Balzac Communications – Inspired Marketing Communications. Helping organizations grow successfully with a fresh approach to marketing and public relations strategy.
With Black History Month upon us, we wanted to reflect on one of our core values: focus on diversity, inclusivity, and equity. The wine business has been in crisis-mode for several years, centered around its lack of diversity and inclusion. It’s always been there. It was just ignored or discounted by most executives. The pressure…
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are those that have a deep understanding of a particular field, job, process, material, or any other specific area. This expertise comes from years (If not decades) working with the subject matter at hand. Likely, the individual has advanced degrees pertaining to their subject while also engaging in continuous education to…
Contemporary marketing involves running and monitoring different processes to attain the desired results. This can make it quite difficult for businesses to grow sustainably if they lack the right tools for collaboration, communication, customer service, and marketing. Today, over 75 percent of marketers use at least one type of marketing tool to optimize their campaigns.…
Keeping your audience informed about your products, services, or brand is essential to stay relevant within the wines and spirits industry. Today, companies are spending about 10.5 percent of their revenue on marketing activities, such as SEO, videos, blogging, PPC ads, and more. While these strategies effectively generate the desired results, many brands do not…
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.
With over a decade of experience in most all facets of marketing and public relations, Emma provides a well-rounded and trusted view to her clients. With a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism, she is also able to see the perspective of media in a way that not many can. An intuitive problem solver, Emma is always able to figure out a solution and a path forward, whether that is through doing it on her own, or finding the perfect expert to get the job done. As a words person, and a detailed planner, Emma is a perfect foil to Mike’s love of ambiguity and visuals. Together, they are a powerhouse team.
Emma’s professional life has always been wine-centric. She initially became enamored with learning about wine in grad school, and found a path to marry her love of communication with her newfound passion by finding a path into the wine industry. Since then she’s done everything from create buzz around little known spirits to igniting fresh excitement around centuries old Champagne houses.
Through it all, though, she is consistently seeking balance. Whether that’s making sure to drink water in flight, incorporating a post travel hotel yoga session into her day, or sneaking off from a late night at TEXSOM, Emma’s wellbeing is most important to her. Luckily, physical and mental health are pillars of Balzac, and she’s found a great home.
She works this hard, so that her cat can have a better life.
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