CHARLESTON, S.C. - In only one month’s time, Rawle Murdy took home six major awards for its outstanding work in marketing, advertising and public relations. The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and several other acclaimed trade organizations recognized Rawle Murdy for strategic communication campaigns created for five of South Carolina’s most iconic brands.

Rawle Murdy was recognized with three Adrian Awards from the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International for its work with Wild Dunes Resort and Charleston Place Hotel. Two were “Silver” awards for an integrated campaign, “Stay More, Save More,” which promoted value with longer stays at Wild Dunes during a down economy, and Charleston Place Hotel’s Summer Leisure Campaign, which used personalized direct mail to drive bookings. Rawle Murdy also won a “Gold” in Public Relations Crisis Management for its proactive Wild Dunes Resort’s beach renourishment efforts that utilized social media in addition to traditional PR and marketing to keep bookings strong.

“We were so pleased to have the opportunity to nominate Rawle Murdy for one of our industry’s most prestigious awards,” said Andressa Chapman, director of marketing communication at Wild Dunes Resort. “They have been a true partner to us and we knew that our peers would recognize the stellar work we’ve done together.”

In November, the Charleston American Marketing Association presented Rawle Murdy with two Spark Awards for exceptional marketing campaigns. Rawle Murdy’s campaign to rebrand the Charleston Animal Society and launch the nonprofit’s new state-of-the-art center not only won a “Torch” award, it also received the highest score of any contest entry submitted in 2008. Rawle Murdy also won a “Fuse” award, which recognizes a campaign that takes a seemingly one-dimensional issue and builds buzz, for the agency’s “Pledge for Growth” initiative created with the South Carolina State Port Authority to promote responsible growth in and around Charleston.

Finally, Rawle Murdy’s “Say It With Beef” Valentine’s Day campaign for Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. was awarded the People’s Choice Award for a Retail Television or Radio Advertisement by the attendees at the Certified Angus Beef annual conference in September 2008. The innovative campaign, created to introduce a new offering at the grocery store chain, even earned a mention on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” earlier this year.

“We are grateful to be honored with these recognitions, especially in light of being named a finalist in The Wall Street Journal’sTop Small Workplaces for 2008,” said Bruce Murdy, president of Rawle Murdy. “All six of these awards reinforce our focus on delivering thoughtful, strategic work for our clients.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Due to the steadily growing need for smart interactive counsel and integrated marketing solutions, Lou Fabian has joined Rawle Murdy as interactive project manager. From managing web design projects to overseeing and analyzing online and rich media, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and advertising campaigns, Fabian will be responsible for managing all client interactive projects.

Before joining Rawle Murdy’s interactive team, Fabian worked as a senior account executive at imc², a full-service independent interactive agency located just outside Philadelphia, Pa. He also honed his skills in the growing fields of e-commerce solutions, SEM and online advertising by working with large retailers like Footlocker, Timberland, GNC (General Nutrition Center) and Linens N’ Things while at the leading interactive firms of GSI Commerce and Unreal Marketing Solutions.

“Lou’s strong background in digital planning and strategic interactive counsel will only further strengthen our interactive team,” said Rawle Murdy President Bruce Murdy. “We’re excited to have him on board.”

Fabian built his career in the burgeoning field of interactive marketing after earning a bachelor’s of Science and Business Administration from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania in 2002.

Rawle Murdy Gets Creative to Raise Money for Alzheimer’s Association

Rather than just asking Rawle Murdy’s 60+ staffers to donate money for the Alzheimer Memory Walk in late October, the agency’s media department got creative–they set a goal of raising $500 and coordinated internal bake sales, raffles, and offered a “Wear Jeans Day” for $5. Not surprisingly, the brownies disappeared and donations rolled in. In fact, the team raised nearly $750, well exceeding their goal. And they capped off the effort by literally walking the Walk.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Mark Updegrove—former vice president at Yahoo! Canada and MTV Networks executive—has joined Rawle Murdy as Director of Business Development. Updegrove will be responsible for leading new business development efforts for the firm.

