AZO—a producer of urinary, bladder and vaginal health products—had a new product on the market: an over-the-counter feminine probiotic capsule. The company’s marketing agency, The Thomas Collective (TTC), developed a customer journey-focused messaging map which included the role of video in the campaign it was spearheading. The result has earned the top prize in the “Digital Advertisement” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

TTC undertook behavioral research and learned that continued embarrassment about discussing vaginal health kept a lot of women from learning about nonprescription methods of preventing and dealing with yeast infections. They also learned women were more likely to trust social influencers over health professionals, and also consume more video online than any other audience. The type of content they most enjoy consuming is news/informational.

All that led TTC to drive digital conversations on vaginal health by sharing fact-based education on key topics identified by the research as usually shrouded in secrecy and misinformation (such as the leading causes of yeast infections).

The team’s videos cover the topics quickly (from six seconds to one minute), and the team created supporting articles, infographics and other content. The videos themselves share quick vignettes offering information that empowers women to make confident health choices.

The overall campaign—shared across multiple platforms including social media, streaming channels, native and organic channels—led to a 15% lift in brand awareness, an 18% bump in brand favorability and a 13% improvement in purchase intent. The content shared on social media delivered ad recall that exceeded benchmarks by 12%.

Congratulations to the team of Kimberly Howard-Thomassen, Kat Smolarek, Greg Russo, Lisa Hennessy, Deanna Brigandi and Ally Langston.

Inaccurate marketing has created an underground crisis for water utilities across the country (and, presumably, around the world). Wipes labeled “flushable” are anything but. The fact that they don’t decompose like toilet paper means that they congeal into large, malodorous obstacles in pipes that are difficult and expensive to clear.

In Carrollwood, Florida—part of Hillsborough County—the problem had already reached epic proportions, leading the county’s communications and digital media department to develop a communication campaign designed to alter community behavior. The video has won the “Crisis Management Video” category in PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

The message the team wanted to deliver was clear, but an approach that didn’t shame residents or gross them out was less obvious. The solution was a three-word slogan: “Don’t Flush It!”

The clever animation in the video was able to get the point across in a tasteful way. The producer happened to also be an accomplished jingle composer; he came up with a catchy jingle that reiterated the “Don’t Flush It” theme repetitively. Because the jingle conveys the message, it gets across even if someone is only listening to the video.

The video was deployed on the usual channels—YouTube and Facebook—as well as embedded on the county’s website. Ultimately, it achieved nearly 40,000 impressions and was viewed nearly 10,000 times. Even more impressive, neighboring Pinellas County requested permission to use it to address its own flushables problem.

Congratulations to the communications and digital media team and producer/composer Tyler Adams.

Stein IAS, a B2B marketing company based in the U.K., undertakes an annual Christmas charity project. In 2018, the focus was New York’s homeless, too many of whom are children. The company’s research identified an ideal recipient for the funds the project raised: Women in Need, which supports homeless families, helping them into permanent homes while also providing short-term shelter. The approach the company took has won top prize in the “Charitable or Nonprofit Video” category of PR Daily’s Video & Visual Awards.

To convince the rest of the company to adopt the charity, the New York-based team spent time volunteering at a WIN shelter and produced a video to share with the rest of the organization. The team innovated the idea of a children’s book in which Santa receives a letter from a homeless girl, sending him on a journey to find her.

With the book written and designed, a three-minute video version was produced using simple animation based on the art developed for the book; it served as the centerpiece of a microsite, where visitors could also donate in exchange for a printed copy of the book.

Employing its marketing knowhow, the team initiated a media outreach campaign along with digital marketing and a social media effort. The press releases Stein IAS distributed, along with calls to media partners, resulted in more than 100 individual pieces of coverage. The social media strategy employed a carefully planned algorithm that, combined with real-time responses, produced more than 400,000 impressions.

Ultimately, 1,754 donations were made, and 600 books purchased. WIN received $27,000 from Stein IAS, while Stein’s employees absorbed new skills through the training the company provides during each of its holiday programs. A creative director, for example, learned to write a children’s book.

