One of the selling points of Blue Horse is the experience of our core group.

Consider that our Director of Media, Narkis Erlichman comes to us having worked at Burnett in Chicago, at McCann in New York and at Optimedia in Seattle.

Laura Rodriguez worked at DDB Needham and McCann in Los Angeles. Our pr folks, Steve Johnstone (winner of the Dorothy Thomas Black Award last year) and Susie Falk both have extensive backgrounds in their category. As does our president Tom Thiede and partner Bill Sheahan.

And if you get past all that, I spent twenty years at Leo Burnett and then some more at EuroRSCG Tatham.

One would hope that all that firepower would be invaluable in terms of strategic thinking about your brand. And you would be right.

But it also comes in handy when you have a quick turnaround situation on your hands. Like our good client Wal-Mart. They are partnering with the Milwaukee Wave soccer team to develop an abandoned piece of property in Cudahy. Naturally, things get contentious and we wanted to make sure that the supporters of the project were well represented at the planning commission meeting.

So Steve Johnstone comes to Bob Welke and together they come up with a direct mailer that is both an invitation and a way to visibly show support at the meeting. The copy is written on a Friday afternoon and by the following Wednesday, it’s been approved, printed and mailed.

And hundreds, yes–hundreds, of people show up at the meeting, cards in hand to support the project.

This was a low-cost, short-turnaround and creative answer to a difficult situation. And while it took two meetings to do it, Wal-Mart finally got the green light.

That’s what “hands on help from experienced people” actually means. It means you get answers that work. As we say in our mission, our job is not to make ourselves look good. Our job is to make our clients look good. So we don’t have to do TV commercials when postcards will work, especially postcards that double as on-site signage.

Our thanks to our good friends at Wal-Mart for giving us this opportunity.

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Everyone is saddened to hear about the closing of the GM plant in Janesville.

It was no surprise. Many observers were impressed that it could stay open as long as it did; given its age and the models it was producing.

The city of Janesville is actively lobbying for a new auto plant. And that’s all well and good. They are well qualified in labor, geography and management to be deserving of that. We wish them nothing but success.

But we can only hope that the rest of us look at this and realize that this is yet another sign that we have to change our thinking.

We still see where billions are being poured into widening highways while light rail and the KRM route is neglected. Letters to the editor, radio mouths and politicians all growl “why me?” They don’t see the need for anything that doesn’t have tires. They don’t want to pay the price. Let’s stick with cars and buses. Let’s pay $4 a gallon. Even while the automakers are shutting down.

Politicians like to recite what they have done. But there is a critical difference between doing things and accomplishing something. There was a time when just obeying the speed limits and getting a job was good enough in this part of the country. We still enforce the speed limits (boy, do we ever). But getting a job is a whole new ball game. A lot of people in Janesville are out of a job. And their children aren’t going to have any new ones. At least not making cars.

Those children have to grow up in a different culture. A culture of diversity. A culture of instant communication and empowerment. Times are tough right now and it’s hitting a lot of people like a punch in the gut. Homes are being lost. Jobs are being lost. The future is being lost.

And we’re spending billions to widen a freeway.

This area has tremendous potential. And there is accomplishment. Chancellor Santiago at U.W.M. is accomplishing things. Others are as well. Business leaders are calling for leadership that will not simply react to cost, but make smart decisions about investment. People with courage know that building walls to keep change out is not the answer.

Janesville is being forced to change.

Hopefully, that’s not the only way to go.

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On May 31st, the Milwaukee Rep will be putting on one heckuva party.

It’s their annual Gala dinner and auction. The theme is “Unforgettable” and that’s what it looks to be. For the occasion, The Rep’s Powerhouse Theatre stage is being expanded and converted into a 50’s style cabaret. Popular vocalist Jimi Ray Malary, who has delighted audiences in the roles of Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington in previous appearances at the Stackner Cabaret, will return to Milwaukee for a performance at the Gala.

Putting on a party for 400 is quite a task. This year The Rep is fortunate to have Wendy Blumenthal and Ed Hashek as Co-chairs of the Gala. Wendy and Ed, in turn, have the support of dozens of staffers and board volunteers to get the job done.

This year looks to be the best Gala ever. Right now, everyone is hard at work bringing in silent auction items. The list already includes weekends in Door County, Colorado and New York plus airline tickets, Brewers and Admirals tickets and dozens of other fun items. And oh, yes, the folks at Great Lakes Distillery are donating some of their award-winning Rehorst gin and vodka for special signature martinis.

To add to the fun, attendees will be able to use hand held remotes to monitor the current status of all items and to make their bids.

The Gala is the one big fund raising for The Rep. This is an organization that’s not just a source of great theater, it’s a real civic treasure for Milwaukee. Tickets are still available (I think – they were going pretty quickly as I write this). To get in on the festivities – and have dinner on stage – contact Lindsay Rocamora at 224-1764 (lrocamora@milwaukeerep.com).

