Five Signature Awards Nominations!

It's always nice to be nominated.  This year Picante Advertising has received 5 nominations.  Three for Just Slow Down and two for Know Your Zone.  The gala awards event will be held May 10th and we're looking forward to a fun evening with some of our favourite clients.

We received a request today from Santa Monica, California.  A driver safety group wants permission to use elements from the Just Slow Down campaign for their students.  Very pleased about that. 

Still busy putting the finishing touches on Bothwell's new cheddar labels.  I do believe I'll be able to post the new labels here as of tomorrow. 

The International Applicants section of the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists website is soon ready for launch. 

I do promise to get some nice artwork on here soon. 

A busy Spring

Know Your Zone was a great pleasure to work on.  It's a bit of a shame that this was what seemed like the warmest winter in history and a Residential Plow was never called - no snow!  So the City was not able to even test out the new system.  It is a little unfortunate but at least on our end - the campaign was very well received.  It will definitely go down in my personal history as one of my favourite campaigns to work on.

The Picante team put a great deal of effort into a new proposal for the City of Winnipeg's new Garbage and Recycling Program.  We were rewarding by being part of the shortlist.  Now we must wait and see if we were successful in winning their confidence.  We would love to work on this exciting program.

The Winnipeg Police Service have had a fair bit of bad press lately and I feel nearly helpless.  I feel so strongly about the motives and character of the individuals in the Traffic Division.  But the public and the local media have been merciless in their criticism.  I had lunch the other day with my clients and the new head of the Central Traffic Unit.  Threw out a few ideas for a proactive program....but I'm not sure we'll be able to go ahead with it.  I think I'm a little close to the problem.  I feel the criticism very deeply and my natural disposition is to "protect and defend."

Looking forward to the launch on March 19th of the new Grant Park Shopping Centre spring campaign.  The original promotion idea was all GM Sandi Haganaars idea.  But I'd say Char and I did a fine job executing it.  Everything looks terrific and I'll be sure to post photos soon.

Have been working on brand and ads for Bayview Construction.  These impressive young men have built an enviable company.  I definitely enjoy working with them.

And soon we'll be launching a new segment of the website for the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Manitoba.  For their International Registration area.  It has involved a completely new design and I believe represents a significant upgrade.  Their Spring awareness campaign will be launching at the beginning of April with bustails, radio and newspaper as well as on medical clinic electronic signage.

Bothwell Cheese has kept us very busy with label design.  Once we have some final approval on artwork, I'll post it here.  We've redone all the cheddars (old, medium, mild, 1 year old and 2 year old) horseradish cheddar, black truffle and soon will be working on maple smoked.  We've also created special occasion gift boxes.

Will check back in shortly when I can post pretty pictures.  Hope you're all enjoying this beautiful spring weather we're having.

Know Your Zone - Courtesy Tow

Know Your Zone - City of Winnipeg residential street winter parking regu...

Know Your Zone - The City of Winnipeg Winter Parking Ban campaign.

General Grader

If you've been following along, you know that back in early September, Picante was chosen by the City of Winnipeg to develop a communication campaign for the Public Works Department regarding the changes to the Winter Parking Bans.  The clients put their trust in us and challenged us to come up with something eyecatching and different.

Lieutenant Loader

The result is Know Your Zone.  We developed two characters, General Grader and Lieutenant Loader, voiced by Winnipeg personalities Laurie Mustard and Jim Ingebrigtsen who did an amazing job creating unique, charismatic characters.

Thanks to Nolan Balzer at daCapo for engineering the audio session and directing the music choice.   Then the fabulous Adam, Simon and Brad at Elemental Motion Media brought the characters to life in the animated commercials,

The multi-talented Lori Dyck from Wildfire Online worked tirelessly with the IT team at Public Works and Corporate Communications, Nasir, Ashley and Nancy to make sure the website www.knowyourzone.winnipeg.ca  was ready for action this morning.  The public is encouraged to sign up for email and Twitter notices relating to the residential parking ban. You can even look up the snow zones on your mobile device, making this truly a cutting edge communication program. 

