Awards season is here again, not for televisions or the  movies, but for professional organizations. Entry fees are one of the leading fund raisers for many communications, advertising and visual arts organizations. Some marketing communications covet the various awards to validate their work and spend significant funds entering many examples of their work. However, at Bozell, we have a different philosophy. Yes, we enter the awards competitions, but we feel that the greatest acknowledgement of our work is by our clients. Did we meet their business or communication objective, rather than the criteria decided upon by judges? Did they refer Bozell to a colleague or friend as a potential partner? That is our measure of success rather than a boat load of certificates or trophies.

We wanted to nominate Tom Giitter for the Public Relations Professional of the Year. We were quietly collecting examples of his work over the past 24 years. He has been involved in many high profile cases such as the new downtown stadium, a new bovine hormone controversy and worked with ENRON. Using his Pulitzer prize winning writing skills, he has ghost written more articles, white papers and case studies than many have written in a lifetime. Unfortunately, he found out our plans as he was finishing his PRSA Paper Anvil entries and found his nomination form on our server. We quickly received an email requesting that we not nominate him since he would not accept the award if he won. Again, he wants his work to speak on behalf of the client, rather than himself. Even though our plans were thwarted, Tom Giitter is the PRSA Professional of the Year in our eyes.

Have a great day! Sylvia