The Beacon Awards recognize the best of the best in cable
communications and public affairs. The Association of Cable
Communicators annually sponsors this program as part
of its mission to develop and promote cable communications
excellence through professional development to help
achieve industry and corporate goals. The 2010 Beacon Award-winning
entries were submitted by cable operators, programming networks, cable
associations and cable technology providers for communications
projects in such categories as community relations, social media communications
and public-service announcements.
The 2010 Beacon Awards Committee continued the ACC tradition of focusing
on ways to improve the award program. Led by chair Anthony
Surratt, vice president of corporate communications at Time Warner
Cable, the ACC updated the Beacon Awards categories to better reflect
the realities and demands of the cable communications profession and
ensure that the Beacon Awards will recognize the best and most strategic
campaigns. The total number of categories was reduced from 23 to
17. Four new categories were added, several were combined and three
were eliminated. With its new look, this year's Beacon Awards honor the
finalists and winners and hold up their exemplary work as the standard
for cable communicators to emulate.
The entries submitted this year demonstrate the hard work, innovation
and dedication of cable public-aff airs and communications professionals
across the nation. It is through cable communications campaigns and the
volunteer efforts of cable employees that many local charities and nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. receive the funds, materials and
services needed to further their missions and help those in need. Cable
companies are working to keep children safe online, honor veterans and
diversity, and address health concerns such as obesity, drug abuse and
cancer. In local communities, cable employees have tutored children, renovated
community centers and schools and fed the hungry.
This summer, Beacon Awards judges were given the opportunity to
see the excellent work cable communicators do to promote their companies'
products and contribute to the bottom line while striving to
improve the quality of life for their companies' customers and the communities
they serve. Whether the campaigns and tactics were geared
towards local needs or had worldwide impact, all displayed the ingenuity,
creativity and continued commitment to community one would
expect to see in a Beacon Awards finalist.
This year's 46 Beacon Awards winners achieve peer, industry and localmarket
recognition and join a long tradition of exemplary accomplishments
in cable communications. The ACC is proud to join with sponsor
Multichannel News to congratulate the winners and honorees of the 2010
Beacon Awards.
2010 Golden Beacon
Award Winner
Annually, the ACC presents the
Golden Beacon Award, the association’s
highest honor, to a communications
and public-affairs
initiative that has made an impact
on the cable industry while enhancing
cable’s image nationwide. The
association is pleased to announce
that this year’s Golden Beacon winner
is The C-SPAN Video Library.
Launched in March 2010 by C-SPAN
Networks, the C-SPAN Video Library
is a free, searchable online collection
of every C-SPAN program aired
since 1987 — over 160,000 hours of
C-SPAN video. This technology represents
a major milestone in C-SPAN’s
history of connecting the public to
the national political debate through
video, fulfilling the demand of today’s
viewers to watch video where
they want it, when they want it.
The C-SPAN Video Library brings
users “Washington Your Way,” not
only through its extensive archives,
but also through its accessibility and
sharing capability. A comprehensive
search engine was developed exclusively
for the Video Library, allowing
users to search by name, keyword,
date, location and more. A Flash
player with a clipping feature and
share buttons for e-mail and social
media make it easy to pass along CSPAN
video electronically. The site
also includes the C-SPAN Video Library’s
Congressional Chronicle
feature — an index to the C-SPAN
video recordings of the House and
Senate floor proceedings, organized
by speaker, with full-text and
full-video search and a Congressional
database going back to 1993.
The media campaign launching
the Video Library was primarily
directed at the public, emphasizing
the ability to search, clip, and
share C-SPAN video, all at their convenience.
The campaign was also
focused on members of the media
themselves, showing them how
they could use the Video Library as
a research tool. Unlike many other
news outlets and online sites
that offer real-time video and live
streaming of events, C-SPAN offers
the public and the media nearly a
quarter-century of public-affairs archived
online, with all events unedited
and in their entirety allowing
the user to choose what is relevant
to them.
The media efforts yielded remarkable
results. In the two weeks following
the public launch, the
campaign resulted in 132 print,
broadcast TV, radio, and online
stories, robust social media buzz,
and increased traffic to the site.
This included 18 print articles, including
articles in USA Today, The
New York Times and The Washington
Post. Online response was overwhelming,
as 110 blog entries,
articles or links appeared online —
many with embedded video from
the Video Library. The NBC Nightly
News With Brian Williams featured
C-SPAN Video Library in the
story, “C-SPAN Junkies Rejoice! Entire
Archive to Go Online.” Twitter
and Facebook users shared clips
and links from the Video Library,
resulting in a 35% increase in @cspanvl
Twitter followers, a 14% increase
in C-SPAN’s Facebook hits
and 1,204 Facebook comments
during launch week.
All print promotion credited the
cable industry for the Video Library
with the tagline, “Cable’s
latest gift to America.” Many media
mentions included credit for
the cable industry’s support of
C-SPAN and the C-SPAN Video Library.
Jim Kearney of Pajamas
Media wrote: “So thanks, cable industry,
for the C-SPAN subsidy …
Our nickels and dimes, forwarded
each month from our cable bills
to C-SPAN, paid for this impressive
public library.”
