VS MEDIA GROUP
A Full-Service Marketing, Advertising and Communications Agency
A Full-Service Marketing, Advertising and Communications Agency
The Newsroom Advantage
Traditional marketing agencies are built by advertising executives who guess at what journalists want to cover, what communities want to hear and what the market wants to see. VS Media Group is built by active publishers, award-winning journalists and enterprise crisis managers who already know — because we sit on both sides of the media landscape every single day — as both storytellers and strategists. We don’t just guess what the media wants. We are the media. We don’t guess what journalists want to cover. We are journalists.
That distinction is not cosmetic. It means we know how to engineer marketing campaigns that actually land, how to secure millions of dollars in earned media that would otherwise cost a fortune to buy, and how to navigate public affairs and municipal relationships, protect reputations and manage high-stakes communications with a level of precision that traditional ad agencies cannot replicate. Our insider perspective isn’t a selling point. It’s a structural advantage — and it belongs to our clients.
We didn’t learn the media landscape by buying ad space. We learned it by building a newsroom.
In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, we launched Valley Sentinel — an independent, community-driven news publication in Spring Green, Wisconsin. We saw what was being lost as corporate media pulled back from local communities — and decided to do something about it. No outside funding. No corporate backing. Just a managing editor with a background in government, marketing, law and public affairs, and an editor-in-chief with years of professional reporting, newsroom leadership and enterprise communications, including active spokesperson and crisis management for a major Wisconsin healthcare system. We covered local governments, pursued public records litigation, launched a comprehensive calendar and built community — while building Valley Sentinel into the best small newspaper in the state, literally.
Then we built an agency.
That origin isn’t incidental — local news organizations have long functioned as de facto advertising and marketing agencies — their finger on the pulse of communities while interacting with both the consumer and business sides of the spectrum. VS Media Group was born from that exact environment, rooted in the belief that there is no one better positioned to understand what your audience wants — and how to reach them — than the journalists who cover them every day. Our background isn’t in traditional agency life. It’s in newsrooms, municipal halls, press conferences and editorial meetings. That’s a different kind of training, and it produces a different kind of work.
Too many organizations are producing marketing that journalists ignore, PR that never converts to real coverage, and brand narratives that weren’t built by people who understand how the other side thinks. We do. Every service we offer — from brand strategy and media buying to crisis communications and executive training — is informed by the same editorial discipline we built a newsroom on. Our job is to make sure your brand, your leadership and your story hold up in the boardroom, in the press and in the community — not just on a social media feed.
That foundation shapes everything we do — whether you’re just starting to BUILD, ready to GROW or prepared to SCALE.
Starting at $3,500 /month retainer
Compare to $5,400-$6,250 in salary-only costs per month to hire just a Social Media Manager.
We handle the entire organic social media management lifecycle, from social media strategy and calendar planning to day-to-day publishing. This service includes active community management and the rigorous moderation of comments and reviews, ensuring your brand remains responsive, engaged, and authoritative across all digital platforms.
We define your market positioning strategy and translate your core messaging into a cohesive brand identity. Through high-level creative direction and concepting, we deliver custom logo design and brand architecture that ensures your business stands out as a premier player in your market.
Our team executes high-fidelity visual and written assets, blending professional photography and art direction with custom graphic design and digital illustration. We pair these visuals with expert copywriting and brand voice development to ensure your narrative is consistent, persuasive, and polished across all ad assets and editorial content.
We act as your organization’s single point of contact for managing digital infrastructure, bridging the gap between your team and existing website services or technical managers. This ensures that all site updates, relaying of changes, and technical requests are handled with professional precision without requiring your internal team or executives to “speak tech” or have their hours eaten up conveying website changes and checking on follow through.
We translate complex data into clear, actionable insights through comprehensive marketing analytics and reporting. By tracking key performance metrics across all channels, we provide the transparency and strategic oversight needed to refine your approach and prove the ROI of your marketing spend.
