

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Asbury.
Hi Lori, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I majored in Journalism at the University of Oklahoma. I had a career in Television for over 27 years working for TV stations in Oklahoma City, Miami, Chicago, and New York City. My focus was always on marketing, working in the creative services departments, and creating advertising campaigns to promote local news and the station’s prime-time shows.
I then worked as Vice-President of Advertising and Promotion for the 35 Fox Owned & Operated TV Stations, where I worked with General Managers, News Directors, and Creative Services Directors to help develop strategies to increase viewership for the TV Stations. I then was recruited by Scripps Networks (Now Discovery) to be Senior Vice-President of Marketing, Creative, and Brand Strategy for HGTV.
My responsibilities at HGTV consisted of leading a team of 50 people focused on on-air & off-air advertising to recruit viewers to watch the network. I oversaw the creative team which consisted of writers, producers, and designers.
I also oversaw the promotion scheduling and media buying team, as well as the public relations team. I was also involved in working to extend the HGTV brand into new products and brand extensions through partnerships with carpet, paint, and other design brands.
While working at Fox, I decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Business Administration because I felt I needed to broaden my knowledge in business and business operations, versus just being solely focused on producing and creating. I received my MBA from Cornell University and this experience, I believe, helped provide the foundation and the confidence to start my own business.
In 2011, I lost my job with HGTV in a company reorganization and decided to exit the broadcasting field and start my own marketing company. CMOco was formed in 2011 in partnership with another web development and design company, but in 2015 I bought my partners out of the business and became the sole owner.
CMOco is in its 11th year of business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The journey has definitely not always been a smooth one or free of struggles. I feel it took about 8 years to really hit our stride. I always had a vision of where I wanted the company to be and how to create more value beyond just our intellectual property.
I wanted to generate more than one traditional type of revenue stream so that in a down economy, or if something unexpected happened like a pandemic, we’d be able to pivot quickly and focus on parts of the business that were somewhat non-traditional. A services company ebbs and flows all the time.
Half of the year may be booming, while the other half you’re struggling to break even. We developed some non-traditional partnerships and created business extensions, like our Independent Agent Program and our White-Labeled Marketing Services Program.
Having multiple revenue streams has helped us significantly financially, as well as provided more depth to us as an organization.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
What sets CMOco apart from other marketing/advertising agencies, is that we approach marketing more holistically. Ad agencies focus on a specific objective for a point in time, CMOco works with companies to achieve their overall business goals both short and long-term.
We don’t just jump straight into execution but develop a strategic plan that is rooted in driving growth for a company based on its current financial position, target consumer, competitive landscape, and unique value proposition. We do the heavy lifting to craft a thoughtful comprehensive strategies designed to grow businesses versus just creating cool ad campaigns. We do that too, but ad campaigns are tactical and not strategic.
We use the strategy we develop as a road map to success. Once we develop the strategy, our team executes that strategy, implementing a multitude of tactics such as brand messaging & brand expression, digital advertising, direct marketing, publicity, social media, partnerships, television, radio, print, and more. We don’t develop an ad campaign that isn’t rooted in a larger more comprehensive strategy.
The other thing that is unique about CMOco is that we operate like an in-house marketing department that just happens to reside in West Knoxville. We are highly responsive and true partners with our clients. We have experts in specific areas of marketing and we tag-team all the work for every client.
Every team member is invested in every client we serve and our clients feel comfortable connecting with anyone on the team as they would if we were internal. We always tell a potential client, “before you hire an internal employee for $50, $60, $100K per year, consider CMOco.
In most cases, the internal employee will still have to outsource things they aren’t proficient in or don’t have the skill set to manage – such as digital advertising or graphic design. Once you outsource, that internal employee now costs you almost double.
For a flat monthly fee, you can have an entire team of experts managing your marketing and advertising with robust infrastructure and resources, and it will be a heck of a lot more strategic, sophisticated, and effective.”
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I have had so many people help me on so many levels. Professionally, personally, spiritually, the list is endless. Professors in college, colleagues, and friends – all had an influence on me personally and professionally. The biggest influence has been my parents. They raised me to have an unrelenting work ethic.
They taught me that nothing good comes without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and to always stay the course and work through the hard times. They also taught me to be responsible for my own actions and to never pass the blame when things don’t go right. If I have an unhappy client, I always try to do my very best to learn from it.
I always take responsibility and ask myself “what could I have done better, and where do we go wrong.” I think finding people with those values is rare these days. I can never thank my parents enough for the work ethic and personal responsibility values that they instilled in me.
I pray relentlessly that I have raised my children with these same values. Nothing substitutes hard work.
Contact Info:
- Website: CMOco.com
- Instagram: @cmocotennessee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOcoMarketing
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSV3nPoRgAjALBKoaU7Brdg