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No doubt you have heard the news. Check out what Gaudio & Friends have been up to at Micah’s personal site www.MicahGaudio.com

Micah Featured In 10 Year Anniversary of Laker Magazine

Micah Gaudio

Micah Gaudio’s love of Smith Mountain Lake was cultivated nearly a decade before he published the first issue of the Laker. While attending nearby Liberty University from 1992 to 1995, he often would visit SML to wakeboard on its quiet waters.

After graduating with degrees in advertising/public relations and media production, Gaudio moved to Florida, where he worked for some of the largest advertising agencies in the state as well as GE Healthcare. He married Shannon Owens in the backyard of her parents’ home on the Blackwater in 1998, and the couple soon began toying with the idea of returning to the SML area.

After making the move in May 2001, Gaudio started GO Agency, a full-service advertising agency, and launched the first issue of the Laker later that summer. For the next seven years, he served as the magazine’s publisher, chief photographer, ad salesman, creative director and graphic designer while building an in-house staff and corps of freelance writers and photographers.

In May 2007, Gaudio sold the publication to The Roanoke Times. The company merged operations with the newspaper’s weekly community publication, The Lake (now Laker Weekly), to form Laker Media.

Since then, Gaudio, 36, has been busy ramping up his ad agency and Wake N Skate, a board and apparel shop at Bridgewater Plaza he purchased in 2008. In addition, he was instrumental in the startup of Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy, the non-denominational private school his children – McKenna-Kate, 8, and Cash, 5 – attend. He continues to serve on the school’s board of directors.

As the Laker heads in to its second decade, we thought it appropriate to check in with the man who started it all.

- Andie Gibson, Editor

Q: What factors led to your decision to move to SML and start the magazine?

A: At the time, I was working for the second largest ad agency in Tampa. I felt like I was achieving everything, and it wasn’t enough. There was so much paperwork and red tape. It was so inefficient. But it was really the evolution of desktop publishing and digital photography that allowed us to put out this magazine in a small market. It drove down the hard costs. I saw this technology evolving and knew I could do it at SML.

Q: What was your original vision for the magazine?

A: Originally, I wanted to connect the lake. I was doing research and realized it was very fragmented, so I wanted to bring it all together. It also was going to be a heavily online project. I truly thought in three years we would reduce the print version and it would mostly be online. But people really came to embrace the print version, and it just got bigger and better. And that was my goal, to make each issue better than the last. The bonus is that I got to meet new people and have fun doing it.

Q: Does it surprise you how the magazine has evolved over the past 10 years?

A: I was challenged right off the bat. I remember the very first night we were here, I was talking to some locals at the Dudley Mart, and they were laughing at the prospect of a magazine dedicated to Smith Mountain Lake. I knew it wasn’t going to be an issue to find unique people to meet here. I knew there were always going to be great things to write about. … It’s a brand that has survived when other publications have come and gone. It’s been able to hold course even in the down economy, and that’s because the staff has been able to maintain consistently high quality.

Q: What did you enjoy best about your years as publisher of the Laker?

A: Taking photos and working on covers. I also enjoyed meeting new and interesting people at the lake, any kind of photo shoot on the water, and publisher’s rants!

Q: What have you enjoyed most about life since selling the magazine?

A: Spending more time with my family, helping out the community with the school and exploring other interests I didn’t have the time to do before. I’ve also enjoyed growing the ad agency.

Q: What is your focus now for GO Agency?

A: It’s all about social media, Google, Facebook, building websites that people can manage themselves. And it’s working. Businesses are seeing results. I’m a marketer at heart, so whenever there are results, I’m happy.

Q: After selling the magazine, you poured a lot of effort into getting SML Christian Academy up and running. How has that experience been?

A: That’s probably been the biggest challenge of my life, keeping that going. But it was needed at the lake. I saw so many great young families leaving the lake because of the proximity of the upper-grade schools [in Rocky Mount] and the fact that there was no Christian-based alternative. In addition to expanded healthcare, I think the school was the thing most needed to balance out this community.

Q: You also indulged your passion – wakeboarding – by purchasing Wake N Skate. Is operating a retail shop all you imagined it to be?

A: I’ve been on all sides of business except retail, so it’s been great getting that experience. I’ve been able to apply what I’ve learned to [GO Agency] clients so that has been positive. And it’s kept me plugged into the lake.

Q: How has the business climate at the lake changed in the past 10 years?

A: In the beginning, there was a good-old-boy network. People were hesitant to do business with you if you weren’t born and raised here. Some didn’t want growth at all and would fight it. Now, that isn’t the mindset. It’s changed tremendously, especially since 2005 and 2006. There’s not that anti-growth mentality. It’s more of a feeling that growth is going to happen, let’s make the best of it.

