Networking to Nurture Start-Ups in the State

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.

Was the Super Bowl Super?

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.

We’re better off with Brady!

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.

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!)