A Conversation with Melanie Lux, Lux Strategic Communications

 

 

 

MidlandsBIz:
You’re celebrating a big milestone this month—20 years as the president/founder of Lux Strategic Communications. How’s it feel?

Melanie Lux:
A great sense of accomplishment. Happiness. Relief. I wonder where the time has gone. Most of all, I feel a sense of anticipation as I look forward to the next adventure.

MidlandsBIz:
Adventures in marketing? Tell me about it.

Melanie Lux:
I’ve been very fortunate to work with companies that gave my firm exciting and meaningful assignments. We worked with Sonoco, the global packaging company, for eight years. During that time I did media relations at two of the world’s largest packaging trade shows: Interpack in Dusseldorf, Germany and PackExpo in Chicago. We’d have up to 50 journalists come through our booth during these shows. Ten years ago I was on a plane with the leaders of MUSC, USC, the Greenville Health System and Palmetto Health crisscrossing the state to announce a new statewide research collaborative, Health Sciences South Carolina. My firm worked with the South Carolina Hospital Association to “Save the Trauma System.” This past year, we helped adidas re-launch a line of heart-rate monitoring apparel. We’ve developed and implemented marketing strategies for everything from pecans and high performance polymers to structural steel and medical software. And then there was CouplesChemistry.com….

MidlandsBIz:
Like Bill Gates and Microsoft, you started Lux Strategic Communications in a garage. How was that?

Melanie Lux:
Well, the overhead was low, I got a lot of laundry done, and had flexibility and time for my sons Kevin and Blair when they were small. It took awhile for my entrepreneurial spirit to come out however. I had worked for ad agencies in Columbia for ten years and reached a point where I wanted something more. More autonomy. More control. And I am not going to lie—I wanted more income. So I contacted colleagues at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, PMSC, and Richland Memorial Hospital (now Palmetto Health Richland) and told them what I was doing. I launched Lux Strategic Communications with some very good clients.

MidlandsBIz:
Sounds like it was easy starting a marketing and public relations firm.

Melanie Lux:
In some ways it was, but in other ways it was very difficult. Some days I’d get up and think I needed to get a “real” job. Other days I was on top of the world with a full slate of clients. You soon learn when you own a small business that life can be a rollercoaster; you have to learn to hang on and go with the good times and bad. I was also fortunate to have some very good employees and strategic partners like John Gehringer, Cliff Springs at Genesis Creative, Corinne Alford at PrintSouth Printing, Jennifer Epting at WIS-TV, and Patrick Iverson Design, all of whom would do anything for me and our clients. Lux wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for them.

MidlandsBIz:
What’s changed the most in the advertising/marketing world since 1994?

Melanie Lux:
My first job in advertising in Columbia was with The Sullivan Agency. I was a writer/broadcast producer and used a typewriter—the agency didn’t own a computer. Our creative director had to order type from a typographer and use wax to put ads together. It seems surreal now that everything is digital and immediate. The other dramatic shift was been the move away from traditional media like newspapers, magazines and television to the web, e-marketing and social media. What we do has changed dramatically as a result.

MidlandsBIz:
What hasn’t changed?

Melanie Lux:
The need for solid strategy. Without that, you can burn a lot of time and money and not have anything to show for it.

MidlandsBIz:
Anything else?

Melanie Lux:
Strong client relationships are critical. There has to be trust, respect and open communications. To me, the best relationships are collaborative, where you’re leveraging the strengths of the client and agency. We’ve had many long and strong client relationships. What’s most flattering is when a client decides to try another firm and then a year or two later comes back. Referrals from past clients also speak volumes.

MidlandsBIz:
What are you focused on now?

Melanie Lux:
We do a tremendous amount of healthcare marketing—hospitals, physician practices and nonprofit healthcare associations. We were honored to help USC and the Greenville Hospital System launch the USC School of Medicine Greenville; it’s great to work with clients who are changing the world for the better.

Increasingly, we’re working with startup companies in biotech, agri-business, technology, and the services sector on branding, overall strategy, messaging, and investor relations, which is really exciting because innovation and entrepreneurship drive our economy. We’ve got a stroke drug company (www.Zocere.com), a green pesticide company (www.EcoPesticides.net), a mobile app startup (www.MyCommunityMobile.com), and a company that’s set to transform how drugs are marketed (www.pharamconnectxpress.com). We also represent an angel investment group in Indianapolis and a venture capital firm in Las Vegas. It’s a pretty diverse client list, which keeps things interesting.

We’re also very focused on social media and strategies specific to each client. It’s not enough to be on Facebook or LinkedIn or Pinterest; you need to understand the platform and how it can work for the client. Content is king! You can’t just post and expect people to engage. It has to be something that speaks to them and that they want to share.

MidlandsBIz:
Any free advice for companies needing marketing help?

Melanie Lux:
Develop your strategy first, implement with consistency and hold yourself accountable to the plan. Don’t scrimp on your creative talent. Just because someone can shoot pictures with their smartphone doesn’t make them a photographer. Just because someone has InDesign doesn’t make them a designer. Just because the neighbor’s son does websites doesn’t make him a developer. Spend money on professional photographers, designers, web developers – and marketing strategists. There’s a difference…really!

MidlandsBIz:
So how are you celebrating the 20-year milestone?

Melanie Lux:

That’s a good question. It will likely involve a special sculptor friend in New Mexico, a black horse named Slim Shady, three rambunctious Cavalier Kind Charles, and client deadlines. Just not all at once—or maybe all at once. That’s the way life is these days.