Omaha World-Herald
By Steve Jordon
World-Herald Staff Writer
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10594263

“The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce will honor more than 20 businesses and individuals at a luncheon May 12 at the Holiday Inn, 72nd and Grover Streets.”

The Omaha 25 Awards Luncheon recognizes Greater Omaha area businesses for their contributions to the positive growth of our business community. The twenty-five awards are presented in several categories. Recipients are selected from nominations of Chamber members, based on a variety of criteria.

The awards include the Corporate Citizenship Award, the Emerging Business of the Year Award, the Minority Business of the Year Award, the Nonprofit Organization of the Year Awards, the Small Business of the Year Award, the Women in Leadership Award, Golden Spike Awards and the Excellence in Business Awards.

The following recipients will be recognized at an 11:45 a.m. luncheon on May 12 at Holiday Inn Omaha Convention Center, 3321 S. 72nd St.:

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AWARD
Bozell

The Corporate Citizenship Award recognizes an organization whose philosophy of giving has made a significant impact on the Omaha metropolitan community’s health and well being. The award was created to encourage and support corporate social responsibility.

The Corporate Citizenship Award is sponsored by FirstComp.

EMERGING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD
Veteran Defense Services, Inc.

The Emerging Business of the Year Award recognizes a successful business start-up that has laid the foundation for future growth and achievement by developing sound business strategy and practices.

MINORITY BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD
ProKarma, Inc.

The Minority Business of the Year Award recognizes a successful ethnic minority-owned firm that has demonstrated business growth and contributions to the community.

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Social Settlement and Uta Halee Girls Village, Inc.

The Nonprofit Organization of the Year Awards recognize organizations for their excellent stewardship of resources and exceptional outcomes.

SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD
Rockbrook Village Shopping Center, Inc.

This award is chosen from the 2008 Small Business of the Month Award winners. This business is recognized for its commitment to strong customer service and community involvement.
The Small Business of the Month and Year Awards are sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Adrian Minks, Omaha Public Power District

The Women in Leadership Award recognizes and honors women leaders who have excelled in their chosen field, devoted time and energy to strengthen and transform the community and mentor and develop others.

GOLDEN SPIKE AWARDS
Anthony’s Steakhouse & Ozone Lounge
Farmers National Company
Hillcrest Health Systems, Inc.
Jensen Tire & Auto
Markel BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar & Mini
Renze Display

This award recognizes businesses or industries that boost economic development and the stability in all areas of metropolitan Omaha. These recipients have expanded their businesses through capital improvements, expanded operations or added jobs over the past five years and have an operating history of at least 10 years.

The Golden Spike Awards are sponsored by Northwest Bank.

EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS AWARDS
CoSentry
CSSS.NET
Hemphill Staffing Solutions, Inc.
Holmes Murphy
Lifespan Technology Recycling
Merchants Credit Adjusters, Inc.
Miller Electric Company
PayPal
Remcon
Right at Home, Inc.
Signature Performance, Inc.
Thrasher Basement Systems, Inc.

This award recognizes outstanding companies with an operating history of at least five years, positive revenue and payroll growth over the last three years, and demonstrates excellence in business practices.

The 2009 Omaha 25 Awards Luncheon is sponsored by KETV and SMITH HAYES Financial Services Corporation. The Corporate Citizenship Award is sponsored by FirstComp. The Golden Spike Awards are sponsored by Northwest Bank. The Small Business of the Month and Year Awards are sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska.

Tickets are $40 per person and $400 per table of ten for members and $80 per person and $800 per table of ten for nonmembers. Reservations are due by Wednesday, May 6
through www.omahachamber.org/omaha25, to reservations@omahachamber.org or (402) 978-7912.

The mission of the Greater Omaha Chamber is to increase business, investment and employment in the Greater Omaha area.

