►
Description
Aiken Business Matters talks to leaders from the Alison South Marketing Group about the services they offer to businesses across the area and the region.
Guests include:
• Cynthia South, Alison South Marketing Group President
• Mike Thomas, Alison South Marketing Group CEO
• Ron Turner, South Company Creative Director
A
B
I'm
Cynthia
south
I'm,
president
of
the
South
company,
and
my
background,
is
primarily
in
journalism
and
health
care
and
higher
education
over
the
past
37
years.
I
worked
in
every
aspect
of
the
business
from
media
to
the
corporate
side
to
the
agency
side
and
excited
to
be
here
with
a
very
great
team
of
people.
A
C
D
A
B
We
are
just
excited
to
have
this
growth,
our
company.
This
really
leads
to
the
history
of
our
company-
has
grown
from
being
at
the
kitchen
table
to
renting
space
and
one
of
our
clients
locations
here
in
akin
to
buying
our
own
building
right
here
on
Chesterfield
in
downtown
aiken,
and
so
our
clientele
has
grown.
Our
business
has
grown
and
we
needed
some
of
the
systems
in
place
of
a
more
experienced
agency
to
be
able
to
manage
that
growth,
and
we
had
a
numerous
clients
in
Augusta
already
on.
B
A
I
I
think
the
first
time
I
met
you
you
were.
You
were
going
into
your
location
that
you
were
at
on
hand,
Avenue,
bright
and
I
just
moved
in
across
the
street
to
to
hump
my
home
over
there,
and
one
of
your
clients
use
my
house
to
do
a
lot
of
their
photo
shoots
with
it.
So
that
was
kind
of
an
interesting
thing,
but
one
thing
I
wanted
to
kind
of
play
off
of.
As
we
talked
to
you,
you
came
from
a
very
quick
beginning,
you
you
had
a
vision
and
you
kind
of
worked.
C
This
is
the
city's
been
very
good
to
our
company.
I
mean
it's.
It's
helped
us
grown
from
just
the
word
of
mouth
and
people
doing
you're
doing
right
by
the
client
by
helping
their
marketing
needs.
I
think
we
provide
a
solution,
that's
completely
different
than
anybody
else
does
in
a
marketing
agency
realm.
We
believe
that
not
only
is
the
brand
the
most
important
thing,
but
there's
all
aspects
of
branding
not
just
buying
media.
C
It's
not
just
doing
public
relations,
but
there's
events
that
you
have
to
be
out
there
and
be
a
part
of
the
community.
You
have
to
have
strategic
partnerships
in
the
community
with
referral
referral
sources,
any
aspect
from
your
web
as
your
resume,
which
ronal
obviously
tell
you
more
about
to
from
a
creative
standpoint,
but
all
that
has
to
work
together.
Most
ad
agencies
are
just
kind
of
single
source
focused,
so
we
believe
in
the
full
circle
approach
to
marketing.
A
Ron
and
I
were
talking
earlier,
and
you
know,
there's
a
weird
kind
of
buff
pivot
point,
I,
think
within
business
and
industry,
and
even
government
of
how
to
get
the
word
out.
I
mean
it's
all
going
more
digital
print,
as
is
not
as
viable
as
it
used
to
be
it.
I
was
telling
Ron
I
went
to
a
seminar
early
in
the
year
and
I
didn't
get
a
lot
of
brochures
which
I
was
looking
for.
They
handed
me
a
thumb,
drive
and
everything
that
all
have
brochures.
A
Everything
was
on
the
thumb,
drive
and
their
resume,
and-
and
you
know
all
the
things
that
they
did
plus
some
of
the
some
of
their
projects
that
they
had
completed
were
examples
of
those
were
on
there.
I
thought
that
was
kind
of
a
neat
thing,
plus
I
could
erase
it
and
use
it
later.
So
that
was
a
good
thing.
A
B
A
B
A
When
I
was
in
the
insurance
business
that
we
commonly
shared
an
awful
lot
of
class
together,
a
lot
of
business
clients,
which
was
was
neat
to
see
how
I
how
you
took
on
these,
some
of
them
are
very
brandy.
Businesses,
I'll,
be
of
just
become
a
part
of
the
fabric
of
akin
and
many
of
them
in
downtown
aiken.
So
that's
got
to
give
you
a
great
sense
of
accomplishment
of
feeling
for
being
a
part
of
the
fabric
of
a
downtown
helping
grow
that
fabric
and
develop
it
into
a
vibrant,
energetic
kind
of
a
business
model.
