TOMS Shoes kept expenses low by spending only minimally on marketing and promotion. The company's marketing was primarily composed of presentations by Blake Mycosdie, fan word-of-mouth, and promotional events sponsored by the firm. the company won the 2007 people's design award at cooper-hewitt's national design swords. two years later, mycoskie and toms received the annual ACE award given by u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton. this award recognized companies' commitment to corporate social responsibility, innovation, exemplary practices, and democratic values worldwide. my coskie spoke along with president bill clinton at the opening plenary session of the second annual clinton global initiative conference in 2007. with other business leaders, he also met with president obama's senior administration in march 2009 to present solutions and ideas to support small businesses. he was also featured in a CNBC segment titled "the entrepreneurs," in which ge and toms shoes was profiled.