Matt Spath is the Director of Marketing for Palmetto Goodwill. He is a digital marketer and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience creating unique marketing strategies. Matt began in the sports world, working with the Buffalo Sabres, SportsChannel Florida, Office Depot, and Season Ticket Solutions. He assisted in marketing and developing centers for MEDcare Urgent Care before beginning his career with Palmetto Goodwill.
In this episode…
With the shift to digital marketing, how do you reach potential consumers across different channels? Is it possible to launch multiple simultaneous campaigns?
According to Matt Spath, who has experience utilizing data and working with multiple channels of marketing, the truth is in the data. By examining the transparency of data, digital marketing can target specific audiences, no matter their demographics. In this digital age, access to the internet is at our fingertips. To run a successful campaign, Matt says that brands need to evolve with the digital trends to reach their audience.
On this episode of the Digital Madvertising Podcast, Chris Clark sits down with Matt Spath, Director of Marketing for Palmetto Goodwill, to discuss why data is essential in digital marketing. Matt talks about his career in marketing, the relationship between Palmetto Goodwill and Digital Ignite, and how you can stay ahead of the curve in marketing with strategic digital tactics.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Matt Spath is the Director of Marketing for Palmetto Goodwill. He is a digital marketer and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience creating unique marketing strategies. Matt began in the sports world, working with the Buffalo Sabres, SportsChannel Florida, Office Depot, and Season Ticket Solutions. He assisted in marketing and developing centers for MEDcare Urgent Care before beginning his career with Palmetto Goodwill.
In this episode…
With the shift to digital marketing, how do you reach potential consumers across different channels? Is it possible to launch multiple simultaneous campaigns?
According to Matt Spath, who has experience utilizing data and working with multiple channels of marketing, the truth is in the data. By examining the transparency of data, digital marketing can target specific audiences, no matter their demographics. In this digital age, access to the internet is at our fingertips. To run a successful campaign, Matt says that brands need to evolve with the digital trends to reach their audience.
On this episode of the Digital Madvertising Podcast, Chris Clark sits down with Matt Spath, Director of Marketing for Palmetto Goodwill, to discuss why data is essential in digital marketing. Matt talks about his career in marketing, the relationship between Palmetto Goodwill and Digital Ignite, and how you can stay ahead of the curve in marketing with strategic digital tactics.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Chris Clark 0:00
Hey everyone, my name is Chris Clark. I am the host of Digital Madvertising powered by Digital Ignite. Welcome to episode number four of the show. Digital Madvertising covers all things in the digital marketing and technology space. Here we will be interviewing brand managers and C suite executives from some of the country's biggest brands. On today's episode, I have a very special guest, Matt Spath, the Director of Marketing at Palmetto Goodwill. Matt and I have known each other for a while now and the Palmetto Goodwill has been one of our longest standing clients and really been instrumental in Digital Ignite's growth. Today we sit down and discuss his career in marketing the relationship with Palmetto Goodwill and Digital Ignite and as well as how he is able to stay ahead of the curve and marketing, strategic digital tactics. I hope you guys enjoy the interview. And before we get to Matt, I wanted to bring up a couple of our partners. The Palmetto Goodwill. We are talking to Matt Spath the director of marketing for the Palmetto Goodwill but they are an amazing partner and client of Digital Ignite's. They've really helped Digital Ignite get to where we are now. I will talk a lot about that with Matt. But Palmetto Goodwill's programs and services are funded through the sale of generously donated household goods and clothing in over 31 plus retail stores across lower South Carolina. More than 90 cents of every dollar that goodwill generates helps provide support education and job training for the members of the community here in the Palmetto State. If you go to palmettogoodwill.org that's palmettogoodwill.org. You're able to check out everything from employment services, donation, information, shopping, training, everything it will link you to their social pages so you can get all of the information you need about this amazing organization. Digital Madvertising is also powered by sponsored by brought to you by the mothership Digital Ignite, Digital Ignite, we're a modern advertising agency powered by data. We're focused on building testing, evolving and refining digital strategies to ensure that our clients are capable to connect with their unique audiences and the right way at the right time. We understand the requirements and the ever evolving nuances of emerging digital technologies. Our expertise and digital first pedigree allows us to leverage these technologies in a manner that is customized to our clients and their customers individual needs. Find us at www.digital-ignite.com. That's www.digital-ignite.com. There's that little dash between it. Check us out on our social media channels and get in touch with us. We'd love to talk to you about your brand what you're currently doing marketing wise and see if we can help ignite those sales. And now my interview with Matt Spath, the Director of Marketing at the Palmetto Goodwill. Hey everybody. My name is Chris Clark. This is the Digital Madvertising Podcast. I am sitting here with Matt Spath. Matt Spath is a visionary, a thought leader, a digital marketer and entrepreneur and the director of marketing for the Palmetto Goodwill and one of our longest clients at Digital Ignite and, and a good friend Matt, how are you doing?
Matt Spath 3:08
I'm great. And I appreciate I don't know where you got all those words to say about me, but I appreciate you pumped me up like that, because I just told all that I'm gonna use it for future.
Chris Clark 3:17
Amen. You know, LinkedIn is a really good space to stock but I'm excited to talk with you, Matt. We've known each other since we were just talking early 2015. We at Digital Ignite are huge fans of the Palmetto Goodwill. They've been like I said one of our biggest clients for the longest time and to even before our company turned into Digital Ignite when we were Newpoint Digital. We met Matt and we have looked and tried to implement some pretty progressive strategies to help you know the Palmetto Goodwill stand out because the Palmetto Goodwill is a very very large swath of Goodwill's first and foremost, I want you know, Matt, to kind of tell me a little bit about your position and and the reach of Palmetto Goodwill.
Matt Spath 4:05
Yeah, so as you said, I'm the Director of Marketing for Palmetto Goodwill. We are one of 156 Goodwill's throughout the United States and Canada and Puerto Rico. Let's not forget them. And we're all independently run by our own board of directors. We have our own CEO. So again, we are all under the umbrella of the great brand that is goodwill. Our particular goodwill Palmetto Goodwill covers 18 counties throughout lower South Carolina is what it's called. So we go all the way north up to Myrtle Beach, through Myrtle Beach to the North Carolina line. Then we go all the way south through Hilton Head which is to the Georgia line and Savannah and then we go all the way I call it, I guess it's West, up to Columbia and then another goodwill so we're all surrounded by Goodwill's, but we have 31 stores 15 contract government contracts and 12 career Too many centers throughout the state. So we have a lot going on we do a lot. When I came on board in 2014, the goal was to bring a get away from the ad agency working with a traditional ad agency and bringing a marketing department in house. So we have a full service, we have a creative director, we have a social media person, we have communication person. So we've developed an in house team that can can stand up to any corporate marketing department in the country.
Chris Clark 5:34
And that's unique, I love that about our relationship with you all because it You are the this the strategy behind it, you're concepting with us and, and, and a lot of digital marketing, you know, there's, hey, let's get your perspective. And you you come back with a proposal to us, but for our relationship with you, it is actually rolling our sleeves up getting down and dirty and kind of looking at the data and then recommending, you know, those types of strategies early on, and that relationship I know you are working with. And you still do because it did make sense, you know, a lot of traditional entities, and you all were spending money, again, across the board, whether it's radio, TV print, what made you take the leap to digital in at least take a risk with Digital Ignite, Newpoint Digital at the time. But now Digital Ignite?
