OMfluence Marketing Agency, formerly known as Hospitality Marketing, has supported local service and tourism-oriented businesses since 2023. Their focus is on sustainable and human-first approaches with an emphasis on storytelling and close working relationships with clients. The company was started by Olivia Savard, who grew up in Marble and has an extensive background in freelance marketing, and Marlene Neidert, a long-time local with a background in tourism marketing. These two are not only business partners but good friends.
“Olivia and I met in 2018 at a Glenwood Springs chamber networking event where I was giving a presentation on social media marketing,” Neidert recalled. “I was working for Visit Glenwood at the time. She was early on in her freelancing and marketing journey, but already had a good set of clients and knew what she was doing.”
Both women maintained separate careers for many years. They collaborated on many projects after meeting in 2018, all the while dreaming of entering into their own joint business venture. The dream came to fruition in 2023 when together they launched Hospitality Marketing as their flagship brand. At the time, both were living outside the area.
“I moved back to Austria for a time in 2021, and Olivia moved to Vermont in 2022,” Neidert explained. “We connected on regular Zoom calls, and we finally decided, ‘Okay, let’s do this. Let’s finally build something together.’”
During the LLC’s infancy, the partners primarily worked with hospitality businesses, including Visit Glenwood and the Colorado Historic Hot Springs Loop. As the company grew, with the addition of Taylor Thulson as the business’s project and social media manager, so did the list of clientele broaden, prompting a rebrand from Hospitality Marketing to OMfluence. The current client list includes Cool Brick Studios, the Glenwood Vaudeville Review, Glenwood Insurance and Hot Springs of America.
In addition to these entities, this team has also supported ballot initiatives, such as the “Paving Glenwood Forward” street tax campaign, and local fundraising efforts, including for the Crystal Theatre Alliance and Town of Carbondale’s “Make a Splash” aquatics facility campaign. In each of these efforts, the tactics of human-first marketing played a significant role. Savard elaborated on what those tactics look like.
“Growing up in the Roaring Fork Valley, where tourism is such a big thing, gives an opportunity to see things from all sides,” she said. “There are many times when locals want visitors to engage with our local culture and community while respecting it. There are a lot of times when the messaging can come off a bit dry, almost as if someone is speaking rules to you.”
Savard continued, “When we can start to weave it into destination marketing messaging, there’s ways to be able to highlight local voices, to celebrate local culture and be able to encourage people to have that stewardship and sustainability mindset when they are actually visiting, beforehand.”
She said this messaging was inspired by her and Neidert’s love for small-town character throughout the Valley as well as a mutual love of the outdoors. One example of their human-first marketing strategy can be found in their work with the Hot Springs Loop, where they launched the “Love the Loop” campaign detailing how to be a respectful visitor when soaking in the springs and how to meet locals.
Neidert explained their process, beginning with one-on-one conversations with new clients to gather as much information as possible to then storyboard the language needed for a particular marketing script for the business or entity.
“Human-first marketing and authentic storytelling are elements that drive destination and tourism marketing, but work wonderfully for all small businesses up and down the Valley as well,” Neidert said. “I would say the common ground for how we start everyone’s marketing journey is sitting down with the business owner or organization and figuring out, ‘What are you about? What’s the unique story we can tell?’ It makes it more relatable.”
Discussing social media for their clients, Savard said growing an online presence is a crucial part of helping fellow entrepreneurs and business owners to stand out from the crowd.
“Having your business on social media does a variety of things. It makes you more searchable. It puts you on the web, which is vital now,” Savard explained. “Growing an online presence and being able to show up in social media spaces really positions you, no matter what your industry is, as an expert and active player inside of it.
To learn more, visit www.omfluence.com