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Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

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StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their 
stories and connect with their customers.

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Andy Johns:
How can digital advertising help broadband companies reach the 
right people at the right time?

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That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The 
StoryConnect Podcast.

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My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, 
and I'm joined on this episode by Julie Boles,

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who is the chief marketing officer at East Mississippi Electric 
Power Association and East Mississippi Connect.

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Julie, thanks so much for joining us.

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Julie Boles:
It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me, 
Andy.

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Andy Johns:
Now, I know that Megan was supposed to be doing this when we 
switched things out. And I know that's probably like thinking

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you're getting a chocolate chip cookie, 
and you wind up with an oatmeal raisin. But here we go. We are

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also joined on this episode by about 100 fantastic utility and 
broadband marketing and communications folks live at

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StoryConnect 2025. (applause) We appreciate you being here.

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We appreciate them being here. It's been a great couple of days 
here in Saint Augustine.

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This episode of StoryConnect: The Podcast is sponsored by our 
co-op friends at Meridian Cooperative, who use powerful

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innovations to empower utilities.

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Thank you, Meridian for supporting StoryConnect: 
The Podcast.

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One round of applause for Meridian, 
please. (applause) All right,

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so let's dive in to East Mississippi Connect.

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So y'all have been in the fiber business about five years right.

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Julie Boles:
That's correct. We launched in 2020.

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Andy Johns:
Okay. So how have you, I know you guys have grown big time in 
that time.

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You've got a pretty, pretty sizable service territory.

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How are you guys marking some of the milestones as you're hitting 
those years,

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as you're hitting some of those round numbers with folks, 
a number of subscribers, what are you doing to kind of chart

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progress?

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Julie Boles:
Initially we started with when we hit our first 1,000th 
subscriber,

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we did a big show. We had our public service commissioners in 
town.

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We did a live stream on our social media platforms of a drawing 
for a free smart TV.

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Some of our local legislators went with us to deliver the TV to 
the winning subscriber.

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I t was just a wonderful experience.

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He actually had recently, the winner, 
had recently moved to our service area from Houston,

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Texas and bragged about how our service was faster than what he 
could get in Houston,

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and so.

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Andy Johns:
That's not bad.

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Julie Boles:
It was incredible. So we decided at that point, 
for every 1,000th subscriber,

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we would give away another smart TV.

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It was great for the first 2 to 3.

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And then we found that subscribers were a bit skeptical to answer 
a call that you have won a free TV.

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Andy Johns:
Okay.

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Julie Boles:
Imagine the fear of scams in today's world, 
right?

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Andy Johns:
Right.

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Julie Boles:
So we pivoted at that point and decided we would wait until we 
got to our 10,000th subscriber,

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and then on our social media pages, 
we did a ten-day giveaway.

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And so at that point, subscribers had to put some skin in the 
game because to enter the drawing,

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they had to make a comment on that daily post, 
every day for ten days.

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And so two birds with one stone.

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We gave away ten gifts, tech gifts that they could use with their 
Wi-Fi.

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A nd we also gained access to potential testimonials through the 
comments that people were making throughout the

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contest.

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Andy Johns:
Smart. Very smart. W e'll get into the digital advertising in 
just a moment.

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I do want to talk about a little bit, 
just the internal piece of it.

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And we're going to have a couple of great sessions dealing with 
internal communications later today. But I know when the brand

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came out, when everybody's on board, 
all the staff is excited about it.

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What have you seen, and what have you done to kind of keep that 
excitement going after five years,

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to keep folks excited about this project that you all are doing?

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Julie Boles:
Well, initially when we were getting ready to launch the service,

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there was not a whole lot of excitement from our employees.

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It was more concern, fear. Naturally, 
they wanted to know, how is this going to affect my role,

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and what is this going to look like for our employees of the 
electric co-op?

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Because we don't have separate employees.

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All of our fiber employees are East Mississippi Electric Power 
Association employees.

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So naturally, there was a lot of concern, 
a lot of question.

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And so we went with an employee first approach.

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Nothing was announced publicly, 
no areas that we were moving into until we had informed employees

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because they were going to be getting questions. They needed to 
have the information and feel equipped to inform our members.

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So we really started with that. And then it was a five year build 
out project that we completed in less than

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four years, about three and a half years.

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And so we did a big employee event.

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We had all of our employees come in for an all employee meeting 
where we celebrated that milestone.

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We did a pancake breakfast, cookout for lunch, 
and then we gave away lawn chairs,

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logo lawn chairs to all of our employees, 
so that when they're out in the community,

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they're at the ball fields, different events that they would have 
that logo chair.

