Joyful Marketing: Extraordinary Work with Purpose | Elle from Hunter Marketing

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Elspeth Paige Sack: I’m great, Ernesto. Thanks for having me.

Ernesto: it’s great to have you on. I mean, we’re talking a little bit, before, before the episode here, a little bit about yourself and the company and definitely wanted the listeners who are tuning in to get a little bit more of it. So let’s kick it off with that. in your own words, tell us everything about hunter marketing.

Elspeth Paige Sack: Oh, my gosh. Everything about hunter marketing. I will tell you to kick off that, Hunter is. I guess we’re kind of moving at a startup. We’re going to be five this coming year, in 2024, in September. and our tagline is extraordinary work delivered with joy. And we live by that. We drink that. We feel that we’re too young to not do extraordinary work. And the joy part comes from the initial kind of inspiration, to start hunter, which was my daughter, her name is Madison Rose. And, it took us 15 years to get to become parents. And I had been a professional all the time. I’m not going to tell you how old I am. I had a birthday February 1. Let’s just say I’m not. I’m a more geriatric parent. and, but when I was pregnant with her hormones or whatever, I finally had the courage of, like, if I’m not going to be with her and be doing something that I love, then what’s this all for? And I started Hunter to do work that would inspire me, which would then make me a better parent, a better mom, but also make her proud. And so it isn’t. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a lot of the work that hunter does is in public. Service. it is my goal to be able to take the skills and talents that I have and have built a team that think similarly, who want to make an impact, positive impact. we are obviously for profit, but not money motivated. It’s not how we pick and choose who we work with. and so coming to a timeline of the joy piece is that we love who we work with. We love the work that we’re doing, because we’re genuinely. Whether it’s helping someone get to work using public transit, we are helping people not get parking tickets in the city that we love, or celebrating a wonderful report card with a slice of hot, cheesy pizza. All of those things bring us joy.

Ernesto: That’s awesome to hear. And so that week, our listeners who are listening right now, elle, and get a better understanding of your company, then, what are some problems, then that you solve for clients?

Elspeth Paige Sack: Oh, my gosh. Well, so Hunter was started right before the pandemic. And, I wouldn’t change a thing if I could go back in time. But, navigating the pandemic was probably one of the biggest, things that me and my team really had to dig in to figure out. How do we create compelling stories, where a definition of safety has changed? The way that people think about being safe is different and it continues to evolve. How do we especially, and I can talk a little bit more about the Madison Rose initiative, but how do I make sure that in a city that I love, that small businesses are still getting traffic and are keeping their doors open, restaurants are keeping their doors open, and that overall, our economic development continues to move forward.
And so for us at Hunter, we really thought about, I’m a storyteller. We could talk on this podcast for hours. Like, we really thought about, what are the stories that excite people, that connect people, that make them feel seen? and so I think some of the biggest challenges, Hunter started out, we were storytelling firm. We’re a full service agency. And over time, I’ve built this agency. I’m also wickedly competitive. And so although we play nice in the sandbox with anybody, all agencies, all businesses, I really found that it was better for Hunter to be a full service stop. So whether you need strategy, you need content, creation strategy, you need design, you need a website, you need photography, you need videography, you need experiential marketing, I want it to be that place. And we definitely have a good portfolio of subcontractors that we work with, who we can’t do it in house, and we’ll find them. But to be that one stop shop for my clients, to, have a diverse business partner who is thinking thoughtfully about how to raise the bar in communications, to drive whatever their key marketing challenges are, to help them hit those goals, I kind of lost track of the question, but our goal is really, the challenges that I’ve seen have just been, how do you, how do you pivot even businesses that have been in business for 50 years, 100 years, how do you pivot to adjust and accommodate the change in landscape that we’re living in?

Ernesto: Totally agree. You know, I mean, that’s something that, that everybody’s looking for. Right? And, I mean, don’t want to brag here, just want to mention that to, to our listeners here, right. But hearing you, right, I mean, there’s a reason why you guys won a Reggie award, right? And that’s, you know, you’re a mastermind behind it, so I’m glad that you’re able to tackle it on.
And what do you want to ask? Right, because, I mean, being a marketing agency, there’s so many ways you could go in clients, but is there a vertical segment? Is there an ideal ICP, then, for hunter marketing?

