July 11, 2008 · 7:14 pm

London International Awards

 

Doug Zanger

Doug Zanger

Recently my colleague Doug Zanger was selected as the first ever Radio Jury President for the prestigious London International Awards.  Shortly thereafter I was appointed to the Jury with 22 other folks, tasked with judging radio creative from around the world.  Last years’ winning radio entries were produced in Johannesburg and Hamburg.  It’s been sometime since I worked in radio, but I’m looking forward to being part of this process.

Doug has set up AmerWeCan Radio, a hilarious push to get more American radio stations to enter the “Conceived by Radio Station” category of the LIAs.  Apparently no American radio station has ever won this award, and AmerWeCan mouthpiece Brett Britland takes great umbrage at this horrific oversight.

Doug is also pushing the IDA (It Didn’t Air) Awards to recognize great creative that never quite made it past the “creative review” process and onto the airwaves.  I look forward to hearing what almost was (or what never had a chance).

As founder and CEO of Xhang Creative, a Portland, Oregon-based radio and audio content creative agency/consultancy, Doug Zanger is a leading voice for creativity in radio.  Doug’s other ventures include pOne partners, a radio-station/company-centric business that serves as a full creative resource for radio stations and groups and Small Plate Radio, an online audio content creation group that has been running “pop-up” radio stations for advertising and industry trade events.  Doug is also the mastermind behind Good Radio Stories, an online PR service dedicated to showcasing the charitable works of radio stations and companies around the country. Good Radio Stories is a Radio 2020 project commissioned by the Radio Advertising Bureau, National Association of Broadcasters and HD Radio Alliance.

“Dr. Z” also blogs on Advertising Age’s Small Agency Diary and is an adjunct professor at Mount Hood Community College in Oregon, where he lectures about the importance of radio and advertising.

He is also an active donor for the Freeplay Foundation, a non-profit organization that distributes hand-cranked and solar powered radios to remote areas of Africa with the purpose of delivering content and messaging that helps stem the tide of poverty.

I’m probably missing several things, but I think that description is sufficient.  When does Doug ever sleep?!

UPDATE:  After judging nearly 150 spots, I’ve listened to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

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July 2, 2008 · 2:59 am

Sustainable Giving

In her blog The Philanthropic Family, Sharon Schneider discusses the merits of Product (RED) and its new music service, as well as the controversy over embedded giving.  You can make your own judgments, but I like embedded giving because it is sustainable and provides a predictable stream of revenue for philanthropies.  If you’re a CFO at a philanthropy, predictable revenue makes life easier.

She also points out the business benefits of Strategic Corporate Philanthropy.  In a nutshell, this refers to a company providing its products/services/expertise to a community non-profit.  This is not only great Corporate Social Responsibility policy, it’s a great marketing tool as well.  It works because non-profits tend to be deeply ingrained into the fabric of their community and often have patrons and board members that may be qualified buyers of their benefactor’s products and services.

The agency I work for recently developed a website to support the activities of a well known non-profit. Providing these services allowed us near-the-top billing as a sponsor for our in-kind donation, generated some great publicity for us and maybe even helped with our name recognition in the right circles.  Not to mention it made us feel great.

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