Updegrove brings Rawle Murdy two decades of leadership experience working with some of the world’s most iconic brands—from Time Magazine to MTV Networks to Yahoo!

Updegrove was vice president of sales and operations at Yahoo! Canada helping them expand their reach as the world’s second largest search engine. He launched Nickelodeon’s custom publishing division and helped build MTV Magazine for MTV Networks after serving as publisher for Newsweek in New York. Updegrove also spent eleven years with Time in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, where he served as president of Time Canada.

“Mark’s relevant experience working with some of the top worldwide brands will certainly be an asset to Rawle Murdy,” said Rawle Murdy President Bruce Murdy. “We are thrilled and fully confident he will bring great value to the ongoing success and growth of our firm.”

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From the Charleston Regional Business Journal

By David L. Rawle

Brian Finkelstein came home and found a Comcast technicial asleep on his couch. The technicial had fallen asleep waiting for Comast’s customer support line to answer the phone.

Finkelstein videotaked the sleeping technician and posted it on YouTube. Within hours, the video was viewed by more than h alf a million people. Needless to say, the video dealt a real blow to Comcast.

The Finkelstein video is but one of many examples of what is now referred to as “consumer-generated media.” Blogs, wikis, message boards, video-sharing sties and social networking pages are all part of the growing trend of consumer-generated media.

More than 112 million blogs are now in the blogoshpere. More than 200 million videos are viewed daily on YouTube. And more than 14 million photos are uploaded daily on Facebook.

Vincent Ferrari encountered a combative service representative at AOL. He recorded the call and put the audio file on his blog and YouTube. He even endedup on NBC’s Today show.

Consumers rule. Consumers control the dialogue. Consumers are talking about you. And there are tremendous benefits in listening.

Carefully listening to consumers does even more than protect your reputation and strengthen your sales. It can provide valuable market research information. It can help tell you where the weak spots are in  your product and service. And it can reveal  your personnel strengths and weaknesses.

Various methods exist for staying in touch with what consumers are saying about you. For example, Technorati blog search, Nielson BlogPulse and Google Blog Search each provide ways to monitor blogs. IceRocket searches across blogs as well as MySpace pages, news sources, images and videos. YouTube and Google Video Search, along with Flickr and other photo search sites, are valuable. And then, too, you can look at ratings sites like Epinions or Trip Advisor.

Beyond looking at these sites, analyze the comments that are out there — How many there are, where they come from, what issues they are addressing, what kinds of emotions they are expressing, what you can tell about the sources of the comments.

In short, there’s a lot of slicing and dicing to do, if you really want to understand and respond effectively to what’s being said.

We are all living under the critical microscopes of consumers. So, what’s the best way to thrive in these conditions?

First, do a reality check on your product or service. Make certain that you are delivering on your promise.

What matters most to consumers is your credibility. They want to feel that they can truse you, that you’re being open and straight with them. they want to feel that you’re listening, and that you’re responsive to their interests, issues and comments.

Second, make communicating with you really easy for your customers. Don’t hide the opportunity in small type on  your Web site. Say it loud and clear. Encourage consumer participation.

Put all commnets on your site, even if they’re negative. Make your Web site a listening platform that nurtures a sense of community. And make every interaction with your customers a positive experience.

Just look at the kinds of companies that are thriving in today’s challenging economy. In the airline industry, Southwest stands apart from all others, in personality as well as profitability. They have successfully created a community with their customers.

So has Lands’ End, where customer service reps are encouraged to chat with customers.

And what about Comcast? Well, they learned their lesson from Brian Finkelstein and others. they now have a full-time department dedicated to monitoring all consumer-generated media, listening carefully to it and responding responsibly to it with both words and actions. As Comcast now says, “When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clean the air.”