CONTACT: Karla Ewert, vice president – communications
(402) 978-7942, office or (402) 320-4559, cell
Greater Omaha Chamber
1301 Harney St. • Omaha, NE 68102 • 13206 Grover St. • Omaha, NE 68144
Phone (402) 346-5000 • Fax (402) 346-7050 OmahaChamber.org

Christin Goetz, project manager in Bozell’s Brand Navigation practice, has been selected as Ad Rookie of the Year by the Omaha Federation of Advertising (OFA). Goetz was recognized at the OFA Meet the Pros Keynote Luncheon on February 10.

The Ad Rookie of the Year recognizes an OFA member with five or fewer years in advertising who demonstrates outstanding work both professionally and in the community. Goetz manages the Right at Home, Inc., and Market to Market Relay accounts and provides primary account support for Alegent Health, the College World Series, Inc., and United Way of the Midlands. Prior to working at Bozell, Goetz held internships with the communications department at Metropolitan Utilities District and the marketing department at Alegent Health. She graduated from Creighton University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

“Christin gives her best, day in and day out. She’s an outstanding young woman who’s dedicated and flexible, and we are so pleased to have her as a part of our team,” said Angel Carl, Vice President, Marketing at Right At Home.

Goetz chairs the Omaha Federation of Advertising’s education committee, and over the past two years, has established a seminar for professors at Meet the Pros and the “Smart Spending. Big Profits.” small business symposium. She is also a member of Moxie Paper Press, a young independent publisher in Omaha and is a contributing writer for Food & Spirits magazine.

“Christin is a rising star in the Omaha advertising community. This award is an acknowledgement of her outstanding professional achievements – and those yet to come. She has a tenacious spirit, is forward thinking and is a persistent student of marketing,” said Kevin Hutchison, Partner in Charge, Brand Navigation at Bozell. “She is devoted to our industry and to our community. We are thrilled to have her on the Bozell team and I believe that we will be hearing more about her in the future!”

About Bozell
Bozell is an integrated marketing communications company with offices in Omaha and Kansas City. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, has added to its integrated management team in a move to further enhance senior bench strength and strengthen its leadership position in the ever-changing environment of the marketing profession. “We’ve realigned our structure and will continue to do so as needed to better deliver integrated marketing services in a meaningful, relevant way,” said Kim Mickelsen, Bozell owner and principal, Integrated Marketing.

“A couple years ago we recognized the need to make some significant strategic changes to be more competitive. So we first realigned the ownership group to reflect the necessary shift in business capabilities. By adding Corey Meyer, we were able to strengthen the ownership team and enhance the depth of our consulting practice,” said Robin Donovan, Bozell owner and principal, Administration and Business Services. Meyer has a 20-year track record of strategic, operational and marketing consulting working for companies such as Arthur Andersen and Gallup in the consumer products, retail, financial services and telecommunications sectors. The addition of Meyer completes the Bozell ownership team of Mickelsen, Donovan and Meyer.

“The ownership and management teams are leading the efforts at Bozell to place a greater emphasis on dialogue with and between key stakeholders, business partners and customers,” Mickelsen said. With Bozell’s recent acquisition of Orajan, a web design and development company, and the addition of the Dialogue Relations department, which includes social media, media relations, strategic planning and community relations, Bozell is continuing to evolve the way they do business. Bozell has also restructured its creative department into two divisions, advertising and design. In addition to traditional advertising, the company is expanding their design capabilities to better meet the needs of their customers.

With more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, media relations and marketing communications, in California and Nebraska, Sylvia France recently joined Bozell as Partner in Charge, Dialogue Relations. Prior to joining Bozell, she worked at several marketing communications consulting firms, including Bailey Lauerman in Omaha and Regis McKenna in Palo Alto, Calif., as well as owning her own agency in Silicon Valley. She graduated from Florida State University, with bachelor’s degrees in finance and international marketing.

