Kane Consulting Receives 2009 Bronze Quill Award from IABC Minnesota

Kane Consulting, a Minneapolis-based new media marketing and PR firm, received a 2009 Bronze Quill Award of Excellence from The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Minnesota. The firm was recognized in the category of Communications Management/Special Events for creating, launching and coordinating an integrated communications plan for The 2008 Summit interactive conference by MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association).

Presented at The Bronze Quill Awards Gala on February 24, 2009 at the Calhoun Beach Club in Minneapolis, Kane Consulting is one of 10 Excellence winners recognized among more than 100 entries in 26 categories, evaluated by a panel of judges from across the United States.

“It’s an incredible honor to be acknowledged among my peers, and especially meaningful to be recognized in this industry for a marketing plan that utilized cutting-edge digital and social media applications,” says Jennifer Kane, principal of Kane Consulting.

For five years, Kane Consulting has produced the Summit, a conference on interactive marketing, for MIMA. After a record 82% growth in attendance at the 2007 conference, the organization shifted its focus for the 2008 event by capping attendance and raising prices in an effort to position the event more competitively in the regional and national marketplace. Once again, MIMA called upon Kane Consulting to create a marketing and communications plan to help accomplish this task.

Utilizing new media marketing strategies and tools, Kane Consulting:

• Created a Summit that served as a virtual clearinghouse of ideas, information and conversations focused on the conference.
• Selected a range of interactive applications (including Twitter, Facebook Flick’r, YouTube, Blog Carnival and others), which were populated and used to fill the Web site.
• Developed a satellite network of marketing strategies for specific niche audiences to drive traffic to, from and through the Web site.
• Interconnected these applications and the Web site to create a viral marketing loop that continues to support current and future marketing efforts.

Due to the successful social networking strategy, The Summit sold out nearly one month in advance to 600 people before the early bird registration deadline. And, because this strategy was more effective (and worked more quickly) than traditional marketing strategies, MIMA spent only a fraction of its marketing and communications budget.

Kane Consulting is producing and providing marketing and communications program implementation for the 2009 Summit on October 5 at the Minneapolis Hilton.

Kane concludes, “This year’s marketing plan builds on the social networking success of the 2008 event, but the tools have evolved. We’re raising the bar and using - in some instances, even creating - new technologies to achieve our goals.”