Spectrum Health’s Health Beat blog was created to tap into the content marketing trend, a channel into which Spectrum Health had not yet ventured. In addition to a first-place win in the Blog category, Health Beat has also won the top prize in the “Digital Publication” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Among the ways Health Beat helps build brand awareness beyond the popularity of the blog and its related customizable e-newsletter is the fact that traditional communicators at Spectrum use Health Beat content to pitch stories to the media. International media—both traditional and nontraditional—use Health Beat assets, in part or whole, as content for their own channels, building awareness of Spectrum, a nonprofit health system based in west Michigan.

Health Beat Pro is the media-focused version of Health Beat, designed to be an easily accessible site for media professionals who can use plug-and-play content in print materials, websites, blogs, broadcasts or radio reports.

The Health Beat team established SMART objectives for the two sites, including social media channel KPIs and Google Analytics. Each story is tagged so the team can track the uptake of content associated with specific service line marketing campaigns. The mobile-friendly sites are updated every day with multiple stories, photos and videos.

The effort is clearly paying off, given that Health Beat generates ROI of 100:1—for every dollar spent on the content marketing effort, the leads generated result in $100 to Spectrum Health’s bottom line. Brand awareness built through the blogs has also correlated to recognition of Spectrum Health as one of the top health systems in the U.S.

Congratulations to Cheryl Welch, Jill Seidelman, Chris Clark, Sue Thoms and Taylor Ballek.

Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau—grandchildren of the legendary aquatic explorer Jacques Cousteau—are co-founders of EarthEcho International, which inspires young people to act for a sustainable future. The signature EarthEcho Expeditions program, brings STEM topics to life for students and teachers, focusing on exploration of a geographic area facing an environmental crisis.

EarthEcho worked with the Northrop Grumman Foundation to develop learning modules from their annual expedition that could be used by teachers anywhere, earning Northrop Grumman first place in the “Corporate-Nonprofit Partnership” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The EarthEcho Expedition: Water by Design took place in southern California, examining the water resource management struggle brought on by the region’s persistent five year drought. The educators and students who participated learned from scientists, engineers, and policymakers to focus on water sources and transport, innovative solutions to manage supply and demand, and agricultural solutions that are transforming agribusiness.

The Northrop Grumman Foundation is committed to engineering and technology-based programs that engage middle school students in STEM topics, making the EarthEcho partnership an exciting opportunity to support U.N. Sustainable Development Goal No. 4—providing workforce-relevant professional development programming to middle school STEM educators.

The Water by Design module that resulted from the partnership comprises a comprehensive series of materials that include videos, lesson plans and design challenges, along with live virtual events that let students and teachers connect to STEM professionals. By July 2019, there had been 5,314 views of the videos and virtual field trips.

Northrop Grumman estimates some 7,500 students have benefitted from the program from the 25 educators who participated. In addition, 127,575 students have engaged with video content since the launch in January 2018. The campaign effectiveness led to a second effort, EarthEcho Expedition: PlasticSeas, which brought 25 educators from Australia together to explore the consequences of plastics pollution.

Congratulations to Philippe Cousteau, Mia DeMezza, Stacey Rafalowski, Jim Trogdon, Jaclyn Gerakios, Sandra Evers-Manly, Carleen Beste, Stephanie Fitzsimmons and Jeni Johnson.

Stein IAS, a B2B marketing company based in the U.K., undertakes an annual Christmas charity project. In 2018, it was the New York City office’s turn to spearhead the project. Its focus was New York City’s homeless, too many of whom are children.

The company 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 Stein IAS took has won first place in the “Community-Nonprofit Partnership” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

To convince the rest of the company to adopt the charity, the 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 that sends him on a journey to find and help her.

With the book written and designed, the team produced a three-minute video version; it served as the centerpiece of a microsite, where visitors could also make a donation in exchange for a printed copy of the book. Employing its marketing know-how, 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.

In the fall of 2018, the de Young Museum in San Francisco organized a pioneering exhibition, “Contemporary Muslim Fashions,” that focused on the complex and diverse nature of Muslim and modest dress codes worldwide. How the museum handled its PR campaign to manage the event has earned the team first place in the “Nonprofit PR Campaign of the Year” category in PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The exhibition featured women’s fashions from more than 80 designers. The de Young Museum was the first to explore the topic, which led to some challenges. After announcing the exhibition with a piece in The New York Times, the museum got pushback from some believing the show provided a platform for dress codes meant to oppress women; others found it cynical since the curators weren’t Muslims. And, of course, the museum received racist feedback from people who objected to any content about Muslims.

The internal team of three communicators brought an outside agency on board to help with international media requests while they focused on a broad range of media pitches designed to deliver the right messages. Social media gave visitors an in-depth look at the show through behind-the-scenes footage and preview pieces via the museum’s network and the followings of the 80 designers participating in the exhibition.

