Update: Here’s a challenge for the blog savvy nominees.

Let’s see: 3 out of the 5 finalists in the 2006 Best Use of the Internet category are blog-related; two of the agencies nominated for the prize are blogging.

Next: 3 out of the 5 finalists in the in the PR Innovation of the Year category are about: wikis, weblogs, and blog monitoring. Again, two of the agencies nominated for the prize are blogging, and the CEO of one of the nominees has started recently her blog.

There’s more: 3 out of the 5 finalists for PR Professional of the Year are blogging, and one of the nominees for Young Professional of the Year has a blog.

Finally, Edelman‘s word-of-mouth campaign for Halo 2 launch is nominated in 2 categories: Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year and Hi-Tech Campaign of the Year (aside: the Wikipedia’s page for the “I Love Bees” viral campaign doesn’t give any credit to the agency).

I guess 2005 was, in fact, the year when the use of social media tools in PR has become legitimate.

Congrats to all the nominees!

Update (March 6, 2006):

Hass MS&L is the winner of PR Week Awards 2006 for the PR Innovation of the Year and Best Use of the Internet, for the GM FastLane blog. Also, Alan VanderMolen, President of Edelman Asia Pacific – who blogs at Uncorked – won the Asia PR Professional of the Year award.

For the record:

Best Use of the Internet 2006 Finalists

• Hass MS&L (blog: BlogWorks) and General Motors | GM Fastlane Blog: A Global Giant Shows a Deft Touch
• Voce Communications (blog: Voce Nation) and Yahoo | Learning to Listen
• Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and Connexion by Boeing | Blogging the Stratosphere 1.0 (see also)
• Applebee’s | The “Extreme Portal Makeover” featuring Ty Pennington
• Padilla Speer Beardsley New York and Vuepoints Corp. | Vuepoints Push-Pull Paradigm

PR Innovation of the Year 2006 Finalists

• Eastwick Communications (blog: eastwikkers) | The “eastwiki”: The Road To Community
• Hass MS&L and General Motors | GM Fastlane Blog: A Global Giant Shows a Deft Touch
• Weber Shandwick‘s Intranet | Blogwatcher: Applying PR Wisdom to Blog Monitoring
• Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters company | Factiva Insight: Reputation Intelligence
• GolinHarris | An Innovative Tool for Innovative Thinking: Golinnovation.com

PR Professional of the Year 2006 Finalists

• Leslie Gaines-Ross (blog: reputation*watch) | Burson-Marsteller
• John Hlinko (DraftWesleyClark.com, Act for Love) | Grassroots Enterprise
• Michael Kempner (blog: MWW Straigt Talk) | MWW Group
• Raymond L. Buse III | Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
• Carrie Martin | American Red Cross

Young PR Professional of the Year 2006

• Sarah Bresee (blog: breezy), OutCast Communications
• Vijay Chattha, VSC Consulting
• Courtney Hill, Hill & Knowlton
• Melissa Shapiro, OutCast Communications
• Sara White, The NewsMarket

Update (Jan. 17, 2006)

In order to participate to the PR Week Awards, each company (agency, PR team, practitioner) has to submit an entry, detailing the following elements (see the complete PDF application):

• Budget
• Situation analysis
• Strategy
• Evaluation of success
• Objectives
• Research/Planning
• Audience analysis
• Execution/Tactics

OK, publishing the budget might be a delicate matter, but how about publishing the blog-related entries nominated as finalists in the Best Use of the Internet and PR Innovation of the Year categories? It will make wonderful case studies and examples of New PR.

Note: edited on Jan. 25, 05 to add Sarah Bresee’s blog.