ZLRIGNITION has promoted Jason Boucher to vice president of client services.

Boucher, selected by the Advertising Federation of Des Moines as an Advertising Professional of the Year, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the agency’s account teams.

“Jason plays a critical role in directing communications strategies that have ignited brands,” says Louis Laurent, President and CEO. “His expanded role will contribute significantly to our clients’ success.”

He returned to the agency in 2005 as an Account Manger and Account Supervisor and has worked on the agency’s largest accounts.

Boucher served as a media buyer for ZLRIGNITION from 2000 to 2002 then returned to school to obtain a Master of Science degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State University. While seeking his masters, Jason served as an instructor of Advanced Advertising Campaigns and mentored a group of 17 Iowa State students in a national student advertising competition.  

Despite all you’ve heard about the shrinking of newsrooms around the country, this traditional form of journalism is enjoying a renaissance of sorts — in the corporate world.

Some are calling it brand journalism. Companies are employing and training journalists to develop stories and video about their brands, their products and their research. And they are delivering the content through Websites that look more like wsj.com or cnn.com than a corporate brochure. A great example is IBM with an entire site that focuses on how to make technology work smarter and better. Boeing packages videos in a format that resembles  TV news stories.

Proponents of the idea say by shifting the emphasis to product and brand promotion to delivering useful content, they are increasing brand awareness in a credible way.

Whether you embrace this approach or not, the key point to be made is your communications need to fullfill an audience need — a quest for information, dialogue, or simply to be entertained.