Joining Bozell as Partner in Charge, Brand Navigation, Kevin Hutchison brings to the agency more than 20 years of experience in account management, nonprofit marketing and financial communications. Hutchison previously served as an account director at KarshHagan Communications and also at Bozell as an account director on clients including First National Bank Kansas, MidAmerican Energy, CBSHOME Real Estate and Boy Scouts of America. He received a liberal arts degree from Asbury College.

Cort Irish joined Bozell in 2003 as Broadcast Manager, was promoted to Media Director in 2005 and was recently named Partner in Charge, Media. Currently, he supervises all of the media planning and buying for the agency’s clients. Prior to joining Bozell in 2003, Irish handled media for top agencies D’Arcy and Leo Burnett in New York. Irish graduated from Illinois Sate University, with a double-major in marketing and business administration.

As Managing Partner, Smartargeting, Steve Kuegler works closely with clients to develop their overall strategic database marketing programs. This includes a sophisticated analysis of clients’ customer’s data, evaluation of market factors and analysis of their internal systems. Previously he was vice-president of Database Marketing Services for Bernstein-Rein located in Kansas City, Missouri where he oversaw all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the department, as well as managed the database programs for all Bernstein’s clients, including Wal-Mart, Blockbuster Video, and Anheuser-Busch Entertainment. Kuegler also previously served as branch manager at Dun & Bradstreet Information Services and as the national marketing manager for a database-marketing subsidiary of SPS Payment Systems headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Jill Rizzo joined Bozell in 2006 as Associate Creative Director and was recently promoted to Partner in Charge, Design. Rizzo oversees the design teams for Alegent Health, Borsheims, VT and Tnemec. Prior to joining Bozell, she served as senior design director at David Day and Associates. She was also one of the creators of the Bemis Underground, an actively flourishing experimental gallery space sponsored by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Creighton University and has also studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and St. Olaf College.

Cliff Watson was recently named Partner in Charge, Advertising. Before coming to Bozell in 2002, Watson was a writer for premium outdoor recreation companies including Remington Arms, Perception Kayaks, and Mossy Oak camouflage. His experience also includes extensive work on a wide range of brands, from finance to food service and professional sports to local government. His advertising has been recognized by numerous creative organizations, including the One Club, Art Director’s Club, Clios, and OBIEs. Watson graduated from Rhodes College with a degree in fiction writing.

Scott Rowe was recently promoted to Partner in Charge, Interactive Planning and Strategy after previously serving as Interactive Services Director. Before joining Bozell, Scott co-owned and developed Seeit.com, a national Web site using streaming video to make apartment hunting easier. Previously he worked as a photojournalist for a CBS affiliate. Rowe graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with a B.S. degree in broadcasting.

Brian Wetjen joins Bozell as Partner in Charge, Interactive Creative. He founded Orajen, a web design and development company in 2001, and served as co-owner until Bozell acquired the company in July 2008. He also previously served as webmaster for Bellevue Data Communications and was responsible for the design, programming and development of Web sites. An Omaha native, Wetjen graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and printmaking.

About Bozell
Bozell is an integrated marketing communications company with offices in Omaha and Kansas City. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell, an integrated marketing consulting and communications company, will offer a seminar on communications and social media marketing on March 3 in Omaha at the Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine Street. “Social media is not a fad, trend or buzzword. It’s how individuals use the Internet to collaborate, communicate and find customers,” said Kim Mickelsen, Bozell owner and principal, Integrated Marketing. “We are offering companies the opportunity to learn the knowledge and tools to effectively join the game.”

The social media seminar is the first in a series of three seminars to introduce some of the most relevant issues in marketing and branding today. In addition to social media, seminar topics will include maximizing your visibility on search engines and building marketing databases. Small business owners, marketing managers, marketing consultants, team leaders and anyone seeking to maximize their marketing efforts are encouraged to attend. The Seminar Series will visit three cities in addition to Omaha – Kansas City, Des Moines and Denver.

