Great stories. Sustainably told.

At Media BBQ, we help publishers, businesses, arts organizations and creative professionals think about and improve their audience engagement. We draw on a combined fifty years of experience in journalism, publishing, photography, graphic and web design, brand marketing, product development, social media and general management and strategy. We can and do build digital presences more or less from scratch, but just as often, people ask us to help rebuild or rethink an established experience and set of messages. At the heart of all our work is a fundamental belief that any successful business has a lot of great stories to tell. If you tell those well, with great pictures, vivid words, and a clear presentation, and make them available in all the ways that your own set of clients and customers might want to discover and share them — well, then the rest of your job gets at least a little easier.

FAVORITE STORIES

A SPARKLING CELEBRITY SHOWCASE

In 2015, Roger Thomas, the design genius behind the success of Wynn Resorts, asked Media BBQ to help him step out from behind the curtain. A mobile-friendly website weaves together the story of his career with the products he continues to create for nearly 20 manufacturers. Sustainable? Armed with only his iPhone, Roger continues to post to his blog as he travels, updating a steadily growing audience on fresh discoveries and insights.

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A NEW BUSINESS DESIGN

Working with the founding partners of a new design-licensing agency, Media BBQ crafted a new visual and brand identity and then its first website. We continue to work closely with the agency leadership, shaping their positioning in the design business as a new force for helping designers open lasting new growth areas. Bright colors and artful typography showcase colorful, engaging photography of designers and their work.

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A HOUSE, A HOME, A STORY

Gary McNatton and Monelle Totah, the founders of San Francisco-based retailer Hudson Grace, turned to Media BBQ as they got going to polish their web and social-media presence. We worked with them to highlight their unique take on entertaining and design, fashioning suitably stylish messaging and boosting their reach on Facebook and Pinterest. They’ve gone on to continuing success, culminating in a 2019 acquisition by Crate and Barrel.

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RECRUITING READERSHIP

Todd Oppenheimer, two weeks from launching his new online magazine in 2015, had a website getting populated with a pile of engrossing stories and photography, but zero audience. Media BBQ quickly staked out social turf, devised search-friendly treatment for the product, and created a newsletter platform and list-building strategy. More than 130,000 readers discovered the magazine’s first two issues, setting the stage for The Craftsmanship Initiative to thrive and expand its ambitions.

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CULTIVATING A COMMUNITY

Driver’s Market in Sausalito features locally-sourced, small-batch, fresh foods, and is committed to building a community of like-minded producers and consumers. Media BBQ designed a website and a newsletter program to promote new launches, special offers and in-store events. Newsletters focus on local farmers and Bay Area food entrepreneurs, as well as Driver’s own dedicated team, and restock the site with fresh content each month. The program has become a cornerstone of its community connections.

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ROOMS FULL OF STORIES

Artists Mark Evans and Charley Brown co-founded Evans & Brown in the 1980s, creating custom murals for hotels, restaurants and other public and private settings around the world. Their work became the basis of a durable interior-furnishings licensing business. We produced a new website to relay their unique story and showcase their talents (as well as their wallcovering products) for a new generation of mobile-addicted, screen-swiping, visually oriented consumers.

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CO-FOUNDERS

Content and Strategy

John Marcom began his career with The Wall Street Journal. After ten years of reporting about the business world, he crossed to the business side of media and joined Time Inc., eventually leading its publishing operations in Asia. From 2003-2007 he led Yahoo’s international growth. From 2009 to 2012 he was President of the U.S. unit of Future Plc., a London-based publisher of special-interest content. He rejoined Time Inc. International from 2015 to 2018. He holds a B.A. in economics from Princeton and an M.B.A. from INSEAD. See full bio on LinkedIn.

Design and Technology

Arif Hasyim is a skilled graphic designer and photographer with extensive experience in marketing and sales in fashion and interior-design firms in Viet Nam and Thailand. A graduate of the University of Indonesia, he completed a dual degree in sustainable business and public administration from San Francisco’s Presidio Graduate School in 2014. After careful consideration of client attitudes and goals, he crafts the look and feel of websites and other communications tools, adapting visual assets for maximum appeal and clarity. See full bio on LinkedIn.

“Media BBQ did for me technically and editorially what I cannot do for myself and made my own image and voice sound and look better and stronger. They then made them fool proof and easy to navigate on the digital page.” –Roger Thomas

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