's cool. That's cool. One of the other big things that has happened here at CMOco. recently is you've had a rebrand.

 

A little bit of a rebrand. And, um, we'd love to learn. Our third, actually. This is, we built this brand. Oh, your third. Yeah. Um, since it says we built this brand, we'd love to talk to you more about what that branding was, what it's gone to, and, um, and the reason for that.

 

Lori Asbury: Sure. I mean, I think a lot of it is just the evolution of the industry as well, is making sure that we're aligned with the direction of our business and making sure that we communicate and articulate What we offer.

 

I think initially we thought CMOco as in Chief Marketing Officer Company that everybody would get that. Well, no one got it to be honest. And so we had our initial brand was, it just had CMOco. It didn't have any kind of a defining statement. Then we evolved it to have CMOco. We added a mark to our logo.

 

In fact, it's the one that you're, you're, um, Yeah, you're

 

Chris Hill: cozy,

 

Lori Asbury: cozy standing and we had, uh, chief marketing officers for hire that, which kind of helped define what the CMOco was, but really now we kind of feel like. Uh, you know, going into our 14th year in business now that we're relatively established, we really are a marketing and advertising company.

 

And we feel like just adding marketing and advertising to our brand name kind of helped even define us further, simplified it, was a little bit more modern, a little bit more direct. And we're not worrying so much about making sure everybody knows what CMOco. stands for.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: Right.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. Yeah. Cause then.

 

Anytime you have to explain what your brand is, I feel like that's right. Just instruction that you're going to have to continue to improve it.

 

Lori Asbury: A hundred percent. So you can either choose to embrace it, which we did for a few years, and now we're moving on and we're just focusing on what the things that we're good at, which is marketing and advertising.

 

Chris Hill: I think that's really cool and it's showing because as you mentioned earlier, like the last two years have been. Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: Been our biggest years.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah.

 

Chris Hill: That's really great. And a lot

 

Lori Asbury: of that too is just due to a lot of the, the digital, you know, a lot of the digital, uh, advertising that we're doing now and just the direction of digital and the direction of our, of advertising as an industry.

 

Chris Hill: Tell me more about

 

Lori Asbury: that. Yeah. Uh, it's so much more fun. To be honest, and a lot of people I think, you know, maybe who are, you know, seasoned in marketing, you know, maybe had a little bit of fear about it. I think it's fantastic. It, it, it holds us accountable. Um, it allows us to measure our campaigns. Um, it allows us to more easily prove a return on investment for our clients who are investing money in advertising and want to know Really kind of what they're getting for their, for their dollar, more so than TV, more so than radio, more so than print for sure.

 

You know, we're able to run, uh, digital campaigns, a variety of different types of digital campaigns, hyper targeted to unique audiences, whether it be a business facing organization, we can identify their target customers with database IP web addresses to, you know, that, to a list and technology to be able to serve, uh, display advertising to devices within a certain address.

 

We can get that hyper focused to zip codes, to mobile conquesting. When somebody enters a zip code or enters a location, they're able to start being served ads based on their geolocation. There's so many great tools out there now and, and with it comes really great data and really great analytics.

 

And

 

so we're able to really measure.

 

Consumer behaviors, consumer patterns, their engagement, the way they're engaging with companies and we're able to trace a lead. So we're able to say they clicked on this ad, they went to a landing page, they took an action and therefore we're able to then more quantify our return on an investment. So it's really transformed our business.

 

Again, we love it because we're able to say this, this, this. It's working. We can prove to you, you know, based on the analytics and the numbers. Now there's, there's other barriers that come into play. So once you drive a lead to somebody, what happens to that lead once they get there is sometimes out of our control.

 

A lot of times it's out of our control. But at least we can say we're pointing people. To, to a brand or to a business and say, Hey, you know, we're getting traffic there. We're getting you audiences. We're getting you eyeballs. We're getting you new exposure. You know, we, we certainly, especially if we're their marketing partner, partner, we work with them on what's that experience like once they do get to a business, but it's pushing them through the funnel.

 

And it's doing it in a way that we can really track and measure almost immediately,

 

Chris Hill: which

 

Lori Asbury: is just fantastic. You can't do that with TV or radio, and there's a great place for TV and radio and we use it all the time. But digital just gives us a lot more weapons. You know, to be able to use and really allows us to, um, serve ads to a more refined audience who's going to be more likely to engage, more likely to converse, to convert into a paying customer based on their behaviors, their preferences, their, you know, the things that they enjoy.