Matt Spath 6:24
Well, I think there's a couple things one is So recognizing and then trying to be a visionary, right, and try to be ahead of the trend in what's going on just seeing what people how people were consuming their media. And, you know, again, back in 2014, it was all about display, right? It was all about just throw ads out there and people will see it. Well that's transformed into now in today's world, even more. So it's, let's be targeted and show these ads to the people that we want them to see it, not just hope that they see it. And I think why we kind of when we had a partnership part of it was is we were kind of recognizing that we had you know, in digital weaken, we can put our finger on and we can see it in real time, we can pull up our account right now and look and see how things are performing. Are we targeting we did a lot of beta testing early on, just tried to see what was going on and what what would hit and what creative what demographic. And I think that the beauty was is that you guys came along. And and we kind of worked together and kind of had the same vision in mind as, hey, we need to move forward, we want to be progressive. And this is coming. So let's get in and jump in. And the beauty of it that we had is we had the data to back it up. I remember being in our first meeting, and I did a soft push into our CEO and just you know, everybody, he was very traditional loved newspaper, loved the newspaper, you know, wanted billboards, you know, the whole whole nine yards and traditional. And, you know, when I first showed a report and what we were doing in digital, it just blew them away. Because again, people want to see that transparency and transparency, hey, this is what I'm getting. This is what what's happening. And it's just emerged from there, as you know, and we're just it keeps evolving. And one of the things in this space right now is it's almost comical that, you know, everybody's sales digital now. And ultimately, I think we were we had the benefit of getting in early enough with a true digital company, as opposed to someone who just sells digital, right? That, you know, just doesn't have that knowledge and is an honor to daily basis because they're doing something else. And it took
Chris Clark 8:51
it took a lot for us to try to prove our worth here as well. And again, I you, you gave us the opportunity to work with you. And again, you're one of our earliest clients, and we wouldn't be here without our relationship with you. And the fact that you took a chance on a younger company, because at the time we were, we were owned by a radio conglomerate that was already doing a lot of radio with the Palmetto Goodwill, but for Matt to you know, be able to trust us and we were building something because we saw with the the traditional model was selling digital ads and that was taking and coming to you and saying hey, man, I've got 500 or 1000 or 50,000 websites that I think your audience should be on. And we were trying to come to you and say listen, Matt, we can go after these individuals that we know fit your demographic, we know that you know, for whatever reason, maybe they're moving or we need them to donate, you know, or there's job employment employment opportunities or training. We could go and single out those and so to be able to approve that and for you to take a chance and risk on us was was amazing.
Matt Spath 9:50
Well I you know, share there was a little bit of risk maybe on you know, again, a young company but I think having you guys is having the knowledge to back it up. And, you know, it's not just like you came in and said, Hey, we can we can handle your digital, it's like, here's what, here's what the landscape looks like, here's what we can do. And, you know, again, you were fair with us, you were reasonable with us. And, you know, he wanted to grow as we grew. And, you know, that's why we're here, you know, six, six and a half years later, seven years, seven and a half years later. Because of that, and I think that's not only a testament to, again, going with someone who's just truly about the spectrum that the medium that they're there in, and you guys are the experts in digital, but also, as we'll probably talk about, or you're here, hear me say, I'm really into partnerships, right it, you know, in my career, and even now, I deal with a lot of vendors that everybody wants to sell you something. And you know, we're a nonprofit. So, you know, we have limited resources, we have, you know, a decent amount of resource, but ultimately, we need to be very, we got to spend wisely, we need to make sure every dollar counts. And in doing that, you know, again, we just can't freely just give it away and hope that it works or hope that is, you know, it's got to be something that we're in tune together, we're continuing to communicate things or you know, it's it's, everybody's bested, right, I think the one thing that threw that out there is is everybody's vested in it. You know, we commit to you, you're committed to us. And that's what I think really makes it work. Because ultimately, you recognize that you're only as good as the client success. And, you know, there's, unfortunately, there's some vendors out there that just, you know, they'll try it, and if it doesn't work, they'll just move on to the next one and find another client, right, yeah.
Chris Clark 11:53
And we definitely, we've 100% modeled herself to be the opposite of that. And again, I think, you know, having that background being owned by a traditional side, and seeing how TV, newspapers and print, you know, it's kind of like that digital specialist I was coming to talk to you yesterday was probably working at Ruby Tuesday's, a couple weeks ago, but now they're a digital specialist, and I'm using quotation marks with my hands. But, you know, the, the point that, you know, we like to emphasize is the strategy and then on top of that, that relationship because without that relationship, there's there is no strategy. So for us, it is a friendship, you know, we can go out and have, you know, drinks together and and and and shoot the shit and and have fun and talk about sports. But also when it comes down to it, we can sit down and like I was saying earlier, pull our sleeves up and put together some really, really cool strategies. And I guess, pivoting into my next question, the Palmetto Goodwill's, itself, it's covered so many different areas of the of the state. With that there's so many different campaigns, different things going on simultaneously. Talk to me a little bit more the benefits of the digital marketing to be able to you know, get those messages out whether it's a Georgetown versus a Charleston versus a Bluffton or a Columbia? Well, I
Matt Spath 13:08
think that's a big thing. I mean, even internally, I still every day talk to individuals within our organization, that is to make them understand that just because we're all in the same state doesn't mean we all do the same things, or we are all the same people. You know, I use the analogy all the time, Myrtle Beach and Charleston, you can't be any more different. So again, the versatility of digital is, I want to read this demographic, where are they, and I don't have to waste a whole lot of resources, trying to vine them, or, you know, hope, dribble some in some way or where they might not be I know that this is where they are. And it allows us to do multiple campaigns. Because, you know, we can do that with if this campaign is for this particular demographic and lower this particular in this area, we can do that and not worry about, oh, well, we're stretched too thin. You know, it's funny, people always used to ask that they needed a billboard for their campaign. People don't ask for that anymore. They they want a digital campaign. And I think that just shows that it's not and that didn't come from anybody selling it to them. It's not me just doing a monthly, you know, update, like hey, here's some information and some education about marketing and where we are, that is just through hearing from different people being like, hey, or seeing right and seeing the results of these campaigns and to be able to, again, the versatility of just being able to turn on, turn it off, wherever you want. And to make sure that the right people are seeing or getting delivered that ad I mean, it's just, it's just so much more efficient. And you know, again, it's it's in real time I mean, where else can you Where else can you get that
Chris Clark 15:02
I kinda remember the first time I like showed showed you like our dashboards, you know, and they've come a long way now. And I just remember in the infancy of Digital Ignite and at least our my relationship in an agency God reporting was, it's still kind of sucks, but it's now at least cleaned up through API's and an Excel sheets that can be imported into really cool dashboards. Tell me a little bit and it actually it's, it's, it's funny because we we work with clientele from across the board, and there's a lot that we work with that are still not used to having that level of transparency. You kind of briefly touched on it, but what I mean, what does that transparency give you and to that point, I love you. You mentioned earlier you you were able to go to your your boss and show them the worth of that, you know, over these last five, six years, what have you gotten out of that transparency? What have you seen as a difference from your time in marketing to now with this this type of reporting and transparency?
