Ascension, one of the U.S.’s largest faith-based health care organizations, sought to elevate the organization’s overall brand reputation and draw attention to its commitment to care excellence. A thought leadership campaign was pegged to achieve these goals, targeting consumer audiences, industry leaders, physician leaders, employees, prospective employees and other key stakeholders. The resulting campaign has won the top prize in the “Thought Leadership Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The campaign built a strategy that included media content, speaking engagements and awards for Ascension health system leaders and local-market executives. Before launching into the campaign, the organization conducted qualitative research including an in-depth media analysis to assess the thought leadership landscape and Ascension’s existing share of voice. The research led the campaign team to settle on key themes like health care reform, personalized care and telemedicine.

When editorial content was placed, it was promoted across the local hospital systems and Ascension’s social media channels, along with other media content that aligned with the campaign’s strategy. In addition to traditional media, Ascension leaders also published articles on LinkedIn. Social media content linked to the LinkedIn pieces, notably via Twitter.

The campaign secured more than 860 media placements, delivering more than 53 million impressions. The campaign also netted more than 140 local and national awards and more than 220 local and national speaking engagements. And in a single year, social media outreach produced more than 3,400 posts promoting earned media content; more than 14.8 million users were reached.

Congratulations to Nick Ragone and Johnny Smith.

In early 2019, Google announced a change to its Chrome web browser that would disable third-party ad blockers and privacy tools. Among those was Ghostery, a browser extension that improved the browsing experience by detecting and blocking thousands of third-party data-tracking technologies. With more than 7 million customers, Ghostery has harnessed growing consumer awareness and interest in protecting their personally identifiable information.

Working with Diffusion PR, Ghostery worked to position itself as both an advocate for consumers and as a solution to gain back control over privacy. How Diffusion and Ghostery addressed Google’s plans, through the use of newsjacking and consumer advocacy, has won first place in the “Technology Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

Within an hour of the news breaking, Diffusion worked with Ghostery to issue a public statement, taking Google to task for its plan. The news hijack sparked earned media coverage in top-tier technology publications like Wired, CNET and Gizmodo, along with business publications like Bloomberg and Fortune, and even mainstream media like the BBC. The campaign helped elevate Ghostery as a privacy authority.

When a study of ad blocker performance commissioned by Ghostery proved Google’s initial justification for the change to be untrue, another media push resulted another wave of coverage from the likes of ZDNet, Ars Technica and The Verge.

Ultimately, Google announced its Chrome changes would be minimized, but Ghostery didn’t back down, and this third wave of outreach led to more top-tier coverage. In the end, the campaign generated 63 pieces of earned media. Ghostery also recorded an increase in users and installations.

Congratulations to Diffusion PR for an effective use of newsjacking to deliver meaningful results to its client.

In 2018, the average American child “retired” from sports at age 11 (even younger in low-income families). To help change the trajectory of kids and sports, ESPN partnered with the Aspen Institute and 20 sports organizations as part of Project Play 2020. The campaign has won the top prize in the “Sports or Outdoor Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The campaign was designed to address the factors that lead to the decline in youth sports participation, which include the fact that parent and coach pressure has made sports participation no fun anymore; one poll found kids ranked “winning” 48^th among the things that are fun about sports.

“Don’t Retire, Kid” was an ESPN campaign related to Project Play 2020, introduced to raise awareness about why kids are dropping out of sports and encourage parents and coaches to tap resources that can keep them playing longer.

The team created two PSAs and accompanying collateral about a young boy and a young girl announcing their retirement from sports. The campaign ran exclusively on ESPN for two weeks, while the affiliation with Project Play 2020 enabled ESPN to engage a number of industry partners, leagues, teams and athletes to use their own platforms to address the issue, pointing out that kids who play sports have better grades, stay in school and build important life skills (including teamwork, accountability and leadership).

The campaign generated more than 322 million impressions in less than a month, with 99% positive sentiment on social media. The campaign also produced more than 500 media placements. Traffic to ProjectPlay.us increased nearly 900% during the campaign.

Congratulations to Jennifer Paulett and Kevin Martinez.

