OCEAN CITY — Promoting everything from music to muscle cars, Live Wire Media has hit the ground running since its official launch last fall and the intention is to make the event coordination and media company a force on the East Coast.
The seeds for Live Wire Media were sown almost two decades ago when CEO Brad “B-Rad” Hoffman’s original company B-Rad Productions began promoting apparel trade shows. In time, it evolved into Spark Media before finally becoming Live Wire Media.
“I came up with the idea of Live Wire Media and said what we’re going to do is be a company that does social media, which is on the forefront of marketing now a days,” said Hoffman. “It’s just as embedded in marketing as TV, radio or print. We are going to do event productions. We are going to do car shows and motorsports events and look at other opportunities to do other big events.”
Already Live Wire Media, which is based in West Ocean City off Route 611, has some high-profile events under its belt. It has been involved with the OC Car Show, the Dew Tour, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the Virginia Hot Rod and Custom Car Show and the Southern Fried Music Festival and Barbeque, among many others. The agency is primarily responsible for organization, management and promotion of events, including the upcoming 5th Annual Ocean City Jeep Week.
That event kicks off with a welcome back party Aug. 21 at Seacrets and will be bringing hundreds of Jeep owners to the shore for parties, beach crawls, Jeep jams and more. It’s a perfect example of the work that Live Wire Media does to promote a variety of diverse activities and showcases in the area, according to Hoffman.
“If you look at the demographic swath that we hit, we hit everybody from little kids who come to the Dew Tour and want to see extreme sports to older people who are sitting next to their hotrods because they’ve owned it since 1958. It was their first car and they still sit next to this car at the car show,” Hoffman said.
While many of the events that Live Wire Media currently organize track back to Hoffman’s former affiliations, he believes that Live Wire Media is well on its way to defining its own identity as a promotional agency that takes a jack-of-all-trades approach to marketing. It’s not enough to just have an eye for organization anymore, he said, as an across the board approach including social media, traditional advertising and creativity is necessary.
Luckily, Hoffman believes that Live Wire Media has all of that due to the diversity and talents of the staff. Social Media Coordinator Ali Virden agreed, saying her position includes media relations, traditional and social media promotion.
“I think one of the most unique things about the company is that we all have our different roles but at the same time we all can overlap and we work together really well,” she said.
Jason Rogewitz, an event production specialist, added that every day and every event bring new challenges that need a collaborative approach.
COO Todd Burbage especially has been a big part in the evolution of Live Wire Media as Burbage is an entrepreneur and the young media agency was a way to tie in event promotion with the marketing Burbage needed for his other ventures.
“So by forming Live Wire we are also a PR firm and a marketing firm for some of the other companies Todd has,” said Hoffman.
But Hoffman sees Live Wire Media as more than just marketing or promotion. It’s a “silver bullet” agency that wants to play a role in developing events and attractions along the East Coast. Concerts, car shows, sports and charity events all form an umbrella that Hoffman hopes to grow over the next few years through public and private partnerships.
“I want to own what is the premier motorsports production company on the East Coast,” said Hoffman. “That’s our plan, to grow this to, if you think of the East Coast you think of Live Wire when it comes to motorsports events if you’re a corporate client or someone that comes to car shows, hotrod shows, exotic tuner shows.”
Hoffman is banking on the strength of his team to put Live Wire on the map and he made sure to recognize the rest of his crew including Rafael Correa, CFO; Daina Behe, marketing; Natasha Cole, event production specialist; Brian Riley, vendor relations; Brian Barney, OC Car Show manager; Amy Burbage, entertainment coordinator; Vaughn Melson, tech specialist; and consultants David Bafford and Brian Stoehr.
For more information on Live Wire Media including upcoming events like Jeep Week, starting Aug. 21 in Ocean City, or the Virginia Hot Rod and Custom Car Show starting Aug. 23 in Hampton, Va., visit www.live-wire-media.com or like it on Facebook.