For its 50th anniversary celebrating the best in advertising, Nielsen's CLIO Awards are adding an award for strategic communications and public relations.

According to Nielsen, the new category will "celebrate innovative and creative use of any form of unpaid publicity and messaging that drives credibility, awareness, reputation, and relationships between a company or organization and its consumers or constituents."

The Executive Jury Chair for the new award was given to none other than Richard Edelman, president & CEO of Edelman. It's a fair choice since Edelman is the biggest independent PR shop. Meaning, they're not a PR division of a giant conglomerate like WPP, Omnicom or Publicis.

There are PR CLIOs in three core categories: consumer, corporate and crisis management for campaigns appearing in the 2008 calendar year.

Campaigns or efforts to be considered include those in the area of arts and entertainment, cause-related/non-profit, corporate branding, multicultural, international and new media.

Better hurry up if you want to be one of the first winners. The online entry system opens on January 16th and closes on February 13th. The awards will be given out during the three-day on May 12th through 14th in Las Vegas.