NYPA Communications Effort Earns National Award

    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--July 17, 2002--The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has won a national award for its multi-faceted communications program to build public awareness of the "NYPA/TH!NK Clean Commute," the nation's largest electric-vehicle station-car demonstration.
    NYPA received an Award of Excellence in APEX 2002, the 14th annual competition conducted by Communications Concepts of Springfield, Va., specialists in business communications and publications services. The award, in the Marketing & Public Relations Campaigns category, was based on graphic concept and design, editorial content and overall communications effectiveness and excellence.
    "This prestigious award confirms that the pioneering TH!NK program has received the outstanding communications support it deserves," said Eugene W. Zeltmann, the Power Authority's president and chief executive officer. "Nearly all of the 100 Ford TH!NK City electric vehicles available under the program have been leased to commuters in the New York City area. That simply couldn't have happened without a superbly planned and executed communications effort."
    The communications program, directed by Marsha Camera, NYPA's graphics communications manager, featured billboards at eight railroad stations where commuters can charge the electric vehicles while at work, brochures that included a TH!NK application, a Web site, press kits, newspaper advertisements and two eight-foot-high displays for a news conference to announce the program at Manhattan's Grand Central Station.
    Commuters in Queens, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties are participating in the TH!NK program, leasing the non-polluting electric vehicles for $199 a month and thus helping to improve air quality and cut dependence on foreign oil. Combined with travel on commuter and subway trains powered by electricity, the TH!NK vehicles can provide an emission-free, all-electric trip.