Elspeth Paige Sack: I honestly don’t know what an ICT means.

Ernesto: I like the appliance. Right.

Elspeth Paige Sack: Client. Thank you. it’s a long, it’s the end of the day, I think. so let me tell you a quick story and chop this up however you want. But our first big account was with Cardinal Health. And Cardinal Health is a fortune ton company. They are the essential wings to healthcare. They’re the ones that do masks and gloves and all the things, right? But they’re not actually doctors. And they hired Hunter to help them think about creating stories to help their.
This fortune ten company with 50,000 employees, they hired me to help them come up with stories to, help their employees understand why they put so much effort into building and researching their internal values. And so I got to be a part of this fortune ten company. Right out of the gate, super duper pregnant, figure out ways to tell people in a lot of different countries what it means to be inclusive. Is one of them, or what it means to be innovative.
And it would have been a disservice to Hunter if I hadn’t taken all those learnings in the way that a big fortune ten company prioritizes, their employees and what they mean. So that whether you’re a warehouse worker or you are a person trying to figure out cures for cancer, a salesperson in a pharmacy. Pharmacy on a pharmacy.
I took that back, and I’m getting to your point of, like, what’s my ideal client look like? And so I put a lot of work right out of the gate and building hunter’s foundation and coming up with our own core values. And I use those core values literally every day in every hard decision and in every great decision.
And it’s the best thing about owning your own business is being able to be picky about who you work with, because I don’t work with people that don’t align with our values. And those values are being dynamic and bright and compassionate and accountable, having integrity and inclusivity, but also having fun.
So my ideal client wants to make today and tomorrow better than it was the day before. We are making a positive impact on our community, and not just in Columbus, Ohio, but everywhere in the public transit space. We do a lot of work with public transit, showing all the benefits, not just to, your wallet, not just to the environment, not just for the ease of use, but really genuinely the bigger picture, of all the benefits of public service and all the different ways that it impacts you, even if you don’t use it.
So, the simple answer to your question is clients that align with our core values. And I’m not your average Jane. And so, you know, working with Hunter is, an extraordinary experience.

Ernesto: Awesome there. And so then how would somebody get. Usually find out about you guys? Is there a top client acquisition channel for hunter?

Elspeth Paige Sack: Yeah. So, we also are a media buying powerhouse. I have one of the best media buying teams in the city, if not in a bigger landscape. I won’t get too braggadocious because we’re still only four. but we, you know, so I think from a brand perspective, it would be also a little bit of a disservice if, like, I didn’t really pay attention to Hunter’s brand.
And so if you check out hunter marketing, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’d love to hear feedback. We always want to do better, but I do pay attention to my brand, and making sure that the content that I’m putting out about Hunter really demonstrates what you can expect with working with Hunter.
In addition to the content that I’m putting out about what we’re doing here internally, my media buyer, we’re not spending a ton of money, and I don’t want to get, again, too braggadocious, but the work that we’re doing in the ways in which we’re pushing boundaries and really challenging ourselves to have different relationships with our clients. Clients, whether that’s a resident, a community member, a pizza buyer, whatever that looks like.
We have yet to really do any business development because we are really living our mission, which is extraordinary work to live with joy. Meaning that people love the work we’re doing. We’re winning them awards, which is not our intention, just as a result of this work, but it’s also fun to work with us and we follow through with what we say we’re going to do, which is that accountability piece of.
We are, I believe in search. so we’re obviously out there just kind of like hunting. We’re creating a name for ourselves, I think, in public service, and some QSR stuff. So, don’t really have a main hunting channel yet. Other than that, we are a lot. We promote and boost our own content on social media. We’re, making sure that our website’s optimizing correctly. We have a little bit of a search campaign running out there. and we’re also trying to get out and talk about what we do because we love it. Talking with people like you and getting out to some special conferences and events and making sure that, you know, we’re.
I’m hoping as a female CEO marketing person, which is like 1% of all agencies are owned by women, that I’m helping change the game and raise the bar for marketing professionals everywhere, definitely.