Matt Spath 15:57
Well, I mean, I think you hear it all the time. And everybody talks about it, it's even in the news, it's all about data right now that we can, you know, everybody wants data before we used to have to buy list, right, we used to have to go and, you know, find some vendor to give you a list that maybe it was cross checked, and maybe it wasn't, maybe it was old, maybe even new. Now we don't have to do that the data is in real time, we can drill down and we know, you know, I always talk about the funny scenario, I think it was a few years back, you guys give us a kind of the monthly report and where people are going, what kind of sites what game, you know, where are these people coming from and been, I remember about three or four years ago and looking at the report and the number one and number two plays were the gay lesbian community, they were, they were really engaging with our creative with our ads on our website. And, you know, again, that's something we would not have known without doing that campaign. And that
Chris Clark 16:55
allows us to exactly sway that creative message. And I vividly remember that as well as I remember a couple campaigns where we look, and we thought we were we had a blue type of coloring out there. And we were looking, and we knew it was actually from the data, it was predominantly female that we're interacting, and we're able to switch that to pink and boom, you know, you have that, that. That's cool.
Matt Spath 17:15
Yeah, I mean, that's the beauty of it, too. I mean, having a blue and a pink, you know, and just run it and see what happens and see what these people are I mean that that is, as a marketer, as a marketer, if you're not looking at for data and using the data now, I mean, there's just, you're gonna fall behind, and it's on a daily basis. I mean, everybody is consuming everything on a mobile device, and device where you can capture their data. I mean, it's a known fact, ultimately, I always tell people, you know, I tell my wife all the time, she complains about the ads that she gets served. And like, just stay off the internet, if you don't want to see the ads. I mean, ultimately, the internet is the once you once you log on, you're at the mercy regardless of whatever Facebook says, Whatever Apple's gonna say, about privacy, I just, it's the new, right, it's the new list, but it goes deeper, it goes deeper than that, it goes deeper, I mean, you can know everything about those, those individuals and
Chris Clark 18:16
and if it's tastefully done, you for me, and it's it's funny, I was gonna say, I wonder if your wife though, on the flip side of it, she buys a bunch of products from online as well. And I'm sure COVID expedited that, but for me, I feel like my whole shot, that Instagram algorithm is real, like, I mean, I'm thinking or looking outside of, of any website or whatever, it's funny, I think of something and boom, that product or a right, like minded product, you know, pops up and, and I'm buying that, and that's where we're making our money off of it. But, you know, utilizing data to be able to find that little fingerprint to identify those individuals with the right message is so powerful nowadays. And I think it's so cool with being able to work with you and your organization, because there's so many different little objectives going on at once. Like it, whether it is the recruiting or general awareness of donations, because you know, what, at the core of the Goodwill, you know, we're looking to donate and drive people to donate there as well. With that being said, What are and I know we've had a lot, but what are some of the campaigns that we've worked on that have stood out to you?
Matt Spath 19:24
Oh, my gosh, it's been there's been a whole slew of them. You know, we really, you know, it's hard to pinpoint really, we've had a lot of strong donation campaigns. We've had some right now our online training campaign is just I mean, we're getting multiple people every day just signing up. And you know, it's over. whelmed our internal staff to the point where you know, they can't handle it but they do they wish they wouldn't have to
Chris Clark 19:53
speak more on those those those those campaigns like it were inundating your staff but what is this for because again, this time period with COVID. I mean, this is where this type of marketing for recruiting or education or training is so important so
Matt Spath 20:07
well, especially when COVID head so everybody always, always asked me it's like, you know, when COVID head what, what happened to our department? Well, you know, what, what do we do, and we never worked harder. First, we have to pivot, right? First thing we had do is pivot, we had stores close now, what do your point, people were looking down the road, it's like, they're not going anywhere, but they need to find some, whether it's training or find a job or get some more skills. That's what people were doing. And we had the fortunate, you know, our mission team did a great job of pivoting that to become virtual, and to allow people to still get services, even though they couldn't physically walk in our door, and do it. So yeah, that's been and it's ongoing today. I don't know, if we get back to, you know, the way it was. But, you know, people are, especially what our online training is just, I mean, because you can get, and it's not just a certificate from this, you know, it's it, you can, it might be through the Citadel, it might be through Clemson, it might be a certificate through Trident Technical College, just a plethora of things, right, from medical to all kinds of things. So it's it really is. Really, it's crazy how it's evolved. And but yeah, as far as campaign, I mean, we really, the pink and blue ones, my favorite because that just that just solidified what we were doing. I was so early to Yeah, it was early. And it just solidified that, you know, this is what it's all about. Right? And, you know, quite honestly, we have so much going on. We haven't done a whole lot of bad beta testing since then. But you know, again, it's for now it's just low retargeting. I mean, we see a lot of success from that just getting those people to come back. And just, you know, but yeah, I mean, really is, you know, you hate, hate to say it, and you know, but it's just been, we haven't had many flops. Right. Right. And we've had a lot of a lot of success with, you know, again, and that how that success is, yeah, we can see the numbers, but we also see the demand from internal internal people are like they kind of like, we want more, we want more.
Chris Clark 22:26
That's the that's the that's the two heads or the double edged sword sorry, with reporting it is in for us, we've we tried to make sure that we can be as transparent as possible. But try to hold the hand of the client and set those expectations. And I know you can read it really well. But if you go to a, you know, a boss or a peer, and you show it this is It's nuts, what you can show individuals now, because it's not just impressions clicks, it's where these people are clicking from what zip code. For example, with the Goodwill, you know, if you have you have a diverse group of demographics. And for us to be able in, especially South Carolina, as a plane flies over. As you know, we look at different zip codes, we can serve different messages, look at different device types, because of income levels and such like that. And that's where I just I love your your company and organization as a client, because it is so much fun as a marketer to be able to it's like a Swiss Army knife for us to be able to throw out tactics, whether it's geofencing, a specific zip code on a device, or sending Ott and CTV out for brand awareness, or using very in depth ads to try and recruit individuals. And that's where, you know, you've given us that opportunity. And again, thank you for that. Well,
Matt Spath 23:42
no, and it really I'll give you an example it literally two days ago, I had a director of our grants program in my office and we keep you know, people just like what they like, right? And they just kind of didn't want to do some things based on, you know, didn't believe me, right? Or didn't, you know, didn't really take a hard look at what the numbers were saying. But I pulled up my dashboard, pulled up the Digital Ignite dashboard. And I said, hey, look at this. You talked about specific people. So this is a senior campaign. So their thought process is Oh, well Tri County area Charleston area, right, the three counties, that's where we're going to hit it hard. You know, we were doing some other counties, obviously throughout the state, but still in a bigger, you know, Myrtle Beach or county Laurent. But what I was what I showed and I've been preaching is, hey, we got these people in these rural areas that are engaging, right, that everybody assumes wouldn't be in the digital spectrum because oh, they're gonna get you know, everybody's on their phone. Yeah, everybody, everybody has
Chris Clark 24:43
nowhere doesn't mean you don't have a frickin cell phone or Facebook, you know? Yeah, no,
Matt Spath 24:48
you have I mean, and the Facebook was another thing too. We used to do lead generations and they had some issues with, you know, how that all worked. And the bottom line is, you know, through that meeting, I was That person like, yep, just go go do it. Yeah, keep
Chris Clark 25:03
it going. Well, yeah.
