Monday, December 22, 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas!



Our corporate headquarters in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana were covered in snow this morning. Needless to say we had already had snowball fights at home or we would have been a mess for our client meetings today.

Saturday, November 22, 2008



Check out our new logo for the Shop River Ranch campaign. We also have a new splash page for them at www.ShopRiverRanch.com. Let the shopping begin!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Toy Box Arrives in Time for the Holidays.

We are always surprised and impressed with the creativity and genius of ideas from Louisiana businesses that yield new and profitable business models. Our latest client is Toy Box Storage Condominiums.

Here's the concept. Instead of renting storage space for all of the "stuff" you can store at home, you buy your space. Phase I is sold out. Phase II is under construction, which will include climate-controlled units.

We found dads with their kids polishing classic cars, washing boats and building a community in the "Toy Box."

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Shop River Ranch

We've been tapped by the retail shops at River Ranch in Lafayette, LA to create and produce a consortium advertising program. With nearly 40 business that represent a wide variety of retails outlets, the campaign is very similar to the EatLafayette campaign we run every year.

We will be launching a website that will evolve over the next few months, creating a brand and running a promotional campaign with our favorite radio group, Regent Broadcasting.

About River Ranch

The Village of River Ranch lies to the south of the Vermilion River in the heart of southern Louisiana in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. It is home to over 2,000 persons, and over 2,000 come here to work and play every day.

The aesthetic influences found at River Ranch can be traced through the history and heritage of Louisiana. The diversity in Louisiana's culture and customs is clearly reflected in the architectural styles that flourish throughout the village. These seven major architectural influences are Caribbean, French, American Colonial, Creole, Acadian, Spanish and Neoclassical Revival. Each style has its own distinct character and personality, yet all work together to provide variety and interest throughout the many neighborhoods. At River Ranch, we have placed greater emphasis on architectural integrity, rather than size. A small Creole cottage, when well executed, contributes as much to the streetscape as a Southern plantation home. Estate homes with carriage houses, townhouses, and condominiums all have a place within River Ranch.

Vibrant businesses link the community together and are arranged to allow for people to visit on broad sidewalks and to meet all of their needs conveniently. A mix of retail, dining, and professional services all within walking distance is a return to the traditional concept of Main Street in America. Boutique mixes with larger retail chain stores to meet the needs of today’s consumer in a traditional environment. Designed by award-winning architect Steve Oubre, The Village of River Ranch is representative of the New Urbanism movement as well as the rich heritage and culture of Louisiana.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Equestrian Website Launched.


We launched the Sterling Silver Stables website and are having a blast updating it with lots of family and competition photos.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Calzone's Thoroughbred Race Horse Breeders Bucks National Trend On A Day When The Economy Tanked!

Total Receipts Soar at Louisiana Yearling Sale
by Jeff Apel

The Breeders Sales Company of Louisiana yearling sale overcame the slumping economy to post double-digit increases in gross receipts and average, reversing a downward trend experienced in other recent yearling auctions.

The one-day sale concluded Monday with 171 of 258 Louisiana-bred yearlings offered selling for total receipts of $2,086,300, a 63.6% increase compared with last year’s sale, when 149 of 246 horses offered sold for $1,275,300. This year’s average price of $12,201 increased 42.6% compared with last year’s $8,559 average. Monday’s median price was $6,000. No comparable figure was available from last year’s sale. Buy-backs increased from 74 last year to 87 on Monday.

The double-digit increases in total receipts and average price prompted Tom Early, the sale director and secretary/treasurer of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, to call the sale “the best we’ve had in Louisiana for yearlings.” He credited lucrative purses offered at Louisiana tracks for the big increases, which came on the heels of steep declines at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

“We attracted the buyers,” Early said. “We have a quality product that can earn a lot of money.”

Early said increased advertising also helped to bolster the sale. “We worked this sale,” Early said. “We did a whole lot more advertising for it. No one in the country could say they didn’t know we had a sale.

