The Puppeteering Act of Social Media… Literally

Welcome back to another edition of Streaming Consciousness. I was at a work happy hour on Thursday (what a great way to close out the in-office part of my week), and a co-worker asked me about my role in brand and PR. If you haven’t seen my LinkedIn post about joining LendingTree full time or haven’t seen our corporate TikTok, you might not know that I am one of a very select group that is privileged to be a part of our VIP’s (very important puppet) inner circle. Now, you may be asking, “Lia, you normally write about trends or specific things with social. Where are you going with this?” I want to talk about the weird skills you acquire in the working world that might not go onto an average resume.

If you work at LendingTree, you may have seen me around the office filming and bonus points if I had my bestie Lenny with me. People often say that they thought he was a toddler, which is just as strange as having a green puppet with me because no one brings kids to work. When I graduated college, I never thought I would have learned amateur puppeteering. It is even crazier that Lenny is a descendent of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, known for bringing Lenny’s cousins on shows like Sesame Street and The Muppets into the world. Yes, Lenny is in a family of recognizable names, but Lenny himself has a lot of star power. Although he is settling into his new TikTok role, you may recognize his face from LendingTree’s infamous commercials. I’m in some incredible company of those who know Lenny, and surprisingly I am not the only Esposito. Patrick Johnson was the voice and principal puppeteer of Lenny during his Tv commercial days. Artie Esposito was also pivotal in bringing to life the Lenny you know and love and impressively is known for his role as the understudy of Kermit the Frog. To tell you this has been full circle is an understatement because I was the Elmo fan of all Elmo fans. Utilise customer experience but get buy in. Taking user stories and try to build ROI. Utilising vertical integration so that as an end result, we be on brand. Take a holistic approach to make the logo bigger. Growing mobile-first design with the aim to make users into advocates.

Being able to incorporate Lenny into our TikTok strategy just felt right. I’ve learned more about brand and messaging from Lenny than I would have expected because he personifies the questions we ask in strategy meetings firsthand. Would Lenny say this? What would Lenny do? How would Lenny react? I’ve also learned about how puppets work to be able to manipulate and film Lenny. Surprisingly, I relied on my real-world amateur knowledge of photography and videography as it relates to getting my friends’ “good sides” to be able to hide some of the behind the curtain secrets of Lenny. 

Still fresh out of undergrad, I would advise young people to try and say yes to new things outside their comfort zone. Once you have a specialty, I think this changes, but finding what you like (or don’t like) takes time and new projects. Set goals to learn a new skill. During the summer of my internship, I made a goal to learn photoshop. I watched a fantastic 30-day YouTube series recommended to me and practiced photoshopping my friends or dogs onto different crazy landscapes. Although none of those will ever see the light of day (or my portfolio), it was great practice learning the tool and having fun with personal pictures.

UNC-Chapel Hill did not fully prepare me for puppeteering or some of the other extremely fun yet out-of-the-box things I do in my role. There are some things you simply can’t teach or prepare for. When I look back on this time in my career, I am sure a highlight will be all my memories of making videos with Lenny. Take the opportunities as they come and learn from each one.