April 15, 2011

The IFLA Section on Management and Marketing in collaboration with Emerald is pleased to announce the winners of the 9th IFLA International Marketing Award for 2011. First place was awarded to the German National Library of Medicine, (Cologne, Germany) for  its campaign “Pilots take off – and land (as you like it.)”

The campaign focuses on ZB MED search portals MEDPILOT and GREENPILOT, and follows the principle that online products must be marketed online for optimal impact and success. The basic premise relies upon target group specific communications to the search portals’ “digital residents”. Users with comparatively conservative usage behavior (“digital visitors”) are reached through more traditional media such as trade shows, press releases, personal contacts and in-house events. In this manner, an integrated communication consisting of both conventional and innovative measures is achieved. Contact for the award is Elke Roesner elke.roesner@zbmed.de.

The first-place winner receives airfare, lodging, and registration for the 2011 IFLA General Conference and Council to be held this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a cash award of $1,000 (U.S.) to further the marketing efforts of the library.

Second place was awarded to Edmonton Public Library (EPL) (Edmonton, Canada), for the project “Rebranding the Edmonton Public Library – from research to implementation to results.”  In the fall of 2009 the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) started an ambitious project to dramatically change the perception and image of its library system, culminating with the launch of EPL’s new brand in 2010. The new brand provides a fun, fresh and creative base from whic to engage library stakeholders.  Contact for the award is Tina Thomas, tthomas@epl.ca 

Third place was awarded to the Georgia Institute of Technology Library (Atlanta, Georgia, USA), for the project and radio broadcast “Lost in the Stacks.” This is the world’s first and only research library rock n’ roll radio show and airs on WREK 91.1 FM (and streams worldwide) on http://wrek.org every Friday at noon from Georgia Tech’s campus.  Contact for the award is Ameet Doshi ameet.doshi@gatech.edu. .  

More details about these winning campaigns are available from Christie Koontz, Christie.Koontz@cci.fsu.edu, Information Coordinator for the jury.The first place winner will be announced officially at the IFLA press conference, time and place to be announced. Second and third place winners will be announced also and awarded with distinctions.

For this ninth award, applications were available on the IFLA Web. Altogether there were 19 applicants from 12 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Lithuania, Maldives, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and USA. Any library, agency, or association in the world that promotes library service was eligible to receive the award.  

The IFLA INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AWARD is to honor organizations that implement creative, results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns. Objectives of the award:

  • Reward the best library marketing project worldwide each year
  • Encourage marketing in libraries
  • Give libraries the opportunity to share marketing experiences

This year's applicants were carefully judged on the following

  1. Strategic approach to marketing;
  2. Creativity, originality, innovation and social value;
  3. Potential for generating widespread public visibility and support for libraries;
  4. Effectiveness of communication;
  5. Commitment to ongoing marketing activities.
  6. Expression of emotion, sustainability and ethical aspects.

The Jury of the IFLA International Marketing Award:         

Dinesh K. GUPTA (India)
Christie KOONTZ (USA)
Ludmila ZAYTSEVA (Russia)
Nadia TEMMAR (Algeria)
Lena OLSSON (Sweden)
Angels MASSISIMO (Spain)                                             

About Emerald

With over forty years’ experience, Emerald Group Publishing is an independent leading publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 700 titles, comprising 200 journals, over 300 books and more than 200 book series as well as an extensive range of online products and services.  Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.