Interview With A Marketing Manager
A new month means a new interview with one of our incredible employees for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into life at UTOPIA Fiber! This month we’re talking to our Marketing Manager Lexi Christensen to get the scoop on what it’s like to work on the marketing team here at UTOPIA Fiber!
What’s your name, position, and how long have you been at UTOPIA Fiber?
My name is Lexi Christensen, I’m the marketing manager, and I’ve been here for around seven and a half years.
What do you do as a Marketing Manager at UTOPIA Fiber?
I manage day-to-day marketing functions. I manage our digital, social, events, PR, and then I work with the cities and our ISPs a lot. I just have my hands in a little bit of everything.
What inspired you to go into Marketing as a career?
I didn’t really choose marketing as my career. When I was in college I actually wanted to be in premed. I wanted to be an ophthalmologist, but then it turns out that I hate math and science. So, I did a total one-eighty in college and decided to go into PR and advertising. Which kind of got me into marketing. So, I wasn’t really inspired it just kind of happened.
What’s the biggest obstacle your team faces?
I would say that growing into new cities is a challenge. It’s a good challenge though. Each city is very different, so you have to market to them differently. Each city has different demographics, vibes and what they like and what they don’t like. So, you have to work with them a lot. We have to do brand awareness campaigns even though some people already know who we are, and some people don’t so it’s kind of just learning to navigate that environment. I also think that marketing is the one department that has to know basically what every other department does. We have to know a little about engineering, the NOC, business sales, customer service, FSG, how we do our pricing, etc. We need to know all of that to do our job well, so we work a little bit differently from other departments.
What is your favorite part about working for UTOPIA Fiber?
I would say that my favorite part is that it’s never the same. Every day is different. It’s never mundane, and I never have the same day twice. So, when I come into work I never know what I’m going to do today. Things are always changing and different. Which I like it, it keeps me on my toes, and it keeps me from being bored. I think that’s why I’ve lasted here so long, because it’s fun. I also really like the people here as well. My team specifically is the best. Cassie handles our Digital Marketing and she’s amazing. And then we have another Lexi on the team who handles social media, graphics, and videos who is also amazing. We’re all led by our fearless leader, Kim and we all just mesh really well and have a strong team of women.
What do you think makes UTOPIA Fiber Unique?
Well for starters we are the largest open-access network in the country which is pretty unique. I think we are the only ones in the country that does what we do at the scale that we do it. We are always changing, always moving, always growing into new cities, and we have to navigate so many different people. We have tons of ISPs on our network that we get to work with, and we have tons of different cities we work with. It’s not just one product, we have to basically market cities, ISPs and everything else. It’s the only product in the country that does what we do.
What’s been the weirdest experience you’ve had at UTOPIA Fiber?
I have a lot, so let’s see. Probably the most recent one was picking up a wooden cow in Santa Clara to decorate for an event, that was pretty odd. I was down there with my mom and husband, and I’d forgot about it. So when I mentioned to them that “Oh yeah I have to go pick up a cow”, they were like “what are you talking about?”. Once we went and got it they understood, but yeah that was pretty weird. We also just took department pictures for our boss for her birthday. They were awkward family photos, and we made it into a calendar for her, that was pretty weird but also really fun.
What do you wish people knew about UTOPIA Fiber?
I guess one of the common things people don’t realize is that we’re not a private company. We are what’s called an interlocal agency, so we are owned by cities, we work for cities, and we do things in the best interest for those cities.
Outside of work what’s your favorite thing to do?
I love to read. I also play a lot of instruments, and I like learning new instruments. So I play music a lot and I’m in a lot of symphonies around the valley. I just love music.
How many instruments do you play?
I play piano, violin, viola, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, guitar, and flute, so eight total. I’m not a singer, but I can play some instruments.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what team, besides your own, would you want to be stranded with?
It depends. If I’m going to be stranded on this island forever, than I would want to be with fun entertaining people. Which would be like our customer service team, because they are a riot. But if there’s any chance of getting off the island, then I would need some really logical smart thinkers like engineering who would just be like “let’s just get this done and get out of here”. So, it just depends on the situation I guess.
That’s all for this month’s interview! We are super grateful to Lexi for all the hard work her and her team put into help UTOPIA Fiber grow! We hope you enjoyed getting to know her much as we did!
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