C
D
We
have
actually
worked
to
rebrand
them,
give
them
a
moral,
modern,
look
to
help
them
to
stand
out
as
a
involvement
are
involved
business
in
the
community
themselves.
As
far
as
being
able
to
push
other
businesses
into
that,
we've
worked
hard
to
develop
brands
of
a
lot
of
the
companies
in
the
area
outside
of
the
box
billboards.
We
do
a
lot
of
grassroots
marketing.
D
That's
one
thing:
that's
so
important
in
in
smaller
businesses
that
don't
have
the
heavy
budgets
to
be
able
to
go
in
and
really
brand
in
a
different
way
to
reach
people,
and
so
we've
actually
had
painted
bikes
all
over
aching
posters
and
signs
and
anything
that
we
can
come
up
with
to
really
reach
the
consumer.
Yes,.
A
C
A
C
It's
a
fun
fair,
it's
a
great
project,
one
of
our
newer
projects,
so
that
we
can't
tell
you
all
the
details,
but
it's
going
to
be
a
king
county
school
district,
and
so
we
launched
that
in
January
and
it'll
help
to
create
a
lot
of
jobs
in
this
town.
Put
young
people
enhancing
their
education.
I
guess
put
it
that
way!
Stuff
well,.
A
C
We
got
our
wallet,
interns
that
sign
off
or
hopefully
come
to
continue
with
us
in
a
workforce.
Valerie
right
behind
us
is
an
incredible
animator
and
came
from
making
tech
as
an
intern
as
groaner
went
into
a
full-time
position
and
just
stories
grace
has
come
from
college
usca
to
us
as
a
full-time
Haley.
Pope
I
mean
we
just
the
name.
Just
can
continue.
A
You
know
that
kind
of
goes
to
the
fabric
of
one
of
the
issues
that
that
we
hear
discussed
awful
lot
and
achiness.
How
do
we
retain
our
young
people?
How
do
we
retain
our
Millennials
in
town
and
you
certainly
gone
out
of
your
way
to
walk,
to
try
to
help
us
bridge
that
gap
and
I
think
that's
a
to
be
inviting
to
that.
A
C
A
A
A
C
D
D
A
lot
of
agencies
work
with
the
dichotomy
of
a
account
side
handles
that
side
and
creative
does
all
the
rest
of
the
the
branding,
everything
else
where
we
really
have
a
forum
where
everybody
has
an
open
voice,
and
it's
kind
of
neat,
because
a
lot
of
the
ones
that
are
usually
silenced
are
the
ones
that
come
up
with
great
ideas
and
it's
we
have
a
playful
environment.
We
roll
up
our
sleeves
and
honor.
D
If
rates
will
work
till
ten
o'clock,
11
o'clock
at
night
or
we've
worked
saturdays
holidays,
everything
else,
but
it's
a
restaurant
believers
in
south
and
Alison
South.
Oh,
you
have
to
have
a
fun
environment.
It
has
make
it
to
where
the
employees
want
to
be
here
and
the
more
that
they
want
to
be
here,
the
more
they
want
to
be
a
part
of
what
we're
trying
to
do
for
everybody
else.
Well,.
A
Somebody
at
the
table
here
mentioned
the
word
team
earlier
on
it
that
that
does
foster
that
atmosphere.
Everybody
doing
you
know
doing
their
part
coming
together
and
when
one
side
knows
what
the
other,
when
one
discipline
in
the
office
knows
what
the
other
discipline
is
doing
is
easier
to
come
up
with
some
synergy
between
the
ideas
sure.
D
B
That's
so
excuse
me
for
jumping
in
here,
but
that's
so
important
to
what
we
do
in
in
studying
our
clients
and
developing
a
map
for
them
the
marketing
plan
and
strategy,
and
then
they
create
the
creative
part
of
that
strategy,
not
only
in
the
tactics
but
in
the
presentation
and
the
delivery
of
that
so
content
management.
Brand
management
telling
your
own
story
is
important,
because,
if
you're
not
managing
your
content,
you're
not
managing
your
brand.
Somebody
else
is
in
the
social
media
world.
Everybody
else
is
telling
your
story
if
you're
not
managing
it.
How.
B
C
A
C
C
Yeah
I
mean
I,
mean
you
get
this
kind
of
for
me.
