Specialists insurer Hiscox took an innovative approach to a campaign designed to attract entrepreneurs to its business: focusing on those businesspeople who used their side hustles (while still working full-time) as platforms for launching their small businesses. The campaign was designed to give these small-business owners a voice, allowing others to learn from their experiences. The content marketing approach taken by Hiscox has earned the top prize in the “B2B Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards

The campaign included a research study, a 10-episode podcast, a documentary-style video series, an email campaign, social media infographics and blog content focused on side hustles. The survey of 400 U.S. small-business owners produced sharable findings on issues like how to replace lost income and hiring your first employee. The podcast—hosted by Hiscox’s head of communications—featured the stories of people who took their first steps as entrepreneurs while still working a full-time job, told in their own words. 

The videos went behind the scenes with a select group of side hustlers, while media outreach (supported by a bylined article in Entrepreneur magazine) produced articles in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, CNBC and other outlets. Blog posts on side hustles were amplified with posts across social media.

The landing page for the campaign attracted more than 85,000 visits and 31,000 social media shares, with the survey as the focus of much of the media coverage. The podcast was ranked among the top 100 business podcasts on Apple podcasts, a singular feat.

Congratulations to Lou Casale, Hiscox’s head of communications, Gyawu Mahama, Senior Communications Manager, Hiscox, and all the members of the Hiscox USA Marketing team.

The innovative marketing agency, Stein IAS, settled on a 360-degree, virtual reality-ready video to promote the benefits of SafeTug, the software aid from Trelleborg Marine & Infrastructure that makes bringing in vessels safer and more efficient by giving tug masters complete, real-time visibility over tug teams and the cargo ships and tankers they maneuver. The video has earned first place in the “Augmented or Virtual Reality” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

The video was designed to create awareness among the target audience of tug masters, marine pilots, tug companies and harbor masters—a total of about 6,000 people worldwide. Stein IAS gained access to Teesport, the UK’s third largest port, to record the berthing process of a 57,000-ton tanker. Using specialized gear, the team filmed the docking process from the bridge of the lead tugboat while drones got aerial shots and additional footage was taken from the tanker.

The result: a 360-dgree video that can be viewed on desktop or in VR. The immersive experience demonstrates how SafeTug makes a difference to the safety and efficiency of the harbor approach and berthing processes.

A campaign was undertaken to introduce the video to the small target audience, including an email campaign, sponsored LinkedIn posts, organic social media and press advertising and coverage. Ultimately, 965 unique users watched the video, beating the target of 500, with an average 6.5 minutes spent on the web page. In addition to the video views, the campaign obtained or reactivated 189 new contacts, 57 qualified leads and an ROI of 20:1 based on average lead conversion rates.

Congratulations to the entire Stein IAS team.

Cisco Systems has, for several years, recruited with the tagline, “Be You. With Us.” In order to explain just what that means to the talent the company needs—technical specialists working in software, security and cloud who aren’t looking for new jobs—the Talent Brand team turned to video. “We wanted to create a mini-movie—not just a video—as the cornerstone of a set of videos,” according to Cisco. The video has won first place in the “Workplace Culture” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

The project included a set of vignette videos that would connect thematically to the main video, featuring real employees sharing their sentiment for Cisco in key hiring pools. Working with a talent brand consultancy, Cisco settled on the theme, “Don’t Follow the Herd.”

That led to the adoption of the “technicolor” tactic—all visuals in black and white except for Cisco-related elements, which appear in color. The team also inserted several Easter eggs—code for candidates to find and solve and security “bug” icons to discover.

The video features no dialogue (accommodating the audio-off default of many social feeds). The team also created two versions of the video, a long one featuring job descriptions and a shorter version for social media and other channels that people would be more likely to watch to its completion.

The video was shot on Cisco’s San Jose, California campus with employees serving as the stars (and 120 as extras). It was rolled out first on LinkedIn, where the team ran an A/B test confirming the vignettes would be more hyper-targeted to talent and the cornerstone video would help achieve the broader awareness goals.

In addition to performing well in terms of views, the videos generated more than 1,000 clicks to the company’s career site.

