Trevor Arnold – Fast Horse’s newest employee from Fast Horse on Vimeo.

Some fun news for a Friday. We’re celebrating the promotion of Allison Checco, our newest Senior Director. If you know Alli, I suspect you’re not surprised. She spends most of her time spreading sunshine around the Fast Horse World Headquarters while simultaneously kicking ass for our clients.

From trusted client counselor and special events superstar to media relations bulldog and social media strategist, you won’t find anyone more versatile. All that and she finds time to be a pretty great mom, too. Not bad for a small town girl from Aberdeen, S.D., huh?

Alli has had a big hand in the success of Fast Horse over the last seven years and she’s universally loved by her colleagues. In fact, the announcement of her promotion set off a party around here that would make Keith Richards blush. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but we did crack open a bottle of champagne before noon.

I’ve heaped a lot of praise, but she deserves every bit of it. By the way Peepshow readers, Alli doesn’t shy away from a little attention, so feel free to join me in offering her congratulations.

Sisyphus never stopped trying.

During my few, action-packed years in advertising I’ve learned many things, some of which, if written, would ensure an immediate decrease in Fast Horse blog readership due to death by boredom. The one thing I’ve learned that I’d like to share is the importance of persistence.

Things in this business don’t often go your way – and without persistence, success can seem impossible. Often ideas that have countless hours of blood, sweat and tears behind them could end up dead if they don’t have a passionate, persistent individual pushing them forward. That passionate person will listen to why the idea might not work, then adapt, make changes and bring it back again and again until it is the spot-on, perfect solution to every problem in the world. Well, maybe not that good, but you get the idea.

Next time you may feel defeated, stay persistent and keep that payoff in mind because as small as it may seem to some, it is going to seem huge to you. I think this woman’s trials and tribulations illustrate this life lesson perfectly.

It’s a big weekend for Fast Horse, thanks to our friends at The Coca-Cola Company.

On Sunday, our own Dave Fransen will be in Pittsburgh, where Steelers legend “Mean Joe” Greene will be presented with the Clio award he won 30 years ago for his iconic Coca-Cola commercial (above). The 1979 commercial became one of the all-time classics, thanks to Greene and his co-star, 9-year-old Tommy Okon.

Greene never actually accepted his Clio, so Coca-Cola arranged for him to receive the award in a special pre-game ceremony at Heinz Field, featuring Steelers President Art Rooney II — and a much older Tommy Okon. Franny will be on hand to make sure everything goes smoothly.

If you’ve never seen the ad, it’s well worth one minute of your time — and I challenge you not to get a lump in your throat.

On Monday, Scott Broberg and Mike Keliher will be in Atlanta to help kick off Expedition 206, an ambitious, yearlong, social media marketing program.

Coke is sending three “happiness ambassadors” around the world – 206 countries in 365 days, with one mission: find out what makes people happy.

The winning team will be announced Monday, with the expedition launching on Jan. 1. You’ll be hearing more from them — and us — as three young people with the world’s coolest jobs  embark on their journey.

Artist: Liz Lemon Swindle

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I beg to differ –

This month, I re-joined the Fast Horse stable after a nearly two-year hiatus. During my first run, I had the pleasure of working on a few Coca-Cola projects, a little bit of Nationwide Insurance and a whole lot of Northern Tool + Equipment. I worked with fantastic people like Charley and Tim and Betsy and Emalie, and it was great.

Then I “went corporate,” spending some time in the communications department at Target. It was a lot of fun to try a new challenge after 10 years of agency life. But the longer I was away, the more I missed the exciting work that was coming out of Fast Horse.

So now I’m back … and very happy about it. I traded a tiny cube for the open air goodness that is 240 N. 9th Ave. I traded a quiet environment for a lot of noisy chaos. And I traded lots of speech writing and acting as a media spokesman for a Montgomery Gentry concert in Atlanta and a Steelers/Bengals game in November.

Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoyed Target. But this has been a good lesson in thinking the grass is greener somewhere else.

Not a lot has changed at the Pony, but there are a few new faces that have replaced some of the old. Suffice it to say, I got a chance to make a first impression with people like Mike and George and Hillary and Sandra (hope I didn’t blow it!). They seem like a damn good crew. I can already tell round two is going to be even better than my first go-round at this place, and I’m excited to dig in. Now back to work –

That’s a long way of saying: Hi, I’m Mike Keliher. The new guy. And I have faith this “writing about how I don’t know what to write about” stunt is like a fine wine — better with age.

