I’ve been called “a publicist’s publicist”
Julie Ann Kodmur offers PR and marketing consulting advice from her home base in St. Helena in the Napa Valley. A wine industry veteran who has worked in New York as well as northern California, her work has won awards ranging from Best PR Agency to a Guinness world record for a client. She welcomes inquiries.
She has two basic mantras: 1) how fast can you return the journalist’s call and 2) there’s an idea (i.e. a solution) just around the corner.
Find her online at: http://julieannkodmur.com/ http://www.wineprtuneup.com
After graduating from Stanford with a degree in art history, she lived in New York City for ten years initially pursuing master’s degree art history course work. During that time she directed Sotheby Parke Bernet’s first U.S. wine auction and worked for Frederick Wildman & Sons and Renfield in public relations and marketing positions. Seagram Classics moved her to northern California in 1988; she spent a decade as Director of Public Relations for the company, with responsibility for a large portfolio of American and European wines.
She has won awards for publicity and marketing campaigns she created and executed. In March 2016 she was named Best Public Relations Agency by a wine industry poll conducted by Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine. In 1988 she got a client into The Guinness Book of World Records (the largest wind sock in the shape of a wine bottle); in 1994 she won an award for a cause marketing program for Sterling Vineyards; in 1988 she won an award for a flower-themed program. She has launched a number of new brands—both ultra-premium and wide-distribution—as well as pursued initiatives for organizations including Zinfandel Advocates & Producers. She launched MerlotFightsBack.com, TaintFreeCorks.com and NapaValleyValentine.com. She directed publicity for Bonny Doon Winery’s Death of The Cork campaign.
Since 1995 she has also written articles for a wide range of outlets—The New York Times, Town & Country, The Wine Enthusiast, The Wine News, Quarterly Review of Wine, American Journalism Review, Editor & Publisher, Stanford Magazine and Appellation. She served as editor for The Napa Valley Wine Library Report for five years. She served as a judge for The American Wine Blog Awards in 2009 and 2013. She occasionally teaches public relations and journalism classes at Pacific Union College. She has been a panelist on publicity and marketing topics at numerous wine industry seminars and symposia. In 1997, she founded her one-man consultancy offering marketing and publicity consulting services.
Wineries Versus the Virus 