Congratulations to the team of Marcy Andrews, Carmen Collins and Raymond Leung.

The timeshare industry is suffering from negative perceptions, exacerbated by ads from companies offering to help consumers get out of their timeshare obligations. WorldMark by Windham—part of Wyndham’s vacation club, offering 220 dedicated club resorts through a points-based timeshare program—was looking for a way to generate positive press that would reinforce its message of family-oriented properties. The video that emerged has been selected as the top “Travel, Tourism or Hospitality Video” in PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

The media team saw the massive number of special national “days,” including National S’Mores Day, which celebrates the summertime treat. Who knew that one of America’s leading s’mores-making experts is Patrick Renna, who portrayed Ham Porter in the 90’s movie, “The Sandlot”?

Wyndham secured Renna for the video, designed to tap into a strong nostalgia trend among social media audiences. The team targeted the videos to potential timeshare owners, focusing on older millennials and millennial parents, along with current owners. The team opted to produce two videos, one with a twist on the s’mores scene in “The Sandlot,” the other focusing more on Renna’s family life and 90’s nostalgia.

A three-phase plan was developed (covering prelaunch, the period the video was promoted and postlaunch). It included securing press interviews with Renna, s’mores kits for Wyndham guests and mailers targeting media and influencers.  

The campaign produced nearly 2 million views of the video and considerable top-tier press coverage.

Congrats to Juliette Gebken-Mayi, Allyson Pippin, Vanessa Picariello, Tyrone Law, Terris Ransom and Doug Boemler Wareing.

Most organizations require employees to participate in annual ethics training. It has become such a rote activity that many employees simply click through the learning module without actually grasping the importance of the lessons. To ensure its employees understood the importance of ethical behavior, Sandia National Labs produced multiple videos that explored the company’s workplace values. The effectiveness of these videos has earned Sandia the top prize in the “Public Service Announcement Video” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

One video featured vignettes of actual scenarios involving Sandia employees (portrayed in the dramatizations by other employees). Employees were encouraged to discuss the scenarios presented and assess the failings of the employees in the videos, as well as the actions they would take if they faced a similar situation.

Developed by the Labs’ ethics officers, the ethics director and a video producer, the video took eight months to produce, after which it was shown at hundreds of live meetings conducted by the organization’s management team. They were also shared via email to managers and at departmental meetings.

To ensure awareness of the video, an intranet teaser was posted. It was referenced in a daily newsletter, and a message from the Labs’ director was distributed.

The team managed to ensure every employee saw it, for a total of 13,963 views. Meeting facilitators reported that the video helped spark positive discussions.

Congratulations to the team of Vince Gasparich, Ruth Frank, Jason Everett, Nancy Davis, Michelle Karler, the Creative Services department and Sandia National Labs’ ethics officers.

When the communications team at Southwest Airlines learned that Captain Bryan Knight had made a special request to his chief pilot, they quickly made the decision to document the entire event on video. The video has earned Southwest first place in the “Best Overall Video” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

Knight was only five years old when he saw his father for the last time. In 1967, his dad left Love Field in Dallas for Vietnam, where he was shot down and declared missing in action in Laos. In mid-2019, Knight’s family was contacted by the Department of Defense: His father’s remains had been found.

Once Knight secured permission to fly his father’s remains home for the final time, Southwest made the journey possible and the communications team embarked on production of the video  (which has also won the top prize in the “PR Video” category.)

The video’s goals included capturing attention for the story, securing an exclusive story with the CBS affiliate in Dallas and using the video to pitch the story to journalists in key markets. Logistically, the team ensured they had access to each phase of the flight.

On the ground in Dallas, employees of Southwest and City of Dallas Airport waited to show their respects. Coincidentally, an international journalist was traveling through Dallas Love Field at the time of the arrival ceremony. His tweets about the ceremony were retweeted by Southwest, sparking international attention.

The Facebook video racked up more than 1 million views in just 48 hours; ultimately, nearly 5 million views were recorded, along with more on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Southwest’s intranet. CBS did pick up the story, along with NBC and the Washington Post.

Congrats to Stephen Keller, Erin Boren and Dan Landson.

