//www.quantummedia.com/event/media-guru-breakfast-thomas-gensemer | Printed on: April 20, 2024
Event
Media Guru Breakfast: Thomas Gensemer
Managing Director, Blue State Digital, Creators of BarackObama.com
November 6, 2009
Blue State Digital is one of the most important marketing agencies you never heard of in the fast growing and cutting edge digital arena. BSD managed Obama for America’s extensive online fundraising, constituency building, and peer-to-peer networking initiatives, all of which created momentum for the President’s successful 2008 election campaign. (Read a case history on bluestate’s site.) Media Guru, Thomas Gensemer, provides day-to-day executive leadership for BSD, as well as executive sponsorship to several of the company’s largest consulting engagements. He is a straight forward and provocative speaker who will address the club in an off-the-record talk about past campaigns and the state of digital agency and advocacy work. Gensemer joined Blue State Digital in 2005 with a background in venture capital, strategy consulting, product marketing and technology startup management. Immediately prior to BSD, Gensemer was the director of Internet strategy for America Coming Together (ACT), where he managed the organization’s online fundraising, grassroots recruitment, and marketing. Prior to ACT, he led online communications for General Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign. From 1999 to 2003, Gensemer managed The Accelerator Group, an entrepreneurial venture capital fund with offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. The fund developed and funded a broad portfolio of early-stage technology and marketing businesses. Its holdings included Pyra-Blogger (acquired by Google), Openwave (OPWV), 24/7 Media (TFSM), Meetup.com, and a number of private concerns. Gensemer is a graduate of New York University and lives in Washington, DC and New York. Beyond the Obama work, Blue State Digital, (http://www.bluestatedigital.com/) is a leader in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking and constituency development programs and has helped scores of companies motivate their supporters and customers to take action online. It targets and mobilizes loyal, active online communities around candidates, causes, and products through its online initiatives. Founded in 2004, Blue State Digital’s websites and online campaign strategies are designed to motivate people around an issue, candidate, product or service. Among the company’s specialties are its proprietary software — the “BSD Toolset” — as well as its online engagement strategic consulting. Some recent clients are: political campaigns of Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Jim Webb; non-profit organizations American Red Cross, Sundance Institute, Alliance for Climate Protection, and the Save Darfur Coalition; University of Florida; and the corporation, Focus Features.