Zocalo Group Honored at 2010-2011 SABRE Awards

CHICAGO, May 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Omnicom Group's (OMC) Zocalo Group, an industry leader in the word-of-mouth and social media marketing space, has been awarded the prestigious Iron SABRE for Product of the Year, recognizing the agency's new Recommendation Index. Organized by the Holmes Group, the annual SABRE Awards dinner took place in New York City earlier this month.

A joint effort between Zocalo Group and M/A/R/C Research, the Recommendation Index is a measurement tool that enables brands to identify and track how consumers actually recommend within an industry category, in relation to a brand and its competitors. The Index also provides an overall ranking of both positively and negatively recommended brands as well as a score that marketers can use to compare against other brands in the same category. Originally launched in late 2009, the Index has featured categories including casual dining restaurants, consumer banking and reward programs.

In 2010, the Recommendation Index also received a finalist nomination from the Society of New Communications Research for its Technology Innovation-Social Data & Measurement category. Recognizing the importance of the Index, leading brand California Pizza Kitchen has also now incorporated its No. 1 Most Recommended Casual Dining Restaurant designation on its consumer packaging and in-store promotional material.

Zocalo Group walked away from Tuesday's event with two additional honors. Recognized for its "Nissan LEAF: Shifting to Zero Emissions" consumer campaign, the agency won a Silver SABRE Award in the Automotive category. In addition, Zocalo Group was nominated as a finalist in the Food and Beverage category for its "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" campaign for leading brand Unilever.

"It's an honor to receive this kind of acclaim along with our clients and for our Recommendation Index," said Paul Rand, Zocalo Group president and CEO. "The real power of word-of-mouth and recommendations is increasingly being recognized as having a notable impact on sales."

About the Award

The SABRE Awards recognize excellence in public relations programming, highlighting campaigns that demonstrate the highest levels of creativity, integrity and effectiveness. Over the past decade, the competition – which includes separate programs in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific – has grown to become the largest PR awards competition in the world.

About Zocalo Group

Zocalo Group is a full-service word-of-mouth and social media marketing agency, helping leading consumer and business to business brands become the most talked about and recommended in their categories. Based in Chicago, Zocalo Group has received numerous industry awards for brand programs and measurement initiatives. Zocalo Group is a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) and Ketchum. For more information, please visit www.zocalogroup.com.

SOURCE Ketchum