Each year at Cisco Systems’ Cisco Live event—which draws nearly 30,000 people—the company brings its CSR goal of accelerating global problem-solving to benefit people, society and the planet to life for customers, partners and participating employees through hands-on activations. At the 2019 event, held in San Diego, the area of focus was homelessness. For the visual design of a “Social Impact Zone” and pop-up activations that inspired people to learn about and engage with the homelessness issue, Cisco has won first place in the “Social Impact Design” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

Goals for the CSR component of the conference included sharing the mission and vision to inspire customers and amplify the opportunities for social impact at the conference. To inspire customers to do good, the conference team designed a space that highlighted the nonprofits benefitting from the projects taking place throughout the event, such as assembling meal kits, hygiene kits and school supplies.

The separate pop-up spaces offered opportunities for attendees to collaborate on hands-on projects and share their involvement on social media. The design employed bright colors to set off the social impact zone so it would stand out; the design also immersed attendees in the topic to spur them to action.

As attendees entered the zone, one wall shared stats on homelessness; an infographic showed how many people attendees could help with the projects in which they participated; another space was dedicated to taking the pledge. Each nonprofit was given a panel of a wall to explain their organization’s goals and audiences. Modular design ensured Cisco could offer a variety of service opportunities throughout the week.

The social impact experience rated 4.75 out of 5 among conference-goers, and the team set records for output, such as 23,828 meal kits assembled.

Congratulations to Heather Henderson Thomas.

The ZTR Rail division has been working on railway offerings, aimed at helping North American railways improve their adoption of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), which the group was ready to roll out at the Railway Interchange Conference and Exhibition, the largest railroad event in North America. A visually stimulating image created by ZTR for the conference has earned the top prize in the “Print Design” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

PSR is a service model designed to streamline railroad operations. ZTR recognized that PSR success relied on asset management as well as wagon movement, which its solutions are designed to deliver. To showcase the initiative’s alignment with industry goals, the media team created a railway depiction to be published as a double-truck ad in Progressive Railroading magazine’s September edition, timed to coincide with the conference; the image also served as the backdrop for ZTR’s presence at the conference.

“Our objective was to highlight what the next frontier for the rail industry could be—to reframe it from dirty and industrial, to freedom and exploration,” ZTR explains. The image is striking in part because the landscape colors are muted while the colors of the machinery are enriched. The spread depicts the two types of rail equipment ZTR targets, with an overlay showing how the technology is easy to use and ideally adapted. The imagery was designed specifically to counteract messages from competitors, demonstrating a more forward-thinking approach.

The campaign is new and measurement is still underway, but the company saw an 80% increase in web traffic since the conference.

Congratulations to James Greenhill, Colleen Burghardt, Dawn Lyons and Daniel Goldberg.

The employees of Texas Health Resources (THR)—one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health systems in the U.S.—are like employees of other hospital and clinic organizations: They spend long shifts on their feet in high-stress positions. To ensure they were aware of the healthy decisions they made, the organization introduced a communication campaign to cultivate interest and excitement around its Be Healthy wellness initiative.

The campaign implemented by THR and its partners—OptumHealth (a health services innovation company) and Fusion Hill (a marketing services company)—has won first place in the “Internal Communication Design” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards

The campaign would involve a wide variety of materials, from giveaways to emails, but they all had to share a common visual theme for employees to recognize the materials as part of the communication effort. The planning process focused on finding fun and clever ways to remind team members about the program, in some cases offering eyebrow-raising messages of inspiration and challenge that would be seen as fun and nonoffensive to employees of the faith-based organization.

Tactics included a tote bag bearing a “Be Healthy” apple-shaped word cloud and “You can do it” phrases (distributed at health fairs), checklists sent via email and distributed at events and team meetings, and a series of three “Real Time Countdown” emails.

The tote bags were so popular the team was asked to double the order, while the email campaign resulted in 25% open rates and a record-breaking completion of incentives by more than 80% of the team members and their spouses. The checklist was also a hit.

For creating a flexible but recognizable design that nicely accommodated the campaign theme, congratulations to Jody Rowland, Tedi Stoe, Dayna Lund and Luis Munguia.

