Matt Farr, marketing + creative
It all started with barbecue.
When I was a teenager, the weird boneless McRib sandwich was introduced in the St. Louis area. At the time, I worked at a barbecue restaurant called Charlotte’s Rib (which still exists today). My boss, the owner and head cook, was of the opinion that if only people would try our delicious pulled pork sandwich, they would never again want a McRib. It galled him that McDonald’s would even call the McRib “barbecue” when it was actually flavored pork goo pressed into the shape of ribs. Barbecue was sacred.
One night after work, I created a flyer with the headline Take the Bar-B-Q Challenge. It included a coupon matching the price for our genuine sandwich with the hated McRib. My boss loved it so much he had it printed and distributed in the local newspaper. My flyer drove a lot of new business — and launched my interest in marketing and advertising.
A very brief history of my career.
I started as a copywriter at Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago. Then I did sales management and PR for a blood bank. I worked as an account executive and writer for a Colorado ad agency, then started my own agency. I spent a decade at Viasat (originally WildBlue), building a team of 30+ people, developing a customer portal, directing TV, radio, print, and digital advertising, customer communications, and managing websites to drive customer acquisition worth $250 million annually. In 2018, I made a shift into Product Management for an entrepreneurial student transportation company, leading the requirements, design, and marketing rollout for our online client portal and a mobile app for parents. After a few years, I switched to product marketing, becoming head evangelist for many of the products that I had built.
Quick success stories:
- I’ve had 40 percent open rates from email subject lines I’ve written.
- I’ve created TV spots that made our sale center phones ring so incessantly we had to decrease our media buy until we could add staff.
- I’ve built websites that went from page 13 of search rankings (completely invisible) to the number one spot of the SEO hierarchy, unseating incumbents with years of momentum, using only white-hat practices and unflinching, dogged determination.
- I’ve had customers write me notes simply saying, “I love this product.”
Crushing challenges daily, the old fashioned way.
While today’s product & marketing world has grown more sophisticated, my focus is still on on the fundamentals:
- How can we build and position our products to stand out, so they aren’t perceived as even being in the same category as our competitors?
- How can we capture the attention of our audience so that they want to buy our products, only our products, and then sing our praises to the world?
- Where is the best place to eat some barbecue?
Give me a call. Maybe we can work some magic together.