Pearl Awards Dinner Recap - Simon Kelly Wins John Caldwell Award

Just returned back from the Custom Publishing Council Pearl Awards and dinner at the Rainbow room in New York.  All involved did a fantastic job.  Here are a few highlights.

>>Here is a link to the full list of Award Winners by category.

"Mr. Magazine" Samir Husni and Laurel Touby, founder of Mediabistro, co-presented the event and did a fantastic job. Mr. Magazine had a few very important comments throughout the night that included:

"We must appreciate the customer's time and constantly show them benefits through our content."

"Connectivity is most important. If we don't connect with our customers, we are out of this business."

"We don't want readers - we want customers."

"Good editorial is the only way to create customers. We can always fool them once. Consistent content is the key."

The Pearl Award for "Best in Custom" honoring overall excellence in editorial, design, strategy, distribution and fulfillment was shared by Lexus magazine (produced by Story Worldwide) and STIR magazine from Sherwin-Williams (produced by Hanley Wood Marketing.  Congrats to both. I was lucky enough to share the table with the fine folks from Sherwin-Williams (Cleveland, Ohio natives).

Kelly Wins Caldwell

Story also took home another award in the form of Simon Kelly.  Simon won the John Caldwell Award, which is the lifetime achievement award for the custom publishing industry (named after the late, great John Caldwell). Simon, a good friend and mentor, is truly one of the classiest and most respected people in all of publishing.  Congratulations Simon...well deserved!

Pictures: Simon Kelly accepting his John Caldwell Award. Simon with Lori Rosen and Gretel Going from the Custom Publishing Council. Simon with Craig Waller, Pace Communications.

Here are a couple quotes from Simon's speech:

"There is $300 billion spent on advertising worldwide, trying to figure out that traditional marketing isn't working."

Simon's 4 Tenants:

"1. Make Money
2. Have Fun
3. Don't Do Business with Those You Don't Like
4. Do Great Things"

Comments

[Sue]

Awesome pictures.Thanks.