Kelly Joseph has joined ZLRIGNITION as an account manager.

From online marketing to managing traditional consumer and B-to-B advertising campaigns, Kelly brings a breadth of experience to help ZLRIGNITION clients achieve results. And, she knows Oprah.

An advertising management graduate of Drake University, Kelly has implemented advertising programs for some of the top brands in the U.S., including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Target, GE, Sprint and Hershey’s.

She also spent four years with Harpo Productions in Chicago where she served as a campaign manager for Oprah.com.

Kelly returned to Iowa in 2010 and launched the social group buying site, LivingSocial, in the Des Moines market.

Prior to joining ZLRIGNITION in 2012, Kelly worked as an account executive for the Integer Group where she managed the replacement window and door account for Pella Corporation.

Kelly also serves on the national advisory council for the Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

She and her husband, Brian, reside in Urbandale.

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.

We recently launched a new website for the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) - www.IowaeHealth.org.

Through their vision for a healthier Iowa, the IDPH formed Iowa e-Health to encourage consumers, health care providers, insurers, consumers, government and businesses to establish Iowa’s Health Information Exchange and to promote the use of electronic health records.  Across the country, there is a goal for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014.

According to the Iowa e-Health, Iowa’s Health Information Exchange will greatly improve health care by providing doctors with faster access and more complete health information.  With accurate, up-to-date electronic health records, doctors can save precious time, make more informed decisions and provide better health care.

Because the website’s focus centered on two central audiences — the general public and health care providers — the website needed to be carefully developed to allow some information to be replicated in both sections while other key sections contained audience-specific content.

Please check out the website.  Every Iowan needs to be informed about efforts to improve health care in the state of Iowa.  We’re proud to be a part of it.

In December, we launched a new website for 1-800-BETS-OFF.  If you are not familiar with the program, it was established by the Iowa Department of Public Health to reduce the harm that can be caused by problem gambling and also to educate about responsible gambling.

The new website is very simple.  It was redesigned to focus on getting people the help they need.  There is a quiz visitors can take to determine if they may be in need of help or getting close to needing help.

And, because video is such a popular communication tool, we’ve produced a video that explains what happens when you make that call.  The purpose is to make people feel more comfortable about taking that first step towards recovery.

Please review the new website and let us know your thoughts.