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October 31, 2008 - About ACC / Membership / FORUM / Beacon Awards Inside This Issue:
Strategic Community Relations - Nov. 18 ACC Online Chat Pitching Secrets of the Pros - Dec. 3 ACC Webinar How to Talk Money (and what not to say) for Non-financial Communicators - Jan. 2009 ACC Webinar Is an Executive Coach Right for You? - Feb. 2009 ACC Online Chat ACC members also can find recordings of past webinars on educational outreach programs and the ROI imperative and transcripts of online chats about blogging and public affairs events via the online educational portal in the members-only section of ACC's Web site.
A PR Week/Barkley survey of both women consumers (500 total and 250 with children) and marketing executives published in the October 27, 2008, edition of PR Week revealed that philanthropic activities positively contribute to the bottom line even as the economy falters. The survey outlines that mothers will make purchasing decisions to support a cause, even if forced to pay more for a specific brand. Furthermore, 86 percent of all women said they want companies to do good deeds and it is important for companies to be involved with a cause. Sixty-six percent of moms surveyed reported purchasing a brand because it supports a cause. When these women were asked which cause marketing programs they were very familiar or familiar with, VH1’s Save the Music was ranked 6th by women with children and 4th by women without children. Interestingly both groups ranked General Mills’ Box Tops for Education the top cause marketing program. In the survey, 97 percent of marketing executives responded that cause marketing is a valid business strategy and 80 percent of senior managers agree with this strategy. Additionally, 40 percent of the marketing executives said they saw an increase in sales or retail traffic related to a cause marketing program. For additional information, see the October 27 edition of PR Week or go to http://www.barkleyus.com/press_release/show/34-new_study_reveals_cause_marketing_captures_coveted_mom_demographic
Comcast has partnered with City Year to expand the nonprofit’s Whole School Whole Child Program to serve public school students across Washington, D.C. Following a successful pilot at a D.C. charter school during the 2007-2008 school year, the program has been expanded to include four D.C. public schools. As a team sponsor for one of five “Whole School Whole Child” teams in the Washington, D.C., metro area, Comcast is working with City Year to foster an environment for academic growth during in-school time for nearly 180 students in 1st through 5th grades at Browne Gibbs Young educational campus in northeast D.C. The Comcast team is comprised of 10, diverse City Year corps members, all between the ages of 17 and 24, who will provide in-class tutoring and mentoring at the school all day, Monday through Thursday, throughout the 2008-2009 academic year. In addition, corps members will help plan and lead the campus’s after-school program, which serves more than 200 pre-K through 8th grade students. The Whole School Whole Child program at Browne Gibbs Young continues Comcast and City Year’s 4 year partnership to improve the educational and life success of D.C. students. For more information, contact Josh Kodeck at joshua_kodeck@cable.comcast.com or 301-625-3476.
ACC will present a panel during CTAM’s The Summit to discuss using public relations and communication activities in an increasingly competitive market to fulfill sales or marketing goals. The session, titled “On a Shoestring Budget, How to Achieve Expectations while Maximizing ROI,” will review case studies detailing how implementing low budget communications plans can meet corporate objectives with measurable results. It will also outline how to implement, set objectives and measure the impact of communications activities.
The panel is Tuesday, November 11, from 10:30 to 11:45 am in Boston’s Heinz Convention Center. The session will be moderated by Peggy Ballard, senior director, service provider marketing, Cisco Systems, Inc. and will feature: Sue Breckenridge, vice president, regional communications, Time Warner Cable - Carolina Region; Annie Howell, senior vice president, communications, public affairs & talent management, Discovery Planet Green, Discovery Communications; George Lima, vice president, affiliate marketing & affiliate ad sales, TV One; and Mark Weiner, CEO, North America, Prime Research. For additional information, please contact Steve Jones at 202-222-2373 or sjones@cablecommunicators.org.
Bright House Networks and the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association (FCTA) joined forces with the Afterschool Alliance and the Florida Afterschool Network to produce After the School Bells Ring, a 30-minute cable television program that educates viewers about the benefits of afterschool programs and what is happening in programs around the country and in the state of Florida. The program premiered October 16 to coincide with the 9th annual Lights On Afterschool, a nationwide celebration of afterschool programs that is held each October in 7,500 communities. It was also posted on You Tube and will air several more times before the end of the year. Providing an overview of what happens after school in America, the program features more than 20 interviews with high-profile leaders and afterschool champions from different segments of society, kids in programs, and the latest facts and figures on afterschool needs, benefits and challenges. The program also focuses on Florida with statewide leaders discussing the services they see Florida children need after school, and what needs to be done to provide those resources. Bright House Networks has supported afterschool programs for many years. This show builds on a $1 million investment made in 2006 to provide afterschool programs to Florida youth and to raise awareness of the need for quality afterschool programs. For more information, contact Reinaldo Llano of Bright House Networks at Reinaldo.Llano@mybrighthouse.com or 407-210-3178.
