MokaFive & Ocarina on InformationWeek’s Startup 50 List
This week InformationWeek published its Startup 50 – a list of the most promising business technology companies to watch – and two LaunchSquad clients, Ocarina Networks and MokaFive, made the list!
At LaunchSquad, we love what we do because we get to work with innovative and cutting edge companies that have developed technology that could change the world, and Ocarina and MokaFive are perfect examples of this. Ocarina provides a storage optimization solution that enables companies to shrink their data and get much more use out of their storage space, helping them reduce their storage footprint, which is good for their budget and the environment. Meanwhile, MokaFive has debuted a revolutionary desktop as a service platform that allows people to securely access their desktop anytime, anywhere, regardless of network connectivity – you can even carry your desktop around with you on a USB drive!
Congratulations Ocarina and MokaFive!
The Audacity of Obama Girl
On the heels of being named PRWeek’s Boutique Agency of the Year, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve also been nominated for a 2008 SABRE award for our work with Barely Political and Next New Networks . The SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards honor specific marketing, communications and PR programs that demonstrate innovative leadership, creativity and measurability within a wide range of industries, companies and organizations. LaunchSquad has been nominated for the “Entertainment” category alongside campaigns for T-Mobile, the Harlem Globetrotters, Current Media and the Florida Marlins.
The nomination comes after two years of hard work by LaunchSquad’s BarelyPoltical/Next New Networks team, especially in publicizing the Barely Political and Obama Girl videos, a campaign that closely followed the President’s own innovative campaign strategies. LaunchSquad worked closely with BarelyPolitical and Obama Girl to spread the word and help inspire millions of youth to get connected to and participate in the political discourse. Our campaign led to multiple TV spots for Obama Girl (Amber Lee Ettinger) including Fox’s O’Reilly Factor and Geraldo at Large, a photo feature in GQ Magazine and earning the title of E! Televisions Hottest Woman on the Web!
Huge congrats to the entire BarelyPolitical/Next New Networks team!
America’s Greenest Campus Launches
For colleges, it’s easy, and rewarding, to be green. Earlier this month, our client Climate Culture partnered with non-profit marketing organization SmartPower to launch America’s Greenest Campus, a nationwide contest among colleges to reduce the carbon footprints of their students, faculty, alumni and staff. Just in time for Earth Month, America’s Greenest Campus is energizing and inspiring young people across the country to make a difference to impact climate change.
The contest is supported by Russell Simmons, Hip-Hop mogul and Editor-in-Chief of GlobalGrind.com, and Internet celeb Obama Girl, who starred in “Save Your Energy,” an online video with Jake Hurwitz from CollegeHumor’s Jake and Amir dedicated to the official kick-off on March 31st.
Climate Culture’s platform powers the contest by tracking each college’s participation and carbon reductions per person. The site helps encourage students, faculty and alumni to reduce energy use and cost by making personalized, practical recommendations. The contest already has over 400 schools participating to win $20,000 in cash prizes. Along with the contest announcement was the launch of Climate Culture’s Facebook App, which allows anyone to sign up and see reductions on Climate Culture through Facebook.
So far, the contest has gotten the attention of Matter Network, Mashable, The Huffington Post and ZDNet, and school papers like College News, UPenn’s The Daily Pennsylvanian and Ithaca College’s The Ithacan.
The contest runs until October 2009, so there’s plenty of time to follow and participate through the Web site, Twitter and Facebook.