A BIG win for Picante!

We just received word that we were selected from several competing agencies for the City of Winnipeg New Parking Bylaw campaign.  This is a very interesting piece of business and once again we'll be working with the City....I do really enjoy working with them. 

First meeting toute de suite tomorrow morning. 

I do believe I'll celebrate with a wee glass of wine.  Thanks Kath, Lori and Char for your help on this proposal.  

My bad!

Things were such a whirlwind during the shoot for the new Winnipeg Police and Massage Therapy spots and then we headed down to Dominican Republic to deliver shoes to kids through our Fuze thru Shoes program....the blog was...uh.....left unattended shall we say. 

Since I last checked in, renovations are well underway at Grant Park Shopping Centre - many of the stores are changing location and we've been busy developing directional signage and decorative banners and now will kick into high gear for Christmas! 

Bothwell Cheese is in 75th Anniversary mode, launching their national promotion on September 1st.  By the way - Happy Birthday Ivan. 

Post-production is ongoing for the new commercial spots - I should be heading out to Vancouver in a couple of weeks to complete them.  What an exciting time.

In the meantime we responded to a significant RFP for the City of Winnipeg and we're keeping fingers crossed on that one. 

Lori was successful in winning the Polo Park online/social media contract so I'll be supporting her on that one.  It's a nice win for her. 

I will check back in soon. 

Blog was missing...but I think it's back now.

Will update with a project report on shooting the new Massage Therapy and Winnipeg Police commercials in the very near future! 

Production? Yes indeed.

Very proud of the work we developed for the Manitoba Council of Healthcare Unions.  The campaign concept is:- This October,  make Manitoba Healthcare your Issue One.  What made this campaign really exciting for me was the efficiency and turnaround time involved in what could have been a very complicated project.  We won the confidence of the client and the 10 union council stakeholders with a strong and clear creative concept.  We shot the spots on a weekend, edited the next week, focus tested and had them on air - all within 3 weeks.  The television campaign is supported by a complementary bustail program. 

Now we're heavily into preproduction on new television commercials for the Winnipeg Police Service and the Massage Therapy Association of Manitoba.  They'll be shot back to back at the end of July, culminating in what is certainly my most ambitious production task - a huge t-bone crash on Waverley.  I"m very lucky to have such a resource of amazing people who help me make production magic.  Adam Sliwinski is really my fairy godfather. Or maybe my genie in a bottle.


Charlene continues her great work on Bothwell Cheese - a fantastic new red wine cheese label, a 75th Anniversary logo and some exciting promos for the fall.

Will try to keep this updated and add some photos from the 2 production projects.

I love my job.  

Can you say production?

We're excitedly working up a nice campaign for a brand new client.  Will shoot commercials this weekend, edit and focus test them to be on the air July 11.  Brings together a dream team of the old crowd, Keith, Sue, Conroy and Lorne. 

In the meantime I'm off to Atlanta on an interesting new video project.  More on that once I return.

Still awaiting approval on our Winnipeg Police rear end collision campaign but the pre-production on the new crash commercials is really keeping us busy. 

Our meeting today with Bothwell went very well.  We're looking forward to helping them prepare to celebrate their 75th Anniversary. 

It is going to be a very exciting time over the next few months.  I'll be looking forward to a holiday in August. 

May has been dizzying!

As we sit here, awaiting the news conference that will announce that Winnipeg will once again have a hockey team, I am reflecting on how exciting this month has been overall.

Despite the horrible weather that we continue to endure this spring, Picante really can't complain at all.  We have been kept extremely busy by our regular clients and have had some exciting new business opportunities come our way as well.

We've developed a concept for Grant Park Shopping Centre to carry them through their fab new renovation.  And just last week it was announced that Target will take over the Zeller's at Grant Park in 2013.  I believe this is really great news for the retailers in the mall. 

Our MPAR project for the College of Physicians and Surgeons is nearly complete.  It is such a pleasure working with Judy and Louise from the College.  It's the kind of working relationship that makes me so glad to be in this business.

We're just about set with the Summer newsletter for Sunrise Credit Union.  It is loaded with interesting stories and information about an organization that is growing stronger every day.  I have to laugh when I think about the fact that I was lucky enough to win this client due to a conversation in a swim up bar in Cabo San Lucas!

We are doing some amazing work for Bothwell Cheese.  I will love to share it when it is approved.

The Winnipeg Police needed a hurry up solution to address a concern they were having.  Will post that here once it is approved as well.  In the meantime, we are working hard to prepare for our big crash shoot this August.  It is going to be something very special.

We've just begun working on two brand new pieces of business and once they are confirmed I will be excited to share the news.

As per usual, a shout out to Char who is simply doing a wonderful job on all her graphic design work.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  

In short, it's going to be a wild and crazy couple of months coming up.

Life is sooooo good.

Here it is, May already.

And my oldest son's birthday.  Happy Birthday Shaun!  I also think of this day as the 32nd anniversary of me becoming a Mom.

Laura and Shaun on Mother's Day.

Laura and one of the beautiful children of Alto Trujillo

As usual, things have been hopping at the Picanteria.  But the biggest news of late was our successful adventure in Peru.  My daughter Shea had invented a charitable project in which she solicited gently used shoes from school kids, took their photo and we travelled to Trujillo, Peru with the shoes to deliver them to children in poverty there.  It truly was a life changing experience and we can't wait to do it again.  It is quite addicting.

On the work front we are busy preparing for our new Winnipeg Police Commercial shoot which will be occurring in mid-July.  Once again, I must tribute the Winnipeg Police Service for caring so much about keeping us all safe.

We're getting close to going to print on our new materials for the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

On a tougher note, we're said to be saying goodbye to John and Jamie from Grant Park Shopping Centre who are leaving our fair city to go west.  We'll certainly miss our collaboration.  However, we're looking forward to working up all the new creative to manage the exciting  Grant Park renovations with new GM Sandra Haganaars. 

Enjoyed a magnificent Winnipeg Wine Festival Gala Dinner with our good friends Sue and Ron and the next day I taught a class on Advertising Fundamentals for Kathryne's University of Winnipeg class.  Good thing I didn't overdo it on the wine! 

Hope everyone is having a nice spring....don't worry - the warm weather will soon arrive!