The Original Farmers Market
Ilysha Buss is The Director of Marketing for the A.F. Gilmore Company, longtime owners and operators of The Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles. She has been with the company since 2006 and is in charge of the Farmers Market’s marketing and tourism initiatives, including advertising, promotions, special events, public relations, social media and community outreach.
Ilysha oversaw the development and implementation of the Farmers Market’s acclaimed 75th Anniversary campaign which was recognized with the California Travel and Tourism Commission’s 2010 Award of Excellence.
The Company’s licensing and branding activities are also part of Ilysha’s responsibilities. This includes oversight of the Company’s licensed retail operation, Farmers Market at LAX, located in Terminal 5. Working closely with operator Delaware North, Ilysha and her team brought the Farmers Market’s first outpost outside of Third and Fairfax to travelers at LAX in 2014 and it remains one of terminal’s busiest operations today. She is also responsible for licensing activities on behalf of the Company’s historic Gilmore Oil petrolania brand.
Prior to joining the A.F. Gilmore Company, Ilysha was with Porter Novelli, a worldwide Omnicom public relations firms, for six years. She served as an account supervisor in the Los Angeles office’s youth marketing and consumer divisions. She was responsible for managing public relations and brand building campaigns on behalf of the Muppets Holding Company LLC (a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company), The Jim Henson Company and MGM Consumer Products. During her tenure at Porter Novelli she conceived and implemented the multi-award winning public relations campaign developed in celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Muppet Show.
Ilysha earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism.
She has also been an active member of the Travel Tourism Marketing Association since 2006 and is a past president. She is the proud mom of an energetic nine-year-old son, Demetri, and is married to professional comedy magician, Eric Buss. Hobbies include running, reading and, of course, traveling