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Recently, an article appeared in ADWEEK, one of the trade publications our agency subscribes to. It was written by Alex Bogusky, a very highly regarded Creative Director. Mr. Bogusky is co-chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The agency is located in Miami, but in 2006, they opened an office in Boulder, Colorado.

Anyone who is in politics or business of any kind here in Wisconsin ought to read it. It’s in the Art & Commerce section of the March 17th issue.

In the article, Mr. Bogusky tells of a meeting the mayor’s office invited him to when they decided to move. (I was impressed already). At the meeting, Mr. Bogusky was told, “Boulder isn’t looking for any new business.” It seems they only allow 1 percent growth per year and that they manage that growth very carefully.

“But,” said the Boulder folks, “yours is a creative company working in the field of creativity and employing creative individuals, and that is exactly what we want to invite more of into our community.”

Mr. Bogousky’s reaction was simple. “Oh, baby. I was home.”

I was born and raised here. I worked here for a number of years. Then I spent the majority of my career elsewhere, having returned in 2006. I love Milwaukee. And I believe that we have a tremendous future.

If we can manage to change our thinking.

When I was a boy, the machine shops and the breweries were going pretty much full blast. Life was good. But we were insulated from a lot of things. We didn’t really need to think creatively. All we needed to do was to keep the second and third shifts going.

Today, we’re a community divided. There are some folks out there who have seen the future and know that doing more of the same doesn’t cut it anymore. They are the ones who talk about connecting Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee. They are the ones who know that growing U.W.M. is vital.

But maybe too many of us have a home in the ‘burbs with two cars in the garage. Our interest goes about as far as our last property tax bill. So we vote for the guys who tell us they’ll build a wall to keep people out, the ones who define anything new only in terms of cost instead of value.

There are too many people here who have a vested interest in well, frankly, not doing anything. When I was in high school, the first thing I learned on the debate team was to try to take the negative side – of anything. It’s a lot easier to find the weak link in any argument. You only have to find one. It’s easier to ridicule and use sarcasm on anything and anyone who might have a creative solution. Want an example? Take a listen to some of our local radio yokels.

Here in town there’s an outfit called Strive Media Institute. They train inner city youth to work in the media industry. They have shelves full of awards for their work. They have graduates who have gone on to college (with scholarships) and have gotten high level, meaningful positions they might never have even known existed.

Last month, Matthew Johnson, the director of Strive, decided that he just could no longer make a go of it here. He’s moving his headquarters to Chicago.

Creativity. It’s finding new solutions to old problems. It’s trying and failing and trying again. It’s what the future is all about. As Alex Bogusky said, “It’s not the job. It’s how you do it. Creativity and excellence are synonymous.”

Creativity. It solves problems. In education. In government. In business.

But it doesn’t thrive unless it’s welcome.

Is it welcome here?

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This entry is courtesy of Bill Sheahan, partner/director of client services at Blue Horse.

Ever wonder who could make a flag as large as the one that flies on the flagpole at Acuity Insurance, just off I-43 near Sheboygan, WI? Ever wonder who creates all those neat costumes for the likes of Ronald McDonald, Bucky Badger, The Milwaukee Brewers Racing Sausages, The Pittsburgh Pirates Racing Pierogies and Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger? Well, the answers to those two questions are the same as the name of the Blue’s newest client — Olympus Flag and Banner.

Milwaukee-based Olympus has been making flags, banners and pennants for a long time – in fact since there were 44 stars on the ole Stars and Stripes. That would be since 1893. (I bet that got you thinking. Most of us can probably come up with a couple or three of the states that joined the Union after 1893 but can you name all six? I’ll list them at the end of this blog.).

Olympus is also one the nation’s leading mascot costume design and manufacturing companies. The company has produced more than 8,000 mascot costumes for customers around the world.

In addition to being a leading manufacturer of flags, banners, and mascot costumes, Olympus is also a leading printer of custom point-of-purchase signs, banners and other material.

Blue Horse will handle a range of marketing communications activities for Olympus. Our first project was to help the company promote its custom printed POP signs and banners for the McDonald’s Corporation. To do so, Blue Horse created a custom-printed brochure with inserts bound with Chicago Screws. A sample of the brochure can be viewed in the “work” section of our Web site (after April 19, 2008). The brochure and other materials were presented recently at McDonald’s own worldwide trade show in Florida.

Did you come up with the correct names for the states having joined the Union after 1893? Here they are. Keep these in mind in case you ever end up on Jeopardy.