Matt Spath 25:05
I mean, it's just, you know, you have to, sometimes you just have to show people. Sure. And that's the beauty to have, you know, any marketer would tell you, it's always hard. Right? What's the return on investment? Well, no. Yeah. You know, when I worked at Office Depot, and did the sports bars, sponsorships nationwide throughout the country, you know, I had no way to value it. Right? I had no, you know, there was nothing to say that the massive Square Garden deal we signed on for was God was worth this much. I mean, you have no way to do it. But we had an executive that everybody the department had to, you know, every one budget season had to come up with what your stuff was worth. What was the return on investment? I still have it. It's an Excel spreadsheet, it's probably it's longer than ledger paper. I don't even know how I got an on piece paper. But it ultimately was a tool to make them see like, Okay, this is okay, we can spend money on this. But I mean, it was, it wasn't concrete. I mean, it was based on things right. And then had waited, things were awaited and that kind of stuff. But ultimately, it was a piece of paper to make someone feel good, right? We're now we have true data, you love actual people that, hey, you want to see it, this is what what is happening. And the other thing is, right, like we can see, we can go on the back end of our website, and we can see forms come in, right. So I mean, you can just everything kind of clicks, right? We can see when web traffic is down, or WebSocket, traffic elope. Right, or we can see the correlation between people going to a specific web page. And we know they're coming, because it's the ad set, because that's the only way they can get there.
Chris Clark 26:46
Or another initiative, you know, and I feel like, you know, again, if you have a TV ad, or a radio ad, or print ad, I feel like in the past with Google Analytics, that's kind of where you can kind of see that rise. But now with, with digital, you see dollar and dollar out. I mean, and you're seeing exactly where that money goes. And that transparency.
Matt Spath 27:04
Yeah. And that's why we you know, over the years, we've added to it, you know, again, and not to totally knock traditional, you know, we we do less traditional like we do very little print,
Chris Clark 27:15
this is we're not knocking you, it's just the facts. And again, you use that data, and it doesn't lie, and it isn't. It isn't like it's again, to me, it's a complete part of a marketing plan. But marketing that whole traditional and digital marketing thing to me is just it marketing is you're having your digital marketing marketing nowadays, because everything you use is a cell phone, a laptop, a connected device, a TV.
Matt Spath 27:42
Well, yeah, no, I tell people all the time that you know, digital right now, you got to be careful with how you phrase it. Right? Because it is so big. And it's just evolved into a point. And, you know, again, 10 years ago, your mix was your advertising mix was different, right? Yeah, you're like, Oh, I got a need to have radio and television campaign, I need to have a billboard and radio campaign. Now it's like, Okay, I got Digital's covering everything. You know, again, we we still have success with radio, just on the retail side is from that. But again, we're, we're particular, on where that is, because of traditional radio becoming so corporate and programmed, where there's not a lot of local feel to it. So you know, again, a lot of all of our partners that we we partner with on that spectrum, I think the benefit come from people still want to know, their local personality. It's just that thing for them in it, and it clicks. But yeah, ultimately, I mean,
Chris Clark 28:47
it's smart, you don't want to lose, you know, again, that gap. And people still are going to listen to local radio. I mean, for me, I consume anything local or plugged in, I'd say, from, you know, sports perspective, I'm watching anything, you know, I mean, that's actually a life, like, I've downloaded all of the apps now. But for local radio or whatnot, you still got your bobby hardens, at least locally. And those local hosts, you know, you're not going to get much reach off syndicated. And you know, people are going to tune out from that they're going to go to their Spotify, or their podcasts and whatnot. And, you know, on the flip side, it's cool to be able to introduce you all to streaming audio because of and again, not to knock radio but to see the different types of demographics. That shocked the Goodwill. You can see where they're streaming their music, their TV, what apps they're using, and to be able to cater and add to that and be able to hit them up with that. That's, that's huge. Yeah, I
Matt Spath 29:43
learned a long time ago. It's not what I do. It's not what my family members do, what how they consume. It's literally knowing what the industry you know, what is where people consuming this and just the mass audience and the different demographics right and There's no other, there's no other chance. And there's no other way you can do it. You can measure it. I mean, and it's just again, going back to the point. And it's like people say, well, not everybody has a cell phone or device. I'm like, everybody. Okay, and they may not have a cell phone. I'd love to know, I'd love to know who those people are
Chris Clark 30:18
already 10 years ago, but nowadays, you're right. Seriously, you get into that point. I mean, even smaller Trac phones, burner phones, again, with quotations. I still have digital screens.
Matt Spath 30:29
Yeah, yeah. My mother has a, you know, pay by a month phone, get online, whatever. Did you know? You know, go on to Fox News or whatever? Yep. So yeah, I mean, it's just, it's where people are. So again, the whole thing is, as a marketer, as an advertiser, it's, where are the people? Where, where, where are the people that we need to consume the message and serve that to them? You know, it's kind of it's not just, like, the old days, or it's like, yeah, you know, run an ad, and hope, you know, gosh, I'm gonna say a newspaper ad back. Yeah, I haven't read. I've run a newspaper ad, a long, long time. Other than, you know, maybe a local, smaller, smaller ad just stores up store opening or something like that, just to kind of cover all the bases. But yeah, I mean, it's just an it from a marketing perspective and advertisers perspective. It's fun, right, as a marketer, I mean, I tell you, I can't keep up. I mean, I tried, but you know, where this is going in where it's come from, don't get
Chris Clark 31:32
me started on TikTok. I mean, it's amazing how much advertising we do on Tick tock, and I have my social media, Director Grayson coming in and showing me trends all the time that we should be doing. And I'm like, let's do it. I don't get it at all. And, you know, I get it's entertainment. But you know, to that point, you but for me, it's exciting. And I want to continue to surround us with a lot of smarter people than myself that understand this technology, and then we can come educate you on it, but it is moving at the speed of light.
Matt Spath 32:01
Yeah, I mean, we just, we just started TikTok two months ago, because, you know, it's just time it was time we'll talk about it. It's gotten to the point, you know, TikTok. He's big right. There used to
Chris Clark 32:12
be just think before COVID. And this is where Yeah, right. I think we had a meeting and we were pulling data and from a TikTok source or one of our reps there, they showed that the second major age group of TikTok users during COVID, and after the fact was like, 35 bucks. Yeah,
Matt Spath 32:32
I mean, it's, I mean, look at look at TikTok. It was the moms of the of the kids, right. TikTok used to be just the kids doing dancing, the kid while the kids that left Facebook because mom and dad joined Facebook and ruined it. They went over to TikTok did their own thing. And now mom and dad are coming in, maybe not the dad, but the, the moms are definitely there. Right cutting videos, and I don't get it either. But again, that's not for me. Right? Just because it's not for me, doesn't mean it's not the place to be where the aisles are. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's where I mean, and, and it's to the point where, you know, you mentioned Instagram feed the other a few moments ago, you know, they're getting to the point where it's getting oversaturated right, and it is almost too much. I think it's changed a lot since, you know, Facebook took it over and, and you know, tik tok is just that Next, move over to it, because while it's not new, it's still fresh enough where
Chris Clark 33:28
they have your data. And when you have their data and your data there, they're able to look at that fingerprint, and they're gonna start, you know, monetizing. And it's the Facebook Instagram model, TikTok, you know, started out where it was with those videos. And now it's got such a massive user base, it went through the, what the government wanted to ban it at one point, and that only drew more attention to it. And now you've got this juggernaut of an entertainment thing. And again, it's a lot of people didn't understand my space, when it came out, they understand Facebook, they understand Instagram, Snapchat, now you got Tick tock, you've got clubhouse that's out there. Now, that's still you know, people are trying to figure that out a lot of other NF t applications, all these things that are coming out, it's just as marketers if you don't stay on top of it. And this is where, you know, I know yourself and Digital Ignite, we're not going to have this issue. But there are a lot of people that you know, we've worked with in just recent past that are going to be in a lot of trouble.
Matt Spath 34:25
Well, I mean, it's the year 2021 and I'm still getting people trying to pitch me display ads. Just display just display ads. I mean, you know, I saw six months ago someone, oh, here's the comScore 200 or whatever. I'm like, Really? I mean, like that was that was beyond six years ago. I mean, that's Yeah, you know, then
Chris Clark 34:48
you hear that's like the it's almost and it's again, comScore and Nielsen. They're all trying to, you know, revamp the way that they sell their product, but it is it's a death rattle and they're coming out and they're like, but look right here. You You know, and blah, blah, blah, digital and this and this, but you got to promise, or you got to look at us because we've been the standard for the last, you know, bazillion years. And it's, you know, listen, there's data is everywhere now in every application and every website has that opportunity to collect and silo that data. Now, that's again, that buzzword that's a little bit, you know, tricky. But if you're done if it's done tastefully, right? It's it's a very successful formula.
Matt Spath 35:26
Well, and I think, you know, last week, I was googling online.
Chris Clark 35:34
Are there any guys over sorry, we're in a flight here with these big
Matt Spath 35:39
I wasn't googling anything, you know, NASA national security interest or anything, so don't they're looking for you. She's just looking at online grad school or just, you know, further education and you know, from the marketing, and I went on Instagram, and I kid you not every other swipe was an ad. Every other swipe was an ad. And but it was targeted. I mean, it was Northwestern, it was Syracuse. It was all these schools, Cornell, it was all these schools, though, again, tastefully done, not it wasn't innocuous. But again, they know I mean, how cool is that is how cool is that, as someone, you know, to be able to be like, as a marketer and be like, well, this person clearly is interested, whether he's interested in doing it with us or someone else. Sure. I mean, it's just and it's, it's just like, wouldn't display key motto is tell people people complain, right? But people are conditioned for it. Because we it's perfect for the era we live in. Everybody wants everything right, right here right now. But you know, what, you're gonna get your ads right here right now is just basically that simple. People don't like
Chris Clark 36:49
che, Well, some people don't like change, you have to adapt to it. Because look, now it's, it's to the point of display ads, it's, I think, God, I was saying this to you five, six years ago, it's like by 2018, or 2018 80%, of what you do is going to be video. And nowadays, I feel I buy or I'm more swayed to brands and companies buy the storytelling in video is such a unique way to do that. And that's where, if you're not coming in pitching a multi channel strategy to your clients or brands, you're going to be you're going to be left in the dirt. Because again, display ads are great, but that's just one little piece of the pie.
Matt Spath 37:23
Yeah, and then not only the video, right, and we were continuing to strive in 2022, we'll do a lot more video. You know, again, just getting into that rhythm of getting all of our stories out there and getting those stories internally to us. So we can get them out there. But, you know, it's, it's just a matter of, you know, just what, what makes people tick. Right? What is it? And again, video, obviously, tick tock look at I mean, that's all it is, is video, right? What, to your point what, no, but the other thing is people don't read anymore. But, but the other crucial thing that that we continue to strive for is one thing, the ad creative can be everything, once you send them somewhere, it better be where they want to go. And they better be able to get in there in and out and have a decent experience. The challenge we've we we fight internally with some of our departments that do these campaigns, because they want a lot of information, just from a form but knowing that we can, they can get that information when the people you know that they don't have the they don't they don't know that we've already pretty much established that these are the people they want, though they still want that verification, right to see it up front. So it's a battle. But ultimately, when people click on the ad, right, and it amazes me, right, I still to this day, like targeting we're targeting specific ad to a specific person, they click on the ad, I mean, the odds have a have to be pretty good that they're going to follow through and come all the way through the cycle. But there's still people that don't, and and just it's the one thing I as a marketer I struggle with the most now is why why don't those people? So looking at data or looking at who these people are? Why wouldn't you go all the way through? Like you were obviously interested? What happened? Right where you landed? Right? Yeah, there has to be. So you know, we've tried a couple different landing pages just to see if it makes a difference.
Chris Clark 39:17
But that's the cool thing about this type of technology. Because in the you know, 1015 years ago, you probably weren't looking at heat maps to figure out where these individuals were dropping off to that point where we can optimize the website is a landing page or a lead form below the fold is above the, you know, above the fold, and they're dropping off because they didn't know there was a Contact Us form or or that education and we're all goldfish now. I mean, if you're not to the point when you get to that website, you're you're out of here now. Yeah,
Matt Spath 39:44
no. And it's, it's amazing. And you mentioned heat maps. I mean, you look at the heat maps and people go right to the phone number. I've seen that on one page where people, majority people who went right to the phone number and it was line four or five like what is the cycle Do you have that, like I, that's as a marketer? That's what I want to know, at this point, I have data. So now it's like, okay, the data tells me this, what are these people doing? And why or why aren't they? Right? And that's, that's really where I find it kind of cool is. And then when you figure that out to a little bit, you know, I mean, it's hard to figure out completely, but once we figure it out a little bit, then we're like, well, how we see those people come through with like, Oh, yeah, that was that person, like we know,
Chris Clark 40:27
like, and then you can find out look alikes of them, you know, you can build that audience to go out there and find a whole new swath of individuals out there. And you have so many different types of individuals and a unique in especially in Charleston, because there's so many different, there's so many locations here that cover so many different areas of demographics, whether it's you know, and if you're from the area, you're listening, you know, Mount Pleasant to very different demographic than in North Charleston, you know, and so being able to serve a message to somebody in North Mount Pleasant versus somebody that's off rivers Avenue in North Charleston, you know, you're going to be serving a different type of ad device message. And the ability to do that nowadays in digital is is phenomenal.
Matt Spath 41:09
Well, I mean, you know, again, at the end of the day as a marketer to know your audience, and who, who your targets are, I mean, that's something you and you can only do one way, in my opinion, I mean, it's just through digital, right. But again, that's where everybody is, right? And that's condition. I have a 14 year old daughter, she doesn't like to watch TV on a television. You like to watch TV on a computer on a laptop, Mike 1415 inch screen, you have a 70 inch screen right out there and go on the left Elvis, like,
Chris Clark 41:42
I don't understand it that way. It's watching. Like, it's actually like, convenient. There's actually a there's a commercial by ESPN right now. There's a an Asian lady. And it's like, she's very excited about the NBA Finals. Commercial. But it is like, for me, I feel like if I am and I have a four month old now, and I'm like walking around, and I'm like trying to watch games on my phone, it's so convenient. But to the point, there's nothing like sitting down and watching the game on a 70 inch screen. But nowadays, you literally it's funny, there were ads, like 15 years ago of having TVs in different rooms, your TV's just in your
Matt Spath 42:17
hand. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's but it goes with what society demands, right? I mean, right here, right now Give it to me how you know, I want to, I want it right in front of me. Like, and that's what my daughter says, I've just like having it right there. Like, okay, you know, I've
Chris Clark 42:33
can't even imagine what it'll be like, and then 14 years when my son is 14, and I mean, I'm excited for it. And I think that is a marketer, you have to be excited for the unknown and take those those chances on on all of this. But with that being said, we've talked a lot about digital marketing. I want to talk a little bit more about you really fast.
Matt Spath 42:53
Well, you know, you've already talked about what half hour? I don't I don't, you know,
Chris Clark 42:58
we covered a lot, which is good. But now I you know, I've known you for a long time, Matt. And we've, we've had a lot of fun chats and you have a really cool background, but why don't you give the listeners just a quick background of where you're from how you got to this position, your sports background, and then we'll talk a little bit about your Home Depot that are not Home Depot have a
Matt Spath 43:17
Office Depot background. Yeah. So, you know, up until I moved to Charleston in 2004, I was primarily in the sports world, you know, whether it was a, I worked for a number of different regional sports networks. I've worked on the client side doing sports bug sponsorships for Office Depot, and I've worked for a professional hockey team. And, you know, through all that, it was a unique perspective of, you know, just, you know, people always say, Wow, that was, you know, people always like, wow, that must have been so cool that it was a job. I mean, it was work, right? It was, you know, now when I go to a sporting event, and someone says, oh, we're gonna sit in a suite can be awesome. I'm like, I just want to sit in the stands. Right. Like, that was what I was conditioned to, but it was great. It was great to, you know, I learned a lot and, and, you know, I've done a lot in that realm and doing it on national level and doing month, a bunch of different markets. And just learning how to, how to do different things and market in different ways to different people. But it just happened to be in that arena, right in the sports world. And, you know, it was a lot of fun. It was you know, a lot of work. The sports channel, Florida was I was recruited as part of seven guys to start a Sports Network for Wayne Huizenga. Wayne Huizenga was the owner of the Florida Panthers, the Miami Dolphins and he didn't have the heat was I can't think of a third thing. How can I not but yeah, it was just cool. I mean, we didn't know any of the Tampa team city. Now. It was a i can't i think it was the Panthers the dolphins and drawn a mic. But anyhow, there were seven of us. You know, we had not been there was a sunshine network had the heat and they were up based in Orlando, they had 15 year laws. And we had nothing. We sold presentations, right. We went in and pitch people. Here's what we're doing. We're the only thing we had was we had a billionaire backing us. And he happened own two of the most prominent sports teams in the industry.
Chris Clark 45:23
area. You were selling advertising, but half of the sports teams are for the network, correct?
Matt Spath 45:29
Yeah, we were so yeah, not just not just advertising, we need the sponsorships. We need it. And we are just so I was the creativity. I like I want the spots and dots guy like any bike, it was how do we get creative enough that, you know, we can get people on board? Because again, we
Chris Clark 45:45
and these are new franchise or Well, not the dolphins but the Panthers at the time were a relatively
Matt Spath 45:49
new franchise. Yeah, they were new. The channel was brand new. So we had no ratings, right? We had nothing. So if we went to a media buyer or something in the ad agency, they'd be like, well, what are your numbers? We don't have any. Yeah. take a risk on us. Yeah, no, just Yeah. It's basically what it was. So we had a lot of success. You know, often people once a client of ours, and you know, just the programs we put in place for them. led me to that next position. But it was, it was a lot of work. It was a lot of fun. But we you know, we did some cool stuff. When I was with Empire's boys network. Up in Buffalo. That's when the bills were, you know, they had Bruce Smith and go, yes. That's why I wanted to throw that name out. I know you're hokey. But you know, Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly algae and because So yeah, I spent a lot of guys with you.
Chris Clark 46:37
For the Super Bowl runs?
Matt Spath 46:38
like I was not I was not I was, I was an intern at time. And it was trying to think it was a few years before that. Okay. But they were all there. Andre Reed Thurman, Thomas, the highlight of that. We did a remote in a grocery store. It was a Frank White show. And Frank's guests that day was Andre Reed. And we were again, we were in the grocery store, they set the I don't know, if I did this, I hope I wasn't that they set the Frank White had this stand up thing where you the guests would throw a football through, he would throw a football through his own head on a piece of wood that had a hole on it. They set that up, it was set up right in front of the produce stand. So that was that was fun in itself. But we were going to break and I was standing behind it. My job was to at that point was get the ball. And I didn't know Andre Reed and going to commercial break was just going to throw the ball through the hole, I was not paying attention. But I will say I was standing directly behind the hole and I was facing directly towards them. So my man jewels were the direct. The nice thing was that Andre Reed, you know, immediately came running over, you know, provide a lot of systems but I had some you know, I was fortunate I've worked in a lot of in the sports world for a lot of it. And on the marketing. I've been on both sides. I've been on the buy side and sell side. So I've seen some of the sales side. And, you know, I've learned one thing I learned throughout is, you know, again, we talked about partnerships, and I love to talk about it. Because, again, going back my Office Depot days, I had 35 sponsorships throughout the United States, I took two market visits a year, everyone was different every year. So I you know, I relied a lot on that team or that that arena to make sure we were getting everything delivered. Now we had some people on the ground, you know, different people that worked in our building services division, but I learned a lot about what a true partnership was. And knowing that if someone was just wanted to buy right or one of the deal and be like oh, my God, this sale, don't worry about it, you know, they'll come back.
And I'll never forget it was more true. To this day that we had budget cuts one year and across the board and tire company, everybody had to cut budget. Within 30 seconds. I knew I was cutting the Minnesota Timberwolves game ahead of me. And it was all because of the service. It's all because of, you know, when I had to reach out, I had to, you know, continue to pester, like, Hey, what's going on, you know, as opposed to a true partnership where you know, that that partner was vested in in us and so yeah, there's been a lot of wild experiences. I mean, there's also some, some wild experiences with with, you know, the athletes and the people I've Alright, that's it. Yeah. Oh, God pinpoint one. I'll tell you why. You know, we were sponsored the bayhill mutational, which is Arnold Palmer's golf tournament in Orlando. It's an ad his club where, you know, he owned it and every year and we'll wait since we were in sponsor, we got to stay in his Lodge. He's got a lodge on site. That's about 1518 rooms and you know he's day on site, he had a lot. They had a little bar in the lodge and number of years. I mean, there's pictures of me and Arnold Palmer drinking in, but I always liked the one story, his wife went through a really long battle of cancer. And we were in the lodge bar one night, after the festivities of the day, we're done. And my buddy and I were just sitting at the bar, drinking, you know, having a couple cocktails. And next thing, you know, we hear a ching, ching ching on the glass. And in the corner of the room, Arnold Palmer gets up and starts talking and getting all emotional and starts Bangtan thanking everybody for the support. so on so forth, I looked at my buddy, I said, I feel like I shouldn't be here. Like, should we like sneak out? But no, I mean, there's been been a lot of stories of different athletes in different I mean, Cal Ripken has driven my car before. But I'd say you know, it's the one story the one group of athletes that I've encountered that are always that were the best were the hockey players.
Chris Clark 51:04
I worked in hockey for a couple years. I know you know that but they were out of out of any people I've come across, they're just down to earth. most humble people. I don't get it. I don't know if it's a Canadian thing, because most people I dealt with are Canadian. But
Matt Spath 51:16
no, I think what it is I think, you know, if you think about it, even Wayne Gretzky played in the NHL. Yeah. You know, I've never Pat LaFontaine, who was the captain of Buffalo Sabres, who was at the time one of the best hockey players in the world. I met him one time, ever. Any other time I saw him, he would say hello to me by my name. That's great. Yeah. And yeah, no, they were just I think just because of the work ethic, right? golf has some of that, obviously, not Tiger Tiger. I only met Tiger once. He's very nice. But Tiger is very quiet. At least back then. He was Tiger was kind of a geek, right?
Chris Clark 51:54
Like he was probably very like, well, just the way he grew up, made him very like and not antisocial, but just awkward in general, just because he was so well.
Matt Spath 52:03
Well, he was not only controlling, he had a controlling father. But I will tell you that, you know, through those sponsorships of golf and everything we again, we got to know a lot of people at IMG. So that was his agent at the time and his company that handled his marketing and he had a person that all she did was if he was playing tournament, he came home, his house was ready to go, she's ready. His laundry was ready. You know, you know, look at these car accidents. People always get up, you know, that he's, I mean, the guy had an analog experience driving the car. I mean, that's gonna sound stupid, but, I mean, it's just he he's been controlled all his life, right? Like, you and I are like, you know, we all went through it. First time, we could go do whatever we wanted. And we did some dumb stuff, for sure. So, I mean, it's the same thing, but it's just magnitude, different magnitude because the guy's you know, world class athlete. But, you know, again, I made Wayne Gretzky twice, you would never known. I mean, Wayne Gretzky was like, you know, just you and I just hanging out, and it's not, you know, but one thing I always tell people, and again, this is kind of getting off subject. But this is kind of fun for me to talk about is what I learned is athletes and celebrities, if you just approach them and talk to them, like you just, Hey, what's up, you know, like,
Chris Clark 53:20
just another person. That's all they want.
Matt Spath 53:22
They don't they? People don't understand that. in their mind. They're like, God, why are you doing that? Why are you talking to me like that? I'm sure
Chris Clark 53:30
it's so awkward for them to I couldn't even imagine being famous. And like, if you went to the grocery store, and every single person knows who you were, and it's just can't live that normal life, some people I'm sure. want that, but like it would drive me bonkers.
Matt Spath 53:44
Well, no, and you know, they don't necessarily and I told my daughter this. We were at the heritage golf tournament, and you know, people were, you want to get a player's autograph and then that player was coming down line and I said there make sure you say something to him and say thank you, please but but mentioned say something to him. And you know, like, Hey, that was great round today. I enjoyed following you because she did whatever they say watch. He walked entire line. No one said anything. None these kids anything is fed him a piece of paper or something to sign. He'd never looked up, never looked up, though. You got to my daughter. And she says, I'm I don't even know what she said. He looked up the answer. They started having a conversation. He asked her a question. But so, you know, the other kids were getting mad because she was holding up the line. But ultimately, he was like, refreshed. He was like, wow, I finally have somebody, like, even acknowledge what I was doing, but also appreciate them. So, ya know, it's interesting. You know, again, what I what I learned through all that, but, ya know, I keep a list of every athlete or, you know, even celebrity that I met, but it's getting to the point where the athletes are, it's more like, why haven't I met but it's kind of cool. I mean, again, I don't you know, it's cool because, you know, I had the opportunity and I have some story. That one, if
Chris Clark 55:01
you're a sports fan, or you're a fan of something specific and you meet somebody that's at the top of that field, that's, that's a really cool, you know, feeling accomplishment, whatever it may be, again, you had Cal Ripken drive your car. I mean, that's insane. That's tired, man. So
Matt Spath 55:14
yeah, it was it was a, it's something you know, I tell us during people like that I know, you know, you have to get double verify. I know that. But
Chris Clark 55:23
you need the sticker of authenticity authenticity on. Yeah,
Matt Spath 55:28
I'll tell you what, though, if I had a mobile device back then I would have been golden because I did. That night when he drove my car. I was this is while before this is I was working. Helping out my buddy was a clubhouse guy in their triple eight club in Rochester. And the Orioles would come back and play exhibition game every year. So he played, you know, several innings and then left and then they wanted to go get some food for the plane. So I actually followed him out and make sure that he got in my car, because he was with another player. I wanted to make sure the other player didn't drive, because I threw out the keys. But now just some of the unique experiences. I mean, it's unfortunate, I don't know why they were put forth to me. But you know, it was fun. But then that just LED, you know, I came to Charleston, I worked at channel two for a little while just to get myself in the market, just kind of helping their sales department, come up with some again, get away from spots and dots, how can we get creative and do some things? So did that for a little while then I was like, Yeah, I found a niche. Like I saw some clients that channel, even a channel to like just some small, smaller, mid sized businesses that aid and understand marketing or advertising. Or be we're getting a raw deal. There's an add on Yeah, they just, they didn't, they didn't have any knowledge, right. Like, I started my own thing. And I did that for about seven or eight years. The big thing with that was, again, it was it was really frustrating to see how these businesses just got taken advantage of like, just because they had money, they thought it would work. And it's like, my big thing was, because because you are spending the money on it doesn't mean that it's going to work because you need to know where the stuff is. And the strategy is you got to have some strategy, you got to have creative, you got to have all this and you know, these bidders who were, you know, they had decent money, but they couldn't afford an agency, they are too big agency, right. But nor did they want to, because a lot of them were stuck in some of their same, you know, like, newspapers, great, you'll never convince me otherwise. But yeah, so then I did that. And then one of my clients was an urgent care center, and they were expanding and other markets in South Carolina. So that was from I went from a consulting gig with them to full time gig helped them set up some clinics. And then now working with doctors that are involved in the business is a little tough, though. I was looking for the next thing. And you know, this opportunity, Palmetto Goodwill came in, you know, I never worked in a nonprofit before. And I was like, Well, I don't really know what this is about. But the opportunities are pretty cool. And, you know, again, as I mentioned, there was a time where they were transitioning, they didn't want to use an ad agency anymore, they want to bring everything in house. Hello, that sounds pretty cool. And, you know, I've been there seven and a half years, almost eight years. And, you know, it's kind of like digital, like digital advertising. You see, everyday you can see the results, the fruits of it, right, the people we help, the things we're trying to do to make people's lives better throughout the state of South Carolina. I mean, it can't do that in corporate world can't do that in for profit marketing, and a lot of ways you're selling, selling stuff that, you know, again, people are happy to have it, do they need it? Not necessarily. This is a situation where we're trying to help people in need, and doing the best thing we can that to get those people those opportunities, again, to better their lives. And on a daily basis. You can see I can walk down in the lobby and interact with people just to give you a self self gratification of you know, again, we're a little bit more unique than other nonprofits because we have a retail arm right that and we're so large, I mean, we're a $60 million organization that covers a lot of territory. And, you know, it's just been a great, great thing. It's It's nice to be to be able to still do some of the things that again, we would do in the for profit world. And yeah, know where I am, and
Chris Clark 59:21
you've done a great job with it. And it's been a it's been a very fun relationship working with your partnership, to be able to come to you know, a nonprofit and be able to have the opportunity to, again, bring so many different unique opportunities. And if you're not from the Charleston area and you're listening to it, I would encourage you to go to Palmetto Goodwill's website and check out some of those. You know, again, it can spearhead some ideas for yourself if you're in the nonprofit world or even in the marketing world. I think, you know, Matt, you've you've put together some really cool fun ideas. I know we're working are going to be sponsoring a golf tournament coming up for you all and I believe it's Palmetto Warrior Connection. We want to talk a little bit about that really fast. Yeah, so
Matt Spath 1:00:00
we, again, we live in a, an area where there are a lot of veterans right within the military town with the with the base a we, I guess five years ago or so we started deployment or connection to help veterans transition back in society. So, and not just older veterans, but you know, the younger veterans that were coming back from, you know, Iraq and Afghanistan that just needed some skills or needed help or just transition back and how do you become a part of society based on? You know, where you've been? And no, as a they call them more years now, as opposed to veterans, which I thought was interesting. But yeah, no, it's been great. It's beside the gentlemen. And last week that we profiled stories on, on our blog on our website, just, you know, they found him, the person on the people, Palmetto Warrior Connections are living in a tent on the side of the road on Riverdale Avenue. And just ask him what was up he showed, showed his veteran card, and they helped them and actually, it was on a news story. Locally, I think it was two or three weeks ago, where he was living for three years he had been living we had helped him live in an extended stay motel. Okay. Well, that motel had been taken over by some new investors, and they changed the whole model of the hotel, gave these people like a week to get out. So he's just real appreciative, you know, we've been with him every step of the way he was in we're trying to get him to more skills. He wants to get back into prior to, you know, his situation he was there a lot of forklift and warehousing and that kind of stuff. So we're trying to get him his skills back out. It's awesome. And renewed. So yeah, no, it's just a wonderful thing. And then the one thing that people don't know, we do we, we have 15 government contracts. One of those is at the Naval Weapons Station base here. in Charleston, we're responsible for feeding the individuals that go to school there. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal contract. It's phenomenal base. I mean, it's the best of the best in the Navy, and 75% of all people, not just on that contract, but on the 15 government contracts, we're required to have 75% of those people have a documented disability. So they're given an opportunity. I always tell the funny story. We had a guy he's since retired. But we had a blind guy that worked in the kitchen, and he cut vegetable. Hmm. How did that work out? He cut vegetables better than I did. But the funny story is, I felt so bad. I walked in their own time, they have a walk in cooler where he worked. And that door was pretty heavy. And I didn't know you know how I guess we were coming in or coming out. I don't know, we're going in and out the door. And somehow I didn't see him or, and forgot he was blind. And door hidden. Pretty good. So I was forever grateful that I didn't hurt poor Mr. Nate. That bad. But yeah, no, it's just the unfortunate thing is it's, you know, that's your base, we can't just bring people out and show them. You know, again, so it's it's a challenge for us to get that word out. We are doing a campaign right now that featuring some of the individuals, but that
Chris Clark 1:03:14
storytelling, and that's great. And yeah, it's just you just told that that veteran, you know, living on the side of the road, and you guys helping them out, that's goose bumps were the right there. That's cool. Yeah. And
Matt Spath 1:03:23
that's what we're supposed to. I mean, that's what we're, you know, what we're supposed to do. And that's why we're there, right? I mean, we have a lot of talented individuals that work for the organization, and they're there for the mission, right, and, you know, sacrifice a little something to kind of work on something that kind of meaningful, and to do that every day and to have a meaningful part of, again, changing that person's life. Right, changing. We've had people that have seen the advertising and that changed their lives and got them into a class and put them on back on track. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty powerful. And, but as you mentioned, we have a lot of men, you know, we have so many messages, and that's what the beauty of digital has helped us be successful. The one thing traditional advertising really couldn't do that well is we have so many, so many, so many different things. So many messages, shop, donate, training, help, you know, it's just all over the place. You know, people you say Hi, can you squeezes into, you know, being donation ad and be like, Hey, can you squeeze as little mentioned about shopping in? No, it's a 32nd donation ad, right like that. That's the whole point. You can't miss messages. So that, you know, again, that's that's really helped us in a digital realm to be able to get those messages in the right place and having those out there. And not not watered down. We're not watering anything down. We're making more impact. So yeah, no, it's been great. And like I said, you guys have been great and you to partner in helping us get better And finding ways and staying ahead of it. Right. Like, that's what I like. I mean, I like trying to find the next thing and just making sure that you know, it's like even some Goodwill's I mean, we have you know, we have a group but I know I introduce you guys to that. It's called Magic bunch of marketers throughout the East Coast, Goodwill's, for
Chris Clark 1:05:21
it's what made Mid Atlantic Mid Atlantic
Matt Spath 1:05:23
I don't know. I don't know the rest of it. But
Chris Clark 1:05:26
as an ambulance driver spy, we're in downtown Charleston and it's very exciting outside on Friday afternoon. Yeah,
Matt Spath 1:05:32
hopefully we're not. We're high or high enough. Someone's shooting. We're not getting it. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, now, you know, again, it is amazing to see what even some some Goodwill's are doing. And it's still not up to par what we're doing. So I've educated in that realm, right. And,
Chris Clark 1:05:51
well, if you're listening from another Goodwill, and we're gonna tag you out there, you know, holler at Digital Ignite and holler at Matt Spath because he's got the the testimonials for it. But, man, I've taken up a lot of your time today. And I again, can't thank you enough for the partnership, the relationship. It's been so much fun working with you and getting to know you over the last five, six years and just look forward to keep growing and like you said, Keep pushing the needle forward and bringing some new cutting edge technology to Palmetto Goodwill. So thank you so much for the time today.
Matt Spath 1:06:21
You're welcome. I enjoyed it. And again, I appreciate everything you guys have done. And it's been a fun ride. And let's keep it going.
Chris Clark 1:06:27
Alright, thanks, Matt. Thank you. All right. And that was Matt Spath. I hope you guys enjoyed. That was one of the first times Matt and I could get together in person since COVID had taken over the world. But it was really great to sit down, catch up and just talk about digital marketing our relationship with the Goodwill and Matt's career. As always, please let us know how we're doing. You can find us and review us on any of the places you download your podcast, and you're listening to us from one of those. So go in and let us know what you think. Give us a rating. Let us know what you like you don't like anything like that. But this has been the Digital Madvertising Podcast. My name is Chris Clark. I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Digital Ignite. And until next time, thank you guys so much for tuning in.