Beyond struggling with blank slates, I love (and still play) baseball, enjoy demonstrating my sub-par guitar skills (“demonstrating” as in “playing in my bedroom”), drink coffee as if my sanity depends on it (though tea is gaining ground), and hold Hemingway in the highest regard (I quickly fell in love with Catherine). I’m a voracious reader, and that appetite comes with a nasty compulsion that mandates I read every page of every magazine I touch. As such, my Rolling Stone subscription was axed in an effort to drum up some free time and, to be fair, to avoid further reading about the Jonas Brothers.

I’m lucky enough to be married to a smart, funny, gorgeous woman from a great family, and we’re expecting our first child in August. If I haven’t already told you that I’m an unabashed geek, I should say as much. My unborn child’s presence on Twitter is but one bit of evidence.

Before joining the Fast Horse crew, I worked for nearly five years at a small PR and social media consulting firm in St. Paul. As I student, I worked as a columnist and editor at the school newspaper and served on the national committee of the Public Relations Student Society of America. I also spent a couple of years working in tech support, but I believe calling me to ask why “this damn e-mail won’t … just … send!” is a bit outside of our project’s scope.

I can already tell this is a great group at Fast Horse, and I expect to have a lot of fun while doing my part to make it just a little bit better.

You can find me on Twitter here, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the Idea Peepshow on a regular basis. And of course, you can always e-mail me.

Anyway, I figure the best way for you, my audience, to get to know the Man, the Myth, the Legend, is to just run down some fun facts about myself. Very Facebook, I know, but I never did the whole “25 Things” on Facebook because I’m above that. Not really. 

So here it goes.

1. I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Well, technically Urbandale, which is a suburb but no use in splitting hairs.
2. My parents are Greg and Leslie. A CPA and a teacher respectively. Noble but not too exciting. I suppose I could lie and say they are “professional BASE jumpers” but that would start our relationship down the wrong path.
3. I have two sisters (Arwen and Beth) with three nieces and a nephew between them. That makes me “The Cool Uncle”. As in the one who just feeds them candy and ice cream, takes them to R-rated movies, and tells them it’s okay to shave their dog.
4. I am currently 23 and I am getting married in August to my whip smart and cute-as-a-button fiancé Nicole. She’s a French-Canadian neuroscientist. I win.
5. My favorite movies are (with only the first two in order): Magnolia, The Usual Suspects, The Shining, Short Cuts, Network, The Third Man, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, 8 1/2, Goodfellas, and Singin’ In The Rain. I like to think that makes me eclectic rather than pretentious but I’m probably wrong.
6. That picture is me from a recent “Tacky Christmas Sweater” Christmas Party. I won. Obviously. But somehow I lost my dignity in the process. Hmmmm.
7. I have eaten the world’s largest pizza twice. It’s four feet in diameter and equivalent to 14.5 large pizzas. I didn’t do it all by myself though. The first time there were 10 of us with six people eventually throwing up due to over eating. I was not one of them. The second time there were six of us and none of us threw up. We trained for it.
8. I graduated from the University of Iowa in December with degrees in Cinema, Marketing and Media Studies. Not as impressive as it sounds.
9. Most played on my iPod currently: Neko Case, Converge, Supertramp, Zebulon Pike, Camera Obscura, Sufjan Stevens, John Brion, Torche, and Kasey Chambers. See commentary for #5.
10. I once played drums in a Prince cover band. And by once I actually mean for one performance. Our tambourine player Yoko Ono’ed the band. It was legendary.
11. I got hit by a car on my bike. I was in LA at the time and I thought I would bike everywhere. People were all like, “Andy, nobody bikes in LA.” And I was all like, “Whatever. I’ll bike where I want. Even if it’s in one of the most congested metropolitan roadways in the world.” Then, I got hit by a car going 40 mph. The car never stopped and I still don’t have feeling on the outside of my left thigh. I didn’t bike in LA again.
12. My favorite candy is a tie between gummy bears and Jelly Bellys. Though Jelly Bellys are winning the race recently.
13. I am a SCRABBLE fiend. I have all the two-letter words and the U-less Q words memorized. I haven’t lost in a long while.
14. I have recently taken up amateur artisan bread baking. My first ciabatta failed miserably but I think it’s probably because I de-gassed my poolish a little too much. Fool me once –
15. I didn’t eat chocolate for almost 6 years. I had sworn off caffeine and chocolate was an innocent bystander. I started it up again when I proposed to Nicole. It sounds romantic, but it was actually a little selfish. I just really love chocolate and she was my in.
16. I write in my free time. Mostly screenplays and short films, though I have started into stage plays recently too, which is fascinating. I have trouble finding motivation when I don’t have a deadline, but it is still a passion of mine. Also a tad pretentious.