Congratulations to the entire Stein IAS team.

The de Beaumont Foundation creates and invests in solutions to improve the health of communities across the U.S. Although the foundation was launched in 1998, it didn’t reach its full endowment and begin hiring staff until 2004, and it didn’t establish a website until 2015. With the hiring of a full-time communicator in 2018, the needs of the site were identified—and there were a lot of them. Mark Miller’s efforts to overcome the challenges have earned first place in the “Website” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Among the problems: The foundation’s mission, purpose and approach were not clear or consistent, and the list of past programs was incomplete and out of date. Dozens of posts written by the CEO were not included on the site. As the organization grew, the website also had numerous technical problems, including broken links and long load times.

With support from the foundation’s leadership and board, Miller, the first full-time communications professional, set out to rebuild the site to focus on the foundation’s newly refined mission, strategic priorities and graphic identity. He also sought to make it mobile-friendly, interactive and easy to use. He targeted the relaunch in conjunction with the new brand rollout.

Key to the approach Miller took was treating the site as the lead element of a broader communications strategy rather than as a separate, standalone website. In the first phase of the project, he worked with Creative Science to create a strategic plan that identified audiences, calls to action, and goals, while giving the existing site a facelift and improving its functionality. The second phase was the development and launch of an entirely new site, including simplifying the navigation, introducing a modern design, and updating, creating, and tagging content. A “Get Involved” section and resource library were added, and all internal and external links were updated.

As a result, average monthly traffic tripled, as did page views. The site is well-designed and consistent with the best practices of modern organizational sites.

Congratulations to Mark Miller, the de Beaumont Foundation, and Creative Science.

Macon, Georgia has produced some truly iconic names in the world of music—Otis Redding, the Allman Brothers Band, Little Richard and more. Although music lovers know these artists, few know they came from Macon. The Macon Musical Heritage video series from Visit Macon (the city’s tourism organization) aimed to change that. Its concept and execution, carried out by the O+B Paramore Agency, have won first place in the “Video” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Rather than take the easy route, releasing videos featuring Macon-born artists, Visit Macon took an original approach, bringing two artists to Macon from out of town where they would not only perform but explore the city’s impact on their own idols’ musical journey.

The Macon Music Effect campaign focused on Vinne Paolizzi from Philadelphia (who was inspired by the Allman Brothers Band) and Jennie Parrot from Austin (for whom Otis Redding was an inspiration). The out-of-town artists were recorded playing on the same stages where their idols had performed, eating local food and walking the paths that were instrumental to their songs.

With a goal of making Macon a music tourism destination, the organization ensured each video featured each artist’s arrival (talking about how a Macon musician inspired them), experiencing the local sights and performing.

In addition to the videos, the team paid for a digital billboard in the Atlanta market along with a campaign via National Cine Media, where a 30-second video ran on 65 screens in five Atlanta theaters. The campaign had only just launched at the time of Visit Macon’s submission to this competition, but it’s off to a strong start.

Congratulations to the staff of O+B Paramore Agency, which handled the campaign duties.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics created National Nutrition Month, an education and information campaign that focuses on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. The campaign includes Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day, which raises awareness of these professionals as important providers of food and nutrition services. The social media campaign in support of these events in 2019 have earned first place in the “Social Media Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The campaign featured a social media toolkit available on the Academy’s website that contained a list of event ideas, downloadable web banners and blogger widgets, a proclamation request targeting local government, printable handouts and a social media toolkit, all including the official hashtag, #NationalNutritionMonth.

The social media toolkit was developed by an outside vendor and featured shareable graphics, animated GIFs and social media cover photos, all with prewritten messaging that users could click to post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Several of these were also available in Spanish. The toolkit also included key dates for Twitter chats and other events.

The Academy hosted four live Twitter chats. A contest anchored Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day, honoring the impact of RDNs and featuring the winner on an electronic billboard in New York’s Times Square. (Members were asked to answer the question, “How does your work help to solve the greatest food and nutrition challenges now and in the future?” in 100 words or less.) The Academy also shared content from its websites throughout the month, including recipes, snack ideas and more.

