About
LORI TWICHELL
Writer – Producer – Marketing – Publicity – Consulting
Lori Twichell started her career in radio by putting her degrees in technical and creative writing to use writing commercials for advertisers. It wasn’t long before her vision and passion took Lori from behind the scenes front and center hosting a midday radio show. As her popularity grew, Lori learned a great deal about audience connection and engagement. Using this information in conjunction with her writing for advertisers, she developed a new promotions program at her station and a new title, Promotions Director. Her unique approach to special events and marketing soon created a dramatic increase in sales for several very specific products in her area and brought her to the attention of multiple internationally recognized brands. This allowed Lori to create and develop ongoing partnerships between her small local radio station and PepsiCo, Chupa Chups, and Anheuser-Busch among others.
Eventually, Lori switched gears from radio to film, working with Cloud Ten Pictures on the original Left Behind movie with Kirk Cameron. Initially brought on board as a volunteer, she ended up outperforming a nationally known PR agency and was soon moved into a full-time position at Cloud Ten Pictures. Among her tasks, she managed publicity, giveaways, and promotions at over 2500 radio stations across the U.S. In this role, long before the advent of social media as a marketing tool, Lori became one of the first publicists to use grassroots marketing to cultivate direct audience engagement with a brand.
In 2005, Lori had the opportunity to capitalize on her writing degrees when she was brought on staff at CBH Ministries (formerly the Children’s Bible Hour) as a lead writer for their popular radio drama, Down Gilead Lane. Airing on thousands of radio stations around the world, Gilead was an ongoing weekly adventure that was enjoyed by both kids and parents alike. Over the next six seasons of the program, Lori partnered with writers from Focus on the Family and Adventures in Odyssey to create engaging, faith-based family entertainment.
In 2006, Lori decided it was time to combine her writing and marketing skills to form her own company. Since its inception, Beyond the Buzz has run marketing and promotional campaigns with internationally known corporation and networks such as Nike, Lifetime, the CW Network, ABC Family and several NBC television shows.
During this time, she also developed two fully staffed professional book review websites (Radiant Lit and Fiction Addict) and earned her the coveted title of influencer in both the faith and mainstream publishing markets. Bestselling authors including Ted Dekker, Nora Roberts and Sophie Kinsella have all sought out Lori’s reviews, endorsements, and promotions for their books.
In 2014, Lori created, developed, and wrote the screenplay for an original feature, A Horse Tale. Picked up and distributed by Lion’s Gate Entertainment, A Horse Tale is a family-friendly favorite that has received hundreds of positive reviews, a Dove Foundation Seal of Approval, and also been featured on Starz, Amazon, Vudu, and other major streaming platforms.
Shortly after production wrapped on A Horse Tale, Lori’s life took a different turn as she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that required major surgery to remove a large portion of her tongue. Over the course of a few weeks throughout that summer, she underwent 13 surgeries, chemotherapy, and intense radiation treatments. Consequently, Lori didn’t speak or eat for nearly a year. In fact doctors weren’t sure if she would ever speak again and they were certain that if she did, she would likely have a strong speech impediment. It wasn’t until after she had worked her way back to speaking without any issues that her doctor finally told Lori that this had been her prognosis.
After over a year of surgeries, treatment, and rehabilitation, Lori’s first job was working group ticket sales for the #1 box office feature film, War Room. All of her work, even her hiring, was done by phone and no one realized that only months before, she wasn’t able to speak a word. At this job, she spent ten to twelve hours a day on the phone organizing and managing group ticket sales. Since then, Lori has managed group ticket sales and promotions for dozens of theatrical releases.
In her spare time, has dedicated her life to advocating for military members and their families. Her volunteer work and passionate voice for military families has led to her being featured in the likes of TV Guide, USA Today, and Military.com. It has also allowed Lori to develop working relationships with the likes of the Jim Henson Company, SyFy Channel, NBC, Microsoft, and SXSW, as well as numerous films and television programs. In this capacity, Lori does everything from managing donations of products and television programs to arranging celebrity visits to hospitalized troops and their family members. It also led to Lori helping to create and develop the first original television program for the INSP network: Brush of Honor, a program showcasing the lives of Gold Star Families after their loss.
In 2019, Lori moved from marketing and publicity into the theatrical distribution realm, managing several national theatrical releases. Though Covid changed the way films are released on a theatrical level, Lori continues to use her experience and skills to put small, independent features in the spotlight. One film that she worked on with first time filmmakers and no recognizable names ended up holding over for five weeks across an independent theater chain in south Texas. The success of this has been directly connected to Lori’s involvement with the film including creating special events, promotions, and unique audience engagement opportunities.
Lori continues to approach the entertainment industry with engaging and exciting opportunities to level up the quality of content, experiences and ROI for both filmmakers and audiences alike. Far from the dire conclusions of her doctors, she also travels the country teaching and mentoring young filmmakers in screenwriting, marketing, publicity, and encouraging groups with her cancer testimony.