OK, so I am going to stop at 16 because I’m sure you are sick of me gushing about myself. Plus any more and you’ll feel like you can just come up to me on the street and chat like we go way back. You can’t, cause we don’t.

I’m just kidding. I’m easygoing and will be around for a while here at Fast Horse. Hopefully. It’s a great place with great people. Say hi, either virtually or the 1950′s way; with a wink, a smile, and a good ol’-fashioned handshake. 

Good day,
Andy

I was born and raised in Minneapolis and received my BA in Communication and Management Studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. (No, I don’t know Rose from the Golden Girls.)  I spent a great deal of time studying abroad in places such as England, South Africa, Greece and Quebec. The Quebec program was held in January, and the following year St. Olaf changed the location to Martinique. I’m not bitter about that at all. I travel as much as time and money allows and I have a personal goal to visit at least one new place every year. I’m currently in the Master of Arts in Leadership program at Augsburg College and plan to graduate in June. I call it an MBA without the BS.

Work-wise, I got my start at Fallon Worldwide where I worked in Account Service with clients such as United Airlines, Sports Illustrated and International Truck and Engine Corporation. To this day, I can tell you the make of any heavy or medium duty truck by the front grill.

I then moved to Jamba Juice where I was the Marketing Manager for the Midwest, working with stores in Chicago, Madison and Minneapolis, doing advertising, events, promotions, and the inevitable free smoothie day every spring. My favorite smoothie wasn’t on the menu but included strawberries, bananas, and protein powder.

Most recently, I spent the past five years working at Best Buy Co. in the Event Marketing department, where I helped start their motorsports program. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.  I nearly lost my voice yelling at the TV last Sunday when the Best Buy driver, Elliott Sadler, ran up front towards the end of the race. I also did a rain dance but it didn’t kick in soon enough for him to win. I’ll work on that for next time.

I am thrilled to be joining the Fast Horse family for many reasons.  First, because of the amazingly talented group of people I get to know and work with.  Second, because of the opportunity I have to work on some incredible brands and truly make a difference to both our clients and the Fast Horse business. Third, because I still get a hard card to attend NASCAR races. Fourth, because I’ve heard Fast Horse has great parties where they might let me DJ (that’s my alter ego and we’ll save that story for a rainy day).

Jorg and I are battling over who gets to use the initials JAP, but seeing as he was here first, I think I’ll oblige him. Email me anytime at jodip@fasthorseinc.com.

They’re also stubborn and easy to anger. We’ll hope that only the good qualities apply to the newest member of the Fast Horse family.

Elliott Alexander Pierach was born on Jan. 2. Mom and baby are fine — we believe dad is probably doing all right, too.

It’s likely to require some ox-like persistence to soldier on as 2009 unfolds. The economy hasn’t been this bad since the Great Depression; families and companies alike are tightening their belts.

We remain optimistic, however. As I said when the government announced recently that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007: “Great! We’re that much closer to being done with it!”

I don’t use that word lightly. It takes a lot of nerve to launch a real news site, staffed by real news reporters, in the new online world. It’s one thing to be a solitary blogger, with no fixed costs other than a computer and a wireless bill. It’s another thing to attempt to build something substantial, and Kramer put up a big chunk of his own dough to seed MinnPost. I don’t know what their financials look like, but they’re definitely grabbing eyeballs, now reaching more than 125,000 unique visitors a month.

I wrote a similar marketing column, “Selling It,” for the Star Tribune for about three years. Yet I always thought the Strib undervalued marketing coverage. The Twin Cities has one of the nation’s largest, most productive and creative marketing industries. It’s a business that is knowledge-based, well-compensated and clean. It attracts to our region the so-called creative class of worker, which some social scientists (e.g., Richard Florida) believe is the key to vitality in the modern economy. I used to tell my editors, if we didn’t already have this industry in our midst, and we had the chance to offer incentives to attract it here, it would be the biggest no-brainer in history.

Yet it’s right here already, organically grown and basically thriving, despite the rough waters of the short term. I hope to highlight some of the thoughts of our region’s leading marketing practitioners (yes, that will include our competitors) and show how they’re responding to the many challenges of what’s surely the most disruptive era ever in communications. My column is set to run on Mondays, with the first installment on July 21. We’ll also be posting the columns here one day after they run on MinnPost. My duties as a senior director at Fast Horse will continue unchanged, other than the addition of another deadline to the mix.