Starting at $7,500 /month retainer
Compare to $17,500–$21,000+ in salary-only costs per month to hire a mid-level, in-house marketing department—including an in-house Digital Marketing Manager, PR Specialist,
and Videographer/Multimedia Creator—without the cost of benefits, equipment, software licenses, or training.
Everything in BUILD, plus:
We drive digital discovery and local search dominance by optimizing your brand’s footprint across search engines and map listings. This ensures your organization achieves Google Business dominance and appears prominently when potential clients search for relevant services in your region.
We build your annual campaign planning and brand guidelines through deep audience research and customer journey mapping. This includes developing specialized recruitment marketing and employer branding strategies designed to solve skilled labor shortages and attract top-tier talent.
We manage your complete budget allocation and media mix, including Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and Google Ads. We target specific high-net-worth subdivisions through hyper-local and geo-fenced advertising, while executing large-scale programmatic, display, and paid social media advertising. This also extends to audio advertising (Spotify/podcasts) and traditional media buying (TV, radio, print, out-of-home).
Our newsroom-trained writers develop your distinct brand voice through expert website copy, blogs, and long-form thought leadership. This service includes comprehensive press release architecture and distribution for standard media announcements, securing earned coverage that establishes institutional authority.
We manage the entire video lifecycle—including scriptwriting, production, and distribution—specifically tailored for high-quality Reels, TikTok, and Shorts to showcase “behind the build” content of your organization’s offerings. We also provide professional drone and aerial videography critical for capturing site progression and completed project showcases.
We design and manage robust email ecosystems focused on strategic list building and monthly distribution. This strategy employs lifecycle marketing to nurture long-lead prospects and maintain consistent, high-value engagement with your established audience.
We provide active website management of your existing digital presence, handling ongoing content updates and minor reconfigurations. We conduct ongoing User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) research to ensure the digital journey for every visitor is seamless, intuitive, and built to convert.
We provide vigilant media monitoring of your brand’s presence in the public eye, tracking mentions and sentiment across all channels. This allows for real-time awareness of organizational reputation and ensures leadership is always informed regarding the broader conversation surrounding their projects.
Starting at $10,000 /month retainer
Compare to $25,000–$35,000+ in salary-only costs per month to hire an executive-level internal team—including a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Director of Public Affairs,
and Marketing Operations Manager—plus the additional cost of enterprise analytics software, PR licensing and more.
Everything in BUILD and GROW, plus:
We prepare your organization for the next generation of search with Generative Search Optimization (GSO) & AI Discovery. Our team handles generative AI tool integration—including conversational AI, chatbots, and voice agents—alongside predictive analytics & AI-driven insights, providing rigorous AI-generated content oversight & editing.
We design and manage creator and influencer marketing ecosystems, focusing on influencer strategy & management, co-branded campaign management, and micro-influencer partnerships with local lifestyle figures. This extends to broader partnership strategy & management and licensing & partnership marketing.
We provide advanced media relations and press outreach, leveraging newsroom relationships for earned media and journalist outreach. Crucially, we protect your brand during workplace incidents or public disputes through crisis communications & reputation management, rapid response, and crisis simulation & preparedness. This also includes Public Information Officer (PIO) and spokesperson services, internal communications consulting, and public affairs & municipal lobbying support.
We oversee medium/long-form video scriptwriting, production concepting, and post-production distribution, acting as the primary liaison between your organization and specialized production partners to ensure complex narratives are delivered with cinematic quality.
We conduct rigorous competitive analysis and positioning alongside competitor auditing and digital sentiment mapping to track how your organization is perceived vs. rivals. This intelligence drives comprehensive rebranding and brand refresh efforts, supported by social listening and monitoring, ensuring your market position remains distinct.
