Lydia Martinez
Principal Strategist at Elle Marketing and Events
November 17th, 2020
11:30 AM - 12:20 PM
BUS 126
Lydia Martinez started her first business at 8 years old selling tree-climbing lessons to neighborhood kids. In school, she studied both theater and broadcast journalism before discovering that her core love was actually telling a well-crafted story.
Lydia started her career at Barnes and Noble working her way to up a role as the community relations manager and event planner. In this capacity, she planned over 600 events designed to engage the community, tell a story, reach a target audience, and delight attendees. Some highlights include the planning and execution of the parties around major book releases including 3 Harry Potter books, the Twilight Series, Series of Unfortunate Events, and Eragon. She also planned and executed large scale book signing tours including for former President Jimmy Carter.
After 4 years working in the capacity of community relations manager, she moved on to Whole Foods Market as a marketing specialist and event planner. During her time at Whole Foods Market, she developed her skills as a marketer specializing in food and culinary events by telling a story of food and culture at the core. At this point, she saw digital marketing and social media marketing as a natural tie into event-based marketing. In this role, she oversaw a team of graphic designers and managed a creative team in charge of store design, decor, signage, and special events.
While at Whole Foods Market, Lydia took on the additional role of Local Forager - going out and finding local food growers and producers to source products from. She worked as an internal consultant for over 300 small producers in getting their product ready for retail - from compliance, food safety, labeling, & marketing. She also founded and ran the Sugar House Farmers Market to give local producers more of an opportunity to sell their products.
After tackling over 11 years in strategic marketing, branding, social media, and event planning for powerhouse retailers Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods Market, Lydia decided it was time to get back to her entrepreneurial roots.
Lydia launched what was to become Elle Marketing & Events in 2009 purely as a consulting business on the side. In 2015 she left her corporate career to become a full-time entrepreneur. Since 2015, Elle Marketing has grown into a full-service marketing agency with a team of 12. Her team specializes in telling the well-crafted story of a business through strategic marketing. With her culinary and event background, Lydia has been in high demand with food-based businesses, restaurants, and large scale events.
While she now prefers to climb cliffs in her spare time, you may still find her willing to show you how to climb a tree.