 

Uh, doing in life.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. I mean, TV and radio has always struck me as more of a branding awareness play. I'd say the same for podcasting too, if I'm being honest. But, but yeah, the technology that's there, like you're right, like I've spent a lot of my career in the digital space in addition to telecom. So like being able to help people see and track a return on investment, it's just, it's something really rewarding about saying, see, we did this and that happened.

 

You don't have to guess where it came from.

 

Lori Asbury: Exactly. And the other thing that, That I think is, you know, definitely worthy of mentioning is artificial intelligence because a lot of people got, are afraid of that. And to be honest, I was scrolling through Instagram last night. I saw an ad for, uh, an AI logo creator.

 

Okay. So it's like you, you, all you have to do is go into this app, you type in the name of the company. So in this example, it was like Max. And then it was like, it's a beer. And then out spits 500 logos, you know, within using this AI technology. And of course, my reaction as a, as an owner of an ad agency is like, Oh, Oh my gosh, this is terrifying.

 

This can take away our logo development and our brand work. And, but I think you have to embrace it. I think you have to say, well, how can we leverage this technology to be more efficient on our end? And not to say that you take, you know, Away and remove the creative process or the creative director or the people, but you use that technology in addition to.

 

And you get a much better result. I was

 

Chris Hill: just having this conversation the other day about AI, but like, I think the one thing that tech people are figuring out, because we do a lot of content in tech already, tech people have figured out that when you develop with AI, you're really there to understand it better than it understands itself.

 

Yeah. So that you can correct it. Like when developers are using it for code, yeah, they're the lazy developers out there that just say write me this piece of code and it helps them. But there's also developers that are in there going write me this piece of code, checking the code, and then making sure things go on.

 

And I feel like marketers, or at least the, we'll say not, not marketers specifically, but People in this space, I feel like a lot of times will think of it as just a lazy tool. It's a cheat. It's a shortcut. But they don't think about, oh, well, if I use, you know, if I do what these developers are doing and check the work or learn to refine my prompts so they get me better answers or learn to, um, use AI in a different way and learn the limitations of it so that you can better leverage that.

 

Like, and granted the limitations are like Going away very quickly. Yeah. And it's kinda scary in its own right. Yeah. But like learning those limitations and learning where it's good and where it's not, I think that's where marketers can find the most value in it. A hundred percent. Yeah. But it's a skill.

 

Lori Asbury: It is a skill and it's a new skill. And we use two AI platforms actually to help us with content creation and ideation. Uh, not in the writing side so much. We've used it in the writing side, and then it's like. Oh, that was kind of clever. How can we take that and then build upon it? But on the creative side, so for graphic design or even video production, like we can easily put in, you know, images or, or stock video or video that we have, video assets that we have put text in and let AI kick out a product and it's fine.

 

It's a good starting place, but it certainly isn't the end result. Yeah. We always have to go back and say, yeah, like that doesn't look right. That does it. It absolutely isn't the right tone. I mean, So you totally hit the nail on the head. It's, it's like, it's a marriage between the technology and the crafters.

 

You know, you have to still have the skill set of people to be able to appropriately run and use the technology and make sure that it's applied, uh, in a way that's relevant.

 

Chris Hill: Right.

 

Lori Asbury: And, um, so we're embracing it as much as we can and, and using the tools to help us make our, run our business, business more, more efficiently.

 

If I can use AI to kick out 40 different. display ads. And that's a starting point for me. I mean, it saves me time that I would spend in labor. And it's not to say I'm not, I'm not going to have that labor, but it keeps my labor being more effective and more efficient because I can put them onto higher priority projects that are higher margin project projects.

 

So, um, we've loved it. We embrace it. I mean, we're always looking for new tools. Um, you know, we have over 18 digital products that we offer on the, on the, on the ad side. Um, but we're always looking for, um, and trying to learn what other technologies out there that can just help us do our jobs better.

 

Chris Hill: Are you all developing any sort of like AI policy for your company or have you considered that yet?

 

No, I

 

Lori Asbury: haven't. And maybe I should. Maybe I should. I will say one of the things that I've prided CMOco on and I hope that, you know, This is a reflection in the way I run my business and hopefully it is since we've been in business now going on 14 years. And certainly the people that know me will say this, I'm extremely ethical.