The hashtags appeared in more than 42,000 posts, and the social media press kit saw more than 12,000 page views from more than 8,500 unique visitors.

Congratulations to Lauren Fox and Sarah Amundsen.

Most professional associations produce a publication for their members, though most have transitioned to digital formats. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has resisted that trend, producing Food & Nutrition. a visually stunning print magazine for its audience of food and nutrition professionals around the world. Food & Nutrition has earned first place in the “Print Publication” category of PR Daily’s 2019 Nonprofit Awards.

The magazine not only delivers the goods to members but is accessible to nonprofessionals interested in the latest food and diet trends, nutrition research, policy initiatives, public health issues and the cultural and social issues that shape people’s health. The team has assembled a network of guest bloggers, freelance writers, recipe developers, nutrient analysts and photographers whose contributions are assembled into gorgeous designs that cover the gamut from spotlights on categories of foods to cooking hacks.

The team stays up to date on research and emerging trend by tapping into social networks, the latest trends and new and emerging research. They regularly interact with readers and freelancers to deliver relevant and timely features of the greatest interest, running the gamut from foods, cooking shortcuts and food additives to food recalls, nutrigenomics and the ketogenic diet. To engage readers, programs like recipe submissions are frequently introduced, as is a virtual dinner party.

Recurring features create a sense of continuity for the publication. The magazine’s costs are supported, in part, with paid advertising that is aligned with its content goals. The staff measures its effectiveness through social listening, web and social analytics and readership surveys. It also monitors activity in the social community, which connects readers directly with the publishers. The magazine’s website had more than 2 million pageviews in 2018.

Congratulations to Lauren Fox and Liz Spittler.

A team of four communicators produces all communication for the 2,000-employee Children’s Home Society of Florida. For 2019, the team had three key goals: owning the conversation in earned media, positioning the $100-million-plus organization’s Community Partnership Schools (CPS) as an effective model to improve educational outcomes (priming advocates and legislators for a significant funding request in the 2019 legislative session) and launching CHS’s first ever grant-funded client recruitment campaign to raise awareness of the organization’s online counseling services and increase the number of client referrals.

How the team handled challenges like a departing CEO and two of the team members taking 12-week maternity leaves and achieved all its goals has resulted in its being named the winner in the “Nonprofit PR Team of the Year” category in PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The communicators undertook significant research to develop their strategies and tactics, which included opinion pieces authored by both executives and board members and pitching stories related to CHS’s four core priorities (child welfare, early childhood education, mental health care and community solutions/community partnership schools).

The efforts paid off in a big way, with CHS dominating the media conversation benchmarked against competitors, averaging 1.3 unduplicated media stories each week, more than 348% than its closest competitor and 647% more than other competitors. The opinion pieces—focusing on a Johns Hopkins study promoting the CPS model—were picked up in every market to which they were distributed (and even some the team didn’t approach), resulting in $7.3 million in recurring funds from the legislature (which was also the result of CHS’s advocacy work).

The team also produced three short social media videos to help launch the grant-funded client recruitment campaign, which along with social media ads for Facebook/Instagram and audio ads for Spotify reached nearly 1.8 million unique users.

Congratulations to Heather Morgan, Allison Curry, Heather Dauphiny and Andrea McNally.

North Texas-based Children’s Health, the eighth-largest pediatric health care system in America, has been a partner in the Be the Match campaign for nearly 30 years, raising awareness about the need for bone marrow donors. However, it had never focused on the need to attract more ethnically diverse donors.

That changed earlier this year when Children’s Health found itself treating 20 patients who needed a life-saving transplant but could not find appropriate donor matches. The campaign to change that has earned first place in the “Media Relations Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Three of the young patients were South Asian, four were Hispanic and 12 were African or African American; only one was white. Knowing something had to be done, Children’s Health set out to diversify its donor registry through an awareness-raising campaign focused on real stories of patients who could attract media attention.

