About Michelle
As the driving creative force for a million dollar marketing and advertising firm like MediaFit, Michelle Soyars isn’t satisfied with the status quo. “I want to work on things that need changing,” she says. Luckily, her position as chief creative officer gives her plenty of opportunity to shake things up for the better. At MediaFit, she enjoys the challenge of forging relationships with businesses and becoming a part of their team, whether the team is in NASCAR racing, medical, or the construction industry. “What really gets me up and going everyday is the chance to make a difference to our clients.”
Before helping to found MediaFit, Soyars cut her teeth at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company where she managed the marketing plans of the company’s top-selling brands. “RJR was a real cutting edge place at the time from a marketing standpoint,” she says about her former employer. “We were always encouraged to break the mold. And many of the brands were older and needed new campaigns, new products, and new ideas.”
She led development for a complete repositioning of the forty-year-old Salem brand by creating a fresh and unconventional marketing strategy. This strategy included a revolutionary advertising campaign, plus new products and packaging that helped reverse a twenty year decline of the cigarette icon. When faced with significant spending cuts on the Winston brand, Soyars and her team developed a geographic pricing strategy and implemented targeted promotions which held the brand’s share while reducing its spending rate by 35%.
But accomplishments weren’t always so easy for the hard-charging, forty-three-year-old. With a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University in graphic communications, Soyars began her career at RJR’s packaging division as a process engineer. She enjoyed the problem-solving nature of the job but grew tired of the slow pace of the chemical engineering side of the field. After moving into a position as a promotion assistant, she became familiar with the marketing area and decided she’d like to move in that direction, but RJR had other ideas. “The company told me I couldn’t change positions—that I needed an M.B.A. to do that job.” Soyars shrugs. “So I went back to school to get my M.B.A.” She received her degree in 1994 from Wake Forest University and transitioned into brand management.
Driving to get things done is a trait Soyars admits she uses at MediaFit. Besides being the creative strategist behind the company’s work, she also manages the work flow and keeps things moving on schedule. “People say I’d work twenty-four hours a day if I could,” she says with a laugh.
This work ethic and relentless drive for success helped MediaFit develop a sports marketing division focused on creative direction for NASCAR teams, drivers, and sponsors. “I love to have a concept and then see it come to life. It makes a real difference in people’s businesses and careers. In the sports marketing side of the business, I derive satisfaction first from the idea but also from watching young talent get a well-deserved shot.”
Ideas have always been the backbone of Soyars’ creativity. “I’m best with concepts and strategies—taking disparate parts and organizing them into a whole.” At MediaFit, she uses this talent by developing a passion for the client’s business. “It’s our mission to understand their mission. Then we can become partners, dedicated to their success.”
Finding marketing solutions for such a wide variety of clients is an ever-changing process, and the individuals in charge of those solutions, like Soyars, need to keep the big picture in mind. The core of any marketing and advertising plan is a great strategy, unifying the complex parts into a cohesive whole. MediaFit uses this holistic thinking for all their projects. “We don’t think about the pieces of the pie without thinking about the whole pie. You need to consider the end result.”
When asked about her process to achieve that end result, Soyars says she starts by remembering people have both a rational, head side and an emotional, heart side to new ideas. “You need to create a tone or feel the customer can understand with both sides.” Often she’ll design a mood board using colors, images, and words to express various concepts to the client. From there, she’ll move to more concrete examples, inspiring the redesign of company logos, brochures, promotional items, and websites. “Sometimes we have to remind people it’s less about what they like and more about what works, but the two usually come together in the end.”
Although Soyars admits to being a workaholic, she values time with her best friend and husband of twenty years and their son. She teaches karate, an activity she joined so the family could do something together. She received her black belt in 2005. Always searching for a way to stay active and keep learning, even family vacations aren’t spent lounging at a beach somewhere. “We do stuff on vacation—bicycle, snow ski, or travel to interesting places. We’re quickly bored relaxing.”
Music occupies another niche in Soyars life. She belongs to the Beck’s Baptist Rejoice Ringers, a nationally recognized handbell choir. The mental concentration needed by each member of the group provides Soyars with the challenge she enjoys. The choir performs about once a month and has even played at the White House.
For the future, Soyars’ personal goals are to raise a happy and healthy family. In terms of her career, she wants to continue working on ideas that make a difference in the lives of her clients. “When a customer calls and tells us they got new clients directly from an ad we created, it makes all the time and effort worth it.” She’s proud of the positive culture they’ve created at MediaFit and hopes the firm keeps growing in reputation, providing it with longevity. Most of all, she wants to maintain MediaFit as a fun and fulfilling place to work. “That’s especially important—having fun, because it’s not as natural when you’re a task-oriented person like I am.” Luckily, the marketing and advertising business provides plenty of challenge and change, and for Michelle Soyars that equals a rollicking good time.
Biography written by: Carrie Graves |
