Loot Rentals: Client Story

Event furniture rental company hires Authentic to take its marketing to its next level with experienced leadership, strategic direction, and ruthless prioritization.

“[Our Authentic Fractional CMO] helped us create a dashboard of metrics, so we could really see how the efforts were helping or hurting us, and how to use that information and data to move to the next level. She really spent a good deal of time helping us establish, ‘What are we trying to do here? Where are we going? How do we monitor that?’ So we know what’s working and what’s not working and how to get rid of those random acts of marketing.” —Rhoda Brimberry, CEO, Loot Rentals

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Loot Rentals at a glance

But Loot Rental’s growth has not always been without hurdles. The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly halted operations, prompting a time of deep introspection for the company. The team emerged from the pandemic with the realization that, while the company had done an excellent job with marketing to date, it needed the guidance of an experienced, strategic marketer to take it to the next level. Loot Rentals needed to identify and prioritize the marketing initiatives with the greatest impact and stop committing random acts of marketing.

“We were very good at coming up with ideas and throwing them out there, but we really needed some help strategizing on what sticks and how to get more engagement and traction with our digital marketing,” said Rhoda Brimberry, CEO at Loot Rentals.

Loot Rentals’ Chief Operating Officer (COO) discovered Authentic, a fractional CMO service provider, and was excited to learn that Authentic, like Loot, operates on the Entrepreneurial Operating System®. 

The solution

Beyond the EOS connection, Loot Rentals was intrigued by Authentic’s commitment to helping clients Overcome Random Acts of Marketing®. Authentic’s brand name even struck a chord: “authenticity” is one of Loot Rental’s core values.

Impressed by Authentic’s model and culture, Loot Rentals hired Authentic.

“In selecting the person that would be a good fit for our business, I think Authentic did a really nice job of not only pairing similar backgrounds but also just [our fractional CMO’s] disposition and how it meshed with the kind of culture that we have at Loot. I thought that was pretty special. We were all pretty much taken with her right away. And that doesn’t always happen,” said Rhoda Brimberry, CEO at Loot Rentals.

Loot Rental’s Authentic Fractional CMO™ quickly got up to speed, helping the company to:

• Establish clearly defined areas of responsibility for the marketing team to remove overlap in roles and uncover gaps, including identifying the need to hire a digital marketing manager.
• Create an in-depth marketing dashboard that pulled analytics from multiple digital channels and tracked and measured marketing effectiveness in specific geographic regions.
• Develop an annual marketing calendar to plan, prioritize, and drive all marketing initiatives.
• Coach the Chief Creative Officer (CCO), who oversees the marketing and R&D teams, to be the best and strongest leader she could be.
• Build confidence among its marketing team members, coaching them on how to ask the right questions, push back as needed, and prioritize to stay focused on objectives.
• Refresh Loot Rental’s value proposition, developing specific personas for each core market to ensure messaging resonated.
• Launch a new product line, True Loot, to address the downturned economy and provide a value offering for those on a budget.

“[Our fractional CMO] spent a good deal of time getting to know each person, their function, and the way they operated, which I think is unique for fractional leadership. Her approach was received gracefully because the [team] understood she wasn’t there to change them; she was there to help elevate the department in the company as a whole.” —Rhoda Brimberry, CEO, Loot Rentals.

The results

With guidance from its fractional CMO, Loot Rentals: 

• Effectively prioritized its marketing initiatives, with the marketing team accomplishing all of their EOS Rocks for the first time, starting in the first quarter of the CMO’s engagement.
• Used its newly created metrics dashboard to inform better business decisions and even used it to uncover website discrepancies that led to better processes.
• Increased the productivity, satisfaction, and effectiveness of the marketing team by helping each team member understand their unique role and empowering them with the confidence necessary to ruthlessly prioritize.
• Hired a digital marketing manager, a role new to the company.
• Shifted its marketing strategy to be predominantly digitally focused, something that had historically been out of the team’s comfort zone.
• Identified opportunities for time and cost savings, including identifying how it could use AI for copy and imagery. 
• Gained newfound confidence among the executive leadership team, helping the CEO grow in her visionary role and the CCO in her role as a people leader.
• Learned more about its target audience, how to market to them, and why it’s critical to always consider the customer first.

“We have worked with quite a few fractional leaders in all the different areas. In the case of Authentic, and with our fractional CMO specifically, there was a big difference in the fractional offering that she had versus other people, in that she truly feels like a part of the team. She’s taken so much time and effort to really understand what we’re doing.” —Rhoda Brimberry, CEO, Loot Rentals.