We won!

Oh, and so did 41 other amazing Houston companies in their respective marketing categories, by the way.

What are we talking about? Well, the American Marketing Association's (AMA) Houston chapter recently dropped the awesome bomb on a boatload of Houston businesses. Forty two lucky ducks were selected as the Best of Category winners for AMA Houston's Marketer of the Year award. These 42 contenders will now go on to vie for the coveted 2010 Marketer of the Year title, to be awarded in a ceremony on March. 7.

And we were one of those 42.

CultureMap took Best Marketer in the Media: Print category. Pretty darn neat, we must say.

"Nominations can be made by anyone," Matt Ross, chair of the Marketer of the Year event, told us via e-mail. "To be considered, a nomination has to identify the company and specific reasons why it is being nominated. The Best of Category winners are determined by a vote of the AMA Houston members and a panel of judges."

Ross continued, "We had 206 nominees, and the tough economy meant that many companies had to push constrained marketing budgets to do more with less."

Yeah, we actually do feel pretty cool now.

Wait! Before you go crazy with the showering of praise, save a few pats on the back, will you? Marketers with moxie at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Theater Under the Stars, Gexa Energy, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, and Discovery Green (and so many more!) also took home honors in their respective categories. For the full list (because we can't possibly mention everyone!), see here.

Now it's do or die for these 42 dynamo finalists. The last contender standing will be honored as the creme de la creme of the marketing world in Houston.

"The overall winner is determined by four groups of out-of-town judges who review questionnaire responses submitted by each Best of Category winner," Ross said. "Their ratings are consolidated, and the overall high score is AMA Houston's 2010 Marketer of the Year."

So now everyone competes against each other for the big, bad, grand prize — the Marketer of the Year Award.

But with a lineup like this? The future of Houston marketing is most certainly in capable, savvy hands, no matter which company wins.