Carousel30 Interactive has partnered with OurEarth.org to provide pro bono aid in this small nonprofit’s online marketing, digital PR and creative assets ... Pappas Group premiered a national TV spot for Rosetta Stone on Anderson Cooper 360 ... Jill Tanenbaum Graphic Design & Advertising has been hired by Information Innovators Inc. to rebrand the IT company ... Hager Sharp announced that Lynne Doner Lotenberg, M.A., will join the agency as VP of strategic planning and research ... and, The Borenstein Group adds Kim Plyler as VP of government communications.

The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) engaged Bethesda-based RP3 Agency to serve as its agency partner and steer the organization’s strategic marketing initiatives.  Founded in 1972, ASE provides voluntary testing and certification programs for automotive service professionals, with industry-specific tests that cover services for virtually every type of vehicle.

Larry Weisman has gone from “Redskins Unfiltered” to “unemployed”, reports Washington City Paper. According to a piece by Dave McKenna, “In July 2009, Weisman became what to me looked like the smartest hire Dan Snyder ever made. Snyder never got along with the press; Weisman was the press, a longtime and respected NFL writer for USAToday and frequent guest on local sportsradio who was liked by pretty much everybody.

The 4A’s Mid-Atlantic Council sponsored an evening at Howard University’s Blackburn Center to lead an “Embracing Diversity in Advertising” panel and screening of filmmaker Rick Boyko’s (managing director, VCU Brandcenter) documentary “The Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising.”

The Richmond Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau invested $45,000 to fill advertising space inside the D.C. Metro stop that services the downtown Verizon Center with ads pitching Richmond as a sophisticated, hip and historical haven, reports Richmond Biz Sense.

SmithGifford landed a marketing contract with NISH, a national nonprofit agency whose mission is to create employment opportunities for people with significant disabilities. The contract specifically calls for support for the AbilityOne® Program, the largest source of employment for people who are blind or have other significant disabilities in the United States.

ABC7/WJLA-TV, NewsChannel 8 and TBD.com will launch a two-pronged online approach to covering news, traffic, weather, and much more in the growing Washington metro area. According to a TBD.com story, “the centerpiece of this approach is the relaunch of WJLA.com, the new digital home of Washington’s award-winning ABC affiliate, and the redesign of the all-local TBD.com.”

August, Lang & Husak crashed cars in the desert to create a TV PSA on distracted driving for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons .... Spectrum reports a number of personnel announcements including that Pamela Lippincott rejoined the agency as VP/ strategy development ...Gibraltar Associates announced that John Procter has been named Partner ... Frost Miller Group has been hired by Digestive Disease Week to create a new brand identity for the annual medical conference

The DC Ad Club is accepting nominations for the 2011 Silver Medal Award ... Washington Women in Public Relations is working on its Emerging Leaders Awards ... and, PRSA-NCC is looking for entries for its Thoth awards.

The Baltimore advertising community celebrated its best creative at the 37th Annual ADDY Awards Show on April 14, which paid homage to 1960s Madison Avenue with a “Mad Men”-style theme. Barb Clapp Advertising & Marketing snagged the evening’s most coveted honor – Best of Show – for its FOP & IAFF awareness campaign, while MGH took home the most awards. The Special Judges Award for Innovative Thinking went to Pivac Advertising

New to the Capitol Communicator list of sponsors is independent advertising and communications agency White+Partners. Through its sponsorship with the online group for communications professionals, the agency will take advantage of the perfect venue for recruiting talent, showcasing its work and delivering thought-leadership commentary.

It’s that time of year again, or at least the second time in what will be a long standing honor, for Washington Women in Public Relations’ (WWPR) Emerging Leaders Awards. WWPR is following up the successful launch of the 2010 award honoring rising stars in the industry (ages 21-35) for their professional accomplishments

Research, statistics, and defining focused campaign objectives drove intriguing conversation at Navigating the New Frontier of Media Measurement, a workshop put on by the Public Relations Society of America’s National Capital Chapter

All-newser WTOP had a surge in traffic to its wtop.com website due to the threat of the federal government shutdown, reports dcrtv.com. Its report stated

Pappas Group created an integrated campaign featuring on-air, digital and print to promote the premiere of new TLC series EXTREME COUPONING ... Clear Channel Outdoor will launch a network of 30 digital transit shelter ads in September ...  A GraphTec entry was honored as the best piece in the 7th annual PGAMA Excellence in Print Awards competition.

