Events
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] Whether it’s thought leadership, a launch, brand awareness, gathering strategic partners and investors together or VIP networking, we can create an event or help you leverage an existing one.

“On-the-ground” is where the best connections are made, so we work closely to ensure you have the best executives armed with the right messages, tools and protocols at these events. We work the room, make the introductions and help you develop relationships that last a lifetime.

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Thought Leadership
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] People have always thought of marketing and advertising as a one-way push of a controlled corporate message to the masses.

Branding done through push alone, whether it’s a product or an executive, is not thought leadership – it’s a way to invoke emotion and connection using strategically crafted words, phrases, images and video.

Thought leadership grows as a result of strategic activities over time – from speaking panels, roundtables and keynotes to educational seminars and contests. It involves how and where you put yourself ‘out there,’ whether it’s a contributed article on a site millions read, in a more formal environment, such as on stage with Al Gore or Bill Gates, or informally through blog comments, Digg, flickr and Facebook.

If you combine community engagement with a campaign that positions you as a thought leader in your space, you will do more than garner respect. Customers and influencers will come back to hear what you have to say and want to know what you’re doing again and again.

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Social Media: Community Matters
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] The phrase social media is overused and has evolved into encompassing nearly every online conversation. While the term may be overused and overhyped, its impact is explosive.

We are forced into a myriad of widgets, tools, blogs, podcasts and social networks. What you craft, where you start and whether you go broad and big or narrow and refined depends on your objectives.

Some companies have targeted customers who come to them for one core interest or need, i.e., tennis, air conditioning, whereas others target all of us, i.e., HP, Home Depot, Kraft.

The openness of the Internet has changed everything – who we talk to and where, who influences who and on what platform, where we view our news, and what influences our buying decisions.

We combine the power of communities, social networks, blogs, Twitter and more with smart communications strategies to create buzz, gain credibility and drive sales. Community matters more than ever. Be innovative, be present, be engaging and be real.

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Story Development
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] One product or division is doing extremely well, while another is flailing. This may mean a need for reorganization, re-focusing and narrowing down your offerings or it may be that one pitch is right and the other misses the mark.

What problem are you trying to solve? What are your customers and partners saying? What would you like your customers to say? Do you solve a problem that no one knows about or worse, understands? Or, do you already know what your Magic Sauce is, yet are having a hard time telling the story?

On top of it all, with the wide array of media at our fingertips, you now need to tell that story a hundred different ways…….visually through video, in a conversation on an airplane or golf course, on your website and blog, in 140 characters or less, through a summarized news feed, on a Facebook fan page, in a comment thread, at a trade show, on a speaking panel, through a contest or a developer forum. Enuf already….where to start?

Remember, perception is reality. We work with you to craft the right story for the right audience, using the right medium and we do it in a way that will resonate with your customers and influencers again and again.

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Market Positioning
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] An intimate understanding of your business objectives is critical to a successful and effective marketing and communications plan. Before we can help you get to where you want to be, we need to determine where the world thinks you already are.

First, we dive into your business goals, then we take a look at where you sit alongside your competitors. Maybe your influencers are putting you in a category that doesn’t make sense for you strategically or perhaps they simply don’t understand what you do best.

Perhaps your product is simply too complicated and trying to convey too many features or perhaps you’re targeting too many audiences. Taking a deep look often unveils new and untapped market opportunities you may not have even considered.

We work with you to develop strategies that integrate with and meet your business objectives. It’s a building block approach – once we have defined who you are today and where you want to be, we can effectively position you to get you to the next level.

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Emerging Media & Blogs
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] Many say that traditional media is dead. Depending where you live in the world, you may have a stronger opinion on this topic one way or another. One thing is certain – media influencers are emerging, converging and melding.

While regional newspapers are folding and print as a medium is declining, some of our favorite A-list personalities and outlets are migrating to the online world. Other individual brands are coming out of nowhere and making a play for A list positions through whatever purple cow identity they think will stick and can sustain a following.