The social media seminar in Omaha begins at 11:30 with a general session of the practical and successful uses of social media. There will be four breakout sessions including using Twitter to promote your business, successful tactics for social media optimization (SMO), blogging for business and online reputation management.

Each session will have a Q&A period for attendees to get advice on their own challenges. During breaks, the presenters will be available for one-on-one consultation. “We will offer real, practical tips, tricks and tools you can use daily for your marketing plans,” Mickelsen said. “It’s a hands-on session and how-to and we’ll provide worksheets, guidelines, links to free tools and much more.”

Registration is available online at www.sausagefactoryseminars.com and the cost is $159 per seminar. Also, mark your calendars for the next seminar on maximizing your search engine visibility in Omaha on March 26. For the latest on the seminar series, visit the Sausage Factory’s Twitter at www.twitter.com/SausageFactory.

About Sausage Factory Seminars
Using a series of three seminars, the Sausage Factory introduces you to the new way of marketing. When it comes to strategy and messaging mix, it used to be like making a nice, simple soup. But the industry is changing and now you have to throw everything into a bowl, grind it together and make sausage. Each session of the series will teach you some of the most relevant issues in marketing and branding today.

About Bozell
Bozell is an integrated marketing communications company with offices in Omaha and Kansas City. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, won five awards of excellence and three awards of merit at the 2008 Nebraska Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Paper Anvil Awards Gala. Awards were received in the categories of marketing communications campaign, blogger outreach, annual report, internal newsletter, tradeshow outreach, news conference, web site and word-of-mouth marketing.

Bozell received paper anvil awards for work on behalf of the Omaha Stadium campaign, the DOCCENTER launch of www.doclanding.com, the Men’s College World Series, Catholic Charities, Wildsmiles and Bozell.

“Winning the awards was the culmination of an integrated, agency-wide effort to produce outstanding work for our clients, “said Sylvia France, partner in charge of Dialogue Relations at Bozell. “We are honored to be recognized by PRSA.”

The entries were judged by members of the Houston, Texas chapter of PRSA. Awards of excellence were reserved for outstanding entries that did a superior job of meeting the stated goals and in achieving results. Awards of merit were determined by the judges as entries that met stated goals and demonstrated good results, according to PRSA Nebraska.

About Bozell
Bozell is a creative marketing communications company with offices in Omaha, Nebraska and Overland Park, Kansas. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell won one of four AIGA gold awards, the top honor in graphic design in Nebraska, at this year’s Show for the AIGA Nebraska, the Professional Association for Design, chapter. Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, also received three bronze awards.

The Show, hosted annually by AIGA, exhibits the best in graphic design, photography and illustration produced in the region. This competition includes entries from design professionals and students, featuring both published and unpublished work. More than 900 entries were judged by a panel of individuals with extensive professional experience in the design field.

“The Show is a great opportunity to showcase our most creative and innovative work,” said Brian Wetjen, partner in charge of Interactive Creative at Bozell. “While our first commitment is to produce outstanding work for our clients, our team is honored to be recognized by AIGA.”

Bozell received a gold award for its design of Krista’s Creations’ Web site, http://www.letter-photo.com. This dynamic website allows customers to create custom products based on the artist’s unique photography. Customers can select images from Krista’s vast image library and assemble words out of the “letters” in the photographs. Bozell also received bronze awards for the Creighton Fine Arts Faculty Portfolio of Creative Work, the Bozell New Employee Handbook and the Bozell Office Charms.

About Bozell
Bozell is a creative marketing communications company with offices in Omaha, Nebraska and Overland Park, Kansas. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, is being featured in PRINT’s 2008 Regional Design Annual, the most comprehensive survey of graphic design in the U.S.

PRINT, a bimonthly magazine about culture and design, recognizes the best design, illustrations and photography being produced throughout the U.S. each year. This highly-competitive competition received more than 20,000 individual entries for the 2008 Regional Annual. Bozell’s entry, the Bozell Culture Calendar ’07 is showcased in the December 2008 issue.

