Subs, sportscasters and some seriously great news.

Everyone here at Blue Horse is very proud (and hungry) to announce that Cousins Subs has selected us as their new agency.

After working on fried chicken, fish, tacos, hamburgers, cereals, biscuits, pickles, milk, sausage, popcorn, ketchup, salad dressing, cheese, ice cream and oh yes, lobsters, we are truly excited to be working on something brand new (and very, very popular): Cousins Subs.

That is no exaggeration. When we first started talking with the folks at Cousins, our office manager, the beloved and underpaid Constance Venezia opined very loudly, “Tell them never, ever to change the tuna salad!” Constance is a veteran of the catering business and a bit of a gourmet. She can tell you all the best restaurants in Milwaukee and what to order when you go there. Her ringing endorsement of Cousins Tuna Salad Sub is high praise indeed.

It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like Cousins. And with good reason. Their sandwiches are typically bigger, made better and oh, that bread! So it’s nice to partner up with someone that has such a great offering. Not to mention a big fan in Dan Patrick.

But fast food is a tough category. The out-of-home food biz has had 15 consecutive years of growth. You have to run faster and perform better than ever to get your share – even if your product is as good as Cousins. Increased competition has brought increased ad spending. In 2006, restaurants spent $2.7 billion on ads. That was up 6.3% from 2005. And huge of amounts of money are being poured into product placement messaging as media choices proliferate.

Our job is clear. If we can’t outspend ‘em, we have to outthink ‘em. We have to forge a real connection with the Cousins loyalist – and create more of them. We have to listen carefully to all stakeholders, from guests to franchisees. Then we have to execute our work in a smart, on time and on budget manner.

The things we’ll do for a great tuna sub.

(Thank you, Cousins! Let’s get started!)

Rails and beer.

From time to time, we’ve touched on issues regarding the economic growth of the Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison triangle. Obviously, as an advertising/marketing/pr firm, Blue Horse is acutely interested in attracting new business to the area and expanding those that are already here.

Recent developments would merit some comment. Let’s start with railroads. We’ve written Blogs here and in the Small Business Times about the importance of completing the KRM connection with Chicago. At the risk of being yet again accused of being baguette-eating elitists, we can’t help but scratch our head about why this continues to lag. In the face of the rising price of gas, the tax burden for roads, increased traffic congestion and pollution, and with the desire to provide easy access to tourists and workers alike, why, why, why are we not getting this done?

The Small Business Times has had a series of telling articles providing reasons for this to go forward ranging from smart economics all the way to just simply getting people together. They’ve pointed out that despite what talk radio airheads would have us think, the business community is solidly behind this concept.

This brings us, fittingly enough, to beer.

It will be revealing to watch the contest between Denver and Milwaukee over the location of the Miller/Coors corporate headquarters. Kudos to Mayor Barrett for aggressively going after this issue and to all who join the campaign.

We don’t know how this will turn out. Clearly, we think Milwaukee is the place for Miller/Coors to be. And we have many advantages we can sell.

But what we don’t have is an integrated, coordinated and visionary transportation system. And this is key. KRM is needed for executives, for workers and for all the support companies that follow, from equipment manufacturers and suppliers to coffee shops. And that applies to revamping our urban system as well.

Denver learned the hard way when they lost out to Chicago on Boeing that a coordinated and enlightened program of local transportation is a key factor in the decision of where to locate.

Michael Cudahy said it to Mayor Barrett and County Supervisor Scott Walker, “If I had run Marquette the way you guys are managing this issue, it would have dried up like a prune.” We have $91 million in federal money that is languishing and in danger of vanishing if we don’t come to an agreement on a new urban transportation system. Cudahy has published a plan in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that makes sense.

Does it take having a Miller/Coors decide to go elsewhere to wake us all up?