On Media Champions, our host, Greg Kirkham, speaks with experts and professionals from across the country operating in the media space. In this segment, Greg spoke with Elyse Notarianni of Townie Creative.
Short company description:
Townie Creative is a ghostwriting and social media marketing agency. We turn CEOs, executives and service-based providers into thought leaders.
What was your first job in Media?
I worked at FedNet, an agency on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC that gathers the raw materials that journalists use to report on Congress. I was an evening editor, so I edited live transcripts and tagged searchable video any time the House and Senate were in session past 6pm. I had press access to Congress at 22.
Then a marketing pitstop, then a small magazine in South Jersey called SJ Magazine. It was less impressive on the surface, but that’s where I got opportunities like interviewing Queen Latifah, 20/20 Executive Producer Janice Johnston and I’m sure other cool names I can’t remember right now.
What is the biggest change in marketing that you see coming in the next 2 years?: I think AI is going to completely change marketing, but not how most people think. We spent at least a decade rewriting the same content on the internet just to get content out there quickly, and now Ai can do that in seconds. You don’t need a writer for that anymore, which means writers and marketers need to really hone in on being unique, personable and real if they don’t want to get lost in the Ai internet bubble. That’s why ghostwriting has been such a great business, because for the first time, people really understand the importance of showing your unique voice on the internet.
Why is it important for a business to hire an outside ad agency as opposed to having just an internal marketing director?
I have a client who always says, “You can’t read the label from inside the jar.”
We’re too close to our businesses to be able to see it the way our customers do. There are too many things that we take for granted as obvious, but the customer doesn’t know. If you only rely on internal teams, you leave a blind spot that is such a simple fix, but one the team is never going to see.
I see this all the time with ghostwriting clients. They take for granted how much they know about their business and industry, so they forget to explain even the most simple things. When people think they start explaining something at level 1, they’re usually actually at a level 5. But they don’t know that, and they don’t know how to pull back.
An outside group can see your business like your customers and create ads, marketing materials and experiences that cater to customer needs, not company.
What is one tip that you would give when it comes to digital marketing?
Clear is better than clever!
It doesn’t matter how creative and unique your marketing is if people don’t even know what you do, how it works and who you do it for.
What percent of your advertising service offerings does traditional media buying make up?
0
