Balzac Communications – Inspired Marketing Communications. Helping organizations grow successfully with a fresh approach to marketing and public relations strategy.

market segments

building experiences that enhance brands, drive sales, and improve reputation

Balzac serves multiple market segments (verticals). These include luxury beverages, travel, food, agriculture & land, health & wellness, and public policy/government.

services

offering the marketing and public relations services and expertise your business needs

Leveraging nearly 30 years of marketing and public relations experience, we’ve built solutions and strategies that will help you save time, decrease costs, build your brand, and sell your products faster.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Providing a strategic viewpoint to help build successful marketing strategies.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Leveraging relationships to shape a positive image for your brand.

EVENT MANAGEMENT

Planning and executing effective events that make an impact.

ONLINE LEARNING

Teaching you the skills needed to succeed at public relations and marketing.

CREATIVE DESIGN

Generating visual assets that appeal to your key audiences.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Providing a strategic viewpoint to help you build a successful marketing strategy.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Leveraging relationships to shape a positive image for your brand.

EVENT MANAGEMENT

Planning and executing effective events that make an impact.

ONLINE LEARNING

Teaching you the skills needed to succeed at public relations and marketing.

CREATIVE DESIGN

Generating visual assets that appeal to your key audiences.

blog

Wine Industry Sales Symposium

Michael Wangbickler at Wine Industry Sales Symposium

The 2023 Wine Industry Sales Symposium, presented by Wine Industry Network (WIN), proved to be an unparalleled platform for learning, networking, and charting the course towards success in the dynamic world of wine sales to its attendees. The one-day educational conference featured wine industry experts speaking on all aspects of sales and marketing, including 3-Tier…

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Hello Grappa! – A New York Minute

Grappa lovers get an education at Hello Grappa! Days  From June 14 to 16, 2023 in New York City, Balzac administered and managed a series of educational marketing events for the traditional Italian spirit Grappa at Hello Grappa! Days 2023. Grappa is experiencing a resurgence of interest due to its sustainability (it’s made from grape…

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Kvevri - Georgian Wine

Balzac in Georgia – Original Wine Country

Last month (July 2023), agency president Michael Wangbickler was in Tbilisi, Georgia. The purpose of the trip was to conduct a day-long workshop on wine marketing and wine tourism. This was supported by a number of meetings with top officials and winery owners. Throughout the week, both Eter Gorgiladze (our expert in Georgia) and Mike…

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case studies

Over the past several decades, we have worked with organizations large, small, and everything in-between. We are never bored and consider it a badge of honor that we have worked on so many successful marketing and public relations campaigns.
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UNION DES GRANDS CRUS DE BORDEAUX
Conceived, organized, and executed an annual multi-city North American tour to reach between 1,800 and 2,500 key trade and media.
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TEXSOM
Managed social media engagement and content generation for both the conference and competition to increase awareness and build the brand.
Wente Vineyards
WENTE VINEYARDS
Wente Vineyards is one of the fastest growing big brands in the wine biz. We worked with them for several years on various projects.
Japanese Sake
JAPANESE SAKE
Japanese Sake (Nihonshu) continues to gain ground in the U.S.. We worked with MAFF to help promote a series of sake educational events in Napa.
Benovia Winery
BENOVIA

Benovia is a Russian River Valley-based, boutique winery producing premium Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel. Balzac helped them launch the brand.

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MOUTON CADET
Organized a national roadshow which included distributor presentations, key account dinners, and media appointments to relaunch the brand in the U.S.
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NAPA AG PRESERVE
Conceived and conducted a series of marketing activities to educate the public and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the preserve.
Napa County Agricultural Commissioner
COUNTY OF NAPA
For well over a decade, we have worked with the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office for the County of Napa on public awareness campaigns.

leadership

Balzac Communications and Marketing is led by industry veteran Michael Wangbickler, who is an expert at building strategic marketing and public relations strategies.
Michael Wangbickler

Michael Wangbickler

President

Michael Wangbickler is President of Balzac. With nearly 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations, Mike is a trusted advisor and strategic consultant to his clients. While others are frozen when faced with barriers, Mike is energized by it. He relishes analyzing problems for his clients, finding what is wrong, and providing them with innovative solutions. Mike’s strategic mind enables him to sort through the noise and find the best way forward. He embraces ambiguity and can identify paths to real progress.

Before following his heart to wine country, Mike followed his head to Silicon Valley where he spent 8 fast-paced years in technology communications, where he caught the bug for following the latest trends in marketing tech. Armed with a “live to eat” motto and an evident passion for craft food and beverages and the land, Mike entered Balzac’s life in 2004 and became the agency’s President in 2016.

As a studied disciple of Walt Disney, Mike thinks it’s fun to do the impossible. He believes leadership, imagination, and innovation require a certain level of fearlessness and he encourages his team to step off the worn pathways and break new ground. He leads a team who are driven forward by the stories that inspire people to share in a dream. It is with this philosophy that he’s guided successful marketing and communications campaigns for more than 70 global companies and trade associations from a dozen countries.

But he’d trade it all to be a Jedi.

Experience

  • Nearly 30 years managing marketing communications programs
  • Advised and collaborated with 100+ clients
  • Managed hundreds of marketing events including tradeshows, seminars, tours, and parties.
  • Led dozens of educational seminars, webinars, and classes on marketing
  • President of the American Wine Society (2021-2022)
  • Adjunct Instructor at Napa Valley College

Personal Skills

Public Relations
Social Media Marketing
Marketing Strategy
Management Consulting
Event Management
Writing/Editing
Podcasting

Contact Info

Zoom/Teams/Whatsapp:
mwangbickler

Phone number:
+1 707.255.7667

contact us

 
You’ve made it this far down the page, so why stop there? Let’s talk. Whether you are ready to commit now or need some time to consider, we’re happy to run through your various marketing options.

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Call Us

+ 001.707.255.7667

Our Locations

The beautiful Napa Valley (of course) plus satellite offices in Columbus, OH and New York, NY.