The tools that have enabled ‘anyone can be an author or content creator’ opportunity, have also resulted in a cluttered and fragmented view of the online world. Most of us suffer from information overload on a regular basis and consumers and businesses alike are craving filters to help them make sense of it all.

There’s so much noise in the blogosphere and tweetosphere that it’s tough to identify what’s unique and who’s real. We research, read, sift, and help you make sense of the key players and the emerging ones.

You can create as much hype as you want, but unless you have a congruent voice, connect with influencers in a way that is memorable and know how to share your Magic Sauce in a way that continuously engages, your message falls on deaf ears. One hit wonders don’t create sustainable businesses.

It’s essential to have a team who is not only ‘plugged-in,’ but knows how to effectively navigate their way through both old and new media. Our campaigns help you connect, educate, engage, inspire and develop relationships that have lasting power, the kind that can have a positive impact on your business and your brand.

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Vision & Brand Alignment
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] A few things we’ve observed over the years is how often an executive doesn’t tap into the power of their unique voice and how often they’re not in alignment with their products, services and corporate vision.

Alignment with your vision is powerful. If you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs on stage, you’ll understand the power of alignment and the impact it can have on your business in the short and long term.

Can you be a visionary without having a vision? Can you have vision without being a visionary? If you have one, is it in alignment with the actions you and your team take regularly? What drove your decisions when you started and what drives your behavior today? Does your company make decisions that feed that vision? Think about it.

We don’t come in with magic wands and create a corporate vision with the wave of a hand, However, we do help you identify what that vision is or craft a new one if the old one is dead, tired or simply not working for you anymore.

Live it, breathe it, feel it, be it – make it your journey just as visionaries like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson have done with Apple and Virgin. Large or small, the same principles apply. People ‘feel’ whether your story is real. They can ‘feel’ whether you’re passionate about your story and they can ‘feel’ whether you’re in alignment – or not.

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Strategy & Brand Analysis
[column width=”13%” padding=”0%”]  [/column] [column width=”57%” padding=”0%”] Having the right strategy in place is half the journey in crossing the magical chasm. Timing, having a great product or service and a compelling message that resonates with your audience are part of that strategy, as is building a community if one doesn’t organically emerge on its own.

Remember, people need to find you before they fall in love with your offering and developing an effective strategy for how you roll things out in the market is key to your success.

Assessing where your brand currently is or where you want it to be is a pre-requisite to understanding what market direction to take and when.

Whether you sell a product, service, an idea or hope, getting an analysis of where you are today and want to be tomorrow is an integral part of the process. We look for the holes, assess your weaknesses, strengths, threats, opportunities and current market perception. Then, we identify what works and what doesn’t and more importantly, why.

We also help you identify what business you’re really in. Is Starbucks in the coffee business or is in the business of building communities and meetings around coffee and scones? Is Zappos in the shoe and retail business or is its core providing a lasting memorable customer experience that brings people back time and time again?

Is Virgin in the airline business or is it in the relaxation, decadence and entertainment business while you move from point A to point B? You get the point.

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About Us |  Philosophy

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“Those Who Can See the Invisible, Can Do the Impossible”

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Renee Blodgett
Renee offers a very personalized approach of working with clients, their customers and the influencers that impact them. She ran Blodgett Communications for close to a decade, before founding Magic Sauce Media^TM in 2010. Renee takes a global approach, which comes from living in ten countries and visiting nearly 70, giving her a unique understanding of how cultural nuances impact brand and corporate perception. She has launched companies, services and products from around the world, including South Africa, Australia, Holland, Scotland, India, England, Belgium, Germany, Israel, and France.

Her market approach focuses on driving demand and traffic, creating brand awareness and cutting-edge strategies, building and nurturing customer relationships, increasing partnerships and sales and building loyalty. She understands grassroots media, what they look for and how they think. As one of the first marketing and PR bloggers in the industry, she represented and worked with leading blog software developers and RSS tools when they first launched in the nineties.

Renee blogs at Down the Avenue, which combines technology, culture and life’s passions under one roof. Her blog was voted the top blog in a month long contest, up against some of the top blogs and agencies in the world, many of which represent Fortune 500 companies.