 

And so we, we would not turn over our work to AI completely. We definitely, we use it actually more as an idea starter for us. So like, even if we're trying to come, cause we'll brainstorm as a team all the time. So that's one of the things about, you know, Our business is that, you know, when we were, when we were separated by COVID and having to work remotely, it didn't last very long for us.

 

We tried to get back to the office as soon as possible because we're extremely collaborative and things will come up. And, but it's like, Hey, let's jump in the room and let's brainstorm this idea. And sometimes we get stuck, right? So it's like, okay, we're trying to write a script or come up with a concept.

 

Okay. Put it in, you know, the, Chat, chat, chat, what's it called?

 

Chris Hill: GBT. There you go. Chat gibity. Chat gibity.

 

Lori Asbury: I can't ever say it. Put it in there. See what it says. And it's an idea starter. It's never where we would land. You know, so. And I'm, of course, always going to deliver on what somebody's hired us to do.

 

Sure. And put our brain powers behind it. But, but I, again, not using the technology, not embracing the technology, not leveraging it to make us be better at what we do to me would be foolish.

 

Chris Hill: Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, it's definitely had its economies of scale, so to speak, like there are definitely things where even in our business, like we found it's really useful.

 

It's really handy, but we try to make sure anything we do with AI, we're disclosing to our clients. We're using it here. If you want us to, we can do this. We've had some clients just go, use it wherever you want. I don't care.

 

Lori Asbury: It's a really great idea, actually. No, no, that's a, that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah.

 

That, that

 

Chris Hill: just direct upfront, Hey, here's where we're using it. And you'd be surprised. I'm surprised by the results. of our the responses, I should say, of customers with that. But I mean, again, we may be the expectation

 

Lori Asbury: now. I mean, I think so many businesses are using it in so many different ways. It's crazy, but, but no, definitely.

 

And honestly, I think if we don't embrace it and we don't try to find a way to, to, to, um, Utilize it in our, and especially in what we do, um, in, in the creative process, that's responsible in a way that's transparent in a way that's relevant. Then, you know, we're just, we're gonna, we won't, we won't sustain ourselves as an agency in the long, in the long haul.

 

So we're always looking. for the next thing. In fact, it was funny because I had made a Facebook post just on my personal page about having gone to the Highlands over the weekend and I built a bonfire. I said, so we built a bonfire or something. Next thing I know, I got served an ad from Pinterest that said, Oh, inspired for Lori bonfires.

 

So they're even keyword texting, you know, there's so much keyword scanning going on and that's all artificial intelligence technology. Of course, I'm in my morning meeting saying, How do we get that technology so that we can leverage that for our clients? Because it's, it's just fascinating. There's just all the content that's being served now and, and, and the, the use of social platforms and how people are revealing about their behaviors and what they're doing in life and the things that they enjoy just through keyword searching, that's all being scanned, you know, and it's all repurposing itself into, you know,

 

Chris Hill: It's a blessing and a curse because there are times where it's like I want this to track me and there are times where I don't like one of the things I did way back in 2016.

 

I just said I'm turning off YouTube tracking me on anything that I do just because I didn't want, um, you know, I just wanted to see what it was like without the algorithm for a little bit. And it's been an interesting experience compared to what other people have had with it as a result of that. But yeah,

 

Lori Asbury: no, it's interesting because I agree at first it's creepy.

 

You know, to be totally frank, it's like creepy, but then on the same token, let's not take it to that refined of a level because that is, to me, it's just amazing that it's, it was clearly picking up because I mean, I got served that ad right after I made that post. So it was clearly picking up on a keyword.

 

But what to me is interesting is that Facebook as a platform is stripping away a lot of its advertising profiling. So it's, it's getting super broad, so you can't go in, this is social Facebook and Instagram, you can't go in. And set parameters around campaigns like, like we used to. So you can target, you know, men of a certain age, maybe a certain income level, but you can't get down into behavioral patterns or preferences or like you used to be able to.

 

And like we can with other digital products, Facebook is stripping that all away in the interest of equity and fairness. So, but. I think it's crazy because to be honest people want to see ads that they have a preference for. I would much rather be served an ad for something that I'm interested in versus something that I'm not.

 

Like why am I being served an ad that doesn't even completely, I mean people expect now to be served ads that really are relevant to them or that would interest them or engage them, you know. That's why I get served a ton of clothes ads on Instagram because I'm like the person clicking those ads and buying that stuff.