Ernesto: That’s, that’s awesome to hear. And so that way, our listeners could find you guys, you can check them out at huntermarketing us. What role does the website play for you, Elle as far as client acquisition?

Elspeth Paige Sack: I think that the website is probably our home base. I think a lot of people probably check us out on social media because I think a lot of people are finding out about us because of the work we do for other clients on social media. but a great majority, in fact, it’s insane to me. I actually just asked a partner of mine that works at Hunter to just look at our analytics lately, because for the amount of money we’re spending, like, we are getting our return, our website’s home base.
And so making sure that that customer journey on the website’s easy, that they get a good taste of all the different services that they do, that they see our personalities. And you go to our homepage, you see not just kind of our professional head shop, but also a little bit about our personalities as that, ah, clicks through. As well as my story. my daughter is a big part of. She’s my muse. Right. And so understanding that that balance of life and work is really important to me and it’s really important to my team of punchers.

Ernesto: All right, awesome to hear. And is there a tool or tip method that you would recommend to our listeners as far as some lead generation from the website?

Elspeth Paige Sack: A ah, tool or tip for lead generation to the website? Well, number one, I would make sure that you pay attention to your website and make sure that you’re updating content, on it regularly and optimizing it to work to your benefit. And if you’re creating content, making sure that you’re creating content that’s relevant to who you’re trying to attract.
I don’t think that I have any clients that we don’t buy search for and I think that digital media and you could probably speak better to this ernesto than me, but I think that if you really put a game plan together and a strategy together for how you hunt for new business and making sure that customer experience or that future customer experience is easy and that they get to have a good snapshot of you and that you could tell a compelling story, I think thats really all you need.

Ernesto: awesome. Great to hear some recommendations there from you. Well, lets switch gears a little bit and talk about you as the leader, you being the founder and CEO there. What does your day look like? What are some key tasks you focus on your day to day work?

Elspeth Paige Sack: so let me just say, im a marketing person, im a storyteller. When I was growing up, I didnt say I want to be a someday, and I am. But I’m a marketing person, right. I have found myself in the last four or five years, finding myself in new terrain and have purposely hunted for peers. I lost peers. I’m peers with cmos, I’m peers with marketing directors and marketing managers and project managers historically.
And so one of the ways that I’m working at being a great leader is I’m investing time in myself and surrounding myself with more leaders. I’m a part of groups like Vistage and the National association of Women Business Owners, participate in groups like ah, ANa, and verticals where my clients are like APTA, American Public Transportation association.
And so I’m constantly looking to learn from my peers and I’ve learned not to be afraid to ask questions. I take my leadership role. It’s a wickedly important role for me to be able to do, say what I want and not say what I want, do what I’m saying to set a good example for this team. And so, as I’m talking about extraordinary work delivered with joy, really owning those values and demonstrating to them that the reasons that I started Hunter are non negotiable. They just aren’t.
and so I’m involved a lot. In fact, when I interview with potential new clients, they always say, well, how much of a part of this are you going to be? And I tell them right away, I’m a terrible project manager. I go too fast. But I’m behind the scenes in the strategy, and I love it because we really only work with clients that inspire us and tickle us and make us think about new ideas and how to do things differently or better or connect clients.
And so, from a strategy perspective, I’m super involved in the strategy. I also love. I think media buying is such a romantic thing because it’s, like, the final thing, right? Like, all the content that you’ve created and all the people that you’ve been thinking about, like, that media piece and how you bring it to that customer and that their experience with it, regardless of what it is, to me, is so romantic.
And so I love working hand in hand with my chief media officer and kind of planning out what that looks like, because different audiences receive messaging, as you know. and so I am hands, sleeves rolled up. I’m, in it. In fact, some of my colleagues joke with me that, like, I’m the last one here most nights, and it’s not what I encourage. I encourage work life balance in a big way. But I also learned through, like, vista. It’s like, it’s okay to say, like, I love job and I love my job.

