This month, we want to take the time to shout out some of the powerful, smart, inspiring women on our team who help make it all possible. We’re all about lifting each other up, because in the immortal words of Lizzo, “if I’m shining everybody gonna shine.” Get to know some of our all-stars below!

Emily Clark

Buffalo Groupe, Chief Operating Officer

Leading with kindness, courage, and clarity, Emily drives Buffalo Groupe vision and strategy throughout all its entities. With nearly 20 years of sales and marketing experience, her leadership and strategic vision are integral in key accounts and day-to-day operations. And she’ll take you down on a Peloton.

Fun Fact: Emily was a Division 1 All-American swimmer in college. (Now she rides a bike that goes nowhere…)

Lauren Nodzak

Laurie Devore

Lauren Creel Waters

Genna Shelnutt

When the pandemic changed the world as we know it, we already had a new website in the works for our home services client, Your Crawlspace. Part of that project included adding e-commerce functionality to the site, so customers could peruse new products and order the entire proprietary crawlspace encapsulation system online.

When we launched the new website in June, Your Crawlspace began to see some amazing results on the e-commerce side of the business that exceeded even our expectations! The launch was perfectly timed with the shift of customer preferences to online retail and e-commerce, and we’re confident this trend is here to stay.

As most other businesses closed their doors at the start of the pandemic, essential businesses thrived despite the obstacles. Terminix discovered that pest control services were in high demand during a time when everyone was stuck inside their homes—and they were ready for it.

Terminix was able to quickly put safety protocols in place and efficiently communicate these to their customers, making them feel comfortable enough to allow technicians in their homes to keep pests at bay. Because the last thing anyone wants to worry about during quarantine is bugs invading their home. Yuck!

This is one trend that can’t be disputed, although it was unexpected at first. As interest rates hit an all-time low, demand for real estate hit an all-time high—and our clients definitely reaped the benefits. 

From Desert Highlands in Arizona to Spring Creekin Virginia, homes were (and still are!) flying off the market faster than they arrived. We even picked up some new client partners like Caliber Fine Properties and Highlands Cove Realty, who are looking to grow faster through more sophisticated marketing and database management. Although interest rates have increased slightly over the past month and the initial flurry of people leaving urban areas has slowed, we still expect to see continued demand for real estate.

Hospitality & tourism marketing came to a screeching halt as we all went into lockdown last March. But through strategic planning and smart messaging, we saw this industry make a big comeback during the course of 2020. For our clients at Rawle Murdy, we created what we call “dream campaigns,” helping people imagine the trips they would take and experiences they would have once it was safer. By staying in touch with our audience, we made sure they were ready to return when we were, and that our clients’ names were at the top of the list for their first getaways.

In Jackson County, people were more than happy to head to the spacious NC mountains for a much-needed trip once travel restrictions were loosened, and we saw a lot of visitors from nearby drive markets. Similarly, Primland Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA invited people back for outdoor activities across their 12,000 acres of land—plenty of room for social distancing!

It’s Black History Month, and we wanted to use this platform to highlight the voices of Black creators through literature and film, particularly the works that we’re watching and reading right now. We’re continuing to educate ourselves on the history of African American culture in our nation, this month and every month. Check out the list of films, books, and TV series below for some recs!

Films:

One Night in Miami
Directed by Regina King

Judas and the Black Messiah
Directed by Shaka King

TV Shows:

“Amend: The Fight for America”
Executive produced by Larry Wilmore and Will Smith
(Netflix miniseries)

“Insecure”
Directed by Issa Rae
(HBO dramedy)

“Lovecraft Country”
Starring Jonathan Majors
(HBO supernatural drama series)

Books:

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of Africa America, 1619-2019
By Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
By Malcolm X

The Nickel Boys
By Colson Whitehead

The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop
By Clover Hope

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson

Transporting us back to the 1990s, this fun spot features comedians Dana Carvey and Mike Meyers in an epic throwback. The ad posing as a local-access show includes ironically overt attempts at subliminal messaging to “eat local,” all while Carvey and Meyers insist they would never employ the typical tactics to try to influence viewers in any way. Clever, right?

They even reference the fact that they’d never use tired celebrity cameos—right before the camera pans over to Cardi B sitting on the couch next to them. UberEats ad execs tapped into nostalgia and current pop culture to deliver a commercial that we think really works.