“We also, for the first time, had a [public relations] guy that went around to the various sales talking to various buyers and consignors.”

Fillies by Lemon Drop Kid and Leestown each sold for $65,000 to top the sale. Tony Richey, agent for Oak Leaf T.C., purchased the Lemon Drop Kid filly, who is out of the winning Majestic Light mare Royal Flex. Consigned by Red River Farm, agent, the bay filly is a half sister to stakes-placed winners Flexible Princess and Our Colors and is from the female family of Grade 1 winners and sires General Assembly and Chief Honcho, multiple graded stakes winner and sire American Chance, and multiple Grade 3 winner Expressive Dance. Lee Young Farm purchased the Leestown filly, who is out of the unplaced With Approval mare Bussalma. A half sister to Caribean Sea, a dual champion imported older horse and dual champion stayer in the Dominican Republic and multiple stakes winner We’ll See Ya, the Leestown filly was consigned by Red River Farm, agent for breeders Jay Adcock and Neal McFadden.

-Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

We just love food clients!

Cafe Vermilionville and owner, Ken Veron, are back at Calzone using our latest eMarketing tools to showcase a new menu and the return of Alex Patout to Acadiana.

Alex is now the head chef at Cafe V. He's famous for his prior restaurants, Patout's in New Iberia and Alex Patout's in New Orleans. A group of us experience a tasting last night and it was fantastic. The crawfish bisque rivals moms and the duck there is like not other.

Check out their first newsletter!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Now we're cracking!


Anyone who knows the boss, knows she has horses. And, her horses have the best of everything including their own equine chiropractor.

Dr. Lance Cleveland is Board Certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association as an Animal Chiropractor. He is also a trained Veterinary Chiropractitioner and has discovered that the results created by the marriage of these two techniques are absolutely phenomenal.

Mastery of these two approaches for quadruped chiropractic gives him the unique ability to choose a treatment combination that is more suitable to efficiently reduce or eliminate an animal’s biomechanical problems.

His practice ranges from the great pleasure of optimizing the performance of horses to helping the family dog once again jump into his master’s lap.

Check out the website we updated for him including all of photos and videos at:
theanimalcracker.com.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

We're off to the races!

Want to buy a race horse? Our client, the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, is in the business of rewarding Louisiana thoroughbred horse breeders and owners with one of the most generous incentive programs on the planet.

Through the Breeders Sales Company of Louisiana you can buy a yearling (one year old race horse) for future racing. We just completed a major campaign with funds from the LTBA and Louisiana Economic Development. Louisiana is ranked #5 in the U.S. in the horse business.

Check out one of TV spots that's posted on their website: www.louisianabred.com.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Gustav.

We have a plan. We used the plan. We were never out of business. Our employees were moved to safe havens. The data, backed up in triplicate, was in three different cities and two states. Fortunately, we sustained only minor damage that is already repaired. We were back up and running one day after the hurricane hit.

Our plan also called for us to operate in our separate locations should we not be able to return. We want to encourage everyone and every business to have a plan. Once the emergency in on top of you, the stress makes it difficult to make decisions. Having a plan and someone in charge means you only have to follow the leader and follow the list of things to do.

Louisiana's Governor, Bobby Jindal, did a phenomenal job getting everyone out and is now getting everyone back. Our homebase was led by Mayor Joey Durel and LUS director, Terry Huval. They did a great job. Also, kudos to AT&T, our provider. We never lost service and our downed lines were up within an hour of making a phone call. It's amazing how the data and voice transmitted even with the lines on the ground.

Stay safe and stay prepared.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Zak Attack!

Zak Angelle is coming on board at Calzone after passing his audition this week. He's going to take over Jeff's duties since Jeff is back to ULL to finish his studies in animimation. Jeff's going to work from the sidelines, but will never be on the outside of our shop. He's going to mentor Zak and keep Calzone growing in digital and Internet skills.

