A fresh approach to dental hygiene!

Today was a terrifically fun day. We had the privilege of creating two new commercials for the College of Dental Hygienists of Manitoba.

We wanted to do something out of the ordinary and I really believe we've achieved that with the help of the gang from Elemental Motion Media and our client Kellie Hildebrandt who put her trust in us.

We received a really nice email from her afterwards and I'm just so proud of our crew I want to share it here for everyone to see:

Laura

I just wanted to extend my sincere thanks on behalf of the CDHM for the work that has been done thus far on our PSA. Today was a blast and we are all so excited to see the final product. Your professionalism, understanding and flexibility with our project has not gone unnoticed. It seems rare these days to have a company that goes to the lengths that you have to make a client happy. You, your staff and crew have exceeded my expectations. Please pass on my thanks to them as well.

Kellie Hildebrandt
Registrar - Executive Director
CDHM


What can I say? Thanks so much Kellie. And thanks to Keith and Nathan Eides, Jen Santoro, Adam Duguay and Simon Burgess from Elemental Motion Media, Kelly and Kim from Midcan, Picante's Amanda, and last but definitely not least the stunning dental hygienists Jamie Lee and Lori. It really was a blast!

An exciting day.

Today my granddaughter Lillian Mary Gray was born. 7 lbs. 10 oz.

The day started with an early morning call from former Picante production person and number one son Shaun letting me know that wife Kaleigh's labour had started. I picked up granddaughter Emily and went to a breakfast meeting with the fabulous Mark and Randy from Winnipeg's finest. (dang I should have taken a photo). Then it was off to another meeting with Amanda and Stan the man from SecureAll. Emily was a fine companion throughout.

We zipped to the hospital where Kaleigh was extremely cooperative in delivering the gorgeous Lily at 2 pm. This allowed Emily and I to attend to our credit union presentation at 3.

The meeting was wonderful. Was great seeing Gord and Brian from Entegra again. (If you ever run into Brian Charles, you must get him to tell you his Stephen Harper story - high marks for Stephen in this one)

Back to the hospital to get better acquainted with Lily.

Thanks to all my client/friends who were so gracious to Emily today. It was a very special day for all of us.

Just Slow Down - Public Response

We've had a terrific response to the launch of Phase Two of the Just Slow Down campaign this week.

Website traffic is way, waaay up and we've received some very positive comments on the Tell Us Your Thoughts page. I thought I'd list a few of them here....

A visitor to the site from Vancouver wrote: “This program is outstanding and should be in every municipality! … Have you thought about opening up the campaign country wide?.”

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the time, money and tears invested in this worthwhile project. I work in a K to 12 school in rural MB knowing all too well the potential dangers of the road. I have also lost my mother years ago at the too young age of 52 in a car accident. Encore merci, thank you.,”

“I think this site and the commercials on TV are a terrific idea and hopefully will give us all pause to slow down and drive with more caution. I saw the commercial for the first time today on the news and stopped in my tracks to watch it. Whatever the cost, it was money well invested if it

only saves one life.”

It makes me very proud to be a part of this important initiative. Thank you to the Winnipeg Police Service for putting your trust in Picante.

Oh yeah.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA.

Just Slow Down Phase Two launched

www.justslowdown.ca




This morning we launched the new Just Slow Down commercials. We began with a live shot on Richard Cloutier at CJOB.....kind of a tough act to follow as the show kicked off with a lot of talk about the Gold Medal win yesterday - I have to say - we are all over the moon about that too so it wasn't hard to accept the brief delay....then we headed over to the Public Safety Building for the official news conference.






Richard was very gracious. He's supportive of the initiative partly as he lost his brother in 1968 in a collision on Waverley. Jan Frizzley and her daughter Stacey courageously appeared to bring the perspective of the victims to the tragedy. Jan lost her daughter Amanda in a speed-related collision.

Chief Keith McCaskill and City Councillor Rey Pagtakhan spoke at the news conference along with Staff Sergeant Mark Hodgson. The news conference was well attended and we expect good coverage in the media tonight and tomorrow.

Sincere thanks to Jan and Stacey for attending today. It certainly wasn't easy for them.

Exciting times!

March 1st is going to be a huge day for Picante. We'll be launching the new Winnipeg Police commercials for the Just Slow Down campaign. We start with an hour long interview with Richard Cloutier at CJOB and then head over to the Public Safety Building for the official news conference.

Yesterday morning I made a final presentation to a large group including Chief McCaskill and the response was so very gratifying. They are thrilled and excited about the project and are proud of the commercials we created. We definitely expect to get some BUZZ on this on Monday. Hopefully, most of it will be positive. We expect a little bit of controversy because they are more graphic than are traditionally seen on Canadian television - at least in terms of commercial content. I maintain that in a comparison with shows like CSI and Bones etc. our spots are quite tame - hopefully very effective though.

Had a fantastic meeting on Wednesday with Jamie at Grant Park Shopping Centre and I think the new spring campaign is going to be so much fun! Can't wait for Amanda to get started.

The next few weeks are going to be exceptionally busy getting ready for all the new television production. But we're definitely ready to rock and roll on that.

I think winter is over...

At least in our world. There is so much going on it seems like the cold winter blanket that was slowing the beginning of new projects has definitely lifted.

Gearing up for the launch of the new Winnipeg Police spots. Everyone is so pleased with them it makes me quite proud.

We've been watching a lot of Olympic coverage - glad to see the Massage Therapy Association getting all that airtime.

We'll be shooting new television spots in March. One campaign will be for a group of credit unions who are joining together to ensure credit unions continue to build their brand as a viable and preferable choice over banks. The other campaign is to promote Dental Hygienists and the relationship between good oral health and overall wellness.

There's another "health-related" project in the works but I can't talk about that one yet.

Our proposal to Tourism Dauphin is in. Thanks Martijn for the comment on my last blog post. I certainly hope our proposal captured our enthusiasm for the project.

Amanda has been hard at work developing new graphics for Sunrise Credit Union. Just about the nicest people you could ever meet.

I just have to mention Glenn Hildebrand from the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba and George Fraser from the Massage Therapists of Manitoba. Both of these fine gentlemen do us proud by recommending Picante to others and believing what we do. I have such respect for them and their sincere dedication to their organizations. I'm proud to call them my clients and my friends.

Is it because I'm getting older?

My life is flashing around like an episode of Lost. One minute it's January and the next it's February.

The last few weeks I've been fighting a murderous cold. But other than that I can't complain.

Enjoyed a fantastic trip to beautiful Dauphin and am really looking forward to digging into some important projects there. Amanda is hard at it - prettying up our submission to Tourism Dauphin. The surreal meeting between myself and the CEO of Dauphin Credit Union in a pool bar in Cabo San Lucas is leading to some very interesting discussions. Ron Hedley truly enjoys torturing me with his macabre sense of humour. My intention is to get him back one of these days. I'm very impressed with all the economic development in Dauphin. Great community with some forward-thinking leadership.

Completed a new television spot for the Massage Therapy Association of Manitoba to air in the Winter Olympics. Thanks to Adam and all at Elemental for the great job of animating. a la Alfred Hitchcock - see if you can spot who modelled for the "curler".

Will be getting busy on Grant Park Shopping Centre's spring campaign in the next few weeks. Spring.....ahhhhh....yes!

New television production news on the horizon and the exciting launch of the latest Winnipeg police spots March 1st so watch for them.