Training was also a core element of the campaign to ensure understanding of Muslim audiences and cultural sensitivities as well as to prepare for any crises. PR and social media toolkits were developed, and 30 influencers recruited.

Ultimately, 2,500 pieces of coverage were published, with 98% of the coverage positive, and the social media campaign also delivered in a big way.

Congratulations to Miriam Newcomer, Shaquille Heath, Joyce Alcantara, Linda Butler, Joanna Garcia , Jessie Ayala and Helena Nordstrom.

The branding for the Jewish Federation of Delaware applies brilliantly to each of the organization’s many activities. “We Grow Stronger Together” became the theme that unified all of the Federation’s messaging, designed to encourage multiple audience to share in the Jewish traditions of caring and compassion, Jewish learning, repairing the world and social justice.

How the campaign slogan and the images were employed have earned the Jewish Federation first place in the “Branding or Rebranding Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The campaign branding, aimed at former, current and potential donors, uses three primary visuals that span age-specific audience segments: children, a young couple and a senior citizen with an adult daughter. For example, the federation negotiated a public service announcement campaign with Clear Channel Outdoor, providing rotating billboard locations at no charge when Clear Channel had space available. The same images were repurposed for banners displayed both inside and outside the Jewish community campus and in print.

The Jewish Federation publishes a monthly publication distributed to homes, advertisers and synagogues as well as an annual impact report that highlights the federation’s accomplishments. The same visual theme became the banner for the federation’s weekly email newsletter, as well as a second monthly publication focused on local stories and an annual community guide.

The federation’s website also adopted the theme, which was repurposed effectively for each type of medium, supporting goals that included raising awareness of the federation’s key programs and services and reiterating the importance of meeting the needs of the global Jewish community through donor giving.

We congratulate Seth J. Katzen, Alex Tornek and Wendy Berger.

Before establishing Health Beat, its multiple-award-winning blog, Spectrum Health leaned heavily on traditional marketing channels to reach its audiences. A substantial research initiative led Spectrum’s communicators to understand that what the blog needed was a content marketing component. For taking this mandate and developing the gold standard of health care blogs, Spectrum Health has won first place in the “Blog” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

The research included a competitive analysis, internal and external surveys, focus groups and an in-depth content and communications asset audit. In addition to developing the blog as a means of delivering content, the team also developed Health Beat Pro, targeting content to media professionals.

Health Beat was developed to empower readers to make informed decisions by telling compelling, positive stories about real people facing real challenges. Spectrum Health has adopted a newsroom approach to creating and delivering content, with a team that includes a managing editor, a multimedia manager, two photojournalists and a health care journalist; contributions also come from freelancers and marketing/communications staff members.

The most compelling items are shared through weekly, monthly and special-edition e-news to subscribers who are able to tailor their news feeds to suit their interests. Health Beat makes regular appearances in Ragan’s awards programs because of both the quality of the content and the results it achieves.

The blog’s contents reach 15 million people monthly; its social media reach has exceeded 100 million people averaging 700,000 site visits each month. The time spent on stories sometimes reaches as much as 22 minutes. The content also finds its way into the press, while internally it is repurposed across multiple channels.

Congratulations to the team of Cheryl Welch, Jill Seidelman, Chris Clark, Sue Thoms and Taylor Ballek.

Five years ago, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation released a RAND Corporation study of the impact of assisting a loved one who had been disabled after military service, a task shared by 5.5 million Americans. Such caregiving is often a round-the-clock job, resulting in high rates of physical ailments, emotional stress, joblessness and financial and legal challenges for caregivers.

Based on these facts, the foundation expanded its mission to raise awareness of the challenges facing the children of military caregivers, a group that had been previously overlooked even within the veteran community. The foundation’s PR firm, Susan Davis International (SDI), suggested placing a first-person account in The New York Times’ “At War” section. The article that resulted has won first place in the “Article” category of PR Daily’s 2019 Nonprofit PR Awards program.

The focus was Liz Rotenberry, whose husband Chuck suffers from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. To fill her caregiving role, Liz had to quit her job and become the primary parent to the couple’s four children while managing the household on her own.

Despite the impact on her own life, Liz’s primary concern is the effect caregiving has on their children’s lives and futures. The agency’s writers worked with Liz to determine how to describe life inside a home with her husband’s conditions and the impact it has on their children. They guided Liz on how to structure the resulting 1,500-word article to ensure key points were made and examples shared.

The article produced more than 200 comments on The New York Times website, along with social media messages, emails, texts and phone calls.

Congratulations to SDI senior strategist Dan Gregory.

The public image of people with eating disorders historically has been confined to young white women. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) wanted to change that, showing that eating disorders affect tens of millions of Americans across every race, age, gender and socioeconomic group. NEDA brought Momentum Communications Group on board to dispel the stereotypes and build an inclusive movement that accepts everyone struggling with body image.

