Creative Good Announces 2005 Copernican Award Finalists; Copernican Awards Honor Customer-Centric Organizations

Business Wire, April 14, 2005

NEW YORK -- Creative Good, a New York-based customer experience consultancy, announced 12 leading companies and organizations as finalists for the 2005 Copernican Awards. The Copernican Awards are awarded annually (2005 is the inaugural year) to top companies and organizations that succeed by putting customers at the center of their "business universe." Forbes Magazine is the sponsor of the 2005 Copernican Awards.

The 2005 Copernican Award Finalists:

--- LARGE CATEGORY ($1B  in annual revenue or budget) ---

* Amazon (AMZ)
* JetBlue (JBLU)
* Staples (SPLS)
* Westin Hotels (HOT)

--- MEDIUM CATEGORY ($100M  in annual revenue or budget) ---

* ING Direct (ING)
* New York State DMV - License Express
* Netflix (NFLX)
* Uline

--- SMALL CATEGORY (Less than $100M in annual revenue or budget) ---

* Blacksocks
* Chambers Street Wines
* Flickr (recently sold to Yahoo!, YHOO)
* Sigalert.com

"Forbes is proud to support Creative Good and the Copernican Awards," said Kendall Crolius, VP of Marketing at Forbes. "As a company that also recognizes the importance of putting the customer first, Forbes applauds all of the companies honored."

Creative Good CEO Phil Terry said, "Like the misguided early notion - debunked by Copernicus - that the universe revolves around the earth, many businesses today still think that they, not their customers, are at the center of the business universe. The Copernican Awards recognize companies that put customers first. Customer experience will be as important in the 21st century as advertising was in the 20th century."

Creative Good selected the 2005 Copernican Award finalists from nominations put forward by the executive members of the Customer Experience Councils: executive forums, run by Creative Good, of over 80 senior decision makers in marketing, product management, and customer experience across a range of industries.

The companies nominated for a 2005 Copernican Award participated in an evaluation of their strategy, financial performance, organizational design and, most importantly, key customer metrics like satisfaction and retention. The results of that evaluation process determined the finalists.

One Copernican Award winner will be named in each of the three categories above, based on a vote of Customer Experience Council members. The 2005 Copernican Award winners will be announced at the Rainbow Room in New York City on Wednesday, April 27, 2005.

About Creative Good

Founded in 1997 and based in New York City, Creative Good is the industry's first and oldest customer experience firm. Clients include leading retailers, media and financial services firms from around the world. See more information at www.creativegood.com.

About the Customer Experience Councils

The Customer Experience Councils are private forums for senior executives who share best practices across non-competing firms. Facilitated by Creative Good, the Councils are made up of senior marketing, product development, design, and operations executives at Forbes 2000 companies around the world. Executives interested in joining the Councils should contact Creative Good: www.creativegood.com