A Little History: Mardi Gras

The term “Mardi Gras” refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Popular practices include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, etc. [from Wikipedia]

The tradition of throwing
beads and small trinkets
from Mardi Gras parade
floats dates back almost
as long as the parades
themselves. Originally,
the beaded necklaces
were made from glass,
but the Krewes switched
to plastic in the mid
1900s. Throws started in
the 1920s when Rex and
a few other Krewes
started throwing small
trinkets. Today, you can
catch almost anything from a masked rider—stuffed animals, plastic cups, small toys and even bags to hold all your goodies.

Read more at TopTenz.net: Click Here

www.curtis1000.com

Facts You May Not Know About Chocolate

- February is Chocolate Lovers
Month.

- Chocolate is made from the
cacao (pronounced ka-KOW)
tree which is native to Central
and South America.

- Africa produces 70% of the
world’s cacao.

- Over $7 billion is spent on
chocolate annually.

- Chocolate makers use 40% of
the world’s almonds and 20%
of the world’s peanuts.

- Chocolate has great health
benefits. It helps with
depression, high blood
pressure, tumors and 
pre-menstrual syndromes.

- Need a valuable energy source? A chocolate chip can provide enough energy for an adult human to walk 150 ft.

Sources:
http://www.squidoo.com/fun-chocolate-facts
http://www.facts-about-chocolate.com/where-does-chocolate-come-from/
http://www.infobarrel.com/10_Facts_about_Chocolate

A Valentine’s Day Infographic

Ever wonder how much Valentine’s Day can help the economy?
Here is a great infographic presented by Savings.com Blog and Save

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Help a Heart in Need

Support American Heart Month and wear red throughout the month of February. It’s a small gesture, but one that’s easy and that anyone can do. You can do it for awareness and to make it known that everyone can fight heart disease by taking care of themselves.

American Heart Month

The American Heart
Association is a not-
for-profit organization
that works to reduce
disability and death
from cardiovascular
diseases and stroke.
Heart and blood vessel
diseases are the nation’s
number one killer.
February has been
designated as American
Heart month. For more
information about
what’s going on in
American Heart Month,
check out the American Heart Association’s site here.

A Simple Like

In the month of February, CardioSmart and Coca-Cola will donate a total of $2 to
Mended Little Hearts  for each “like” on CardioSmart’s fan page on Facebook.
Take a minute, visit their page, and help save a life! To find out more about
Mended Little Hearts, click on the link provided above.

www.curtis1000.com 

Trade Show Promotion Builds Interest and Awareness

Client:

The Network Management
Division of Ipswitch, Inc. is
the developer of the WhatsUp
Gold suite of innovative IT Management software. WhatsUp Gold delivers comprehensive network, system, application and event log monitoring and management solutions for small and medium businesses and enterprises. Over 100,000 networks worldwide use WhatsUp Gold solutions to assure the availability, health and security of their critical  business infrastructure today.

Challenge:

The Ipswitch Network Management
Division needed to make a statement
at the most significant trade show
they participate in each year — the
CiscoLive Networkers Show. They
wanted to build awareness with
customers as well as generate a
significant amount of interest with
prospects – all while ultimately
increasing booth traffic and leads.

Solution:

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold utilized Curtis
1000 to transform their trade show
marketing efforts into a revved-up
car garage campaign, with
promotional products and a
CreatiFont™ postcard follow-up
mailing. They wanted to make sure
their theme was carried through all
contact points with the show
attendees. First, Curtis 1000 supplied eye-catching promotional products for their booth on the show floor, including car mechanic shirts, trucker hats, tire gauges, license plates and more.

Following the show, Ipswitch wanted to keep the excitement and interest level of their prospects. A CreatiFont™ postcard and email were used to continue the garage theme with eye-catching use of personalization. The goal of the postcard was to continue to mine the show leads and “drive” recipients to their website to learn more and “test drive” the software.

Results:

The Ipswitch Network Management Division was pleased with the results of the trade show. They drew substantial booth traffic and the theme was well received by the attendees. When asked about this experience, Kaitlyn Myers, Global Programs Marketing Manager of Ipswitch’s Network Management Division, replied: “Curtis1000 was able to execute our theme through all aspects of this event, helping to make it a great success!”

CreatiFont™ is a trademark of Curtis 1000 Inc.

www.curtis1000.com