Sofidel, an Italian paper manufacturer, contracted with Mulberry Marketing Communications to develop compelling messaging about Papernet, its biotech toilet paper, for the U.S. market. The benefits of using Papernet were clear: The paper biodegrades in water, leaving no residue or environmental impact. Continual use helps sanitize pipes, septic tanks and sewer systems.

But toilet paper is usually seen as a commodity purchase. The challenge: Convince buyers of the benefits of this higher-priced product. The resulting infographic series has taken the top prize in the “Infographic” category in PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

Mulberry began with a comprehensive research program, seeking insights from three key groups: industry experts and decision makers, consumers and end users. The research included an on-site survey at Seatrade Cruise Global, a cruise industry gathering, where Mulberry obtained information about the impact of toilet clogs on cruise ships.

The company also surveyed the restaurant industry with two research projects. Mulberry partnered with Harris Poll to survey U.S. adults about toilet clogs in public restrooms and with a reputation management software company to assess online reviews of restaurants, looking for references to toilet clogs and other restroom issues.

The research led to four visually arresting infographics: cruise ships, the impact on restaurant customer satisfaction, the impact on business in general and the impact of restrooms on the customer experience.

The infographics appeared online and in print across the targeted industries. They also made it easier to pitch the media, gaining coverage in relevant industry publications. The Sofidel sales team has also used the infographics, which have also been featured on screens at various trade shows and as booth takeaways. They were even used as the basis of infographic videos for sharing via social media.

Congratulations to Jess Messenger, Matt Serra, Kristen Harlin and Kendrick Kidd.

The ZTR Rail division approached the company’s communication team with a request for a video about the ZTR AxleGen, to be included as a link in its monthly newsletter. The division sought a visually appealing and engaging way to demonstrate the benefits of the axle generator, differentiating it from the competition. The result has earned first place in the “Illustrated or Animated Design” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

The challenge of showing the size and technical abilities of the product and how it benefits locomotives was clear, but the team didn’t have much other direction, so they developed a fresh vision, storyboard and copy.

The team sought to ensure the viewer of the graphic—ideally a potential customer—would understand the benefits of the product without needing a lot of extra context or explanation. The visuals were selected to convey the information in an easy-to-understand matter (using mostly Adobe After Effects, with graphics and illustrations created in Illustrator and Photoshop, along with some 3D animation produced in Cinema 4D).

Once it was distributed as a news post on the ZTR website, the video was so well received that it has been displayed at industry events like the Railway Interchange, North America’s largest rail industry exhibition. The ZTR commercial team has also used the video during information sessions and sales presentations, driving significant lead generation and sales conversions.

Congratulations to the team of Daniel Goldberg, Dawn Lyons, James Greenhill and Colleen Burghardt.

ZTR Control Systems’ rail division approached the company’s communication team with a request for a video about the ZTR AxleGen, which it would link to from within its monthly newsletter. The division sought a visually appealing and engaging way to demonstrate the benefits of the axle generator, differentiating it from the competition. The result has earned first place in the “Illustrated or Animated Design” category of Ragan’s Video & Visual Awards.

The challenge of showing the size and technical abilities of the product and how it benefits locomotives was clear, but the team didn’t have much other direction, leading to the development of a fresh vision, storyboard and copy.

The team sought to ensure the viewer of the graphic—ideally a potential customer—would understand the benefits of the product without needing a lot of experience with or knowledge about the locomotive industry. The visuals were selected to convey the information in an easy-to-understand matter (using mostly Adobe After Effects, with graphics and illustrations created in Illustrator and Photoshop, along with some 3D animation produced in Cinema 4D).

Once it was distributed as a news post on the ZTR website, the video was so well received that it has been displayed at industry events like the Rail Interchange, North America’s largest rail industry exhibition. ZTR’s commercial team has also used the video during information sessions and sales presentations, driving significant lead generation and sales conversions.

Congratulations to the team of Daniel Goldberg, Dawn Lyons, James Greenhill and Colleen Burghardt.