 

And it just, it captures that information and it captures my patterns and it starts to serve me more of those ads. So, I mean, you're going to get served ads anyway. Why not get served ads that you really would much rather see or have an affinity for than ads that you wouldn't?

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. And broadly speaking, that's why I like keeping tracking on in most cases.

 

Like YouTube was just a special case because I was just wondering. What would happen there? But you're right. Like as a marketer, I guess it's the marketer in me that just goes, Oh no, no, no. I need, I need to support my team.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah. You know, well I get you. I mean, I, I feel you. Cause I, I did turn off, like I made sure that I like turned off my microphone on my, on my phone for Facebook and Instagram.

 

Cause they listen too. It's all open to you as well. So if you have, if you go into your apps and you have your microphone on, when you have that app open and you're talking to anybody or what have you, it's listening and it will serve you ads or listen to what your preferences are or what have you. It is a little Big Brother ish and it's very scary.

 

So, you know, you, it can't be stopped at this point because we all have digital, we're all connected, right? But, um, you can monitor it to an extent or try to mitigate some of the, uh, Invasion of privacy, if you will.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. Some of that privacy is important.

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, exactly.

 

Chris Hill: Yeah. Um, well, as we wrap up, I always like to ask, it's kind of my closing question, um, what brand do you admire the most?

 

We've talked a lot about CMOCO today, but what brand do you have right now? It could be a fashion brand. It can be anything. Like what, what brand would you say like, ah, this is my favorite right now?

 

Lori Asbury: Well, I don't want to be biased, but I'm going to be biased. My favorite brand is the University of Oklahoma.

 

It truly is my favorite brand. I obviously, I have a preference for it because that's where I went to college and I have a strong, you know, passion for the school, but as I experience and interact and engage with that school today, it's completely different than it was when I obviously was there. I don't even want to say how many years ago, it's been so long, um, but how, how the, how the school has segmented itself.

 

Uh, from athletics, and not just from athletics overall, but each individual sport, and also through the colleges. So, I, I'm very, you know, uh, active and involved with, um, the Gaylord College of Mass Communication, which is the journalism school, which is where I graduated from. I mean, I'm only involved to an extent that I can't be there, obviously, so I'm involved financially and supporting through the alumni organization.

 

My son is actually at the University of Oklahoma right now. I brainwashed him out of the womb. Um, and he's also in, in the Gaylord school, but, but they do a phenomenal job of, of, of really having people understand the full experience of what goes on there as a university, and they do it so brilliantly through their social media.

 

Um, and so it's really easy to be connected. And I'm not saying that any other, any other university does it any worse or better, because I'm sure they do a phenomenal job. This is just my own personal experience. The media departments that they use to produce content on their social platforms is, Mind blowing.

 

And I know they use a lot of student based support, and then they probably also have to have some professional help, but I mean, it's just incredible, um, in the way they tell the story. It's consistent across, across the entire university, but the way it's segmented into individual sports or individual colleges or the university as a whole is all extremely congruous.

 

And so the, the brand experience overall, It's very impressive,

 

Chris Hill: um, but

 

Lori Asbury: I will admit I'm a little biased.

 

Chris Hill: That's okay. I mean, this is, this is what's your favorite brand is and what might bring you inspiration. It's

 

Lori Asbury: not necessarily a business brand or a, or a consumer, you know, uh, a product or, you know, that type of thing, but it's definitely a brand that I'm engaged with a lot.

 

Follow and, um, think they do a great job. My daughter's going to a different school, so we'll see how that goes.

 

Chris Hill: That's great. That's great. Yeah. Well, that's, that's really interesting. Um, well, Laurie, thank you.

 

Lori Asbury: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. This has been a lot of fun.

 

Chris Hill: Absolutely. Um, before we go, How can people connect with you?

 

How can people connect with CMOco?

 

Lori Asbury: Yeah, for sure. We'd love for you to connect with us. You can always email me at laurielori at cmoco. com just to get in contact with us. Our website is cmoco. com. And yeah, feel free to touch base with us anytime. We'd love to help anybody with any of their marketing or advertising needs.

 

You know, I think we Our boutique by design, like, of course, we want to grow and are continuing to grow. But what we think sets us apart is that we are able to be truly collaborative partners with our clients. And we really do try to maintain a relationship in which we really are like their internal marketing team that just doesn't happen to sit right inside their company.

 

Chris Hill: So that's great. Yeah, that's great. Alrighty. Well, Lori, thank you so much.

 

Lori Asbury: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.