We're
invested
in
each
company,
so
one
were
exclusive
in
many
ways.
We
all
represent
this
type
of
industry
or
help
that
type
of
client,
but
we're
focused
on
their
brand
and
their
needs.
Its
colleague
we
get
to
go
to
their
table
every
day
and
where
their
staff
shirt
and
feel
a
part
of
them.
I
was.
B
Very
proud,
when
we
received
a
letter
from
ma
you
as
a
very
good
example
of
that
that
they
had
performance
parameters,
indicators
that
they
were
measuring
our
performance
and
we
exceeded
every
one
of
them
and
they
saved
over
fifty
thousand
dollars
in
media
costs,
their
staff.
They
were
able
to
keep
their
staff
on
their
core
business
and
that
we
pride
ourselves
in
being
seamless
and
working
with
their
staff
being
extension
and
being
accelerators
of
business.
Helping
businesses
accelerate
beyond
what
they
could
do
on
their
own.
This.
A
D
Basically,
before
we
even
start
on
the
computer,
we
have
meetings
to
to
really
find
the
direction
that
the
company
is
currently
and
where
we
feel
they
need
to
go
once
that
happens,
a
lot
of
people
think
we
just
sit,
sit
down
and
start
developing
brands
or
developing
a
logo
that
looks
nice.
What
we
actually
do
is
we
put
a
lot
of
concept
behind
that
we
start
doing
research
on
what's
going
on
on
a
local
level,
their
competition
on
a
regional
level
and
also
on
a
national
level.
D
The
funny
thing
about
small
business
nowadays
is
you
actually
have
to
have
that
national
look
to
be
viable.
It
used
to
be
handmade
business
cards
and
write
your
name
on
the
sign
out
front,
but
now
everybody
wants
that
experience,
especially
with
Millennials
the
way
they
shop
now.
Is
they
shop
on
experience
and
it
experiences
based
upon
the
feeling
they
get
when
they
walk
into
a
store
when
they
develop
or
buy
a
product?
C
C
They
did
that
approach
and
a
year
later,
they
still
don't
know
what
their
logo
means
and
they
still
didn't
know
how
to
use
their
logo
and
they
still
didn't
understand
the
meaning
and
we
came
back
wrong
and
the
team
came
back
and
and
developed
the
story
behind
it.
And
then
now
all
the
media,
starting
in
january,
will
tell
that
story
and
everything
you
see,
whether
they're
at
an
event
or
on
TV
or
at
a
function
and
everything
just
ties
in
if.
B
You
don't
have
an
effective
brand
you're
lost
in
the
market
on
this,
and
that
brand
has
to
permeate
every
every
aspect
of
touching
the
customer.
You
can't
just
put
it
here
and
put
it
there,
it
has
to
be
throughout.
It
has
to
be
the
look,
the
voice,
the
message,
the
texture,
the
personality.
It
is
the
personality
of
the
company.
You
know.
A
That's
that's
a
great
segue
into
a
question.
I
was
going
to
ask
ron
ron
was
showing
me
liminary
work
that
he
was
doing
with
the
client
that
I'm
familiar
with,
think
I
and,
and
it
was
I
complimented
him,
because
I
thought
it
was
a
very
the
presentation
of
it.
The
colors
and
the
whole
concept
of
the
design
really
took
a
business.
That
was
one
that
you,
actually
you
really
do
need,
but
it
is
not
always
pleasant
to
go
through
the
process
of
the
services
that
they
offer.
A
So
I
think
this
was
a
and
you
know,
gave
you
a
more
inviting
a
more
comforting
and
more
rough
I
feel
secure
and
dealing
with
with
this
through
them,
and
that's
the
message
that
the
colors
and
shapes
and
sizes
and
all
the
things
that
go
into
it
mean
how
do
you
go
about
picking
colors?
For
you
know
we
talked
about
branding,
but
how
you
go
about
picking
colors.
We
just
blindly.
D
We
we
go
back
into
colors,
always
have
a
psychological
approach
on
people.
If
it's
an
urgent
message
that
you're
trying
to
purvey,
you
use
the
harsher
colors
like
reds,
mm-hmm
oranges
and
colors.
That
evoke
that
kind
of
emotion
with
the
one
that
we
r
you
look
at
we're
trying
to
calm
people
when
the
idea,
it's
not
a
pleasant
experience.