We handle your website design and development, optimizing your organization’s main front-facing landing webpage or digital storefront to serve as a high-end, authoritative hub. We strategically deploy a controlled scope of dedicated landing pages for projects or specific commercial bids, incorporating technical SEO and site auditing/optimization to ensure maximum conversion without the timeline bloat of a full website overhaul. (Note: Full-stack, new website builds to scale and E-Commerce strategy & optimization are quoted as separate projects).
We bring your brand into the physical world through experiential marketing & event production, trade show & conference marketing, and sponsorship strategy & activation. This is paired with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) storytelling and Sustainability & ESG marketing to package and promote your community impact.
We optimize your sales pipeline through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integration & Customer Data Platform (CDP) implementation, lead nurturing, funnel optimization, and attribution modeling. This includes an aggressive B2B network management strategy targeting industry partners on LinkedIn, plus the creation of proposal enhancement kits to upgrade massive commercial bids and Requests for Proposal (RFP).
We develop personal brand strategy for executives through intensive executive media training, on-camera and presentation coaching, and spokesperson development. We manage your leadership’s executive thought leadership, corporate communications, and awards and speaking opportunity strategy to ensure they project a polished, authoritative image.
Premium Strategic Add-Ons (Exclusive to Retainer Clients)
While our retainer tiers act as your day-to-day marketing and communications engine, certain high-impact initiatives require a dedicated scope and budget. The following enterprise-level services are exclusive enhancements available only to our active retainer clients. They are quoted as standalone initiatives designed specifically to integrate with our retainer tiers, amplifying your ongoing strategy without draining your retainer hours and deliverables.
Executed in strategic partnership with Under the L Productions, this service delivers premium medium-to-long-form video assets, ranging from high-converting commercial TV spots and YouTube ad campaigns to documentary-style legacy films. Whether you need a polished 30-second broadcast commercial, a campaign-level “hero” digital video, a targeted Connected TV (CTV) ad, or a film-festival-quality narrative for a high-stakes commercial bid, these engagements are custom-quoted to ensure bespoke, top-tier production value.
Quoted as a dedicated development contract, we manage the complete web lifecycle for your organization. From initial needs assessment and domain securing to the design, development, and scaling of complex new websites, this service includes enterprise-level technical SEO, comprehensive site auditing, and robust E-commerce strategy and integration.
Powered by Meltwater, this service provides 24/7 global tracking of brand mentions, competitor moves, and industry sentiment across all social platforms, online news, broadcast, and print media. We deliver sophisticated Earned Media Valuation (EMV) to quantify the financial impact of your brand’s presence, alongside deep competitive benchmarking. To ensure clients retain permanent data sovereignty and ownership of their historical analytics, we require clients to hold their own Meltwater licenses (which we facilitate). Our team then acts as your dedicated intelligence desk, translating raw data into actionable boardroom strategy and high-level stakeholder reports.
We develop, produce, and distribute branded audio and video series designed to establish your leadership as the undisputed voice of your industry. Leveraging our newsroom interviewing experience, this turnkey service handles everything from studio engineering and script concepting to host coaching, distribution, and promotional clipping. We transform a complex medium into a streamlined authority engine for your brand.
Leveraging our deep roots in print journalism, we design, edit, and publish ultra-premium, magazine-quality lookbooks, annual impact reports, and company history books. This is a highly tactile, luxury add-on designed to cut through digital noise and leave a permanent, physical impression on investors, high-net-worth buyers, or municipal boards.
Project-Based Consultancies & Audits
Not ready for a full-service retainer? The following engagements are completely independent, standalone contracts available to any organization. We provide the blueprints, audits, and high-level training your internal team and executives need to succeed. These engagements have definitive start and end dates, delivering powerful strategic assets without any ongoing monthly commitment.
An intensive media training bootcamp for organizational executives and ownership. We put your leadership through thoughtful and hostile interview simulations—ranging from standard news-style to podcast formats and more—alongside press conference drills and on-camera posture training. This ensures your team is universally “camera-ready” for any local news, trade publication, or public appearance.
