STANANDLOU MARKETING/ADVERTISING

Houston — Stan and Lou Advertising has gained $2 million in new billings with the addition of three new clients. The 18-person shop in Houston, Texas, won all three accounts in separate reviews in the last month of 2001.

The list of new accounts include Tortuga Coastal Cantina, a regional Mexican restaurant chain owned by Mexican Restaurants, Inc.; Tootsies, an upscale women’s wear boutique specializing in designer wear and couture; and Crisis Intervention, a non-profit organization providing a 24-hour telephone hotline, corporate counseling services and referrals. The agency will provide a full range of advertising services including print and television production, media placement, collateral, and internet development.

Tortuga Coastal Cantina chose Stan and Lou based on the agency’s success with the Monterey’s Tex-Mex Cafe and Little Mexico brands in 2001, both restaurants under the Mexican Restaurants, Inc. banner. “Stan and Lou basically came in and revamped our marketing efforts with the introduction of quarterly promotions, in-store events, contests and bounce-back programs,” noted Kim Hankamer, Marketing Director of Mexican Restaurants, Inc. “Anyone who can produce monthly double-digit sales increases is certainly somebody we want on our Tortuga team.”

“Tortuga has built a tremendous following by offering quality Mexican food in a fun, wholesome environment,” noted Lou Congelio, President of Stan and Lou. “Our primary goal is to increase awareness of the Tortuga brand and promote the quality of their food through a testimonial campaign and a new tagline, “Simply great Mexican food.”

Initial work for Tortuga will center around a new television campaign and a revamped menu and collateral package.

Tortuga Coastal Cantina is a part of a concept theme of restaurants run by Mexican Restaurants, Inc. which currently has 51 company restaurants and 35 franchise restaurants operating in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Idaho and Michigan.

Tootsies selected Stan and Lou based on work produced by the agency several years ago for the client. “We are delighted once again to be working with Tootsies,” stated Congelio. “We produced some work for them in the 90’s that remains to this day some of our most creative and successful advertising.”

“We talked to a few agencies in Dallas and Houston but Stan and Lou were the only ones who truly understood us,” reported Mickey Rosmarin, owner of Tootsies. “We have a very unique customer and a very unique store. Stan and Lou gets it!”

The agency will begin work on a variety of projects including a new Spring Image Campaign and a direct mail/internet Prom promotion.

Stan and Lou was also tapped by Crisis Intervention of Houston to head a new branding initiative reintroducing Crisis Intervention’s services to potential users and volunteers. Crisis Intervention is a non-profit organization providing 24-hour telephone counseling and referral services.

“We had a lot of stressful events in 2001,” noted Shari Koziol, Executive Director of Crisis Intervention . “Between the September terrorist attacks, the flood, layoffs and the recession, there are many people in Houston who are deeply affected and need someone with whom they can talk. Unfortunately, many people don’t even know we exist.”

“We are absolutely thrilled to have been chosen by Crisis Intervention to head their awareness push,” stated Congelio. “They are an incredible group of people providing a much needed and under utilized, free service to Houston. We are honored to be asked to help.”

Stan and Lou Advertising is a full-service advertising agency with over $20 million in billings. Clients include, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Trendmaker Homes, Coastal Banc, Scripps Clinic, Marble Slab Creamery, Monterey’s Tex-Mex Cafe, Little Mexico, 104 KRBE, The Texas Back Institute, The Mercury Room, Zula, Boaka Bar and Time Warner Cable.

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