Cohn Marketing has picked up a Bronze Peak Award in Online Marketing and a Peak Award in Social Media/Viral Marketing from the Colorado Chapter of the American Marketing Association for its “BeMerrySanta Goes Social” campaign.
Month: June 2011
Motive Wins Awards for Work with Mt. Dew, Qdoba
Denver-based Motive has picked up a couple of awards for its work with clients. The agency was named the 2011 Grand Ex Award winner by trade publication Event Marketer for its DEWmocracy campaign for Mt. Dew. The campaign used social media to drive the entire campaign and it resulted in a new flavor of Mt. Dew being offered to consumers. Motive also won a Communicator Award in the Marketing Effectiveness category for its work on the Qdoba Burrito Boredom campaign.
CPR Ramps Up Efforts to Crowdsource News
Colorado Public Radio is “expanding and intensifying” its effort to crowdsource some of its news, and it has hired pioneering multimedia journalist Lee Hill to lead that initiative known as the Public Insight Network. PIN “is an online tool used to gather perspective from the Colorado community,” and CPR is asking listeners to visit the CPR website to sign up to share their expertise about issues shaping Colorado’s future.
New Agency Focuses on Music, Art, Film, Fashion
Erin Osovets and Gwenaviere Doherty have founded Theory X, a boutique public relations agency focusing on music, art, film, and fashion.
Turner PR Adds Brown Palace, Two Other Clients
Its been a good month for Turner PR. The agency has added some big names as clients, including Destination Hotels & Resorts, the Brown Palace Hotel, Filson, and the Society of American Travel Writers. Turner has been named agency of record for Destination Hotels & Resorts, the fourth largest independent hospitality management company in the United States with 38 luxury and upscale hotels, resorts and conference centers. And the agency will provide a variety of strategic digital communications services to the other three clients, including daily channel maintenance, social promotion strategy, influencer targeting, corporate blog development and integration among traditional PR and marketing efforts—events, optimized pitching and guerrilla promotions.
Guttau Wins Two, Hires Two
Guttau Public Relations announced it has added two new clients – GreenSpot and Snowmass Tourism – and added two new employees – account coordinator Jane McGillem and intern Nate Carroll.
Cohn Offers ‘Social Media Personality Quiz’
Curious to know whether you are a “pinhead,” part of “the in crowd” or a member of “the flock” online? Take Cohn Marketing’s Facebook quiz.
Denver PR Jobs
Among those hiring this week are Adam’s Camp, Arapahoe Community College, Aurora Public School District, Boulder Community Hospital, Community Enterprise, MetroNorth Newspapers, MMG Mardiks, Red Robin, Tendril and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Barefoot PR Wins Two New Clients
Barefoot PR has been named agency of record for City Projects and the Parkinson Association of the Rockies.
MGA ‘Moving On Up’
Congratulations to MGA Communications, which after 23 years on 17th Street will open the doors to its new office at 1999 Broadway this morning.
Catfight Alert: Aiello/Webb vs. Andrew Hudson
If you were getting tired of the Is-the-Michael-Hancock-story-really-a-story debate, good news. The proposed Gaylord Hotel development in Aurora is the newest catfight in town, and it is splitting Denver’s PR community. On one side are Wendy Aiello (repping Aurora) and Pete Webb (repping Gaylord). And on the other side is Andrew Hudson, who doesn’t want to see the Stock Show relocate from Denver.
And if you aren’t tired of the Michael Hancock debate, Big Media blogger Jason Salzman takes Denver media to task for running with a story that was broken by a guy using rampant rumors as a source.
In Memoriam
Pulitzer Prize winner and former Denver Post editor Gil Spencer passed away Friday. He was 85.
JKD & Co. Wins 2011 ‘Silver Anvil’
Congratulations to JKD & Co.’s Jane Dvorak, who picked up what appears to be Denver’s only 2011 PRSA Silver Anvil award. JKD & Co. won the award for its “Eye-Spy the Orange Truck” campaign on behalf of client Applewood Plumbing Heating & Electric.
GroundFloor Recognized at 2011 SABRE Awards
Congratulations to GroundFloor Media, which was recognized at the 2011 SABRE awards for its “Get Grounded” employee volunteerism and community giving program, as well as for work with clients Motive, Qdoba and “Complete College Colorado.”
GroundFloor received a certificate of excellence in the community citizenship category for its “Get Grounded” program, and was named a Gold Award finalist for its work with Moxie and Qdoba, and a Silver Award finalist in the government agency category for “Complete College Colorado,” a statewide education campaign for the office of former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. that aimed to raise awareness about the importance of a college degree.
Moxie Wins AMA Bronze Peak Award
Moxie Creative Communications Agency won a Bronze Peak award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Marketing Association for outstanding production of a 60-second television commercial. The award was presented for Moxie CCA’s creation of Universal Technical Institute’s “Road of Life.”