Throughout the commercial, you see images of the little girl growing up, learning to swim, and ultimately making it to the Paralympics. Experts are praising Toyota for the spot’s inclusivity and inspiring execution. We’re here for it!

Chalamet expertly (and creepily) plays the role of Edgar Scissorhands, the son of original co-star Winona Ryder. With Ryder riding shotgun, this hilariously weird 90-second spot was a win.

To top it all off, the murder hornets of 2020 infamy received the shoutout they deserve. Morgan’s over-the-top personality and insane scenarios definitely stick in your brain. Anyone need a mortgage?

The spot speaks to Millenials in particular and celebrates the art of the side hustle, but it also reaches Dolly fans far and wide to create a fantastically accessible ad for everyone.

• PR/Social Media
• Creative
• Digital/Content Delivery
• Brand Leadership/Strategy
• New Business Operations

One of our values at RM is to care deeply. With clients like ours, that’s the easiest part of the job! From real estate communities to home services companies, we provide every client with impeccable attention to detail, smart strategies, and innovative ideas. Check out our four core verticals below to get a feel for our expertise and clients in each area!

Home Services: With more than 10 years of experience in the industry, Rawle Murdy brings the knowledge and strategy our home services clients need to succeed. We delve beyond demographics to get to the motivations of key decision-makers in the household, delivering strong strategies backed by targeted digital lead generation to help our clients gain even more traction with their audiences. Terminix has worked with us for more than seven years, achieving their best sales year on record. Our client Your Crawlspace is making waves in the encapsulation industry with their proprietary and patented system technology, and QEI Security & Technology is generating more leads and keeping more people safe.

Public Involvement: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: A little outreach goes a long way. Over the years, Rawle Murdy has partnered with local governments and private companies on several community outreach and public involvement projects. Our public relations team develops strategic communications plans to keep the public informed and ensure the entire community is on board. Our most recent public involvement clients and projects include BCDCOG (Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments) CARTA (Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority), Turning Leaf, Main Road Corridor, and 526 East and West Lowcountry Corridor.

Real Estate: After 40 years of real estate experience, our approach is largely sales-focused. When it comes to real estate, sales are everything—and no one knows how to capture more leads and close more deals than we do. Our proven approach comes from our work with more than 100 real estate clients, and we helped each of them do the same thing: generate more traffic to gain more qualified leads. From Lonesome Valley and The Chattooga Club in NC to Desert Highlands in AZ and Spring Creek in VA, Rawle Murdy is your ultimate real estate partner.

Travel & Hospitality: Our very first client back in the day was a travel & hospitality client, and since then we have evolved our strategies as the industry has changed. With effective campaign tracking data and unique creative messaging, we make wanderlust appear out of thin air, helping our clients gain more awareness and get more bookings. Clients include Jackson County and Primland Resort—if you happen to be planning your next getaway, we highly recommend.

We do it all here at Rawle Murdy. If you have a vision, we have the ability to bring it to life. From brand strategy to digital development and effective content delivery, we’ll take your dream from start to finish. Here are a few of our latest projects in process:

Your Crawlspace “Installation Insider” Video Series: To help our target audiences of contractors and DIY homeowners gain a better understanding of the proprietary Your Crawlspace encapsulation system, we’ll create a series of interview-style quick videos. Our clients will star in these videos as they complete demos, answer FAQs, and give tips on the best uses of their innovative products. 

Jackson County Secret Season Video: Our team recently headed up to the mountains of North Carolina to film gorgeous winter scenes, frozen waterfalls, and exciting activities to promote winter travel in Jackson County. Capturing a large range of still photography and video content, we’ll have a comprehensive bank of visual assets to help bring our creative to life.

Terminix Best that Pest Trivia Campaign: How do you make pest control more fun? With trivia, of course! Through our Best that Pest trivia campaign, we’ve created a series of game-show style videos starring Terminix’s own employees and technicians! This year, we’re keeping the momentum going with a new video series…stay tuned for more info!

Caliber Fine Properties Brand Messaging: Our new client, Caliber Fine Properties, is a boutique real estate firm out of Cashiers, NC. Owned by Kati Miller and Ali Moody, this powerhouse team specializes in high-end resort community real estate, bringing decades of experience and in-depth knowledge to their clients. We’re helping them create a strong brand messaging platform to ramp up their business and take it to the next level.