Zak's a 2008 graduate of the University of Louisiana Lafayette with a degree in visual arts and graphic design. A former honor graduate of Breaux Bridge High School who was working at golfballs.com until we found him.

We already know he's serious about his job. He emailed the boss about a project just after midnight last night!

Friday, August 8, 2008

The Mane Event.



Here's the deal on this logo. It's a new equestrian center that specializes in "English" riding - jumping, eventing and dressage. While the horses are all doing different things, are different colors and sizes, they all have one thing in common. Their manes are braided for the competitions. The client's reaction - "I love it."

We say, "way to go, Chelsea Mae!"
Chelsea Mae says, "only 276 designs to get to the one!"

It's going to take mighty big shoes to fill this one.

The reason we're saying this is because Jeff Cross is a superstar, but needs to finish his animation studies. He's set the bar pretty high. If you think you can reach it, send your resume on portfolio to jobs@calzone.com.

So, we're looking for an accomplished web programmer for part-time or
salaried position. You must be fluent in PHP, MySQL, and all Adobe
CS3 applications: especially Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop.
Experience with CSS and SEO techniques is essential, and experience
with Flash Actionscript is a huge plus.

Responsibilities would entail maintaining existing websites,
designing and building new websites, managing mail lists, and other
general web based activities.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Who Wants A Job?

If you think you have the right stuff for this job, send your resume. Wimps need not apply.

Assistant to President
JOB DESCRIPTION
Send resume to: jobs@calzone.com

• Assist President with all client and business operations
• Handle day-to-day activities for assigned clients
• Become familiar with products and markets in which assigned clients operate
• Prepare marketing communication plans for clients
• Brief support staff and suppliers on requirements of projects
• Provide creative direction to copywriters and art directors
• Oversee execution of approved programs
• Identify new business opportunities from existing clients
• Budget control
• Preliminary approval of billing to clients
• Represent agency at industry functions
• Provide President with overview of clients’ current activities
• Obtain approval of President of all creative work at appropriate stages
• Maintain written records of all client work
• Provide media & public relations for client
• Track media efforts for the client to determine the most effective strategies
• Manage all aspects of client jobs at appropriate stages

Skills required:

• Excellent organizational skills
• Detail-oriented
• Ability to work under pressure
• Must meet deadlines
• Great stewardship of finances
• Excellent writing and communications skills
• Must be proficient with Microsoft Office Programs
• Must be proficient with the Internet and digital technology
• Willingness to work nights and weekends when needed
• Event planning and production skills
• Excellent people skills
• Ability work with other team players
• Ability to “think out of the box”
• Ability to produce results with minimal supervision
• Willingness to take on tasks as assigned
• Willingness to go the “extra-mile”
• Ability to multi-task
• Great work ethic

Monday, July 28, 2008

Nottoway Kennels Website

The new website for Nottoway Kennels is now up and running!

Visit www.nottowaykennels.com

Sunday, July 27, 2008

We just needed another outlet to talk about our work at Calzone. We're an advertising, creative and media shop based in Louisiana. The creative class is thriving here.

So how did it all end up?

For a sneak peak at Nottoway Kennels go to:
calzone.com/nk

So far, the client loves it. We're doing some final tweaks before it goes live.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

How it all starts.

We've been doing this advertising and media game for a long time. We've been doing a lot of social media for our clients and decided it was time for us to have some fun on our own. You can see our work at calzone.com and know that we've been through a lot of evolution and revolution over time. It would just take way too much time to go into it all, but I'm sure some of it will come out as this dialogue progress.

The project I have on display here all started with my friend who loves dogs. She wanted a website and needed a logo. The Art Director immediately recommended "I Heart Dogs!" and we laughed. Then we (well, he) got to work.

There are 6 people in the family: mom, dad, 2 girls and 2 boys. Then there are the dogs, the other family member. It's a house and a home and the dogs are in their home, the kennel.

Get it? 7 stars for each of the family members! And, don't you think the "nk" with the "n" reversed looks like a home with a chimney?