A high-intensity workshop where we run your leadership team through a simulated, multi-channel PR crisis tailored to your specific industry risks (e.g., severe workplace accidents, public disputes). We identify communication vulnerabilities and deliver a customized, rapid-response playbook, ensuring your organization is prepared before an actual emergency occurs.
A deep-dive assessment of your current digital footprint and how it stacks up against your top three regional rivals. We analyze your SEO health, social media sentiment, and overall market positioning, delivering a boardroom-ready report that highlights your immediate vulnerabilities and untapped opportunities.
Perfect for organizations needing a comprehensive rebrand or a fresh launch. We conduct deep market research to develop your foundational brand strategy, culminating in a complete “Brand Book.” This definitive asset includes your market positioning, brand voice guidelines, visual identity, and logo design—giving your internal team the exact playbook they need to execute consistently.
We act as your strategic advisory partner to evaluate both your overall marketing approach and your digital infrastructure. Beyond a rigorous technical audit of your MarTech stack (CRM, email platforms, and analytics), we assess your current campaign architecture, team workflows, and operational strategy. We deliver a comprehensive roadmap that eliminates software redundancies, optimizes your data flow, and aligns your tactical marketing efforts with the exact tools needed to track true ROI and drive scalable growth.
For clients launching a new subdivision, product line, or regional initiative. We act as your fractional strategic directors to build a comprehensive, multi-channel campaign architecture. We hand you the fully modeled budget allocation, audience segmentation, and media mix strategy, which your internal team can then execute.
A bespoke visual and narrative package designed for a specific commercial bid or municipal proposal. We upgrade standard Request for Proposal (RFP) responses into highly persuasive, cinematic presentations using professional graphic design, custom editorial narratives, and visual storytelling to help you close multi-million-dollar contracts.
DON’T SEE SOMETHING HERE THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR? WE CAN PROBABLY DO IT. LET’S TALK.
Taylor Scott doesn’t just build marketing campaigns — he engineers the infrastructure that makes businesses scale.
Taylor bridges the gap between strategy, execution and civic credibility — three things most agencies handle separately, if at all. He began his career as a multimedia marketing consultant for a regional media group, building cross-platform campaigns across print, digital, social and programmatic for clients ranging from small family businesses needing their first logo to enterprise accounts like Leinenkugel’s and Prevea Health. He scaled with them, learning early what it actually takes to grow a business from the inside. From there he moved into newsroom leadership, municipal governance and independent media, building the layered expertise that defines his work today.
As co-founder and managing editor of Valley Sentinel, Taylor built an independent news publication from the ground up in his home area of Spring Green, Wisconsin — ultimately leading it to be named the best small newspaper in the state — and earning awards for excellence in ad design along the way. That experience gave him a rigorous, operational understanding of what it takes to capture an audience from scratch, earn their trust and drive them to take action. He knows how the attention economy actually works — because he has operated inside it, at every level.
Beyond media entrepreneurship, Taylor brings something most marketing strategists simply don’t have: deep, practical fluency in public affairs and municipal government. Drawing on an academic background in pre-law and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — bookended by constituent services work for a Wisconsin state senate office before college and lawsuits against the state’s largest agency during and after it to defend the public interest and student rights — Taylor has gone on to chair a municipal Community Development Authority and Plan Commission, lead a comprehensive planning process alongside the Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, run national media outreach campaigns for Ballotpedia that reached the inbox of every U.S. political reporter and author grant proposals for multi-agency public-private partnerships securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. For clients navigating commercial development, municipal bids or complex community rollouts, Taylor isn’t just a marketer — he is a strategic operator who knows how to get a “yes” in the room.
At VS Media Group, Taylor directs high-level marketing operations and business development strategy. He specializes in taking complex organizational goals and translating them into clear, revenue-driven campaigns — building the foundational systems that scale businesses, from managing cross-platform advertising budgets to ensuring a client’s lead-generation efforts connect directly to their sales pipeline. He finds the leaks in your funnel, untangles the budget and builds the marketing architecture required to drive measurable growth. Outside the agency, Taylor serves on the board of the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center — the only elementary school Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed — and is completing a certificate in modern journalism through NYU’s collaboration with Rolling Stone.
The Strategic Advantage Taylor Brings to Your Organization
Campaign Architecture & Budget Strategy: Eliminating the guesswork from your marketing spend. Taylor designs comprehensive, data-driven roadmaps that dictate exactly where your money should be deployed — across digital, programmatic and traditional media networks — to yield the highest possible return on investment.
Public Affairs & Municipal Lobbying: Navigating zoning boards, municipal stakeholders and regional planning commissions to help push high-stakes commercial projects across the finish line — a capability backed by real experience in civic governance, not just strategy consulting.
High-Stakes Proposal Engineering: Leveraging his editorial background to completely overhaul standard, text-heavy commercial bids and Request for Proposal responses — transforming them into highly visual, relentlessly persuasive presentations designed to win multi-million-dollar contracts.
Brand Authority & Audience Capture: Translating the core value of your organization into a sharp, professional visual identity and messaging strategy that cuts through the noise, outshines competitors and creates lasting brand loyalty.
Nicole Aimone has been in newsrooms since middle school — and she never really left.
She served as editor-in-chief of her middle school, high school and collegiate newspapers while studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. After interning within the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel family of publications, she moved into professional reporting, covering county and municipal government for Capital Newspapers — where her bylines appeared across The Baraboo News Republic, The Portage Daily Register and the Wisconsin State Journal. In 2020, she co-founded Valley Sentinel, helping shape it into an award-winning regional publication and earning Best in Division E at the 2022 Wisconsin Newspaper Association awards.
That foundation in reporting means Nicole doesn’t just understand how to write a press release. She understands how journalists decide what’s worth covering, what angle makes a story land and what a pitch needs to actually get opened. She has been on the other side of that inbox — and she brings that instinct to every client engagement.
Today, alongside her work at VS Media Group, Nicole serves as a Media Relations Specialist for one of Wisconsin’s largest and most highly rated hospital and clinic networks — frequently in the role of Public Information Officer and organizational spokesperson. Her day-to-day responsibilities include managing strategic communications, coordinating crisis response and executing proactive media outreach in one of the most high-pressure communications environments in the state. Her results are quantifiable: utilizing enterprise intelligence platforms including Meltwater and Muckrack, Nicole generated over $16 million in Earned Media Valuation in a single year alone — securing the financial equivalent of eight figures in free press coverage, for the cost of her time.
At VS Media Group, Nicole leads media relations, public relations, crisis communications and editorial strategy — bringing the same enterprise-level intelligence and instincts that Fortune 500 communications teams take for granted to every client we work with. Outside the agency, she remains committed to mentoring student and early-career journalists, ensuring the next generation is equipped to carry independent journalism forward.
The Strategic Advantage Nicole Brings to Your Organization
Elite Earned Media Generation: Using her active newsroom connections and editorial expertise to pitch, manage and secure top-tier press coverage for your business — delivering the kind of earned media attention that traditional agencies have to pay for.
Crisis Management & Reputation Defense: Providing an immediate, steady-handed shield during your most vulnerable moments — protecting your company’s reputation and bottom line during workplace accidents, public disputes, data breaches or aggressive negative press cycles.
Executive Media Training: Putting your leadership through “The Media Gauntlet.” Drawing on her background as a seasoned reporter and interviewer, Nicole trains client ownership and executives on exactly how to survive a hostile interview, run a press conference and project unwavering authority on-camera.
Spokesperson & PIO Services: Acting as the polished, professional public face of your organization during major announcements, disruptive commercial rollouts or sensitive community matters that require a steady, credible voice.
PO Box 144
Spring Green, WI 53588
608-588-6694
Located in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Serving the greater Madison, Wisconsin area and the upper Midwest.
