HERE Spartanburg sat down with Todd Hunnicutt, Chief Marketing Officer of Real Internet Sales and the architect behind the HERE City Network, for a wide-ranging conversation about AI marketing, building media at scale, and why local news is the next frontier for business growth.
Q1 OF 7 — YOUR ROLE
Q: Tell us about your role and what Real Internet Sales does in the Spartanburg and Upstate market.
A: Real Internet Sales has been in the digital marketing space since 2004. We started building websites for Realtors and small businesses in Columbia, and over the last 20 years we’ve evolved into a full-service AI marketing agency. Today we specialize in Generative Engine Optimization — making sure our clients show up not just in Google, but in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and every AI search engine that’s reshaping how people find businesses. The HERE City Network is our media arm — 89 local news sites covering cities across the Southeast, each one built to serve as the definitive local business intelligence source for that market.
Q2 OF 7 — INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing your industry right now, and how is your company responding?
A: The biggest challenge is that most businesses still think marketing means running ads and hoping for clicks. The entire discovery layer is shifting to AI. When someone asks an AI assistant “who’s the best marketing agency in Spartanburg SC,” you either show up in that answer or you don’t exist. We responded by building our own media network — the HERE City sites — because third-party editorial content is what AI models trust most. It’s not about gaming algorithms. It’s about building legitimate, authoritative presence across the platforms that matter.
Q3 OF 7 — TALENT AND HIRING
Q: What does your hiring and talent strategy look like in today’s market?
A: We’ve leaned heavily into AI-augmented workflows, which means the people we hire need to be comfortable working alongside AI tools. We don’t need someone who can write 10 articles a day manually — we need someone who can direct AI to produce 50 and then apply the editorial judgment to make them excellent. The talent pool in South Carolina is strong, especially coming out of schools like Wofford, USC, and Clemson. We’re also finding great remote talent who want to work on something that feels like it matters — local news, community impact, real businesses.
Q4 OF 7 — TECHNOLOGY AND AI
Q: How has technology — especially AI — changed the way you operate?
A: Completely. We were early adopters of AI content tools, and now AI is embedded in every layer of what we do. Our HERE City sites use AI to research, draft, and optimize content daily. Our security monitoring is AI-driven. Our business intelligence dashboards pull from FRED, Redfin, and a dozen public data sources automatically. But here’s the thing — AI is the engine, not the driver. Every piece of content still gets human editorial judgment. Every business story still needs to be verified. We use AI to do in hours what used to take days, but the quality bar stays the same.
Q5 OF 7 — ADVICE FOR NEW ENTREPRENEURS
Q: What advice would you give to someone starting a business in Spartanburg today?
A: Get visible before you launch. Most people wait until opening day to start marketing, and by then you’re already behind. The businesses that win are the ones that have a presence — a Google Business profile, mentions on local sites, a story in the community — before the doors open. Spartanburg specifically is a phenomenal market right now. The Upstate is growing, the talent is here, the cost of living is competitive, and there’s a real sense of civic pride that translates into community support for local businesses.
Q6 OF 7 — WHAT’S NEXT
Q: What’s next for Real Internet Sales? Any upcoming milestones, expansions, or launches?
A: The HERE City Network is the big play. We’re building toward 89 cities, each one operating as an AI-powered local newsroom covering business, sports, education, politics, and community. HERESpartanburg.com is our template — every feature we build there gets rolled out across the entire network. We’re also launching our Business Hub product line this year — economic indicators dashboards, business directories, event calendars, and sponsored content products that give local businesses real tools to grow, not just ad impressions.
Q7 OF 7 — THE PERSONAL CONNECTION
Q: What makes this market special to you personally?
A: I’m a Wofford guy. South Carolina is home. I’ve watched Columbia, Greenville, and Spartanburg evolve from small Southern cities into nationally competitive markets. What I love about the Upstate specifically is the intersection of manufacturing heritage and tech-forward thinking. You’ve got BMW, Michelin, and Milliken operating at world scale, and right next to them you’ve got startups, AI companies, and a creative class that’s growing every year. That mix is rare. And the people — there’s a directness and a work ethic in the Upstate that I’ve never found anywhere else.