Momentum’s goals included engaging new audiences, increasing participation with key NEDA media, bolstering recognition of NEDA as a leader in preventive treatment and education, and boosting fundraising. For its efforts, Momentum’s campaign has earned first place in the “Advocacy or Awareness Campaign” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

NEDAwareness Week, an annual public health campaign, helped Momentum push NEDA messaging. The weeklong event became the focal point for enhancing NEDA’s awareness and reach. The team employed diversified storytelling to highlight how eating disorders intersect with a wide range of issues, including education, employment, sports, technology and entertainment. It also aimed to establish CEO Claire Mysko as a thought leader in the space.

Influencers played a role in the campaign, with ambassadors conveying their experiences; their stories were also pitched to journalists as part of a focused media relations effort that included op-eds.

Social media outreach capped the campaign with a focus on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. By the end of the campaign, donations to NEDA increased 244%. Media coverage included “CBS This Morning,” The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC News and NPR’s Morning Edition, among others.

Congratulations to Kylee Tsuru, Zach Halper, Victoria Dellacava, Karl Ortegon and Jim Miller.

If you dare to be creative—even in an annual report—it can reap big rewards.

Halcyon, a D.C.-based nonprofit arts and social enterprise incubator, provides residency and fellowships for artists and entrepreneurs to help support skill development, networking and venture growth. Fellows are free to pursue their artistic and entrepreneurial visions with access to Halcyon’s network of mentors, investors and advisors.

Halcyon chose Sage Communications to design and develop its annual report for 2017—and Sage responded with a first-place showing in the Annual Report category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Sage set out to create a high-profile report to encompass Halcyon’s mission, messaging and accomplishments. After brainstorming with Halcyon to create the overarching theme, “Dare to be _____,” and a list of related keywords, Sage reported back to the client with design concepts—and then hit the ground running.

To keep the themes consistent, Sage designed die-cut techniques for use throughout. The inside front cover revealed the key message, “A unique vision. A unique perspective,” along with select pages showcasing main sections such as “world-changing ventures,” “emerging artists” and “civic-minded artists.”

Sage’s work on Halcyon’s behalf also won the 2018 Hermes Creative Award for Print Media.

Congratulations to Sage team members Stephanie Trager, Kristen Thoman, David Gorodetski and Kelley Newman.

Traveling can be a frustrating experience. You never know if you will encounter long lines, delays or cancellations.

Miami International Airport (MIA) strives to make sure passengers have enough information to make the experience as stress-free as possible, especially during peak travel seasons.

Instead of putting out its same old list of travel tips this year, MIA turned them into infographics and pushed them out on social media. Those efforts have won first place in the “Infographics” category of PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

The team began by researching the top questions asked by travelers. Then it started creating infographics tailored to each social media platform, as well as for placement on MIA’s online newsroom and on its app, MIA Airport Official.

Travel tips were also crafted for an Instagram story and converted into a highlight so they would be visible indefinitely.

The first infographics, created in English and Spanish, were released during the government shutdown, when lines at the TSA checkpoints increased. They were so successful that they have been replicated for spring break and summer travel seasons and will be incorporated into MIA’s strategy for peak travel periods.

The newsroom web page containing the travel tips infographic during the government shutdown received almost 4,000 visits over a 16-day period. Tweets directing passengers to news releases with safety tips had more than 21,500 impressions.

A Facebook post containing the infographics reached more than 5,600 people and had more than 250 engagements, and the Instagram story received more than a 300% increase in impressions than previous stories posted on the page.

Congratulations to Arlyn Rull, Greg Chin, Cristina Armand, Mailyn Mundy and Daniella Winch.

Last January, the federal government shut down over a budget impasse, greatly hampering  operations at airports nationwide.

Many federal employees were not reporting to work, closing one security checkpoint at Miami International Airport (MIA) and causing long lines at other checkpoints and long wait times for passengers entering the country.

To deal with the chaos, the communications team at MIA created a video in English and Spanish that would be displayed at the busiest security checkpoints, along with other informational tools. The team’s efforts have won first place in the “Personalized Content Marketing Strategy” category of PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

Passengers’ needs were carefully studied as soon as MIA started to feel the effects of the federal funding lapse. The video was created with key messages that would prepare passengers for security procedures and expedite the longer than usual checkpoint lines. A positive message was strategically added to the end of the video reminding frustrated passengers to be polite and smile.

For MIA’s social media channels, a travel tip infographic was generated and pinned to the top of Twitter and Facebook feeds. For Instagram, a story with the travel tips was generated and pinned to a highlight.

The security checkpoint videos helped passengers prepare for the TSA process as they waited in line. During the week of Jan. 18–25, 2019, the videos were seen by an average of 854,515 passengers. The social media efforts had similarly impressive results.