Are you interested in getting connected to ACC in a fresh way? ACC is looking for volunteers for our FORUM 2009, 2009 Beacon Award and ACC Board Committees. Get involved and help mold ACC programs to meet the needs of cable communicators. FORUM Committee Members will help determine the agenda and promote FORUM 2009 to the industry. Beacon Award volunteers manage the complete entry process from promotion to judging to the Beacon Awards Gala. Board Committees develop association programs and help members get connected to one another. For more information on the committees, go to ACC’s Web site. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact ACC by emailing sjones@cablecommunicators.org or calling 800-210-3396. You can also print out a volunteer form and fax it to ACC at 202-222-2371.
MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign and CNN partnered to host a cross-network television event that included a concert to mobilize support for the country’s newest generation of young veterans and news programming on both MTV and CNN about these returning soldiers. Leading artists from multiple genres took part in “A Night for Vets: An MTV Concert for the BRAVE,” taped in New York City on October 23 and aired with MTV News and CNN news packages on MTV the following night to raise awareness of veterans’ causes including employment, healthcare, homelessness and education. On October 25 and 26, CNN aired “Anderson Cooper 360: Back from the Battle,” a special that highlighted the challenges facing young vets returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. MTV also partnered with leading, non-partisan, veterans organizations to create the Bill of Rights for American Veterans (BRAVE), a petition calling on elected officials to support veterans’ issues and swiftly enact positive legislative changes. The rights outlined in BRAVE include calls to properly treat veterans’ mental health issues, prevent homelessness among veterans, give disabled veterans the benefits they have earned, fully fund veterans’ hospitals and compensate troops made to serve longer. One can sign the petition by texting BRAVE to 66333 or by logging on to http://www.chooseorlose.com/.
The deadline for 2009 Beacon Awards entries is moving to the spring of 2009. ACC is joining other cable industry associations as part of Cable Connection - Fall, the newly realigned grouping of multiple cable events together at the same time and location. FORUM 2009 will take place in Denver, Colorado, from October 26 - 28, 2009. The Beacon Awards Ceremony, honoring excellence in cable communications and public affairs, will be the opening event of FORUM 2009 on Monday, October 26. ACC has adjusted the 2009 Beacon Award deadlines and period of eligibility accordingly. Entries to the 2009 Beacon Awards must represent work executed and results achieved between November 16, 2007, and May 15, 2009, the final deadline for the 2009 Beacon Awards. The early bird deadline will be May 1, 2009. Be sure to take a look back at the 2008 Beacon Awards by watching the latest Beacon Awards videos on ACC’s Web site. New additions include interviews with 2008 Beacon Award winners immediately after they received their Beacons as well as Comcast CN8's “On the Red Carpet” coverage of the 2008 ceremony. ACC members can also view the 2008 Beacon Award Finalists' three-page summaries, available on the ACC Web site by visiting the Beacon page or the Members-Only section. For more information, contact Michelle Butler at mbutler@cablecommunicators.org.
Three quarters (77 percent) of K-12 teachers report that they, or a fellow teacher in their school, assign homework that requires Internet use. Furthermore, students in 42 percent of schools are producing or creating their own videos as part of their schoolwork, with that number rising to 60 percent for high school students, according to a nationally representative survey of K-12 educators and library media specialists conducted for Cable in the Classroom (CIC) by Grunwald Associates LLC. "With evidence that teachers are embracing new and emerging technologies for learning, there is both an opportunity and increasing responsibility to more widely foster 21st century skills, especially media literacy," said Douglas Levin, senior education policy director at Cable in the Classroom. "Indeed, educators recognize the need to increase the in-school emphasis on media literacy as a way to help students think critically about traditional and new media, including on the Internet and in video production." For more information on the survey, see http://www.ciconline.org/Grunwald2008.
Join and support ACC by becoming a 2009 corporate member. For more information on how your organization can join ACC as a corporate member, please contact Steve Jones at sjones@cablecommunicators.org or 202-222-2373. For membership details, go to http://www.cablecommunicators.org/cmember.php. Golden Benefactors Friends & Associates PO Box 75007 Washington DC 20013 · Phone 800.210.3396 or 202.222.2370 · Fax 202.222.2371 |
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