She is the founder of We Blog the World, a global blog network dedicated to stories, voices, and content about society, business, technology and culture from around the world.

Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, whose mission is to collaborate with global technology innovators and influencers in various countries, cross pollinate ideas and mentor organizations and individuals, and then share that knowledge through blogging, video, podcasts, social media tools and meet-ups.

Previously, she headed up worldwide corporate communications for leading speech recognition player Dragon Systems, through to the acquisition to Lernout & Hauspie, now Nuance. Blodgett’s agency experience is extensive with posts at Brodeur Worldwide, London-based Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and Saatchi & Saatchi Direct, Porter Novelli, Cone, and Cudaback Strategic Communications.

Renee has held advisory board positions on b5 Media, a global new media network, Cozmo Media, which taps into community to put video content in front of the right audience, Toktumi, a virtual home office VoIP phone solution, BlogHer, the first conference and group blog dedicated to women bloggers, which now has nearly 20,000 blogs in its global network, Radus, a dynamic media rich social network and content aggregator and PopTech, an innovation conference whose goal is to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people and ideas. She was also the co-curator of TEDxBerkeley, an independently produced TED event.

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“We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.” Alexis de Tocqueville

[/column] [column width=”66%” padding=”0″] Ann Revell-Pechar
Ann has worked in marketing, communications, advertising and PR for over 25 years – both in-house and at agencies, which has given her a perspective that allows for great understanding of client needs and how to deliver outstanding service. While she’s worked with many large corporations and small companies of significant standing, she is uniquely geared to the entrepreneur. Her experience managing teams for over two decades has given her a perspective that allows for great understanding of client and employee needs.

Ann spent 18 years in Seattle, where she co-founded Reed, Revell-Pechar Advertising and PR, and spent two years in Baltimore, both with Trahan Burden and Charles as VP Public Relations and as RP Inc. to work for New Enterprise Associates.

Over her career, she has launched and managed 60 companies and hundreds of products, from Aventail to F5, from NetNanny, Teleo (sold to Microsoft), MetaInfo and Real Networks (now RealAudio), to more established firms such as New Enterprise Associates and Ziff Davis Publishing.

Her sweet spot is in all things Internet and consumer technology, but has extensive experience in consumer, healthcare, biotechnology and life sciences, security, storage and enterprise technologies.

Ann has also taught technical and professional communications at Rochester Institute of Technology, and has also taught at Villa Julie College in Maryland. She is Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta, where she strives to make Georgia ripe for technology entrepreneurship. She has also served on numerous non-profit and business advisory boards in Seattle, Baltimore, and Atlanta.

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“My business is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Mother Mary Jones, Social Activist

[/column] [column width=”66%” padding=”0″] Brad Kava
Brad brings a wealth of broadcast and news journalism experience to Magic Sauce Media clients, with over 26 years of experience in journalism, media and communications.

He was a print news reporter and syndicated media critic for the San Jose Mercury News and has had numerous works published in the New York Times, Kansas City Star, Rolling Stone magazine and others.

Brad has had front page stories about everything ranging from satellite radio, digital music rights and terrorist bombings to features on well renown authors and profiles on technology luminaries and CEOs. He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has done writing projects for the Los Angeles blues and rock record label, Delta Groove.

He has been a guest on “Nightline,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and Howard Stern’s radio show, and is a regular media commentator for KCBS Radio, KGO radio and Fox TV affiliate KTVU in Oakland. His published interviews translated around the world have included musicians such as Keith Richards, James Cotton, Paul McCartney, Snoop Dogg, and U2.

Brad has won several awards for his writing, including second place for the Best Bay Area Columnist and Best Feature Story, and honorable mention for the Best Serious Feature Story. He was also part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Loma Preita earthquake.

He is also an avid blogger, so has a keen understanding of the social media space, which is instrumental and integral to our overall branding, marketing and communications efforts.

