Christmas in September: The Rep launches “A Christmas Carol”

When I was in Chicago, I was privileged to be on the board of the Goodman Theatre. The Goodman did some truly wonderful work, which included their production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the timeless story of redemption. I can fondly remember my older son Chris getting a “walk on” role. It didn’t exactly launch him on a career in the theater, but it sure was fun to watch.

Here in Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of “A Christmas Carol” is one of the city’s great holiday traditions. The Rep stages it, but the play is performed in the venerable Pabst Theater, which is right next door.

This year, Rep Managing Director Tim Shields gave the marketing committee, me and of course, everyone at Blue Horse, the assignment of rejuvenating the advertising. In the past, Scrooge and his ghosts are usually the focus of the ads. Tim and Marketing Director David Anderson wanted to bring the joy of the music, dance and holiday festivities back into the message. They pointed out that this is a family event and that while there may be a scary ghost here and there, it’s really about wonderment and merriment. Oh, and James Pickering was back in the lead.

Blue Horse Senior Art Director Lynn Schoenecker took on the assignment of delivering a whole new look. She selected illustrator Laura Williams in North Carolina and together they designed the poster and set the style for all to follow. Photography was done by Allan Knox and prepress by Pro Graphics.

Meanwhile, for the television work, David put us in touch with a wonderful production house in L.A. by the name of Cinevative that specializes in theater advertising. Mark Ciglar came to Milwaukee for the photo shoot and using these visuals plus music from the production, made the story really come to life.

It’s very satisfying for us to be able to take an “old” product in a new direction. And the entire process of working with the folks at the Rep was a terrific experience. The staff and board members, like Wendy Blumenthal, stepped up with their perspective, their comments and new ideas for the whole marketing effort. So did the Blue Horse folks including account supervisor Laura Rodriguez who managed the process in her usual efficient manner.

You can see the poster and :30 spot among the work on the Blue Horse Web site. We’d love to hear any comments you might have.

You can also order tickets online at milwaukeerep.com or by calling 414-224-9490.

Sponsored again this year by the good folks at Miller Brewing, “A Christmas Carol” is something everyone should make a part of their own holiday family activities.

The joyous tradition lives on!

Blue Horse names a new director of media strategies.

It’s not a huge chunk of news to anyone that there has been a Big Bang in media choices. If it moves (and even if it doesn’t), someone is advertising on, with, through or around it. If you’re a marketer, this is great news, provided you don’t have to go on medication just to deal with it.

Obviously, part of our job here at Blue Horse is to stay informed on these choices and to help guide our clients through the media maze effectively and economically.

For some time now, we’ve been searching around for just the right person to join our media team and help us stay ahead of the curve. It’s been a task made more difficult because there’s another aspect to media proliferation. In times past, creative did creative and media did media, and often they met at the client presentation. Now, media has to work hand in hand with creative. In fact now, media often is the creative. The account planning function must be totally all encompassing.

All of this leads me to very proudly announce the addition of Ms. Narkis Erlichman to the Blue Horse team.

Narkis (Nar-kees’) comes to us from Texas via Chicago via San Francisco via New York via Dublin, Ireland and via Seattle. To put it another way, she comes to us via Leo Burnett where she started her career via Optimedia where she was a Group Media Director and via Universal McCann where she was a Managing Director. She also comes to us via the Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Microsoft and T-Mobile accounts. Narkis is the real deal. She knows new media, and she has sports and event marketing experience. She is smart, hard working, intuitive and lots of fun to be around.

Now Ms. Erlichman will admit that she had her, um, issues with leaving Seattle to come to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But like a lot of people who have come here, she’s already impressed with what she’s seen. Plus, to be frank, we’re working her rather hard. We don’t let her get out that much. We did take her to Miller Park to see the Brewers beat up on the Pirates. We’ll cinch the deal this week when we take her to Culver’s.

We’re very proud and happy to have Narkis come to work with us. Blue Horse is an agency that has undergone some dramatic changes in order to “up our game” with our clients. Just as consumers are changing in their expectations of their brands, clients are changing in their expectations of us. We intend to meet and exceed those expectations.

Hopefully, so will the Brewers.

Welcome, Narkis!