Charlotte-based digital agency, Studiobanks has been recognized with an esteemed Webby Award for its work on Muzak’s 75th Anniversary website. The website, which showcases Muzak’s successful history in an ever-evolving industry, was selected as an Official Honoree for the Corporate Communications category category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards.

The Webby Awards are the Internet's most respected symbol of success. Winners of the 14th Annual Webby Awards were chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a global organization whose members include David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Internet inventor Vinton Cerf, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson, and R/GA chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg.

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To celebrate creative excellence in our industry, Studiobanks joined more than 32 Charlotte advertising and design firms at last week's 2010 Charlotte ADDY® Awards & Gala Show. Held at the snazzy Westin Hotel in Uptown Charlotte, we were honored with a Gold ADDY® Award for Muzak’s 75th Anniversary mini site, which showcases the company’s successful history in an ever-evolving industry, and a Silver ADDY® Award for Crossroads Charlotte’s Website, a social networking site established to promote the positive future of the Charlotte area, the interaction of ideas and community involvement.

Thank you to clients Muzak and Foundation for the Carolinas for their amazing partnership and collaboration on these award-winning projects! Also, cheers to all involved in putting together a tremendous show and congratulations to all of this year's winners.

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We hope everyone enjoyed (and recovered nicely) from our holiday party! A crowd of almost 125 guests gathered at Dilworth Billiards for a festive evening of mixing and mingling with our clients, colleagues, friends and family. Cheers to everyone who came out to celebrate the holidays with our team!

A special thank you to new client La Paz for the delicious holiday eats and to clients for donating a wonderful collection of door prizes, including two lunch passes from AAF Charlotte, a $50 gift card from Asana Activewear, $70 in gift cards from Blynk Organic, First Night Charlotte tickets and Ruth’s Chris coupons from Charlotte Center City Partners, a t-shirt and toboggan hat from Dilworth Billiards, four tickets to Discovery Place, a fleece blanket and backpack from Muzak, two tickets to Opera Carolina's La Bohème, a 60-minute massage from Urbana Cityspa & Teabar and a $50 gift card from Varji & Varji!

If you missed the party, enjoy the photos. Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!

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This Halloween weekend, a member of the Studiobanks family married a member of Muzak, our long-time client! Keeley and Megan were celebrated with a beautiful ceremony and a fun-filled, Irish-themed reception. We enjoyed tunes by an Irish folk band and a delicious mishmash of Irish foods and drinks. Emerald green, shamrocks and beautiful Irish blessings placed on tables brought the festive Irish theme together nicely. This was my favorite:

May the road rise to meet you May the wind be always at your back The sun shine warm upon your face The rains fall soft upon your fields And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Congratulations to the Carrigans - we hope you enjoy your trip to Ireland!

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This year celebrates Muzak's 75th anniversary in business. They decided to hold a conference to have a focused discussion on the art, science and sound of music branding. The discussion explored the transformation of music, the music industry, and music branding—from legal to cultural considerations, media consumption to retail behavior.

From a designer's perspective, it was very eye opening to realize how important music relates to the target audience and how it really helps to reinforce the message, style, and emotions created within a brand. I had never really put stock in what types of music the target audience of my brand would listen to or even create. But looking back, I now realize that most of the information I was receiving about a target audience was directly influenced by the types of music that is both listened to and created within different demographics. Music is a unifying theme in all circles and can even break bounds and connect very different groups of people by evoking emotion and creating memories.

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Designers from across the state came out this past weekend to celebrate the Carolina's most creative design at AIGA Charlotte's BOOM! Gala and Exhibition. The BOOM! competition had over 440 entries of which our judges selected 96 amazing winners. All winning work was displayed at the Gala for attendees to view as they mixed and mingled with a cross-Carolinas crowd. Attendees consistently remarked on the incredibly high caliber of work that was displayed.

Studiobanks is proud to announce that we had 5 pieces selected in the show!

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The sold-out 2009 Charlotte ADDY® Awards & Gala Show once again provided a very fun evening for members of the Charlotte advertising industry. The night was especially memorable for the Studiobanks crew, as we swept the interactive categories and brought home a total of 16 awards: 2 Gold ADDYs, 14 Silver ADDYs and the award for Excellence in Art Direction for the Eric Hunter Website.

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This year for the 2008 GlobalShop (the world's largest annual retail design event) Muzak created a unique multi-faceted marketing campaign based on the concept of expressions.

The Muzak booth featured hundreds of photos of people expressing angst, desire, elation and pride on 14 high-definition plasma screens with custom music programs that evoked each emotion. Booth attendees became part of the experience by being professionally photographed expressing one or more of those four emotions, then seeing their own photos added to the visual display throughout the event.

Expanding the experience into the web, Studiobanks created a micro-site for Muzak Expressions, allowing users to casually browse through the hundreds of photos Muzak took over the course of their campaign.

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