Congratulations to Arlyn Rull, Greg Chin, Cristina Armand, Mailyn Mundy, Daniella Winch, Richard Etienne and Jack Varela.

DPR, the nationwide general contractor and construction management company, already has a reputation for building sustainable structures. Now DPR wanted to use its strength in sustainability to help turn the tide of rising health care costs based on work-related stress. The strategy the team executed—which includes an innovative white paper as a key part of a full suite of content assets—has earned first place in the “White Paper” category of PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

Using knowledge of the WELL Building Standard, DPR wanted to build greater awareness of its ability to create healthy workspaces that deliver meaningful results to customers across its core market sectors, notably in the commercial office and health care markets. The team’s goals for its efforts included at least one high-profile earned media placement timed to the Greenbuild 2018 conference.

The team lacked the resources to perform full-scale market research, but it latched onto another study that gave DPR access to findings from more than 100 large organizations on the pressures they face when it comes to wellness.

The research led to the development of earned media, speaking placements, shared media (such as the “broadcast” of several content pieces for its employees to share on LinkedIn via Elevate) and owned media, spurred by the white paper detailing how DPR built and designed its Reston, Virginia office. This field guide, intended for others to use to replicate its results, was posted across DPR’s online properties.

The effort delivered on each of the team’s goals, including reaching 61,000 people with the Elevate broadcast of the white paper.

Congratulations to DPR Construction.

BONZAI offers intranet software in a crowded market. An audit of BONZAI’s website by Maven Collective Marketing revealed the site was performing far below its competitors in both organic and paid search traffic. The goals Maven set for a revamped website and its brilliant execution have earned the agency first place in the “Website” category of PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

BONZAI’s organic search traffic was delivering only 28% of website traffic each month, 20% less than the industry benchmark and 30% less than most of BONZAI’s competitors. When compared to its closest competitors, the content marketing and SEO strategies were underperforming.

Goals for the revamp included establishing BONZAI intranet as a leader in its market, communicating the benefits of choosing BONZAI, improving site search, crafting valuable content and converting site visits to leads. To achieve these goals, Maven developed a new brand positioning strategy and buyer journey map designed to inform the website content strategy. Maven also analyzed the sites of BONZAI’s competitors and conducted a SWOT analysis to help form the basis of the website messaging and content.

Valuable content was an important component of the plan, leading to the development of an Intranet Content Audit Template, Intranet Governance Template, Intranet Teams Handbook and more. Blog posts, white papers and statistics also found their way onto the site. All of this was aggregated under the label, “The Stress-Free Intranet.“

The redevelopment of the brand positioning, buyer journey mapping and website has resulted in nearly every visitor to the site opting to see the demo, essentially turning them into leads. Organic search traffic has grown by more than 20%, qualified leads have grown 35% and revenue has increased by 176%.

Congratulations to Maven Collective Marketing, in particular, the Mavens that made this project an absolute success, Cathy FitzGerald, Fady Azmy and Erica Hakonson.

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 TM&I 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 360-degree video, which demonstrates the SafeTug experience, has earned first place in the “Virtual/Augmented Reality” category of PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

The video was designed to create awareness among the target audience of tug masters, marine pilots, tug companies and harbor masters. 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 introduced the video to the target audience, using email, sponsored LinkedIn posts, organic social media and press advertising and coverage. Congratulations to TM&I and Stein IAS.

Most marketers dream of having an opportunity like this handed to them on a silver platter: Five-year-old Colton’s parents reached out to Arizona Public Service (APS) to inform them about their son’s interest in being a lineman. They explained that Colton used a computer to pore over photos of linemen at work. He built models of power lines throughout the house with Lincoln Logs and watched videos of linework before bed every night.

The communications team collaborated with multiple departments to plan a day Colton would never forget—and use the experience to tell a very human story via social media. The resulting video has earned first place in the “Video Producer/Visual Storyteller” category in PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

The utility found ways to bring Colton’s dreams to life, arranging for he and his parents to meet a crew at the training yard. The team identified a range of goals for the video, starting with humanizing APS’s employees. The story couldn’t have come at a better time, given a tough political season had left APS’s reputation bruised.

The team teased the video, then reposted it a few weeks later on Bring Your Child to Work Day. Promotions on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn also helped promote the video, aided by an $850 social media spend. Among other tactics, the team tagged partners who helped create Colton’s custom gear and expanded its reach to an audience who might not otherwise have seen the post. The video was also shared on the company’s intranet.

In total, the video produced almost 103,000 impressions, more than 1,000 reactions, 241 shares and 68 comments. On YouTube, which wasn’t even part of the campaign’s promotion efforts, the video has achieved more than 1,400 views.

Congratulations to Eileen Burmeister, Anya Rogers, Zane Ewton, Suzanne Trevino, Rachel Regnier and Katie Curtis.