The U.S. Secret Service, which took a PR beating after a couple was widely seen as crashing an exclusive White House event, issued an RFP in mid-December for help with its internal and external communications, reports odwyerpr.com

Edelman acquired Grassroots Enterprise, a bi-partisan digital grassroots advocacy firm with offices in D.C. and San Francisco. 

- During the 15 years Beth Johnson worked for Bethesda advertising agency Rosenthal Partners Inc., the idea of starting her own shop had quietly floated between the lines of items on her account management to-do lists. She would do it “someday,”  reports the Washington Business Journal.  Read More »

The D.C. office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide has been awarded a contract for both Agency of Record for the United Service Organizations (USO) as well as a development of a Signature Campaign. (Williams Whittle remains the USO's ad agency of record.) 

The Obama administration came into office with a commitment to work with other countries to mitigate the problem of global climate change.  The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen has been a unique forum for the United States to spotlight this new approach and present its policies to a sometimes skeptical global audience. 

Entries are being accepted by the DC Ad Club for the 2010 ADDYs – in fact, an eager-beaver discount runs through Dec. 18, with Jan. 8, 2010, being the final date for submissions.   

According to the Potomac Tech Wire: The Social Times, a DC-based media firm run by Nick O'Neill covering the social web economy, said that it has been acquired by WebMediaBrands,

Do any of these apply to you or your company?

The PRSA National Capital Chapter hosted its annual holiday party on Dec. 9 by recognizing outgoing 2009 board members, presenting awards and helping raise more than $1,200.00 for the Center for Child Protection and Family Support, in partnership with the Independent PR Alliance (IPRA).

DC Ad Club president Karen Riordan and executive director Carol Montoya were on NewsChannel 8’s Washington Business Tonight talking about the 2010 DC ADDYs.  To view the interview,

Crosby-Volmer's D.C. office was mentioned prominently in a Wall Street Journal story titled "Stickups and Burglaries Are on the Rise—at Work."  The article said that "office thieves may be hard to detect at first glance. In the past year and a half, intruders got into Crosby-Volmer International Communications LLC's Washington, D.C., office three times during normal business hours." 

Elevation, a DC-based creative agency, is celebrating the extension of its groundbreaking campaign for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reminding travelers that they will need approved travel documents to enter the United States when returning from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter. It's the latest phase of an aggressive multi-media campaign launched by the federal government to educate the public about the June 1 deadline for new document requirements.  

PRWeb, the online news distribution service of Vocus, has new analytics reports for measuring results from news releases distributed through its service. “These new reporting enhancements are all about helping our customers better understand what happens once their news release has been published on PRWeb,” said Jiyan Wei, director of product management for PRWeb. “They will now be provided with a much better sense for where it is sent, where it appears and most importantly, what people are doing once they read the news release.”

Equals Three Communications added two accounts: A contract to assist The Cultural Center of Spain and a contract to work with the National Academy of Public Administration on its Budgetball Civic Engagement Initiative.

When the District eliminated earmarks for arts and social service organizations in July to close a $666 million budget shortfall, many organizations had to scale back immediately, reported Timothy Wilson in today’s Washington Post ... but Design Army and Cade Martin have come to the rescue.

The Washington Times is about to become a drastically smaller newspaper, reports Howard Kurtz in today’s Washington Post. 

Kurtz’s front-page story notes that the Times said it planned to lay off at least 40 percent of its staff; slash its coverage of local news, sports and features; and shift mainly to free distribution.  

Brands are evolving into publishers due to the rise of the Internet as a consumer buying engine. For brands to successfully make this transition, they must assume four key characteristics that have made publishers successful in the past.

Effective Dec. 1, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a revised Endorsement and Testimonial Guides, the first significant change to its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials since 1980 -  an action primarily motivated by the rise of social media marketing. Brunner provided us with the summary of the FTC’s new guidelines:

Susan Davis International has won the Stevie Award for the Non-Profit Communications Campaign of the Year for the 2009 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award campaign .... Michael Delpierre launched Conversion Pipeline, a strategic marketing communications company created to help small business and non-profits utilize modern sales, marketing, and communication strategies,

The Baltimore Ravens are gearing up for the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers! The Ravens must put a tough loss to the Colts behind them and focus on beating the Steelers this Sunday to keep their playoff hopes alive. Both teams will enter Sunday night's game still in the hunt for the playoffs. To help fans enjoy an enhanced football experience, R2integrated (R2i), a leading Internet marketing and technology company, in partnership with WMAR-TV, announced that the virtual brouhaha surrounding the Ravens-Steelers game will be captured and displayed at ABC2news.com via the social media platform, R2iSMASH.

George Washington University adds Candace Smith as media relations director. Smith most recently served as a media crisis communications coach for WMATA and communications adviser to Metro's general manager.

Ketchum adds Tim Weinheimer, former vice president and managing director at Brunner Digital, and Rebecca McCuiston, former senior vice president, consumer marketing, at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, to the firm’s D.C. office.

Approximately 30 percent of the 1,400 members belonging to PRSA’s National Capital Chapter (PRSA-NCC) work for associations or nonprofits. That’s why on Nov. 18 PRSA-NCC—the nation’s largest PRSA chapter—held a professional development program titled “Communications in the Nonprofit Sector: How to Demonstrate PR Value” Read More »

The Advertising Council has developed a new website, My Ad Council (www.MyAdCouncil.org), which will encourage advertising agencies, media companies and advertisers to further the reach of the Ad Council's public service campaigns online. Brian Perkins, corporate vice president, Johnson & Johnson, and Chair of the Ad Council, unveiled the new site at the Ad Council's 56th Annual Public Service Award Dinner held in New York City.

Susan Feeney joined GMMB as senior counselor. Since 2000, she has been senior supervising editor for NPR’s influential flagship programs, All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Along with overseeing the development of top-quality on- Read More »

Approximately 200 gathered at the Ritz in Tyson’s Corner on Nov. 17 for host Potomac Tech Wire’s breakfast roundtable covering Internet advertising and marketing outlook.

In the final round of a review, agencies have a Pavlovian tendency to show excessive amounts of spec work. (It’s one of three reasons why new business presentations always run over the allotted time.)

Sourcebook, an online directory that combines the best of rich media, social media and search in coming in Dec. 2009. Sourcebook will be an invaluable tool to locate advertising, marketing, public relations, media and the profession’s multitude of products and services, in one convenient place.

Facebook surged ahead of MySpace in the battle for market share among social networks, while The Wall Street Journal has pushed past USA Today as the daily newspaper with the biggest circulation, according to the latest edition of media rankings issued by BurrellesLuce. 

One of the area’s lightning rods in recent weeks has been Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who has been the focus of media attention, most of it negative.  We asked Charlie Brotman, founder, chairman and CEO of Brotman.Winter.Fried Communications and the dean of the sports PR community, what advice he would give Snyder.