D
Typically
for
somebody
to
go
to
so
we
tend
to
go
with
more
the
blues,
the
green
softer
colors,
but
you
also
have
to
have
color
contrast
when
you're
developing
a
logo
usually
try
to
go
with
a
very
dominant
color
in
a
passive
color
with
it.
We
try
to
develop
something
of
a
story
behind
that.
The
color
usage
of
lung
icons
are
so
important
national
brands.
A
C
D
Also,
we
present
we
pitch
on
old
school
black
foam
boards.
We
believe
that
the
strength
is
in
in
the
imagery.
We
try
to
stay
away
from
PowerPoint
things
that
are
striking.
We
just
want
that
that
raw
imagery,
when
we
project
to
the
client,
so
it's
kind
of
our
our
niche-
that
we
found
really
works
with
that
all
back.
A
D
C
A
C
D
To
we
actually
had
a
competition
to
learn
snapchat
here,
where
every
all
of
us
for
a
whole
month
had
to
figure
out
the
best
ways
to
use
it,
and
and
really
you
have
to
put
your
money
where
your
mouth
is.
With
that
you
have
to
not
just
say
we
do
this
social
media
used
to
been
mean
that
you
were
on
facebook.
D
Now
it's
instagram,
it's
it's
snapchat,
it's
evolving,
even
from
from
from
fun
from
facebook,
going
in
two
different
ways
to
reach
them,
and
you
have
to
be
just
as
creative
in
that
because
we
always
say
you
have
about
three
to
five
seconds
to
reach
somebody
on
a
billboard.
It's
and
people
think
that,
with
a
website,
you
have
all
this
retention
that
they're
going
to
literally
look
over
the
website
for
hours
and
they
don't
they
spend
about
two
minutes
on
it.
So
we've
been
learning
to
grab
them
with
video
or
grab
them
with
that
story.
A
C
B
To
use
these
clinics
are
getting
better
anytime,
you
have
a
new
technology
they're
a
little
behind
on
getting
the
analytics
and,
of
course,
as
social
media
and
digital
has
evolved,
the
ability
to
get
more
in-depth
analytics
on
a
return
on
your
investment
in
your
your
activity
level
is
greater,
and
so
snapchat
is
now
starting
to
present
more
analytics
than
they
did
initially.
All.
A
A
D
Ninety
percent,
yeah,
and
so
very
little,
is
on
a
desktop
anymore.
It's
a
lot
of
its
you
drive
by
SIA
a
website
on
it
on
a
billboard.
You
immediately
go
from
from
there
to
your
smartphone
to
find
the
information
out
about
where
you're
going,
and
you
wanted
to
connect
you
on
google
maps
or
whatever
with
that.
D
So
everything
has
to
be
precise
on
that
mobile
version
of
a
website,
so
you
can
connect
via
phone
or
directions
to
the
location,
and
that's
that's
where
we've
had
to
to
to
really
push
ourselves
into
the
into
the
next
decade
is
how
we're
going
to
maintain
on
the
top
level
of
that
and
keep
apart,
keep
our
clients
there
too.
Well.
A
I
think
one
thing
for
sure
is
that
I
hope
people
get
the
feeling
today
that
when
you
talk
about
marketing
and
advertising,
is
it's
not
what
you
think
it
is
it's
awful
lot
more
and
it's
not
static
at
all.
It's
ever
evolving
every
day,
something
new
is
coming
out
something
different:
a
new
apps
coming
on
the
scene,
some
entrepreneur
out
there
Facebook
is
even
changing
quite
a
bit.
I
know
well,
I'm,
not
own
it
as
much
as
I
used
to
be.
A
D
Feat
is
really
yes:
I've
gone,
that
with
bass
players
is
we
do
a
lot
of
events
and
we're
doing
a
lot
of
live
feed
broadcasting
at
those
events
to
get
people
who
are
sitting
back
on
Facebook
connected
with
that
business
with
the
event
going
on
the
sale,
we
were
actually
on
Black
Friday
filming
at
one
of
our
clients
here
in
Aiken,
and
it
was.
It
was
really
neat
to
to
to
have
that
feel.
There.
C
C
A
Thing
I
wanted
to
to
bring
out
today
is
that
you
certainly
have
demonstrated
your
creativity
and
desire
to
be
a
part
of
the
community
as
well
as
to
serve
the
community.
What
do
you
think
the
biggest
challenge
for
small
businesses
that
really
can't
afford
to
get
into
marketing
and
advertising,
and
things
like
that?
