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!)

Suuuurrrge!!

This may be the age of the Internet, but there are still many books to be read. One that I’ve been into of late is Citizen Marketers – When People are the Message by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. I highly recommend it.

Arriving at chapter five of this fine effort, I was amazed to find the story of something out of my own murky past. It’s described very accurately in the book as “an alien-green, highly-caffeinated soda called Surge…MIA since 2002.”

The story unfolds that a gentleman by the name of Eric Karakovack from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, whom the book describes as a “genial, outgoing, and sincere” web developer is a passionate fan of Surge. He teamed up with another Surge fan by the name of Avery Lund and together they launched SaveSurge.org. The site features “500 pages of Surge testimonials, photographs of Surge marketing paraphernalia, and recipes for Surge Jell-O and Surge Cookies.”

And get this: “Twelve-packs of the soda four years past their expiration date have sold for $152 on eBay.”

Back in 1996, I was a creative director at Leo Burnett. At Leo, everyone worked together as a cohesive team. Not. No, what really happened was that creative groups basically mauled, kicked and outworked each other trying to win assignments. To win meant glory, money, promotions. To lose meant going to work at J. Walter Thompson.

Our group won a few and lost a few. But one of our victories was an assignment from Coca-Cola for the introduction of Surge. Developed to drive a wedge into the very successful Pepsi brand of Mountain Dew, Surge was indeed an “alien-green, highly-caffeinated” liquid.

The creative team of Phil Gayter and Joe Gallo authored, and with producer Stuart Kramer, filmed a series of spots for the brand. They were a bit ahead of their time, featuring groups of urban guys who set up over-the-top competitions to get their hands on the brand.

How did the spots do? This from Citizen Marketers: “For a while, Surge did OK as a product: 69 million cases sold in its first year. A respectable number for a niche soda. Two years later, Surge lost its marketing fizz. Sales dropped 25 percent, to 51.8 million cases. A year after that, Surge sales didn’t, and they slid another 48 percent. Bottlers across the country reevaluated their investment in the brand. The publisher of Beverage Digest suspected that the demise was caused by marketing inattention, saying Coke did not dedicate enough resources for it to escape the formidable shadow of Mountain Dew, which is made by Coke’s archenemy, PepsiCo. Like a rolling blackout, Surge disappeared from store shelves. By February 2002, most bottlers had stopped producing it.”

Now there is not only SaveSurge.com, but also a SaveSurge Hall of Fame and “Save Surge-The Movie,” 28 minutes worth of soda hunting. There is also a new test market brand from Coca-Cola called Vault, which the Surgers seem to like a lot. This in turn has caused Mr. Karkovack to build and launch VaultKicks.org. So it looks like Fort Dew will again be under surge, er, siege.

You might want to check out SaveSurge.org and VaultKicks.org. Obviously these are great examples of “citizen marketers” who are leading companies like Coca-Cola into the brave new world of economic democracy.

As for my part, I’m glad to have played a small role in the whole thing. You see, when I was presented with the idea from Gayter and Gallo, I fortunately did a very smart thing.

I didn’t kill it.

Blue Horse proudly welcomes our newest client: The Marcus Corporation.

All of us are happier people when treated to a movie, a spa experience, fine dining or an overnight stay at a luxury hotel. And so we at Blue Horse are delighted in the news that The Marcus Corporation, a leader in the lodging and entertainment industries, selected us for their marketing communications needs. Great company + cool product = fun work.

Marcus Theaters® currently owns or manages 608 screens at 50 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota and Iowa, and one family entertainment center in Wisconsin. Marcus Hotels and Resorts owns or manages 20 hotels, resorts and properties, with one additional hotel under development.

If you live around here, you’re very familiar with the Marcus name. It’s a company that has been a great example of steady, thoughtful growth in the communities in which it functions. The company believes in making quality, long-term investments.

For example, Marcus Theatres is developing a totally new theatre concept that will be a complete entertainment destination. The new theatre includes traditional auditoriums, their signature UltraScreens®, a multi-use venue and a restaurant, café and lounge. Marcus is also moving the industry toward digital cinema, testing hardware and software in selected theatres.

Marcus Hotels and Resorts has recently completed or is in the midst of several new projects under construction, including a condominium hotel project in Las Vegas, a historic hotel renovation in Oklahoma City and the major remodeling of the Wyndham Milwaukee Center, now known as the InterContinental Hotel.

We’re excited about getting to work with these fine people and on such wonderful projects. We are grateful to them for selecting us as marketing partners.

And we can’t deny the delight at the chance to dine at a few of those great restaurants, either!