The key objective of Cox Communications Arizona was to create an innovative grassroots advocacy Web site that allowed employees, contractors, vendors, cable industry partners and other stakeholders to quickly and easily 1.) Learn about public policy issues affecting Cox Communications and 2.) Impact those issues by contacting lawmakers. The Cox Advocacy Network was developed and launched to support Cox Arizona’s major legislative initiative, the 2006 Cable Customer Tax Relief Act. During the legislative session, Cox employees and other advocates generated over 4500 messages to Arizona lawmakers in support of the legislation. Over 22% of Cox employees sent at least one message to their lawmaker. On March 3, 2006, Governor Janet Napolitano signed into law the 2006 Cable Customer Tax Relief Act.

Cox Communications launched a new online blog, Digital Straight Talk, to challenge the claims of competitors, respond rapidly to issues that could impact the company’s image, and reinforce Cox’s image as an innovator in the broadband communications industry. Since launch, the blog has helped the company achieve those goals and averages over 4,000 page views a week.

Darfur is Dying is a student-produced, viral video game that provides a window into the Darfur refugee experience. It is designed to spread awareness of the genocide taking place in Sudan, serve as a call to action, and further inspire students to help stop the crisis. Conceived and developed by college students, with guidance from humanitarian aid workers, Darfur is Dying uniquely empowers people to help stop the genocide by embedding real world ways to take action into game play. The game has reached nearly one million people and has engaged the public in a new form of activism for the digital age.

This year, in Lifetime’s 12th annual “Stop Breast Cancer for Life” public awareness and advocacy campaign, the Network wanted to find a way to engage its audience in a new, more interactive way. The programming centerpiece of the campaign was a touching and irreverent film called “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy,” based on the memoir of Lifetime executive Geralyn Lucas who faced breast cancer at age 27. Lifetime wanted to complement the young, fresh tone of the film in new media and technology and at the same time, encourage young women to become vigilant about their breast health. With the addition of a daily blog entitled the “Daily Pink,” enhanced content, features and photo galleries, interviews with celebrities and experts, as well as new partnerships with Amazon.com and RealArcade, the breast cancer site received more than 1,127,189 visitors during the month of October, an increase of 38 percent over the previous year.