We’ve mentioned our media management and analysis platform, ImpactWatch, several times (in passing) on this blog. Last night, at the 2006 Sabre Awards Dinner in Manhattan, we learned that we had won the Iron Sabre for the Research/Evaluation category, beating out Hill & Knowlton’s Wal-Mart Media Day Analysis case study. H & K has won the category for several years in a row and is quite the formidable opponent. Thanks to tablemates Stanton Crenshaw (received the Bronze Sabre for Best Media Placement: Television) for their hearty congratulations and Denver-based MGA Communications for their kindness and their spirited applause.

We are very proud of our ImpactWatch product and also our work in assisting corporations and public relations agencies with continuous measurement and analysis of their programs and initiatives. The media landscape has been evolving rapidly in the past few years and we have been developing the system so that it reflects emerging media trends and represents each company’s communications goals and objectives, while staying consistent with best measurement practices. Measurement, as so many communicators know, is not very easy and it’s important to assess program measurement in context. Anyway, we sincerely appreciate the honor.

In other news, BigPR seemed to have swept the awards away last night. Numerous teams from Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, Golin/Harris, Ogilvy and Hill & Knowlton accepted awards for their outstanding work. I am personally curious to learn more about the following campaigns:

• Executive Leadership category: Tata Goes Global: Taking an Indian Titan Beyond Its Shores (Tata, Inc. with Financial Dynamics)
• Marketing to Youth category: Moving Volunteering From A Must Do to A Want To Do: Engaging Kids and Ronald McDonald House Charities (McDonald’s with MWW Group)
• International category: The Road to Sustainable Mobility: Challenge Bibendum China Culminates with the Shanghai Report
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Africa’s Tenuous AIDS Lifeline (Abbott)

Congratulations to everyone who participated and was nominated for an award. We’ll see you there next year!