1ºAdopt a Maverick Mindset

2º Build a Brand Unusual

3º Brand as Living Organism

4º Your Brand as Platform

In a whirlwind agency search in March, MDB came up the winner for The Washington Examiner’s new branding campaign. The multimedia campaign

DC-based Elevation, Ltd., reports that it has launched a new phase of the award-winning humanitarian campaign “No Más Cruces en la Frontera” (No More Crosses on the Border) in both Mexico and the United States. Now in its sixth year, the campaign alerts potential immigrants to the risks and dangers associated with crossing the border without documents and how families and friends can be affected forever by the tragic results of such actions.

Seven local agencies that won Gold and Silver ADDY Awards at the DC Ad Club’s 2011 ADDY® Awards went on to garner additional awards at the next level of competition. The DC Ad Club is represented with six Gold ADDY® Award and 11 Silver ADDY® Awards.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is looking for an “expert marketing and communications firm” to support Clean Air Partners, a non-profit working to curb pollution. For more than a decade, stated the RFP,

Design Army wins big at the District Two ADDYs ... ZilYen redesigns Corporation for Public Broadcasting's "My Source" website ... and Grade A Marketing launched in Arlington.

On Thursday, April 14, from 2-3 p.m., Vocus presents a free webinar on how to make customers feel the love and keep coming back. 

Join Jim Joseph, president and partner of Lippe Taylor Brand Communications and author of The Experience Effect, to find out how corporate giants and neighborhood shops create the emotional experiences that tie customers to their brands. No gimmicks or jargon – just what works, what doesn’t and what you can do:

Here are the radio ratings for DC and Baltimore, courtesy of dcrtv.com, for the top-five stations for second week of March, for listeners more than 12 years of age:

She Made Charm City Happen for CC!

Click to view photos from the event

Over 100 communications professionals gathered in Baltimore at Vino Rosina this past Thursday for Capitol Communicator’s inaugural Connecting Communicators event. Representatives of the association groups including American Advertising Federation, Baltimore; American Marketing Association, Baltimore; Public Relations Society of America, Maryland Chapte Read More »

By Emily O'Hara

Cindy Atlee kicked off the Washington Women in Public Relations' (WWPR) March professional development brown bag, The Art of Story-Telling: Selling Your Company, Your Product, and Yourself through Stories, by having the audience choose a characteristic that describes themselves. This exercise was used to open up the discussion and to remind people that telling stories is the most interesting way to get your message across to your audience.

There are a number of fundamental changes impacting our communications community concluded Capitol Communicator sponsors who attended our quarterly forecasting roundtable last week. For agencies, there was a sense that the trend toward project work, rather than on-going retainers, will continue as the pressure to show a return on investment remains unabated

Marketwire has introduced a full-service solution for eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) financial statement preparation and reporting. For companies needing to comply with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's XBRL mandate, this means that clients can take advantage of Marketwire's fully integrated solution for regulatory compliance and combine XBRL with EDGAR filing, news release distribution, and document posting to corporate websites.

Design Army reports that the trend for spring points to mixing eye-catching colors and contrasting textures for a look that's equal parts irreverent and chic. Velvety pastels mix with vibrant pops...soft and smooth mingling with rough and rowdy...this new trend separates the bold from the blah!

White+Partners adds Leigh Mayo to lead the agency’s growing grassroots/ advocacy division as VP/ advocacy marketing ... iStrategyLabs adds six ... TGD Communications adds Neha Gupta Goyal ... and, Mark Stubis has been appointed < Read More »

All-news WTOP radio was the highest ad revenue billing radio station in the country in 2010.  Chantilly-based BIA/Kelsey estimates the station billed over $57 million, while KIIS, a contemporary hit station in LA, was second with $54 million. No other station billed over $50 million in 2010.