The Nielsen Company Launches First-Ever CLIO Healthcare Awards Acknowledging Creative Excellence in Healthcare Comm...( -- Leaders and Pioneers to Serve as F...),Health

-- Leaders and Pioneers to Serve as Founding Advisory Board Members and Judges --

LAS VEGAS and NEW YORK, May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nielsen Company, a leading global information and media company and the CLIO Awards, one of the world's most recognized international advertising and design competitions, today announced the launch of the CLIO Healthcare Awards to honor creative excellence and innovation in communications in the healthcare industry. The new awards were launched this week at the 50th Anniversary CLIO Awards here in Las Vegas. Categories and entry details are available online at www.CLIOHealthcare.com. Awards will be handed out in New York City at a ceremony in October 2009.

"Healthcare accounts for more than one-third of our nation's gross national product and has become one of the most visible sectors of advertising, promotion and creative design in the last few years, particularly on TV and online," said Karl Vontz, Director of Events, Marketing, Media & Visual Arts Group, The Nielson Company. "We felt it was the right time to create a separate CLIO Awards to acknowledge and account for the fact that healthcare advertising and communications has become critical to the health and well being of the nation and is regulated differently and more stringently than traditional advertising and promotion. The CLIO Healthcare Awards will be executed using the same rigorous standards and commitment to excellence, but levels the playing field to qualify and judge this particular and massive industry sector more fairly and appropriately."

The CLIO Healthcare Awards will be established and judged by some of the most innovative, creative and strategic individuals in the healthcare advertising, marketing, design and communications fields. Members of the inaugural Advisory Board are:

• Rob Bucc
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