Utah, January 4, 1896
Oklahoma, November 16, 1907
New Mexico, January 6, 1912
Arizona, February 14, 1912
Alaska, January 3, 1959
Hawaii, August 21, 1959

For more information about Olympus Flag & Banner — or to find out what the colors in the U.S. flag mean — visit their Web site at: www.olympus-flag.com

McDonald’s and the Ronald McDonald name are trademarks of McDonald’s Corporation and its affiliates. Tony the Tiger is a registered trademark of the Kellogg’s Corporation.

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This entry is courtesy of Susie Falk, vice president of public relations at Blue Horse.

I met the most amazing group of people the other day. These were inventors and entrepreneurs, brought together by the MMAC for networking purposes. I understand entrepreneurs – I’m surrounded by them at the agency every day -a smart, scrappy bunch for sure. I don’t encounter “inventors” very often – these folks fall into a whole new category of brilliance.

This group of about 70 had come to hear me talk on the topic of marketing on a shoestring budget. I was glad I presented first. My lecture was much less interesting than the people who had come to hear me. After my talk, the group went around the room introducing themselves and their ideas – many at the embryonic stages, others ready for pubic consumption. They all were looking for tips and advice on how to establish their products in the marketplace.

Many of their ideas were truly brilliant. One guy had invented a screen shield that wraps around a hot tub when it’s windy – or when there’s the need for privacy. His product was ready for market – he was looking for suggestions on communicating with hot tub distributors. Another guy had a patent on a puppy pooper picker-upper. He’d already found success with the pooper p-u and was looking to hatch another idea. One woman I spoke with was trying to find an audience for a new method of teaching kids with autism and ADD. Yet another woman was working on a project that studied the development of the brains of children. I had hoped that these two women had the chance to meet each other at the networking event.

Hats off to the MMAC for coordinating this group. It is the MMAC’s intention to help these types of people to keep them here and home in Milwaukee where they can grow their businesses and help improve our local economy.

In June, Blue Horse will be addressing a similar group of inventors and entrepreneurs at the Wisconsin Technology Council’s Entrepreneurs Conference. The WTC is also working to hatch and keep successful businesses in Wisconsin. Each year at the Entrepreneur’s Conference, Gov. Jim Doyle announces the winner of his business contest – a contest set up by the state to nurture start-ups. Our agency recently announced it will donate $30,000 in marketing communications services to the winner of the business contest.

Kudos to the MMAC, the WTC and the State of Wisconsin for their efforts to grow good ideas and businesses. Blue Horse is proud to be a part of these initiatives.

For business people, dealing with the media can be a lot like climbing a mountain. You work hard to advance your company’s story. But one slip and…disaster.

At Blue Horse, we’ve come to view media training as an important part of our effort to build brands. We believe that consumers own brands – that they are the boss. So we see our job as making our clients a hit with the boss. Yes, we can make ads and buy media wisely. But there comes that time when you have to meet the boss directly through the media. And you may not know where or when.

So you have to be ready.

Blue Horse is teaming up with a company called mediaspirits to introduce a comprehensive media-training program for executives that can enable you to have a very successful showing in front of the boss.

We’re calling it On Belay Media Training. It’s taught by our own Associate Director of Public Relations, Susie Falk, teamed with Kimberly and Davidson Kane. Susie is a former journalist and journalism instructor at UW-Madison. She has coached her clients through interviews with the Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Forbes, Newsweek and dozens of other major media outlets.

Kimberly Kane is a former WTMJ-TV 4 news anchor and health reporter. She has been recognized by several media organizations for her fair and insightful work. She was named the State Medical Society of Wisconsin’s Medical Issues Reporter of the Year in 2000. She is currently Vice President and Co-Owner of mediaspirits, a video production and developmental firm.

Davidson Kane is the President and Creative Director of mediaspirits. He is a broadcast developer and television producer with 14 years of experience in the news promotion, corporate and broadcast worlds. A keen observer of the media and a trained actor, Davidson can help you make the most of your time on camera.

Susie, Kimberly and Davidson are prepared to instruct you in the fine art of controlling an interview. They serve up real world scenarios. Interviews are practiced, videotaped and critiqued. Media trends are analyzed and your crisis communication plans are reviewed. They’ll even give you a few tips on how to look and sound your best on air. Classes are small and times can be suited to your availability.

For those of you who have climbed a mountain or two, you know that “on belay” refers to communicating to other climbers that you’re ready to make the ascent.

Are you ready to face the cameras?

For more information, call Susie at 414-291-7620.

The game sure was, but what about the Super Spots?

Every year, advertisers ante up to entertain America with their best spots in the Super Bowl. This year was certainly no exception, but was the $2.7 million investment worth it for advertisers?

Of course, you can take a look at any number of polls and critiques of the spots. The morning after the game, opinions are flying all over the place. You can hear from the trade critics, agency bigwigs and of course, football fans.