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I mean, I think it was expert storyteller Megan that we were, 
she and I were,

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talking about this one day in the chairs, 
and she said, "Oh, so the build out is complete.

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You can finally sit down in your chair and relax." It's like, 
that is a great story to tell,

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so.

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Andy Johns:
There you go. I know that you guys are not completely relaxing.

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There's still a lot more work to be done. And a big piece of that 
success,

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I would say, I think it's fair to say that digital advertising 
has been a big piece of that success,

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getting the words out there. Where did you start with digital 
advertising,

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and then how have the tactics or the efforts changed over the 
time in terms of your efforts for digital advertising?

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Julie Boles:
Yes, we started looking at digital advertising as one of the key 
strategies when we launched,

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because we knew as a five year project there would be members 
that would be hearing about it,

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and they would not have access to our service for potentially 4 
to 5 years down the road.

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So setting up that expectation from the beginning was key.

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We did not want to oversaturate the media, 
the traditional media,

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with the messages of this high speed internet service coming and 
set those expectations for those people that would be several

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years before they would be able to get the service. So through 
the digital advertising campaign strategies,

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we were able to target specific areas with messages, 
whether service was available in that area,

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how long it would be coming in that area.

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And then those that were 3 to 5 years out, 
we did not start targeting them until several years into the

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campaign, when they actually would be able to access our service.

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Andy Johns:
You guys are going all the way down to the address level, 
or kind of zip codes or polygons or?

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Julie Boles:
Yes, we worked along with our fiber services team, 
and we were actually able to pinpoint by address.

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And so we knew, also we do have investor-owned utilities areas 
within our footprint,

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and we have not gone off of our service area at this point.

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So we cannot provide our service to anyone that's not within our 
service area.

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And so if we use traditional media, 
we would also be hitting those people that would potentially

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never be able to get our service.

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And so we were able to target down to the specific address of our 
electric members.

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Andy Johns:
Fantastic. One of the great things about digital advertising is 
how well you can track it,

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how much information is there. What kind of things are you 
looking at when it comes to kind of tracking what's working and

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what isn't? And are there any specific metrics or pieces of it 
that you're really looking at to say,

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this is a great success? This is as the panel would say earlier 
today,

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this is mid, or this is Ohio?

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Julie Boles:
Well, really it comes down to telling our story.

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The messages that have really resonated with our members is 
telling the story of why we're doing what we're doing.

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Why we're providing the service in the first place.

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When we started in 2020, the electric co-op had already been in 
the community for over 85 years,

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so we were not starting from scratch.

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We built upon the trust, the connection that had already been 
made with our members,

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and turns that message to how it can benefit our members.

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Why are we building this service out?

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We launched in 2020, in response to Covid.

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So some of the work from home, telehealth opportunities, 
distance education,

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all of those opportunities, we told those stories because the 
story of having the lowest cost will never beat the national

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brands that can offer $10 a month for the first ten months, 
and then they jack the prices up.

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That will never be us. So we really built on we're the people you 
trust,

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the local people that you already trust, 
that you already have relationships with and no gimmicks.

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Andy Johns:
Perfect. And that's exactly where I was headed next. W hat kind 
of messages do you think – because I know, like a lot of folks in

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the room, you have a bunch of different channels that you that 
you can communicate with folks. Are there certain messages that

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you feel like work particularly well on digital advertising as 
opposed to some of the other ways that you communicate with

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folks? Any in particular stand out?

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Julie Boles:
We do use still use some traditional for some of our generations 
and our demographics,

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but online, we do a lot of education, 
a lot of telehealth, work from home,

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and those sorts of messages really work well online.

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And our gamers, we have a big gaming population, 
so those messages work really well too on the digital

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advertising.

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Andy Johns:
Fantastic. Last question for you.

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If you have somebody out there who's either in our live audience 
here who's listening,

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who's thinking about, you know, 
"I've heard about digital advertising. I need to get started. I

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ought to see what's available." What advice would you have for 
them when they're getting started? Where should they start,

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and what advice do you have?

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Julie Boles:
I would say, as with any marketing strategies really, 
you need to know your audience,

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know your demographic, know your audience, 
know what messages resonate with them.

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A nd then track the data. See what's working.

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See what's not working. If you need to start small and get a feel 
for the effectiveness of digital strategies

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and then build from there. B ut really digital marketing, 
when you can target down to the specific address,

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you're getting the most bang for your buck as far as your 
marketing dollars.

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Andy Johns:
Fantastic. Julie, thanks so much for joining us.

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Julie Boles:
Thank you Andy.

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Andy Johns:
Thank you so much to the audience. I am Andy Johns with Pioneer.

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She is Julie Boles. And until we talk again, 
keep telling your story.

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Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, 
a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.