Are
there
opportunities
out
there
for
them
all
your
clients
have
to
be
large
clients.
You
have
small
clients.
C
C
B
C
Think
about
that,
even
if
you
only
can
do
this
and
this
there's
other
things,
you
could
be
doing
the
having
a
marketing
arm.
We
have
a
doctor
right
now,
speaking
at
the
city
of
aiken
odell
weeks
in
front
of
a
group
of
30
to
40
people
right
now.
Well,
it
didn't
cost
anything
to
speak.
He
used
our
time
to
make
sure
that
we
got
him
there
and
we
had
connected
him
he
didn't
have
to.
If
he
took
his
hour
out
of
the
day.
Somebody
might
not
have
been
saved
today,
so
yeah.
A
C
A
I
know
that
you
know
people
have
listened
and
they
say
boy
they're
successful
they
done
well.
You've
got
national
international
customers
and
clients
all
over
the
country.
It
you
had
to
have
some
help
getting
started.
I
know
that
you
were
involved
have
been
involved
in
one
of
success
stories
that
score.
D
B
Meet
with
us
regularly
and
guide
us
help
us
analyze
our
data,
make
good
decisions
and
give
us
the
advice
and
support
that
we
need
to
make
that
advancement
in
it
has
helped
us
develop
a
strategic
plan
so
that
we're
all
on
the
same
page,
and
that
has
been
that's
very
helpful.
Sometimes
that's
difficult
to
do
without
a
larger
group
with
you
and.
A
Whenever
you're
in
a
business,
drawing
on
a
previous
years
experience
in
business,
you
know
you
get
so
involved
on
the
day-to-day.
Sometimes
you
missed
the
very
obvious
things
that
somebody
like
that
can
can
bring
to
the
table
to
help
you
pinpoint
or
see
to
help
you
reach
another
level
in
it.
We
all
certainly
want
to
do
that.
A
You
have
done
a
tremendous
job
of
doing
the
things
that
we
enjoy.
Seeing
you
invested
in
a
community
you're
downtown.
You
invest
back
in
the
community,
the
way
that
you
support
different
organizations
and
that
you
I
know
one
event
that
you
have
every
year
that
you
you
give
back
to
a
non-profit.
Don't
you
we.
D
And
so
what
we?
What
we
do
is
we
actually
go
through
the
process
of
we
send
out
a
call
to
nonprofits.
We
get
a
group
of
potentials
back
and
what
we
do
from.
There
is
figure
out
which
one
is
best
for
us
to
to
rebrand
and
we
literally
no
no
pre
notions
with
anything
start
at
thursday
and
we
in
24
hours
we
develop
a
website.
D
That's
really
neat
to
see
is
that,
where
we're
in
the
trenches
for
24
hours,
but
we
have
clients
they're
showing
up
at
two
in
the
morning,
bringing
us
pizza
and
potluck
in
things,
so
it's
really
them
giving
back
to
us
what
we're
trying
to
give
to
a
non-profit
and
in
the
next
day,
what
we
do
is
we
present
to
their
board
the
ideas
and
in
the
video
and
everything
else
we
came
up
with
it's
really.
It's
a
neat
experience
to
bond
as
a
family.
Here,
as
that
and.
B
We
know
that
there
are
a
lot
of
seniors
and
outlying
communities
who
can't
come
downtown
to
have
dinner,
to
participate
in
the
events
that
we
have,
because
they
don't
want
to
drive
at
night,
but
they
have
the
vehicles
and
they
have
the
drivers
that
can
be
subcontracted,
and
then
we
can
put
advertising
on
their
vehicles
also
to
promote
events
and
provide
another
advertising.
Opportunity
for
aiken
Performing
Arts,
for
example,
and
create
that
connection.
Provide
that
service.
That's
needed
and
still
create
revenue
that
they
didn't
have
before.
A
Well,
thank
you.
I
hate
to
draw
this
to
a
conclusion,
but
our
time
is
is
drawing
nigh
and
but
it
I
hope
that
I
gave
our
viewers
a
sense
of
what
being
involved
in
your
communities
like
not
only
being
in
the
community
but
giving
back
the
community
in
many
ways.
Well,
thank
you
very
much
Cynthia
Mike
Ryan.
Thank
you
so
much
and
then
welcomed
Allah
Jesus.
Does
your
TV
studio,
I.