Companies which use surround-sound marketing seek to create this same immersive effect with prospective customers and those prospects’ influencers. The goal is to reach all target markets with the right messages at the right times so they become part of your sales funnel. No matter which way prospects and influencers look, your message will be there.

How does surround-sound marketing work in the real world? We interviewed a federal government contractor, a paint industry influencer, and a Catholic podcaster about how it created success for their enterprises.

Turning a big ship

Deepak Hathiramani founded Vistronix as a technology contractor firm. When market shifts slowed the company’s growth, he pivoted the company to the national security space. This required a wholesale rebranding strategy, including but not limited to:

• Acquiring national security firms to increase Vistronix’s competencies and customer base.
• Hosting events, producing white papers, and securing speaking opportunities to build brand credibility.
• Using media coverage, social media, and other marketing and branding tools to build messaging buzz.

Hathiramani’s surround-sound strategy put Vistronix in front of industry influencers and experts, customers and potential customers, and – after six years – a buyer who saw Vistronix’s value as a mid-tier national security firm. Without the acquisitions, Vistronix would have had good messaging and marketing but no substance. But without the brand credibility and messaging buzz, Vistronix would have just been another national security firm. It took the whole package to make the strategy work.

Changing industries

Much of Stacey Sumereau’s professional life has been spent in front of national audiences. First, she was a Broadway singer who performed in 70 cities and before 200,000 people. Now, she’s a podcaster who speaks around the country and has organized virtual conferences which drew 20,000 people.

The transition between these very different brands took place almost by accident. Sumereau was considering the convent after leaving Broadway, when LifeTime asked her to be on the reality TV show “The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns.” She ended up on “The Today Show,” “Fox and Friends” and “Access Hollywood,” which set the stage for paid speeches to Catholic audiences around America. Sumereau’s podcast launched a few years later.

Sumereau’s accidental surround-sound strategy was a TV show which led to national media coverage and credibility-building speaking opportunities. Without her current podcast, however, Sumereau’s success would have been a blip on the radar. Instead, eight years after leaving Broadway, Sumereau continues to be a sought-after speaker and sponsored podcast host.

Starting from scratch

Eighteen months ago, Tony Piloseno was a college student who worked a part-time paint sales job and had a passion for mixing paint on TikTok. Then, he got fired, and became the most viral paint story of the decade.

Like Sumereau, Piloseno’s star could have flared brightly and then disappeared. Instead, he became a paint-mixing entrepreneur and influencer whose videos were seen 100 million times in 2021. His Instagram following grew from 29,000 to 173,000, and he went from zero YouTube followers to almost three-quarters of a million. His brand is so dynamic that national organizations like T-Mobile, the Orlando Magic, and Behr paint want to be associated with him.

Piloseno’s surround-sound strategy was to spread his videos on the platforms which reach his target demographics. It’s working – he was recently on CNBC, national brands sponsor his videos, and paint consumers buy from his Tonester Paints online store.

Surround-sound marketing can work for you

No matter your industry, the principles of surround-sound marketing and branding can work for you. You just have to figure out your buyers, your buyers’ influencers, what they all want to hear, and what mediums should spread your message. Then, you’re off to the races!

Tony has received a lot of headlines for his story; but in our opinion, the unsung hero of his entrepreneurial adventure is Don Strube. Don didn’t follow Tony’s social media; he learned of Tony because of Florida Paints’ Director of Manufacturing. Don pursued Tony as an employee because of the recommendation of Florida Paints’ HR lead. And since hiring Tony, Don has trusted him to:

• Launch an online Tonester Paints product line which is in one Florida Paints retail store.
• Experiment with new target markets through YouTube and Instagram.
• Grow the TikTok channel from 1.6 million followers to 1.8 million; his YouTube channel from zero followers to 460,000; and his Instagram channel from 20,000 followers to 129,000 followers.

Don Strube is a 60-year-old lifelong businessman who knows how to lead. He doesn’t need to know everything; he hires, trains, and incentivizes senior executives to give him the right advice at the right time to make the right decisions. It’s why Florida Paints is projected to gross $50 million in 2021, and why Don was the star of our founder’s recent Forbes.com article on building great teams.

Tony Piloseno is Florida Paints’ gateway into first-generation and next-generation paint buyers. But he’s part of the Florida Paints family only because Don learned three critical leadership principles:

• Let go of control and hire the right executives. There are only so many hours in the day.
• Create effective processes to retain, incentivize, and hold executives accountable. You don’t want to waste time and money hiring, training, and firing the wrong people – or fail to correct hiring mistakes by keeping the wrong people in the wrong seats.
• Develop a culture for long-term success. Strube’s personal culture of dynamic thinking has become Florida Paints’ culture, which is why his new Generation Z employee is creating the company’s future customers.