Think Whole Person Healthcare was introduced in mid-2015 with a different take on primary care: The “Think” model focuses on primary care as a means of reducing the number of ER and hospital visits. The average age across the organization’s 42,000-member patient panel is 64, a prime audience for the clinic’s focus on chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. The clinic’s philosophy is that managing these conditions proactively can lead to a minimal impact on everyday life.

With ambitious goals of increasing new patents by 15% each year, maintaining high patient satisfaction rates and differentiating from hospital systems, the media team from the marketing communications agency Zaiss & Company determined to produce a video series for broadcast that focused on people in the demographic target group enjoying the lifestyle outcomes of the Think Whole Person approach. That series has won first place in the “Video Series” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

Having developed a tagline, “Life is for Living,” the team set out to create a compilation 30-second spot along with three 15-second “pull-outs” that told the story of each individual featured in the 30-second spot. For the website, a 90-second version was edited.

The element of surprise is key to the videos, with each spot beginning in extreme close-up of a recognizable task (e.g., harnessing a horse, kick-starting a motorcycle, preparing to ride a bike). When the camera pulls back, though, we see these activities are all being performed by people over 55 years old. The videos, which are gorgeously shot, performed well, notably when it came to the campaign’s objectives. New-patient acquisition is on target, the net promoter score is at 55, and other metrics reflect the campaign’s success.

Congratulations go out to Zaiss’ Wendy Wiseman and Emily Walsh, along with Think Whole Person’s Nigel O’Mahony and Amanda Simmer and Dana Altman of North Sea Films.

Faced with negative publicity about the timeshare industry, Wyndham Destinations looked for a way to promote Worldmark by Wyndham, part of the company’s vacation club portfolio. National S’mores Day presented that opportunity, leading to a video that earned the top “Use of a Celebrity or Personality” prize in PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

Who knew that one of America’s leading s’mores-making experts is Patrick Renna, who portrayed Ham Porter in the 90’s movie, “The Sandlot” and was at the center of an iconic s’mores scene? (It’s true; you can watch it on YouTube.) Wyndham secured Renna for the video, designed to tap into a strong nostalgia trend among social media audiences.

The team targeted the videos to potential timeshare owners, focusing on older millennials and millennial parents, along with current owners. Communicators opted to produce two videos, one with a twist on the s’mores scene in “The Sandlot,” the other focusing more on Renna’s family life and 90’s nostalgia.

A three-phase plan was developed (covering prelaunch, the period the video was promoted, and postlaunch), which included s’mores kits for Wyndham guests and mailers targeting media and influencers (among other tactics).

Renna was an active participant in the campaign, sharing his own posts on social media along with the videos; he was also made available for media interviews, several of which were secured.

The campaign produced nearly 2 million views of the video and considerable top-tier press coverage.

Congratulations to Juliette Gebken-Mayi, Allyson Pippin, Vanessa Picariello, Tyrone Law, Terris Ransom and Doug Boemler Wareing.

Nitrogen producer CF Industries is closely tied to corn, the largest consumer of nitrogen. But the communicators at CF wondered just how much employees really knew about the crop. In-house videos produced to increase employees’ corn literacy have earned first place in the “Low-Budget Video (Under $2,500)” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

“We are in the business of manufacturing and distributing fertilizer, but how often do our employees see the end result of all their efforts, a crop that ultimately feeds the world?” the comms team notes. The solution envisioned was a series of videos running 2–3 minutes each, sharing (in an entertaining way) all things corn.

The first step was to create a list of questions to which the communicators themselves didn’t know the answers. Then they met with the market strategy department to get the answers to these questions. Next was the “corn tour”: Armed with a smartphone and stabilizer, the producer/director/cinematographer tapped into the knowledge of a group of employees who would lead a tour through Wisconsin farmland. They were dubbed “The Three Husketeers.”

The videos were shared initially through the employee email newsletter, with each segment building on the content of the previous episode. Four videos were distributed overall: Parts of the corn plant, field corn vs. yellow corn, nitrogen deficiency in corn and calculating yields. The videos have earned about 500 views each, two to three times more than a typical newsletter article.

Congratulations to Mary Thomas and Chris Close.