Weber Shandwick Wins Telly Awards, Videographer Award of Excellence and The Communicator Award

Thursday, July 10, 2008 BLOOMINGTON, Minn., July 10, 2008 – The Minneapolis-St. Paul office of Weber Shandwick won four prestigious national video awards on behalf of clients.

Weber Shandwick earned a Bronze Telly Award in the Health and Wellness category for its entry, “Forward: Living Life After Transplant,” a video created for the National Marrow Donor Program. The video educates young patients about what to expect – medically, emotionally and socially – from a cord blood or marrow transplant, often prescribed as the best hope in a battle with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Featuring transplant survivors’ personal stories, the video is a resource to help teens and young adults honestly and openly discuss issues they may deal with after transplant and illustrates that life does move forward after transplant.

Weber Shandwick also earned top honors for a series of three videos entitled “Honoring Unsung Heroes with the Opus Prize Foundation.” The videos received a Bronze Telly Award in the Social Issues category, the Videographer Award of Excellence in the Non-profit category and The Silver Communicator Award in the charitable/non-profit category from the International Academy of the Visual Arts. The Opus Prize Foundation’s faith-based humanitarian Opus Prize award is granted to “unsung heroes” working to alleviate social problems around the world. The videos honored the transformative work of the 2007 prize finalists: Washington, D.C.-based So Others Might Eat (SOME); Homeless People’s Federation Philippines; and AHADI Institute in Kigoma, Tanzania. Shown at the Opus Prize gala event, the videos were designed to be used by the nonprofit organizations as a fundraising and awareness tool.

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest film and video productions, and groundbreaking Web commercials, videos and films. The Videographer Awards is a 12-year-old independent, international awards competition designed to recognize excellence in Video Productions, TV Commercials/ News/Programs and New Media. The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals and recognizes the best creative work in the communications fields.

About the National Marrow Donor Program
The NMDP facilitates unrelated marrow and blood cell transplants as a single point of access for a long-standing collaborative network of leading national and international medical facilities in marrow and cord blood transplantation. The NMDP connects patients, doctors, donors and researchers to the resources they need to help more people live longer and healthier lives. For more information call 1-800-MARROW-2 or visit http://www.marrow.org/.

About the Opus Prize Foundation
Established in 2004, the Opus Prize is a $1 million faith-based humanitarian award and two $100,000 awards given annually to nonprofit organizations in honor of the organizations' leaders who are working to solve poverty, illiteracy, hunger, disease, injustice and other social issues. Opus Prize winners combine a driving entrepreneurial spirit with an abiding faith to combat today's social problems. The Prize is awarded by the Opus Prize Foundation, a philanthropic organization affiliated with The Opus Group, and presented by a college or university. Opus Prize winners are anonymously selected and the Opus Prize Foundation does not accept unsolicited nominations. For more information, visit http://www.opusprize.org/.

About Weber Shandwick
Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in over 79 markets around the world. The firm’s reputation is built on its deep commitment to client service, creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates - engaging stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation. Weber Shandwick provides strategy and execution across world-class practices such as consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, corporate/financial and crisis management. Its specialized services include digital/social media, advertising, market research, and corporate responsibility. Weber Shandwick received the highest client-satisfaction honors in the 2007 Agency Excellence Survey by PRWeek U.S. and in 2006, was named Large PR Firm of the Year (PR News U.S.), European Consultancy of the Year (The Holmes Report) and Network of the Year (Asia Pacific PR Awards). The firm also won the United Nations Grand Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Relations for the past three years. Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit http://www.webershandwick.com/.