Ernesto: That’s amazing, right? I think. And that’s where it defines if it’s a job, actually, right? If you love it so much, that’s just. It’s a normal thing for you. Right? and it’s not like, I got to go to a job, right? If you love it, it’s just part of you. So that, I mean, I’m glad that you started this, five years ago, and, you know, you have a lot of experience. It’s great, great to have someone like you.
But, let’s switch then, here to our next section out, which is our rapid fire question rounds. Are you ready for that?

Elspeth Paige Sack: I’ll do my best.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. First up, what is the last book that you read?

Elspeth Paige Sack: I just had the opportunity to finish reading quantum marketing, which was written by. I’m gonna totally slaughter his name, but his first name is Raja, and he’s the CMO from Coca Cola, and I had the opportunity to hear him speak at an a and a event. I think it’s marketing masters this past fall, and, I thought I’d. I know a little bit about a lot of stuff, but he is an incredibly inspiring marketer.
And I’ve never taken such feverish notes in a book before, and then kind of rewrote some of those notes to then bring back and share with my team. And so, I definitely, I would encourage taking, the time. It’s a very easy read. quantum marketing by raja. Rajamanar.

Ernesto: Oh, perfect. Good read there for our listeners and myself as well. Right? In the marketing world, the more the merrier. So thanks for that reit there.

Elspeth Paige Sack: Too, if I can interrupt. I always think it’s really great with people that have had great success, especially with the big, big blue chip brand, because they have so many experiences with different agencies and different cultures in different countries. Like, if they write a book, you know, you’re going to get, like, you’re going to get filled up.

Ernesto: Yeah, definitely. I would agree with that, especially. Right. Like you mentioned, we worked with so many in and outs and see which is. All right, this was working. This one isn’t working, you know, and they drop. Pick them up and drop them. So definitely some good, good insights there from them.
But next is, what is one single thing that Hunter marketing is focused on at the moment the most.

Elspeth Paige Sack: so from a personal perspective, for Hunter, we in four years have had exponential growth. And so I am really working hard to make sure that the company that I started, that essence of that continues to be present as we grow. Moving from three employees to 27 employees, moving from a million dollars to over $7 million, making sure that this agency remains consistent. and as we grow, that we are delivering extraordinary work that is delivered with joy.
but I’m out for world domination. And so, I have a big growth plan ahead of me in the ways in which I want to take over the world to do this joyful work. and so, as much as we haven’t done a ton of new business development, we’re gearing up to grow. I have aspirations to open hunter on the east coast. Hunter Boston, hunter east, whatever we want to call her. But, we’ll follow wherever the business is with the verticals that align with our values.

Ernesto: Absolutely. Awesome. Great to hear that. Now, I love asking this question, and especially with someone with some experience like yourself, but if there would be no boundaries in technology. What would be that one thing that you want to have fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Elspeth Paige Sack: Oh, my gosh. If there were no rules around technology, what would I want to have fixed today? I don’t even know where to start. Okay, you definitely got me with that fire. this is probably not the answer that you’re looking for, but right now I’m in a deep learning of AI and really understanding how is this technology?
If I could have. I actually do have a magic eight ball somewhere, but if I had a magic eight ball, I don’t want Hunter to get behind, because we’re designers and creatives, especially my content team with writing. And so, I’m trying really hard to stay as ahead as I can in understanding these technologies and introducing them to my team, because I know at some point I don’t want it to be an antagonist to our business. I want, when a client comes to us, for us to be able to demonstrate how we use AI to be even better, whether that’s around our media buying and the content that that’s giving to us, to be a copy editor for what we’re doing.
and so if I could say, it would be, when everything changes, you are a media. It changes constantly. and it’s all incredible stuff. Like, we have had some of the best results with our media buying, with recruitment, because the ways in which we can target people is just so much better and thoughtful and affordable.
but a little bit of me wishes it would slow down so I could master it and then get to the next class, because it just does go. As soon as you master, there’s something totally new which is why I’m grateful for my. I have a very young teen that keeps their fingers on the pulse of everything that’s moving all the trends that are happening, but it’s just going so fast.
Like, I was in Apple on Sunday because I cracked my iPhone and their new VR classes came out, and they were doing all these demonstrations, and I was like, another thing. and I’m totally showing my zenial age here. but, I don’t know if that answers your question, but, if I could, it just would be. I want to keep going forward because it’s incredible. It’s helping us be the best marketing team we’ve ever been and deliver results that are extraordinary. But I were constantly, like, drinking out of a fire hose.

