SCORR | The Past, The Present, and The Future of SCORR Marketing

Join CEO Krystle Buntemeyer on The SCORRCAST for an inside look at the past, present, and future of SCORR Marketing. Explore SCORR’s journey, milestones, and vision in the dynamic world of life sciences marketing. Gain insights into how SCORR has adapted to industry shifts, embraced innovation, and remained committed to delivering results-driven marketing solutions.

Transcript

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Hey everyone this is Alec McChesney, your host of the SCORR cast, and I'm so excited for this episode, as well as a few others see right now I am in the headquarters of SCORR marketing in Kearney, Nebraska, and I'm here for a couple of days, and so I've been able to have five or six different episodes with some of the key business leaders at our organization. This episode is going to go into one detail. The next we'll go into another. We're going to talk about branding. We're going to talk about marketing, strategy, business development versus marketing. Talk about what it's like to work at an agency. And I'm just so excited for you to be able to listen to these key leaders at SCORR Marketing. Enjoy the episode. music. Hello and welcome to another episode of The SCORR cast. This is one of our special episodes. SCORR team is in Kearney Nebraska for a week to do you know them all team get together, and I've been fortunate enough to have a couple of conversations with with some of our team members. And this conversation is one that I have been looking forward to a lot, and it's with our CEO here at SCORR Krystle Buntemeer, and we're going to talk a little bit about sport. We're going to talk a little bit about the history of sport, a little bit forward looking, we're going to talk a little bit about the industry. And then, because you know who I am, I'm going to ask you one question that is completely off script and you on the spot. But before we do all I would love to just start with with you a little bit. Start with your your background. You know you've been at you've been forward for 18 few minutes, right? All you know of CEO. So before we dive vision. One, thank you so much for putting that with me and and spending some time with us and talking to the listeners in the SCORR cast. And then two, if you could just give us your background and your goal and then we can dive in. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for being our fearless leader that comes to SCORR cast and getting us all out there and and sharing and sharing our experiences and so. So, yeah, my my experience is one that I never would have imagined 1819, years ago, when, you know, I walked in to interview for an internship, and that's how it started, and I walked out not really knowing what I was signing up for, um, but, you know, I think that that's, that's kind of telling of what a marketer who enjoys that day to day is. And so that was exciting to me, literally started in the age of cold calls. So that tells you there's been a few changes over the years, but I wouldn't have changed those experiences whatsoever, and I had the opportunity to grow and and work one on one with Ben Rowe, our our chief creative officer, my partner today, one on one with Senna, the founder. I mean, just amazing experience. So there were four people at SCORR When I joined to today are 65 and so I had the opportunity to really hone my marketing skills first and be a strategist and help launch the brands that you know, Cinda and Ben were creating and fall In love with this industry. And had the opportunity to build and lead a team, and then at a point where Cinda, you know, was glad to hand over some of the operations, being able to build out some of the operational facets of an agency, so continually new challenges, and I think that it always, always growth opportunity. And so that's why I'm here that many years later, with the opportunity at hand and joined by an amazing ELT team that we get to be on this journey together. So I love it. While the word that I'm gold Hoopa, there is growth and journey. And I think it's been a really interesting culture years for entire industry, certainly for SCORR, as we continue to grow and engage complexities of not only the economy, also just marketing in general, marketing has changed, so I'm curious, you know, yeah, in terms of the vision for SCORR, where you see SCORR growing, how we're going to continue to position ourselves in the future, what kind of comes to mind about. Uh, but I asked that question, yeah. Well, it starts with a vision that, um, is really clear for us at SCORR, in that we want to be known as the known life science marketing experts because of the value that we bring our clients, and that last part is so important we believe in, in delivering and doing what we're doing for the benefit of our clients, and being known for that, and letting the rest sort of sort itself out. So that really is that really is our vision. I think what's really fascinating is how much competition has come into the space, and that has certainly been a change over the years. And I know, I know we've had a lot of robust discussions about that here recently, but our positioning, really today, is around delivering that value, and that is that SCORR means more it means getting results. It means more brains. It means more brand launches and meeting our clients goals. And so all of that positioning is doing what we do best. And I feel strongly that for 20 years, dedicated in this industry, building brands, deploying those, helping clients meet our goals. You know, there's things about that vision that haven't changed for a while, because it's what we're passionate about doing, but we're going to continue to grow and evolve as we do as marketers, and find ways to do it better and help our clients pivot in markets like this, which we've done before. So you mentioned pivot, and you also mentioned results, which is kind of two of the buzz words that I think we've heard a lot, is it's becoming increasingly difficult to generate results for some of our industry, and it's harder to be in marketing and business development. And so I'm curious, kind of, from your lens, and especially looking over the last two decades. What are some of those challenges that you are seeing in the marketing industry today? And then, you know, a little bit of maybe how SCORR is trying to address those kind of under your leadership and under the direction of where we sit in 2025 Yeah, so, you know, data management, I think, is like it could cross all industries, and so it certainly exists in ours as well, and part of that is because of the continual changes changes with, you know, search engines and all of The evolving digital dynamics and global aspects of that and privacy. And you know, all of that means that the way that we manage data has to change, just like all other industries. So that is something that we are working on tackling. And, you know, I think really just going back and knowing that we have to go back sometimes and break it down to the raw data right, and make sure that we know what is, what is true to that data. And then if we're going to build in some platforms and some visual visualization and all of those aspects, we do that, but make sure that the data accuracy is there. So I think that what's interesting, and you and I have talked about how many marketers we've talked to in in house, teams, agencies like this, is an expansive challenge, but sometimes going back to the basics and saying, okay, data is accurate, let's get we know what we need to know to make good decisions for our clients, and then we'll figure out how to visualize it. And, you know, and that's something that we've helped our clients do when they need to put that report in front of the board and show ROI. And we know that's what we need to be able to get to. So I think the other thing is, you know, use and boundaries around AI. And I don't know, do you want to talk more about AI Alec, or is that one? But, you know, as a marketing firm, and you know, it's really, you know, we're doing our testing. We're making sure we're staying in front of things, but using it as an idea generator. But at the end of the day, like our clients information can never be compromised. And that's like, that's our hard line. But yeah, absolutely we need to be researching and exploring. So it's interesting. You hit on AI. I know we won a little bit about innovation. Actually, I we made a really interesting point. On the industry challenges that when you go to the data, and we look at some of the issues that are happening within this industry, they're also happening in every other and I find it really interesting as an outsider from this industry who joined three plus years ago, and you really go at first and fall in love with it. One of the things that I've been really covering as part of this podcast is that there's kind of this bubble that the life science industry lives and things are different because it's the life sciences, and that there might be solutions that exist, but it's different in this, in this space, and I think the data one's a perfect example, because if you just got rid of the company names and what they were doing, the data problem is existing all over the place. And I think sometimes we don't look for some of those solutions, and solutions don't appear because it's different in the life sciences. I don't really have a question to this. So I joke that I have to make one podcast question each episode, but I have found that it's really unique. Right now, more and more people are kind of going through and saying what to do like they want. We don't to do it this way. I think the data wants another piece to that puzzle, marketing and for life science, that there should be a better to solve some of these problems, even if that means going to the bare bones of you know, what does it take for us to be successful? What are they need that so they need in order to tell the story versus all of the data that exists? Because if you want all the data that exists, you're going to have way too much information that's not going to be relevant to a board, to a CEO, you know, to internal teams. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think you know there is that opportunity to say, we know this is a challenge across industry. Let's not be afraid to learn from other industries. And so I absolutely agree we have, we have more data at our fingertips than we've ever had, and so that, in and of itself, is creating this challenge. But two more questions for you. One of them is a final takeaway, but I was interested. You know, one of the things that for really been well known, and this is something that I hear at trade shows, is the and I think that culture is both internally, but it's also externally, in terms of, you know, we go to the trade shows, we, you know, we're very involved in the community, clinical trials for all, like we're just a bystander, or somebody that that checks up to be in this industry and so not sure, you know, I'm kind of asking this question, both internally, yeah, external perception. But need focused, and what is your focus as that culture in 2024 and 2025 Yeah? Well, if I start externally, I think that what we realized several years ago, and I, and you know, give credit to to Cinda, who is the queen of connections, is that those connections hold so much value those relationships. And so when we're when we're external, we have this ability, we're talking about external. We have this ability, whether it's our clients or industry connections or past clients, or, you know, subject matter experts, to to create this powerful platform, and I think that's what you mentioned, clinical trials for all you know, mid COVID, it would be the comeback. It was, how do we we have all these connections and out you heard our core vision and our mission is to bring value to our clients. So how do we bring value to our clients while also bringing awareness to SCORR? Right? Let us do what we do best, and so that's what we really invested in. What are platforms that help our clients first and in turn? We are known for making those connections. We are known we we can be shared and referred because we're bringing value. So it's all like comes back to a circular point, and internally, I mean, I mean our internal culture is our team, and is our team creating that. And I think that's what's really cool about SCORR, is that the team, the team, isn't sitting back saying, like, Well, I think we should be this culture. Can you create that? Like we have a team who is driven to be a part? Of a culture they want to be a part of, and create it and be involved. And that makes it you're creating a culture you want to be a part of. And, and I think that that speaks for itself, right? And this, it's been really cool to see over the years, and I think it is very unique, and sort of this, you know, this magic. And so I feel grateful for it. There's something, there's something in the water. I say that internally, certainly different organizations, and put way too much of an emphasis on this word culture. But it was not actually thing. It was they were trying to sell. And I think that internally, and actually, SCORR does not have to brand or tell this story. It's just shown on a day to day basis with with what we do, and that certainly starts with with you, that Leah and April and Cinda at the leadership level, then it was stood up. So I think advanced culture is when there's people that you want to work with both. And I think SCORR does a fantastic job that, yeah, yeah, okay, I've got one more question. This is the last one, I promise. But we're looking forward, yeah, 2025 what are we what are we most excited about? Both for the industry marketing, you can go any direction you want to go. What are we looking forward to, you know, over the next 12 months or so? Yeah, well, so we are, you know, we are in a current state of, sort of, just of some uncertainty and some stall. And so I cannot wait to come out of that and have gained momentum. And I know that we will. We we have seen this happen. We know this is a, you know, this is a point in time we're in, so coming back and having the market come back, we're really looking forward to, and we're, we're looking forward to helping our clients through this, because we've been here and we know how to help navigate through it, which is getting creative, right? It's, it's flexing, and it's being a resource and how they need in this time. So I'm looking forward to coming out of the stall, and I'm really excited about Alec. We spent, you know, we had a team together for days here a few weeks ago, and we were doing our strategic planning. And coming out of that, there are some really great initiatives around developing our team and growing our team and doing so at a next level that I'm really excited about. We've got such a great growth opportunity at SCORR for team members who are at their next level of their career and and have career plans, and so I'm looking forward to that in the coming months as well. I love it. I think anybody that's listening to this inside the industry is also looking forward to a little bit of momentum, optimism coming out. You know, I know we always kind of circle JP Morgan in January. Let's come out of JP Morgan, have some optimism, but let's keep that throughout the year. So Krystle, I greatly appreciate you spending some time with us today. I think that anybody who listens to this will be able to really understand history of SCORR, but also see the the tangible and intangible impact that organization like SCORR can make. So thank you so much for sitting Yeah. Thanks Alec. As always, thank you for tuning in to this episode of The SCORR cast, brought to you by SCORR marketing, we appreciate your time and hope you found this discussion insightful. Don't forget to subscribe and join us for our next episode. Until then, remember, marketing is supposed to be fun.