We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brady Lowe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brady, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Taste Network was born out of pairing handcrafted wines with artisan cheeses. The goal was to educate consumers and culinary leaders on the benefits of supporting small family-owned businesses that took pride in creating safe and honest food. For the first eight years, I hosted culinary experiences for thousands of guests, each looking to understand the benefits of eating locally sourced and ethically produced food and beverage. Naturally, the interest and platform swelled into a national conversation with some of the best wine and cheese makers in the business. I was a big fish in a small pond doing the work that salespeople were failing to do – which in my mind, was to tell a meaningful and impactful story about how the wine or cheese was produced with care for the environment. When I approached the ninth year of business, our agency was not only a leader in experiential marketing and events, but we fit a niche that no one else could.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

At this point in my career, I began spearheading brand development for some of the most recognizable food and beverage brands in the world. I was managing successful results-driven marketing campaigns. I started creating dozens of successful brands, and events all with meaningful digital narratives. By the time I turned 40, I started Piggy Bank, a non-profit that provides “free” business to small family farmers. By 2008, I created one of the most talked about culinary competitions and live-fire culinary franchises in North America called Cochon555.

From 2009 to 2016, my company Taste Network was managing dozens of local, regional, and national public relations firms and reached 1 billion hits in the media across North America. To this day, the conversations I started on how to source local food are sustained and the mission work has become widespread in the culinary community. I walked away from Cochon555 and Heritage Fire to focus on my full-service marketing agency.

In 2021, my agency of record for Ribera y Rueda, Spain’s most prestigious regions for red and white wines in the U.S. The scope of work includes more than 170 national accounts (1 Hotels, Mina Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotels), independent retailers, and restaurant owners across the country. The team has executed over 1,000 promotions, launched a new website, expanded reach on social media channels, created stunning content with award-winning writers, photographers, and videographers, and slated partnerships with on/off-premise/national accounts that increase sales each year.

Over the course of years, I have personally created agreements and executed activations for some of the best in the business including WSJ+, Google, Zagat, Esquire, Eater, Chefs Feed, Edible Communities, Yelp, Food & Wine Aspen, Toronto Food & Wine, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, Snowmass Tourism, Rhone Valley Wines, Oxford Symposium, Louisville CVB, Sonoma County Wine Growers, James Beard Foundation, The Culinary Institute of America, Andrew Zimmern, FedEx, Republic Bank, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Mazda, Infiniti, Glenfiddich, Sazerac, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Breville, Wines of Bordeaux, Wines of Germany, Laurent-Perrier Champagne, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Citi Bank, Blackberry Farm, Southwest Airlines, Are Lingus, Fairmont Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, AT&T Park, San Pellegrino, and over 200 independent wineries, 10,000 chefs, sommeliers and barkeeps. We currently produce content during the Food & Wine Classic, Formula 1, Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience, and Super Bowl.

To this day, I educate influencers and consumers on the premium lifestyle, ultimately making them better, more knowledgeable ambassadors of brands.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth and networking, it is so true to my business that good people push good people to other good people. It takes a little bit longer but the quality of life is much better.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During 2008, when my event business was at top of its game, the market turned upside down and I lost all my clients. I turned the corner and started a national culinary competition, I chased something I believed in and a cause that was stored in my heart for life. I wanted to support and promote the underdogs in the food world. It worked out great!

In 2020, the pandemic stopped all work again, and now, this prior experience of “Finding my Way” was second nature and we picked up and pivoted into 3x more sales.

Contact Info:

• Website: tastenetwork.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradylowe75/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tastenetwork
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tastenetwork/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tastenetwork
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tastenetwork.thepantry.fis1080

Image Credits
@TasteNetwork