Denver PR Jobs
Among those hiring this week are ABMP, the Colorado School of Mines Foundation, DaVita, Denver Health, GHX, Holland & Hart, Intermap Technologies, Mountain News Corporation, National Wildlife Federation, Peak Vista Community Health Centers, the University of Colorado at Denver School of Dental Medicine and the Yahoo! Contributer Network.
The Consequences of a One-Newspaper Town
I don’t know newly elected Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and I don’t know whether the allegations of his involvement with prostitutes are true. But I do know this: if the Rocky Mountain News were still here, we would have gotten to the bottom of the story much faster. I love the Denver Post, but I love a Denver Post being pushed by a competing Rocky Mountain News even more.
Denver PR Jobs
Among those hiring this week are Webb PR, Colorado Public Radio, the Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado, Crossroads Community Church, the Maternal Child Health and Healthy Baby Program of Weld County, the National Ecological Observatory Network, Peak Vista Community Health Centers, the University of Colorado at Denver and the University of Denver.
Great Moments in Journalism XXXVI
Fox News inadvertently uses a photo of Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin in a story about Sarah Palin.
(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan/The Daily Beast)
Duo Lands ‘Eco-Chic’ Apparel Company as Client
Duo Marketing & PR has added Colorado-based Zavella as a new client. Zavella creates eco-chic apparel and accessories made with organic bamboo and organic cotton fabric.
Metzger Lands CCIA, Coalfire as Clients
Metzger Associates has picked up two new clients: the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association and Coalfire Systems. I was impressed at Metzger’s ability to simultaneously land two clients who presumably don’t like each other very much, but it turns out that Coalfire actually is an IT audit and compliance firm.
Linhart Wins [Insert Award Name Here]
Linhart PR won something like its 6,000th award of the year, this time being named one of the Top 50 small company workplaces in America as judged by Inc. Magazine and Winning Workplaces. Nearly 350 companies competed in the contest, and a national panel of experts in leadership and small to mid-sized business judged the finalists. Selections were based on specific metrics and qualitative assessments of the finalists’ success in creating the kind of workplaces that engage employees and deliver bottom-line results.
Moxie Rebrands
Moxie Media Group has rebranded itself as Moxie Creative Communications Agency in a move to distinguish itself from traditional marketing, advertising and PR firms. I’ve read the press release twice and I still can’t figure out exactly what is changing, so I’ll let Moxie speak for itself:
“Traditional advertising or marketing agencies are engaged primarily for their branding and marketing expertise, where their services are geared towards helping clients sell products and services to a specific target demographic,” said Mike Schrader, president, Moxie CCA. “While Moxie CCA is called upon to do the same, our clients’ communication challenges are increasingly centered on a need to communicate one or more messages to multiple target audiences across multiple communications channels. In these cases, we are helping our clients to determine the best way to communicate to their many constituents and then execute their campaigns accordingly.”
Dovetail Unveils New Website, Announces Pro Bono Client
Dovetail Solutions has introduced a redesigned website, and announced that its 2011 pro bono client is the Morgan Adams Foundation, which raises money and awareness on behalf of children affected with cancer. The foundation was started by the parents of Morgan Adams, who was a healthy 5-year old girl when she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma Multiforme brain tumor in 1997. She battled her cancer for 11 months before she succumbed to the disease.
‘If You Give Me a Task, Don’t Expect Me Not to Succeed’
If you hate the stereotype that public relations people are soul-less, amoral drones who will say anything about anyone if a client or boss tells them to, you probably are not going to like Sue Skiffington-Blumberg (even if the Colorado Springs Gazette inexplicably does). According to a Gazette editorial, Skiffington-Blumberg and her public relations team at the City of Colorado Springs have spent the past several years publicly badmouthing their own city at the direction of her bosses in an effort to get a tax increase passed. As the Gazette noted, “The campaign may have cost our city countless tourists and jobs.”
So how did Skiffington-Blumberg justify her actions:
“Our strategic plan was to paint a picture of the dire straits of our city budget. If we could not do so locally, we would do so in the regional and national press … . I hated it. I grew up here. My family has been in this community since 1892. But when given a task, it is my obligation to get on board. If you give me a task, don’t expect me not to succeed.”
That quote is just chilling. And perhaps not just to me. Skiffington-Blumberg was forced by the city manager to resign yesterday (two days after the Gazette editorial appeared).
JohnstonWells Adds Coolerado as Client
JohnstonWells Public Relations has been hired by Coolerado to work with the company’s marketing team on public relations strategy and media relations. Coolerado designs, manufactures and markets air conditioning systems for light commercial use.
Cohn Marketing Hosts Social Media Pavilion
Cohn Marketing designed and hosted the first social media pavilion at last week’s RECON conference, which hosted more than 30,000 retail and real estate professionals in Las Vegas. The pavilion was located within the convention center and featured 18 screens streaming live social media activity from the conference, including Twitter hashtags, retail reporters’ handles, video, and foursquare check-ins.
Denver Public Relations Blog 