The health care system sought to develop a virtual registry that would enable people to register simply by texting “childrens” to a text number. Once registered, they received a kit that resulted in their DNA being entered in the registry. The campaign also leaned on advocates, including a physician to conduct media interviews in both English and Spanish.

With National Donor Day on the horizon, the subject matter expert was identified and prepared; she, in turn, helped identify four ethnically diverse patients whose stories would anchor the campaign. A landing page was created and pitches were crafted.

These produced 35 placements, a 600% increase from previous years. Ten social media posts delivered more than 126,300 engagements. The virtual registry attracted 1,076 registrations, a 417% increase from 2018, 461 of whom were ethnically diverse.

Congratulations to Dawn Kahle, Abbie Maynard, Virginia Hock, Adriana Lantzy and Jehan Sheikh.

Founded in 1888, Tri Delta was envisioned by its founder as a society that “would be kind alike to all.” At its February 2018 Collegiate Leadership Conference, the sorority kicked off a campaign designed to renew its commitment to kindness. Under the banner “Live Kind. Lead Kind.” the campaign continued for nine months, culminating with Tri Delta’s Founders’ Day. The success of the effort has earned Tri Delta first place in the “Marketing Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The organization employed a variety of tactics to generate engagement from its members, including in-person conference keynote speeches and presentations, digital videos, social media (with a focus on new features like Instagram’s “Ask” feature), email marketing, features in print magazines, web stories, print materials and merchandise.

“Live Kind. Lead Kind.” was the theme from February through July, after which “Our Kind of Kind” kicked in and continued as the theme through Founders’ Day. At the kickoff event, attended by more than 600 collegiate chapter officers, a speech by President Kimberlee Di Fede Sullivan was recorded and a clip shared across Tri Delta’s social media channels, reaching 25,430 people. Attendees at the speech received an infographic handout and a sticker cling; specialty T-shirts were offered through the Tri Delta Shop, with 650 pieces sold.

The organization’s magazine, delivered to more than 30,000 members, featured a cover story on the campaign. Tri Delta’s social media channels also focused on the campaign, driving members to a video in the form of a letter to the organization’s founder, Sarah Ida Shaw, featuring members telling her what her words mean today and pledging to take on the challenges the membership faces. The video letter reached 34,511 people.

Congratulations to the team behind the campaign for a well-conceived and executed program.

Habitat for Humanity is a well-known charitable organization, but public understanding of everything it does is somewhat superficial. It’s known for building homes, of course, through ample media coverage and business support, but its role in empowering families and its need for donations tends to get lost in the shuffle. 

Its annual campaign, Home is the Key, demonstrates how a safe and decent home creates a better life while encouraging people to join in the effort. In its third year working on the campaign, the agency Porter Novelli sought to encourage donations as well as to share and amplify the campaign using the #HomeIsTheKey hashtag. The campaign focused on the monthlong construction of a home in Atlanta, with the Property Brothers leading the effort along with multiple corporate partners.

Porter Novelli’s work has earned first place in the “Influencer and Donor Relations Strategy” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Tasked primarily with influencer engagement, the agency sought to partner with 40 influencers to generate online conversations and drive donations, an effort which ultimately produced more than 12,000 engagements generated by influencers. Broader brand research helped Porter Novelli segment the audience into three key groups: successful doers (hands-on people who believe in working hard to help yourself), worldly idealists (globally aware and compassionate people who want to make the world a better place) and social influencers.

Research also revealed these segments are avid followers of online influencers in the home décor/lifestyle and DIY spaces. That led to the campaign’s “Swag and Tag” group—influencers who aligned with those interests—as well as a group of on-the-ground influencers who served as reporters during the construction.

The execution of the campaign resulted in 49 influencers delivering 339 social posts, a 290% increase from 2018. Including all PR tactics (including traditional media), the campaign delivered 523.5 million organic impressions.

Congratulations to Anna Okula, Kristen Ellis, Aerolyn Shaw, Grace Minella, ChenHui Bergl, Chrishaun Johnson, Allison Green, Rowena Sara and Betsy Buckley.

