AWC Des Moines

PR Week Awards Finalists Named

PR Week Awards fInalists have been named. Here are the top nominations in three of the eight categories and nine sub-categories:

General Consumer Awards
Arts, Entertainment & Media Campaign of the Year

• Brodeur and The History Channel, Reinventing a Modern Marvel
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• Ketchum and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, "Into the Fire:" Igniting Support for America's Firefighters
• New Line Cinema, Hairspray
• Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and Amazon.com, Harry Potter-mania at amazon.com

Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year

• Edelman and Church & Dwight, Trojan Evolve Campaign
• GolinHarris and Nintendo of America, Gray Gamers Go Wild for Wii
• Ketchum and Kimberly-Clark SCOTT, Flushability
• Manning Selvage & Lee and Procter & Gamble, Charmin Restrooms
• Weber Shandwick and KFC, KFC Face from Space

Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year

• Cohn & Wolfe and Colgate-Palmolive, Get Irish Campaign
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• GolinHarris and Nintendo of America, Wii Launch: How Wii Helped Nintendo Get Its Game Back
• HealthSTAR PR and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Sparking a Weight-Loss Revolution: the Launch of alli
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before you Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry

Industry Market Awards
Technology Campaign of the Year

• Cohn & Wolfe and Joost, Introducing the Future of Television
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before you Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry
• Tesla Motors Tesla Motors, brand launch campaign
• Weber Shandwick and American Airlines, AA.com Clicks with Travelers: American Airlines Launches New First-Class Web Site

Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year

• Capstrat and Raleigh Convention Center,Raleigh Convention Center: From 'Deadville' to Meeting Destination
• Fleishman-Hillard and Bayer Animal Health, Advantage Multi (Imidicloprid + Moxidectin) Topical Solution Product Launch
• Fleishman-Hillard and Rawlings ,"The Summer of Glove: Rawlings Gold Glove Award Golden Anniversary"
• MWW Group and Deloitte & Touche USA, Leadership Counts! Building Reputation and Driving Business with Executive Thought Leadership
• Text 100 and Websense, Porn Blockers to Security Breach Detectors - Websense Does It All

Healthcare Campaign of the Year

• Edelman and Consumer Healthcare Product Association, Five Moms: Stopping Cough Medicine Abuse Before it Starts
• HealthSTAR PR and GlaxoSmith-Kline, Consumer Healthcare Sparking a Weight-Loss Revolution: the Launch of alli
• Lippe Taylor and Digene, HPV Testing: Cutting through the Clutter to Prevent Cervical Cancer
• Porter Novelli and Almond Board of California, The Little Idea that Made a Huge Difference
• Weber Shandwick and National Marrow Donor Program, 2007 Thanks Mom National Marrow Donor Drive

Targeted Audience Awards
Employee Communications Campaign of the Year

• Fleishman-Hillard and AT&T, Communicating Convergence: The AT&T-BellSouth Merger
• Fleishman-Hillard and Ernst & Young, Above and bEYond: Making Inclusiveness Real for Lesbian,
• Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Employees
• Insidedge and The Dow Chemical Company, Bringing the Human Element to Life
• Insidedge and The Dow Chemical Company, Engaging Employees with the Blue Planet Run
• Weber Shandwick and American Airlines, Fuel for Thought: American Airlines Gets Fuel Smar

Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year

• Bratskeir & Company and PepsiCo PepsiCo, Smart Spot Dance! Moves Moms
• Cone LLC and the American Heart Association, American Heart Association's Power To End Stroke
• Edelman Multicultural and Unilever, Pasa La Belleza
• Fleishman-Hillard and Abbott & the Magic Johnson Foundation, I Stand With Magic: The Campaign to End Black AIDS
• M Booth & Associates and Unilever, Vaseline's Skinvoice Campaign

Global Campaign of the Year

• Kaplow and the Blue Planet Run Foundation, Blue Planet Run
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before You Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry
• Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Bayer Schering Pharma, The Image of MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Campaign
• Text 100 and NXP Semiconductors, New Kid on the Block: Presenting NXP Semiconductors to the World
• Weber Shandwick and MasterCard Worldwide, MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce

Find additional results and information on the 2008 Awards fnalists here.

Cell Phone Reading in Japan

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. After all, the novel originated in Japan. Still, the next phase in the evolution of that genre took me by surprise: the latest Japanese novels have gone mobile.

According to The New York Times writer,  Norimitsu Onishi, "of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels." Moreover, "the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists."

While I was sleeping, somewhere along 2000, the cellphone novel emerged. The reality that I am just now awakening to -- that many blogs are actually written as novels -- wasn't lost on Maho no i-rando, a Web page creation site, as early as seven years ago. Adapting to the trend, Maho no i-rando tweaked it's coding to simplify content uploads and allow readers to comment on works in progress. As a result, the "serialized cellphone novel" was born.

Onishi, notes that "the number of users uploading novels began booming only two to three years ago, and the number of novels listed on the site reached one million last month." It's a boom that seems to have been driven by economics; by the decision of Japan's cell phone conglomerates to "offer unlimited transmission of packet data, like text-messaging, as part of flat monthly rates."

Read Onishi's full article "Thumbs Race as Japan's Best Sellers Go Cellular."

-- By Brenda Friedrich

In addition to her role as a web editor for the Des Moines Alliance, Brenda Friedrich is also an independent communications consultant and blog author of Enroute 365.

Help Support Chrysalis at NAWBO Event

Hey gals, Come have a fun night out with "just us chicks," and help raise funds for the Chrysalis Foundation at the same time!

Leslie Garman and Kathy Towner are both members of NAWBO -- National Association of Women Business Owners, which is sponsoring a "Celebrity Server" event to raise funds for Chrysalis. They thought it would be great visibility (and a great way to show support) if AWC would have a table. Carlyn Crowe has agreed to be a server and invites you to join us at our "Just Us Chicks" AWC table. 

The event is Thursday, February 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Foxboro Conference Center in Johnston. The meal is coming from Mojos, right next door, and the cost is $35.  There's also a silent auction.  The funds raised will help fund a grant to support entrepreneurship for women in Central Iowa.

Please RSVP to Carlyn at carlyn@netins.net.

Webcast: Cookbook Editor Judith Jones

Celebrated food writer and cookbook editor Judith Jones recently spoke at the Library of Congress. In this webcast she discusses America's love-hat relationship with food, learning at the hands of Julia Childs, and her experiences as a writer and editor.

Jones is described as "the first to espouse the kind of cookbook in which the author encourages and enables the ordinary home cook to create the extraordinary by defining culinary terms, demonstrating techniques, whether it be boning or braising, and by providing explicit directions and detailed explanations. Jones also asked cookbook authors to provide clues to the texture, feel, smell and appearance of the dish as the recipe progresses."

Speaker Biography: Judith Jones, vice president and senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf, is the winner of the coveted James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award and editor of culinary luminaries such as Julia Child, James Beard, Madhur Jaffrey, Marcella Hazan, Edna Lewis and Joan Nathan.   

RUNNING TIME: 54 minutes

Fellowships Available for Science Journalists

The Society of Environmental Journalist has announced that the Marine Biological Laboratory is accepting applications for fellowships to its Science Journalism Program.

Take one of two hands-on courses: biomedical science (in Woods Hole, MA, June 4-14, 2008) or polar science (in Toolik Lake, Alaska, June 29 - July 12, 2008). A limited number of fellows will spend an additional month at Palmer Station, Antarctica.

Since 1888, the MBL in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, has been the summer home of experimental biology. Scientists from all over the world have come to teach, to learn, and to do research at the MBL, drawn here by the abundance of research specimens from the waters of Cape Cod.

The MBL Science Journalism Program, now in its 23rd year, provides professional science journalists, editors, and broadcast journalists with a chance to forget about story deadlines and the latest breakthroughs, and instead immerse themselves in the process of basic biomedical and environmental research.

The experience is intensive: Journalists work hand in hand with laboratory investigators, and in many cases are given research projects of their own. They return to their jobs with a fuller sense of what it means to be a scientist, and a renewed sense of their mission as science journalists.

The deadline is March 1, 2008. To download an application click here.

Trail-blazing Journalist Dies

CNN reported today that "Frances Lewine, who covered the White House for the Associated Press during the administrations of six presidents and spent nearly three decades as a CNN assignment editor and field producer, died Saturday of an apparent stroke. She was 86."

The report went on to say, "Lewine was regarded as a trailblazer who battled for women's rights in journalism, fighting to open the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club -- a Washington journalists' organization -- to women."
>> Read the full story.

2 New Jobs Posted - Jan 19, 2008

Two new communications job listings have been posted on the Des Moines Alliance site! Check them out (see summarized details below) and find other recent listings and links to area employers here.

Measurement Analyst, ITA Group 
Performance Solutions Strategist, ITA Group

Chrysalis Communications Meeting

The next Chrysalis Communications Meeting is January 29th from 4:30 - 6:00 pm at the Chrysalis office. If you would like to be a part of the Des Moines Alliance committee helping with Chrysalis Foundation communications or for more information, contact our membership chair, Leslie Garman at 515-238-1166.

Maintaining focus

It's a problem almost every communicator struggles with: maintaining concentration, especially while writing. Dustin M. Wax, a contributing editor and project manager at lifehack.org, understands the challenge:

"If you do a lot of writing, you already know the benefits of a distraction-free writing environment. It’s hard to keep yourself on-task when there are noise, people interrupting you, or the ever-present temptation of Desktop Tower Defense only a click or two away on your PC. It’s especially hard when you reach a rough patch and it’s so much easier to do something else than think your way through and out of your problem spot. And if you’re not a writer by vocation, it can be even harder!"

Wax offers a number of suggestions on how to improve focus, including:

• De-cluttering your workspace
• Setting a timer
• Using the right software
• Listening to white and pink noise

For more suggestions on remain distraction-free, read Wax's full article here.

10 New Jobs Posted - Jan 15, 2008

10 new communications job listings have been posted on the Des Moines Alliance site! Check them out (see summarized details below) and find links to area employers here.

Marketing Coordinator, Seneca 
Communications Writer, Gov't Affairs, Planned Parenthood
Reporter / Photographer, Sinclair Broadcast Group
Creative Director, The Integer Group
Advertising Director, The Des Moines Register 
Graphic Design Consultant , Wellmark
Program / Strategic Mgr Extension Communications, ISU 
Communications Specialist, Iowa Farm Bureau
Direct Response - Copy Supervisor, Meredith
Editor, Iowa Bankers Association