Q: What are your predictions for the lake for the next 10 years?

A: I can’t really give any predictions, so how about a wish list? At some point the construction will have to start back up, we’ll have a wakeboard cable park, SMLCA will include K-12 grades, the second Bridgewater Pointe tower will be built and the Laker Magazine will be 200 pages.

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AppTech Solutions Launches New Website

This site is another WordPress CMS, the first to be set up with user permissions allowing user access for company CAD files and knowledge center. Custom video and tabs make this a great technical site for a groundbreaking new product.

GO Wins Big at The PRSA’s Last Night

BLUE RIDGE CHAPTER PRSA HONORS PRUDENTIAL WATERFRONT PROPERTIES

AND THE GO AGENCY WITH TWO SUMMIT AWARDS

Smith Mountain Lake, VA (November 19, 2010) – The Blue Ridge chapter Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) held its annual Summit Awards Gala on Thursday, November 18, 2010 at the Hotel Roanoke. Prudential Waterfront Properties and the GO Agency were honored with two Summit Awards.

The Summit Awards recognizes the best practice of public relations in Southwest Virginia and highlights the creative and effective ways in which communications impacts our lives.

The companies received a Gold Summit Award in the “Public Relations Campaign” category for the “Bridgewater Pointe”. This award recognizes a public relations campaign featuring a variety of elements designed to promote a product or service. The companies also received a Silver Summit in the “Lin Chaff Award for Creativity” category for the “Check Our References” campaign, which features customer-based testimonials. This award recognizes outstanding creativity in any project, program or public relations tool.

According to Christopher Finley, Director of Marketing and PR for The Willard Companies, Prudential Waterfront Properties parent company, “We are extremely humbled to be recognized for our public relations and marketing efforts. Whenever we set out to create a new campaign, our goal is to generate interest and well as expand on the strong brand identity that we have built for over twenty years.”

According to Micah Gaudio, President of the GO Agency, “It’s great to be recognized for not just your creative work, but what matters the most is the results. PRSA scores highly on campaign effectiveness and execution. If good design doesn’t sell, then it’s just art.”

WakeNSkate Hits 10,000 Fans/Likes on Facebook

Webster Marine Direct Mail Campaign

Time to Winterize Your Boat at Smith Mountain Lake with Webster Marine.

New Verhoven & Young Mortgage Wonder Twins Ads

Roanoke Artist Subject of Comprehensive Feature in International Artist Magazine

Roanoke, VA (September 21, 2010) – Roanoke, Virginia, artist Whitney C. Brock, one of the region’s best kept secrets, is featured in the current issue, #75, of International Artist Magazine. Her award-winning painting, “The Red Apple” graces the issue’s cover, a significant recognition by the publication as only six artists in the world get to have their work on the cover each year. Inside the issue is a 10 page tribute to the artist including her artistic biography, art-in-the-making and current body of work.

Brock said a contest submission two years ago resulted in further recognition from the bi-monthly magazine.

“International Artist discovered me after I submitted a painting into their bi-monthly contest where finalists are printed in each issue. I was one of the ten finalist two years ago. They contacted me a year ago, and asked me to create an art-in-the-making piece plus a one thousand word ditty with a bio,” said Brock.

In the October/November 2010 issue, Smith Mountain Lake resident Whitney C. Brock is featured in an article titled “Natural Evolution”. The extensive report details Brock’s artistic accomplishments, education, technique and artist perspective. In addition, several pages are devoted to outlining her inspiration, process and personal conclusions on a selection of her oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas pieces.

Brock said the biggest surprise from being featured was to see her artwork on the cover of the issue.

“Being an avid International Artist reader/subscriber, I have poured over the pages of the greatest talent in the world. To be featured amongst them was a line-item on my bucket list,“ she said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I am hoping this will open many doors for me as a new artist on the international art scene.”

The magazine feature also brings attention to the Roanoke area and mentions Brock’s home community of Smith Mountain Lake. The issue featuring Brock is available now at local Barnes & Noble bookstores.

Contact Whitney C. Brock

www.brockworksinc.com

Whitney@brockworksinc.com

540-537-5727

http://www.international-artist.com/iam/current.aspx

Round II with Emerald Bay

The Willard Companies, Atlas, BB & T and Prudential Waterfront Properties have engaged GO Agency to duplicate the marketing success we had with Bridgewater Pointe with another distressed property Emerald Bay but on a scaled down version. Regional Print, Radio, Facebook, Google, 800 response and Direct Mail campaigns all created within two weeks.

Willard Companies Launches New Website

Custom Design, full WordPress Content Management System, RSS feeds to all eight Willard Companies subsidiaries.