• by Kenneth Fadner , September 1, 2006

Welcome to the third annual Creative Media Awards competition. As has become our custom, we present herein all the finalists in each category. The winners will be selected from those you see here. In addition, the campaign deemed best overall will win the coveted Best in Show award. All awards will be presented at our Creative Media Awards reception at 6 p.m. on Sept. 27 at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Tickets to the event are still available. For more information, go to mediapost.com/cma.

Once again our editors were hit with a barrage of entries in 17 categories. In fact, our entries grew even though we spun out the online categories, creating the new omma Awards for online advertising creativity (a special omma Awards finalists publication is also available). Media in all forms pervade our daily lives (for better and worse), but in these pages, only those practicing excellence in the craft get a chance for recognition.

The entries covered the full breadth and depth of the media spectrum, including experimental and emerging media, outdoor, and branded content/product placement. Agency briefs were packed with many interactive and viral marketing maneuvers  both online and offline  evidence of just how rich the media landscape has become.

The Creative Media Awards illustrate our belief that the process of buying, planning, and strategizing media is every bit as creative as rendering storyboards for a print or tv ad campaign. It is that belief that fuels our commitment to the media process, from ideation to strategy and implementation. Some have called media the new creative. At MediaPost, we live those words every day.

Now the job of choosing the winners of the Creative Media Awards falls to our esteemed panel of judges, who will select from among the finalists you read about in these pages. (Judges are prohibited from judging their own work.)

We will toast the winners and all the finalists at the Creative Media Awards reception on Sept. 27. Fittingly, the party takes place after MediaPost's Forecast 2007 event (mediapost.com/forecast), a daylong conference of media executives who will weigh in on  and help plan  the future of media. We hope to see you all at Forecast and at the cmas. Congratulations to all the finalists, and thank you to all who entered.

Kenneth Fadner

Publisher, Media Magazine and Chairman, MediaPost Communications