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“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

[/column] [column width=”66%” padding=”0″]Erica Zeidenberg
Erica is a media maven. She has been a marketing and public relations professional for over twenty years, working in both the consumer and high technology arenas. In 2001, she founded Hot Tomato Marketing, a public relations and marketing communications consulting firm, where she provided full service communications to a broad range of clients — from high tech to small- and mid-size consumer businesses.

Clients have included technology start-ups, a national educational foundation, search engine marketing, credit unions, the Chamber of Commerce, investment management and financial services firms and other professional service providers.

Because of working with such a diverse range of clients, she has developed relationships at the local level (San Francisco print, online and broadcast media), the vertical market level (Health Magazine, Discovery Channel), and the national level (CNN).

Prior to starting her own firm, Erica worked on the corporate side in marketing communications at Sun Microsystems and as a marketing director at a telecommunications technology company. She has also worked in several account capacities at large, San Francisco public relations agencies specializing in technology clients, including Sun Microsystems.

Erica also worked for several years in national public television programs. She started her career in public relations at a handful of small boutique agencies in the San Francisco/Bay area. [/column]

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About Us |  Philosophy

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Renee Blodgett
As CEO and Founder of Magic Sauce Media^TM, Renee offers a very personalized approach of working her clients, their customers and the influencers that impact them. She has been providing full service strategic communications, social media and marketing consulting for global companies and executives for over 25 years. By combining her international experience with top-notch relationships and a diverse portfolio in nearly every technology sector, Renee has proven results time and time again.

She ran Blodgett Communications for close to a decade, before launching Magic Sauce Media in 2010. Her global approach comes from living in ten countries and visiting more than 75, giving her a unique understanding of how cultural nuances impact brand and corporate perception. She has launched companies, services and products from around the world, including South Africa, Australia, Holland, Scotland, India, England, Belgium, Germany, Israel, and France.

Her market approach focuses on driving demand and traffic, creating brand awareness and cutting-edge strategies, building and nurturing customer relationships, increasing partnerships and sales and building loyalty. She understands grassroots media, what they look for and how they think. As one of the first marketing and PR bloggers in the industry, she represented and worked with leading blog software developers and RSS tools when they first launched in the nineties. She was ranked #12 out of #50 in the Forbes Top Social Media Power Influencer List in 2012 and in 2013, she was listed as #6 out of 20 in the Forbes Top Social Media Women Power Influencers.

Renee’s personal blog is Down the Avenue, which combines technology, culture and life’s passions under one roof. Her blog is listed on the AdAge Power 100 list which is a ranking of marketing blogs and was voted the top blog in a month long contest by PR Week, up against some of the top blogs and agencies in the world, many of which represent Fortune 500 companies. She also blogs about culture, lifestyle, media, travel and food & wine on the Huffington Post, the BlogHer network and We Blog the World, which she founded in 2008.

We Blog the World is an online travel and culture magazine of unique independent voices, all of which share cultural stories, travel events, anecdotes about food & wine, music, society and technology from around the world.

Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, whose mission is to collaborate with global technology innovators and influencers in various countries, cross pollinate ideas and mentor organizations and individuals, and then share that knowledge through blogging, video, podcasts, social media tools and meet-ups.

Previously, she headed up worldwide corporate communications for leading speech recognition player Dragon Systems, through to the acquisition to Lernout & Hauspie, now Nuance. Blodgett’s agency experience is extensive with posts at Brodeur Worldwide, London-based Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and Saatchi & Saatchi Direct, Porter Novelli, Cone, and Cudaback Strategic Communications.

Renee has held advisory board positions at b5 Media, a global new media network, Cozmo Media, which taps into community to put video content in front of the right audience, Toktumi, a virtual home office VoIP phone solution, BlogHer, the first conference and group blog dedicated to women bloggers, which now has nearly 20,000 blogs in its global network, Radus, a dynamic media rich social network and content aggregator and PopTech, an innovation conference whose goal is to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people and ideas.

She is an avid photographer and you can learn more about her work at Magic Sauce Photography, a natural extension of Magic Sauce Media. Renee has been a curator of TEDxBerkeley for four years, an annual TEDx event held at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall each spring.

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