Loud Shirt Day is the annual fundraising initiative for First Voice Centres throughout Australia, an organization made up of service members that provide hearing-impaired children the language skills they need to achieve mainstream education, employment and social opportunities. One of those members, The Shepherd Centre (TSC), partnered with Palin Communications on a campaign that has earned first place in the “Fundraising Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

TSC specializes in early intervention to help children with hearing loss develop spoken language skills, and relies on fundraising to help more than 500 Australian families each year. Because one out of two Australian children with hearing loss are missing out on crucial intervention services, TSC opted to piggyback on Loud Shirt Day to increase awareness of the services it provides, maximize fundraising and expand media opportunities.

TSC worked with Palin Communications to develop a variety of media materials, including an alert that highlighted media opportunities for longer lead publications, a letter to politicians inviting their support via social media, a schedule of template social media content for politicians to adapt to support the campaign, a launch press release and tailored pitches.

The team also secured a placement for TSC’s longstanding ambassador, a well-known local actress who had limited availability during the campaign. Palin also worked with TSC’s corporate partner, Salesforce, highlighting an employee who had attended TSC as a child.

The campaign raised more than $60,000, a 5% increase over the previous year, with the average donation increasing by $180. Media efforts produced 105 individual stories, a 36% increase over 2017, while 23 social media posts were dished up by politicians, media and influencers. The team also brought two new corporate sponsors on board.

Congratulations to Maya Ivanovic, Christine Galasinao, Jo Wallace and Katie Bartolillo.

The faith-based health care organization Ascension embarked on an effort to raise the visibility of its leaders, along with local market executives, with the objective of engaging a broad spectrum of audiences with important health information and critical health care policy messages. The campaign that emerged has earned first place in the “Executive Visibility” category of Ragan’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The targeted audiences included consumers, industry leaders, physician leaders, employees, prospective employees and more. The effort aimed to shine a light on Ascension’s activities, including influencing health care policy. Research led the team to identify key health care topics on which leaders could focus, including health care reform, personalized care and telemedicine, among others.

Cornerstones of the campaign focused on media placements, speaking engagements, industry awards and media opportunities for interviews and op-eds. A social media strategy was also part of the effort, with the team publishing content across social channels as well as sharing it with employees internally.

LinkedIn played a part, with articles published to leaders’ individual profiles, then cross-promoted across Ascension-owned brand social media platforms. Op-ed content was also cross-posted to long-form LinkedIn articles while Twitter was employed to elevate secured media placements.

The campaign has paid off for Ascension, with more than 770 media placements. Executives have delivered talks at more than 200 national and local events, and more than 100 local and national awards have been presented to Ascension based on entries submitted by the communications team. As for social media, the team posted more than 3,000 items that delivered more than 83,000 engagements and 520,000 click-throughs.

Congratulations to Nick Ragone and Johnny Smith.

Rotary’s annual international convention is held in a different city every year. In 2019, Hamburg, Germany, was the site of the event, which drew 26,000 members from 175 countries.It provided Rotary with an opportunity to showcase its members and activities, particularly important because only a little more than half the German population is familiar with the organization. 

The campaign to shine a light on Rotary during the convention has earned first place in the “Event PR and Marketing” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Working with a German PR agency to activate local media and opportunities, Rotary’s team established goals that included reinforcing the organization’s image as a relevant organization for professional men and women seeking to volunteer in Hamburg and elsewhere, as well as to increase social media engagement and entice 25,000 members to register for the convention.

KPIs were set (such as securing 20–30 stories in top-tier media). Messaging pillars were established to focus on key topics, such as Rotary’s role in ending polio, and 14 story angles were isolated to support targeted media pitches.

Activities were planned for before, during and after the convention, ultimately delivering 691 media placements and 832 posts across social media in eight languages, delivering 254,000 engagements, a 55% increase over 2018. Paid attendance exceeded the goal, and the number of new member web leads doubled from the previous year.

Congratulations to Chanele Williams, Vivian Fiore, Claudia Brunner, Nancy Davidson, Jean Saunders, Cassady Wehba, Andy Sternberg and Thomas McVey.