The culture calendar was designed by Bozell designer Aaron Christensen to benefit the United Way of the Midlands. Christensen gained inspiration for the calendar design from Bozell’s unique work environment. Each month features a different aspect of the Bozell culture, including ping-pong games and a hot-dog eating contest.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, has expanded its Smartargeting division which offers strategic database marketing solutions for customized direct marketing and creative solutions. This expansion includes staff additions and a new location at 12980 Metcalf, Ste 400, Overland Park, Kansas. Within the past year, Amy Welsh has been added as a director of analytics and Rick Anderson as direct creative director.

“Bozell’s Smartargeting group offers complete solutions that allow all types of businesses to communicate with their customers one-on-one,” said Steve Kuegler, Smartargeting managing partner. “With Amy’s technology background and Rick’s creative experience, we will be able to take our existing suite of services to the next level.”

Bozell Smartargeting offers customer behavior database monitoring, identification of emerging customer needs, developing and testing new products and targeting highest-potential prospects. Other solutions offered include scoring existing customers based on actual return on investment, matching type and frequency of communications to diverse target segments and providing precise market intelligence in the development of strategy.

“The success of Smartargeting and the additions of Amy and Rick enable Bozell to better prepare and offer integrated marketing services to a variety of clients,” said Kim Mickelsen, Bozell managing principle.

As director of analytics, Welsh will manage and lead the direction of Smartargeting database storage and retrieval and provide clients with detailed production reports. She spent the past 10 years in many positions including systems and database analysts for the Marketing, Sales, and Network divisions for Sprint Nextel Corporation. At Sprint Nextel she designed and implemented many data warehouses and provided integrated data solutions through-out multiple divisions. She graduated from DeVry University with a bachelor’s degree in business operations. She has experience with many of the major database software companies on the market, but has advanced database training in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS), the market-leader of analytical software.

Anderson is responsible for the strategic and creative development for database/analytics for multi-channel direct programs and campaigns. He has spent 20 years in general advertising and has been in direct marketing for the last 16 years. Prior to joining Bozell, Rick worked with Bernstein-Rein Advertising as Associate Creative Director on such accounts as California Chamber of Commerce, SunCom Wireless, Commerce Bank, Thornburg Mortgage, USAA, Healthfair and Advahome Mortgage. Anderson’s experience includes brand development with multi-channel direct programs on many of the accounts listed.

Bozell is a creative marketing communications company with offices in Omaha, Nebraska and Overland Park, Kansas. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. They then use advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, has named Michelle Adams as senior account executive, Ryan Sorenson as art director and Michelle Swain as interactive project director.

Adams joins the account executive team working on the First National Bank account. In Adams’ previous position at Velocity Sports & Entertainment in Charlotte, N.C., Specializing in sports and entertainment, she previously served as consulting manager for the Cingular Wireless/AT&T and Toyota Motor Sales at Velocity Sports & Entertainment in Charlotte, N.C. Adams currently serves as vice president of charitable events on the All About Omaha board. Originally from Firth, Neb., she received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Sorenson joins the creative team as art director, working primarily on the First National Bank account. Sorenson previously worked as art directors at Swanson-Russell in Lincoln and SKAR Advertising in Omaha. He is currently a member of AIGA, the professional association for design. A Lincoln native, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Swain serves as interactive project director, where she manages Interactive projects and creates Web site copy. Prior to joining Bozell, Swain worked in the insurance industry for 18 years assuming various marketing and communication roles throughout her career. As a marketing communications coordinator at Mutual of Omaha, Swain wrote award-winning copy for agency promotions. During her nine-year tenure as Marketing Manager at Jefferson Pilot Financial, Swain guided the efforts of all marketing and communications activities for group sales personnel within the Benefit Partners Division. Swain graduated from Creighton University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Bozell is a creative marketing communications company with offices in Omaha, Kansas City and Little Rock. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. They then use advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information visit www.bozell.com.