Lindvig Goes from News to ‘Bliss 360’

WARREN, Ohio – Lauren Lindvig has been telling people’s stories since she was a teenager.

Now, two years after leaving television news, the former morning show host is telling others’ stories in a new way as she adds new chapters to her own.

Lindvig is managing partner of Bliss 360 Marketing, which she launched recently in Warren. The agency offers an array of services that includes social media content production and placement, targeting, website and graphic design, Google AdWords campaigns, buying ad spots and, no surprise, television production.

“The name Bliss 360 is something that is really important because it goes beyond just putting a message out there. You have to understand why it’s there in the first place,” she says. “We take a very holistic approach to those messages and we understand what mediums are available.”

Lindvig’s path to Bliss 360 wasn’t straightforward. She left WFMJ after 7½ years as morning anchor, driven by a desire for professional growth as well as changes in her personal life, which included the birth of her daughter, Sabina, now 3, and the end of her marriage.

“I always thought there would be something more for me, to be a more valuable resource on a more grassroots level than just being the person who’s delivering the news,” she says.

“I’m not saying that as a negative,” she continues. “I learned as much as I could, and those transferrable skills were obvious to me, and I had a lot of people around me who said, ‘Hey, there’s more after news for you.’ And they were right.”

After five months at Central One Optical as a sales and marketing consultant, she joined Avalon Golf & Country Club as its marketing director, where she remained 15 months, leaving last year. While there, other businesses often asked her for the same kinds of services and advice she provided Avalon.

“I slowly realized that’s my business,” she says. “Where I’m strongest is being able to play the role that I played for Ron [Klingle, chairman of Avalon Holdings Corp.,] for a lot of other people.”

Last September, she formed Tradigital Marketing in partnership with a local digital strategy company. After separating from that partnership, she co-founded Bliss 360 early this year with local entrepreneur Jim Landino.

Landino acquired the assets of Backyard Buddy and its affiliated fabrication shop. The marketing firm is housed in office space available at Backyard Buddy.

“We were trying to bring our marketing in-house. We started off outsourcing it and really didn’t like it,” Landino says. “We really were struggling with getting the message right.”

He met with Lindvig, who was looking to branch off from her previous affiliation, and he expressed his interest in becoming partners with her and offered his resources.

“Lauren is extremely charming. She’s well known in the community. When she walks in the room, she lights it up. I felt honored that she would ask me to partner with her,” Landino says. “I think she felt the same way about me. And that in turn made our partnership pretty easy to put together.

“She’s sharp and has a high level of energy,” he adds. “Her mind never seems to stop working.”

Bliss 360 has what Lindvig describes as “a small list of clients” that include Backyard Buddy and J. Arnold Wealth Management and she advises Avalon and Central One Optical through a separate entity. She says her abilities to tell stories and connect with people are her strengths, and guide her “as to how to tell their stories properly.”

Arnold will be the center of “The Truth in Investing,” one of two half-hour television programs Lindvig is producing for broadcast on WBCB, the CW network station affiliated with her former television home, WFMJ.

“This will be a great vehicle for people to get unbiased approaches to investing,” Lindvig says. “We will get some of the simplest questions answered and we will be able to dive into opportunities that a lot of people may not even realize that they should be taking advantage of when it comes to their finances.”

The other program, “Spotlight,” will feature long-form stories “that really give the people and the businesses the time that they deserve, with the storytelling behind it,” she says. Local chef Mark Canzonetti will play “a major role” in “Spotlight,” which Lindvig will host, she says.

Both shows, which will launch in mid-April, will air in the 4 p.m. block on Sundays. Bliss 360 is buying the airtime – Lindvig declines to give the rate – and selling ads during the hour block.

“The Truth in Investing” will have new shows weekly and “Spotlight” will have content for two new shows each month, at least initially.

“I just want to make sure that it’s what we all want to see,” Lindvig says. “That will take some time. But I would envision it being a new episode every week very soon.”

Additionally, Bliss 360 is putting together ideas for online content. “There is a huge play right now when it comes to YouTube” for funny, informative content, she says. “We have some really good ideas on how to do that.”

Nowadays, Lindvig is perhaps most readily recognized – at last publicly – for a role separate from Bliss 360, serving as brand ambassador for Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, along with Eric Ryan, who manages the Covelli Centre.

“We take the local brand representative spot pretty seriously because we have a pretty serious ad buy in traditional television,” Alexa Sweeney Blackann says. Blackann is vice president of the automobile dealership in Boardman.

She saw Lindvig announce her departure from WFMJ in the morning, and that afternoon phoned her about joining Sweeney in the role, Blackann says.

The former broadcaster personality “knows what it’s like to be recognizable in this community,” she says, and Blackann knew Lindvig well enough that she was confident Lindvig would represent the Sweeney brand well.

“She’s been great to work with,” Blackann says. “She’s brought professionalism to our product that we’re really proud of.” In addition to her own on-air presence and the rapport she has with Ryan, Lindvig helps write the scripts and has worked with Ryan to improve his delivery.

“Truly, she has helped me every step of the way, and to be more relaxed in front of the camera,” Ryan says. “I’m grateful for it.”

The two have “a lot of fun,” he says, which comes across on camera.

“When you have two people on television who have that charm and that ability to engage people, it’s not something that you can quite put your finger on, but for whatever reason Eric and I have it,” Lindvig says.

“I’m really proud of the fact that we have made as much headway and as much success as we have on behalf of Sweeney.”

One consequence of Lindvig’s role with Sweeney is that she is approached even more often than when she was on morning television weekdays, “which we think is hilarious,” Blackann says.

Pictured: Lauren Lindvig says Bliss 360 Marketing takes a “holistic approach” to messaging.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.