Ernesto: Okay, awesome, great, great. Love that. Right? The not to fall behind. Right. Because, like, I mean, you mentioned the, AI was big last year, and I think everybody wanted to dip in, but just, you know, curious curiosity. Everybody was like, you know, all right, what can we do? What can we do? Think this year is, you know, we’re going to see it grow. So definitely got to keep your finger on it.

Elspeth Paige Sack: Right. And use it. Right? Like, don’t be afraid. I can’t be afraid of it. I can’t be afraid that it’s going to cannibalize jobs, because it’s not like it doesn’t have the heart. Right? We’re hunters, and we want that direct result, but we also have heart, and we need to be able to tell that there’s a human element that’s not there with it. But if we can master it and use it, we’re only setting ourselves up, and we are. We’re testing it, we’re trying it. We’re practicing things. My design team is trying it and testing my video team is doing that. So, thankful for employees who are invested and continue to move forward, too.

Ernesto: Definitely. Awesome. Great. And, well, lastly, Elle what is one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Elspeth Paige Sack: I would say, don’t worry. Just believe in yourself. Like, you got this. The day that I hired my first employee, I had so much anxiety because the responsibility of owning someone’s livelihood was really scary and overwhelming for me, and I was so afraid, and I committed to that employee. Her name is Hailey, and she still has a hunter today, and she’s really important to me.
I promised her that if, she took a chance on me, and she had just gotten her first big time job with benefits and salary and graduated from OSU recently. I promised her that I wouldn’t let her down, and I haven’t.
But the thing that I’m working on myself is I also am terrible at taking time off. And so if I could talk to myself to plant a seed of, like, the value of I make my team do it, but of recharging. Right. And allowing myself to be inspired and relax and enjoy all this hard work, that’s what I would encourage myself now to do, but also back then, because enjoy it. Everything is going so fast.
It’s really ironic because my daughter just turned four, and hunter and her are so intertwined in their age, and so thinking about the development of a little child is so similar to the development of Hunter. We were infants, and now we’re toddlers, and we’re moving on, is just enjoy. Enjoy the successes. Right?
I got to hear Peyton Manning speak at a papa John’s conference a while ago. And I used to work with Papa John’s a long time ago, and, I I was skeptical to listen to him because I’m an ice hockey person. I played ice hockey. I was skeptical because I didn’t know a lot about him, but he was a franchisee and involved in the business, and he gave this speech, and I’ll never forget it because he, at the time, was, I don’t know about his career enough to give you any more insight, other than he shared this story about really keeping this neutral place and knowing that place really well and being really happy there.
Because sometimes things are awesome, and when they’re awesome, you don’t really want to make that the new normal. You want to get back to that home base. And when things are really hard, you don’t want to make that your new normal, either. You got to get back to kind of that balance. And I have always remembered that. I have always thought to myself, like, yes, we want to celebrate, and we celebrate well, at Hunter. in fact, to the outsider, it might look like we’re more like a sorority sometimes because we enjoy our success.
but we also are constantly level setting on, you know, what are our. What are the expectations our clients have on us.
So, that was a long winded answer to, say one. Believe in myself, enjoy the ride. and never, get too high. And never get too low.

Ernesto: Definitely. Well, grace and come. Great advice from you there. So glad that, you know, you’re, like, you mentioned, Haley, a, success story there with you, and I’m sure all your team feels the same way. So thanks for that advice and for our listeners, as well.
But, Elle coming up to an end here, I do want to give you a big thanks for being on today’s show, but I do also want to give you the last word. So, if someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is that one thing they should remember about Hunter Marketing?

Elspeth Paige Sack: That we do? Extraordinary work, delivered with joy.

Ernesto: Awesome, guys. You guys heard it there. For our listeners. Check them out at huntermarketing us. Extraordinary work delivered with joy. Thank you so much, Elle to our listeners. Thank you.

Elspeth Paige Sack: Thank you. Thank you. Ernesto. thank you.

Ernesto: Thank you. And we’re looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents