Arielle & Chris Olfers
Founders of The Southern Influence
Chris and Arielle are partners in life, as well as business. After meeting during their undergraduate studies at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, the couple spent time honing skills in their respective disciplines. Chris led analytics teams at top firms Bazaarvoice and W2O Group (now Real Chemistry), while Arielle championed marketing campaigns for Fortune 100 companies like Walmart and Sysco.
It wasn't always big budgets and large teams - the first videos Chris and Arielle made were on YouTube. Almost instantly they developed a style and began to field inquiries from companies. Recognizing the market need to balance high production value, nimble teams and timely deliverables, TSI was born. To date, TSI has worked with dozens of global brands like Bala, Soho House, goop, Reebok, Red Bull and Tecate - and they've seen their work featured in Vogue, New York Times, AD, Southern Living and The Zoe Report, among others.
Today, TSI’s mission is ever clearer - to intentionally blur the line between creative strategy, commercial production and direction, marketing and public relations—truly bonding consumers and brands through creating dynamic untold stories and content experiences in digital and IRL.
Their favorite projects are the ones that take them far from home, and when they're not in the studio you can find them chasing after their son Warner.