Vertical Billboard

Bustail

Knowledgable and experienced Kathryne Grisim put together a comprehensive media plan and Charlene looked after design and layout for a host of print applications,  You'll soon see Know Your Zone on vertical billboards, newspaper, bustails and electronic billboards. In a campaign with numerous components, date changes and many approval levels, Kathryne and Char never lost the smile in their voices. 

It's very difficult to put into words, what an amazing team was involved in this project.  ...and I'm supposed to be a writer.   Ken Allen - thank you for your tireless, passionate work on this campaign. You were the Commander in Chief on this operation (at least our end of it) and need to be credited for being an exceptional project manager and enthusiastic cheerleader.  I think it's safe to say we'll be staying in touch - this is a relationship I've come to greatly value...feels more like family than client/agency.   And thanks to Ken Boyd, Stan Siu, Bruce McPhail and Brad Sacher for putting your trust in us.

It was our first opportunity to work with Tammy Melesko at Corporate Communications.  Tammy you were so wonderful to work with.  It was a distinct pleasure getting to know you better and I am sure we'll continue to stay in touch.  We were reunited with the amazing Steve West - how we've missed you Steve - Steve was a big part of the original planning for Just Slow Down for the Winnipeg Police Service and it was so great to have the chance to work together again.

Nasir Noor, again, what a positive, genuine, calm and caring individual you are.  No matter how complicated things became, you were open to discussion and so willing to go the extra mile. 

I'm very proud of Know Your Zone...it will definitely go down as one of the highlights of my career.

I hope everyone takes the time to find out their snow zone and that the Winnipeg Parking Authority can't find anyone to ticket or tow next time we are in combat with Major Snowfall!  (I cannot take credit for that one - that was Ken Allen's idea! )

Some behind the scenes shots: 

The Dream Team - The group responsible for the Know Your Zone campaign.

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Jim Ingebrigtsen and Laurie Mustard lending their golden voices to Lieutenant Loader and General Grader.

Commander In Chief - Ken Allen

Audio Engineer Extraordinaire - Nolan Balzer from daCapo.

Ken Boyd at today's launch.

Ken Allen describing the components of the campaign.

Ken explaining how the website works to help citizens look up their residential street snow zone.

An excellent turn out by the media.

Remember way back when?  In mid-September we held our first"creative" meeting at Cafe Dario.  Ken Allen and Tammy Melesko.

Congratulations Bothwell!

Bothwell Cheese, one of Manitoba's finest companies celebrated 75 years in business on Friday.  The team out at Bothwell planned a fun event to mark the milestone.  We were treated to smokies, poutine and definitely a fine array of Bothwell's finest cheese products.  The event was hosted by David Northcott from Winnipeg Harvest.  The Honourable Vic Toews brought greetings from the federal government.  And a host of other dignitaries were on hand to help celebrate.  We're proud to have developed Bothwell's distinctive 75th Anniversary logo and congratulate Ivan Balenovic and his staff for a wonderful event and for one of Manitoba's most successful businesses. 

Warp Speed!

Hard at work on the new City of Winnipeg Winter Parking Bylaw campaign.  It will definitely be a lot of fun when the campaign launches on November 28th.  Our creative concept was very well received by the folks at the Public Works Department and Corporate Communications as well as by the COO and Mayor Sam Katz.  The elements are really coming together and Ken Allen is just fantastic to work for.  We really appreciate his faith and trust in us.

Meanwhile Grant Park Shopping Centre is getting ready for Christmas after a busy fall full of renovations.

And, once again, we're busy with another RFP for the exciting new City of Winnipeg Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor.

The new massage therapy commercials will launch October 31st and we're nearly done on the new Winnipeg Police ones too.  It's so great to see the fruits of all the labours ripening and getting ready to harvest.

The dream team of Kath, Lori and Char keep rising to every occasion and I just have to say - it's fantastic to work with such talented, dedicated people.