Many early and mid-stage business owners struggle to achieve what Strube has accomplished – the ability to let go of control, build a trustworthy team, and create a culture for long-term growth. Through interviews with Strube and Piloseno, other leaders of multi-million-dollar companies, and several consultants, the Forbes article lays out how a business owner’s growth as a leader can be the lynchpin to faster, more durable company growth. We hope that it helps you and your team create the next level of success.

“Collin was basically my big brother,” Tony told us in a recent interview. “He was the slightly older leader of our little neighborhood crew when I was five years old until I graduated high school. He led us to make YouTube videos skateboarding, creating graffiti art at the local skate park, painting bikes and building ramps – you name it, we did it and recorded it.”

Before Collin died, he and his family created a foundation that Tony supports, Collin Cares. It has donated over $100,000 to cancer-related causes. And its tagline is one that Tony says he lives by – “defy the hand you’re dealt.”

Thank to Collin, Tony was a true square peg in the round hole of life. “Collin taught me how to think artistically, but also to do my own thinking. I got in trouble with teachers in elementary school, pastors in church school, and principals in high school,” he explained. “My parents are very supportive of my work, but they always wanted me to have a 9-5 job with a 401K after college. For me, school was too much like a major corporation – strict hierarchy, rules, and structure. I wanted to get out in the world and do something!”

Tony was hired by Sherwin Williams while attending community college in 2016 and found the love of his life in the form of one-gallon cans. Despite his independent streak, Tony felt like he could have a career with the company. “I had an internship lined up on the way to management training. But in May 2019, I transferred to a different store that had a slower pace.” This slower pace gave Tony the opportunity to try his hand at mixing paint on video in late 2019. His sixth video got a million views, and by May 2020 his audience was over a million people.

As his popularity grew, Tony developed a marketing plan that he felt would help Sherwin-Williams reach his young fans before the competition could. “I showed the plan to my marketing professors, my sales rep, and my manager. The manager directed me to contact the Vice President of Marketing for Sherwin-Williams’ Eastern Division.” After two months, the VP of Marketing finally told Tony he didn’t want to see the presentation because it didn’t fit with the company’s existing promotions.

Tony took the rejection in stride and, upon researching online influencing, realized that he had to be more authentic and unique. On his time off, Tony purchased “mis-intended” paint (scratched and dented paint that the company deems not fit for retail) with his employee discount “and started being really creative,” he told me. “I started adding paint to glow in the dark projects, fruit, putting my own spin on paint.”

Tony thought everything was going great at work and for his growing personal brand until he got a call from the Director of Lost Product for Sherwin-Williams. “He accused me of stealing paint. When I told him about my attempts to reach the corporate marketing person, he interrogated my manager. They ended up firing me for misuse of company time and equipment, misconduct, and for embarrassing the company’s brand. I never got a call from HR to defend myself, and my manager’s boss signed off on my firing without getting my side of the story.”

That was when Tony decided to go all in as a paint mixer. “I moved my studio into my friend’s basement and began making two videos per day. A couple of months later, to develop an emotional connection with my audience, I decided to let them know why I love mixing paint and how I was fired. I didn’t actually go to the press, or even name Sherwin-Williams; people just put the pieces together.”

Tony’s video about his firing got nearly 34 million views. His audience grew by 300,000 followers in a few weeks. He got national media coverage and dozens of job offers. “Every major paint company in America wanted me in digital marketing. But when I talked to Florida Paints, I was talking to Don [Strube], the co-founder – not someone in HR who saw paint as just another job. Don was the only one who talked to me about our shared passion, who understood what I was trying to do.” Within four days of his story going viral, Tony had a job and was on his way to Florida.

Like a lot of great entrepreneurial minds, Tony Piloseno hasn’t always fit the mold, but he has always stayed true to who he is. Like Collin, Tony defied the hand he was dealt – and when opportunity arrived, he didn’t let it escape. Just a few short years ago, Tony lost his childhood mentor to cancer, and a few months ago he was unjustly fired – but both of these potential setbacks only made him work harder and better. “When I was 18, I had no idea how paint worked. I thought you pulled it off the shelf and it was already there,” he said in our interview. “I’ve said all along that I’m grateful to Sherwin-Williams for bringing me into the industry and teaching me what I know – for getting me started. Thanks to them, I discovered a way to show how the sausage, or in this case the paint, is made, to people.”

As of this writing, Tony is less than two months into his new job. Our phone conversations took place in his combination office/studio, and his education continues – Ohio University was “proud” of Tony and “contacted me to make sure I finished my degree virtually.” His parents have supported him every step of the way, and Tony can’t say enough about Don Strube, whom he says “is taking a chance on something that’s never been done in our industry.”

Note: Proven Media Solutions made multiple efforts to contact Sherwin-Williams for its point of view on Piloseno’s firing. We did not receive a response.