But at Blue Horse, we wondered about the opinions of marketing executives - the people who might not have an ad in the game, but whose job it is to oversee their own budgets and advertising efforts. What do they think? What spots would work in the marketplace? Which spots were a waste of money?

We sent out a number of invitations to marketing pros to communicate their thoughts to us either online or by phone. Here are the top six things they told us:

1. No one was impressed with the overall quality. While some marketing pros felt the body of work was better than last year, more said things like Larry Weissman of Cousins who remarked that the showing was “poor – run of the mill.” David Andrews of Assurant went so far as to describe the assembly as “terrible.”

2. As testimony to the lack of innovation, nothing really stood out as a favorite. The Doritos “Mouse,” Bridgestone, Budweiser’s “Rocky,” Planters and the Bud Light wine & cheese party all got good reviews. There were others right behind: NFL “Chester Pitt,” selected Bud Light spots, Coke’s “Dueling Balloons” and others were among them.

3. What did stand out as a big loser was the Salesgenie effort. It was almost universally panned by our marketing pros.

4. Not surprisingly, some spots were polarizing: Life Water’s “Lizards,” Planters, Vitamin Water and Audi. Our pros either liked ‘em or hated ‘em. Especially polarizing was the E-Trade baby series. “The gross out award,” said Larry Weissman. “I hated it,” said Hank Hakewill. But for some others, it was a favorite.

5. It was noted by many that a number of spots were, as Bruce Hutchison of Sears noted, “only half the story” because they sought to drive people online. It would only be fair, he said, to check out all the online stories and see if they paid off.

6. Several marketers cited the Hyundai Genesis effort as being laudable in that it elegantly portrayed the car as a Mercedes that is not a Mercedes. Roger Klement felt that this could be the most effective spot for business reasons. David Andrews said he would “withhold judgment until this summer.” He wondered, because of this commercial, “Will people hold off buying a Mercedes? It set expectations high. This is a risky move. The car must be quality and everything must be ready for the launch.”

The question has to be asked: has the escalating cost of production and time made everyone risk adverse? That would include the NFL who, in an effort to stay clear of the FCC, hired a rock musician who was big when some of us were in high school.

Consider the amount of “looking back.” Old music, even old comedic routines like Pepsi’s “Bobbleheads.” Bud Lite working to its “formula” of beer jokes. Then there’s Under Armor trying to break through and succeeding only in being a pale imitation of Apple’s “1984.”

One final note. Given the fact that a large portion of the audience says they watch the game only for the advertising (and with two East Coast teams, that might be particularly true this year), isn’t it rather ironic to note that this contributes so mightily to driving up the cost of the advertising?

Maybe if we just eliminated the game. Ah, but then Larry Weissman, the self-described “only Giants fan in Wisconsin,” wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun.

Some interesting facts to consider.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is proposing that we spend $1.9 billion on reconstructing and widening I-94 between Illinois and Mitchell Field.

The Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line has been given zilch. And there is no meaningful plan for any kind of regional transportation upgrade to serve our urban and lower-income residents.

Hold those thoughts while we mention some more facts.

For the first time ever, the price of oil has topped $100 a barrel. Today, oil is almost five times more expensive than it was just five years ago.

If we think that’s going to turn around, here are some more facts to face: oil is getting harder and harder to find and produce. Developing nations that need the oil are asking for it in ever increasing amounts. The countries that have the oil are trying to get their hands on more of the profits. And ethanol made from corn is really just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So how are we dealing with this situation?

By investing all our money – all our money – into bigger freeways.

Speaking of Mitchell Field, here’s a historical fact: in 1921, General Billy Mitchell, the man the airport was named for, demonstrated how a couple of new fangled things called airplanes could sink a battleship. But the people who built those battleships didn’t want to give up the present and face the future. Mitchell was demoted and eventually court martialed.

Oil. Five times more expensive in just five years. $1.9 billion for roads. Nothing for anything else.

Anyone want to buy a battleship?

Blue Horse is proud to announce our first new client of the year! We’ve been selected to partner with Brady Worldwide, Inc. Brady is an international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect premises, products and people. Brady products include high-performance labels and signs, safety devices, printing systems, and software and precision die-cut materials.

We’re starting out by developing and implementing a marketing communication program to promote Brady handheld labelers to electrical and data communication leaders.

Brady Worldwide materials use the line “When Performance Matters Most.” We’re confident that Blue Horse will live up to that standard. When we began our discussions, the Brady folks were very interested in a careful analysis of the ROI for the project. This is obviously a growing area of concern for all marketers. However, using state-of-the-art techniques, we’ve been able to offer a number of smart and economical ways to track how we’re doing.

Welcome to everyone at Brady Worldwide! We look forward to sticking with you for a long, long time.