Primrose Schools, a national system of private preschools, had dual goals for its social media campaign, #LetGuiltGo. First, the school chain sought to initiate a national conversation about the need to support working parents. By doing so, Primrose also hoped to generate engagement with and enrollment interest in the schools. How it achieved its goals has won the top prize in the “Social Media Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The organization’s marketing agency, Jackson Spalding, set initial goals of 2.75 million social media impressions, 550,000 video views, 6,000 blog views, 120,000 media impressions and 500,000 influencer outreach impressions.

Research found 73% of moms say they like to give the impression their lives are under control, but 76% admit they can’t finish everything they need to do in a day. The campaign was crafted to demonstrate appreciation for these women.

Individuals fitting the demographic were invited to a fake market research study in which they were recorded answering questions, after which they were informed there was no marketing study and were shown video of loved ones expressing their appreciation, after which those loved ones appeared in person—all caught on camera.

The video campaign was released on National Working Parents Day, supported by a robust, integrated distribution campaign covering key social media channels. Five influencers were recruited to further build awareness; they shared their personal stories of parent guilt in addition to driving traffic to the campaign. Media outlets covering the campaign included USA Today and Working Mother.

In addition to exceeding PR goals, nearly 350 visitors to the campaign blog clicked through to the “Find a School” page.

Congratulations to Kate Weaver, Maggie Pittman, Callie Corley, Kim Nogi, Alicia Harwell, Mike Martin and Scott Hartman.

When it comes to the inequality gap between men and women, there has been plentiful reporting on the worlds of business and entertainment. Not so much in the art world, though—a situation Saatchi Art aimed to correct. Timed to Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day in March 2019, Saatchi Art’s Refuse the Muse campaign also sought to contribute to the larger gender imbalance conversation. The campaign has earned first place in the “PR on a Shoestring” category in the PR Daily Awards.

Using various channels, such as a dedicated catalog, social media, video and targeted public relations efforts, the campaign was designed to celebrate and support women artists both online and off by providing them with a space to showcase and share their impressive works while introducing them to new audiences globally.

It was an easy pitch for Saatchi Art, an online art gallery, where 54% of its bestselling artists are women. All of the assets produced for the campaign were compelling, the video especially so as a collection of women artists discussed their approaches to their art.

The campaign secured coverage in multiple publications and generated more than 4.2 billion impressions from media outlets in the home décor, lifestyle, art, culture, advertising, media and technology categories. The print catalog, mailed to 150,000 homes and available online to the company’s 2 million monthly unique users, 400,000 email subscribers and 1 million-plus social media followers, contributed to a 14% increase in sales for the first half of the year. The social media campaign drove 1.5 million impressions and more than 100,000 engagements.

Congratulations to Sarah Meller, Kelsey Ruiz and Mia Mendez.

Aflac faced a conundrum. The supplemental insurance company has a long-established track record for its community engagement work, but it wasn’t getting the credit it deserved. Despite regularly earning a spot on lists like Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies,” Aflac was not well regarded for community commitment; one report found consumers thought Aflac was lacking in its CSR profile. The company’s campaign to rectify that misunderstanding has earned first place in the “Reputation Management Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

Specifically, the campaign was designed to raise awareness of Aflac’s record for ethical leadership, its diverse and inclusive workforce, its philanthropy and its work in environmental sustainability. Executive interviews and public appearances elevated the company’s leaders to thought leadership status. The company undertook a variety of other efforts to solidify its CSR credentials, such as improving the methodology to assure gender equity in staff compensation.

The CSR campaign promoted the naming of Aflac’s first Chief Officer for Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and its continued efforts to donate its My Special Aflac Duck to childhood cancer patients. The company has also earned considerable recognition for its CSR efforts, including Ethisphere’s award for the World’s Most Ethical Company, a PRSA Silver Anvil, a Holmes Report SABRE (both North America and Global) and a listing in Black Enterprise’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity.

The campaign led to a 2.8-point rise in the Reputation Institute’s RepTrack rankings. Aflac became the first insurance company to earn the ISO 50001:2011 certification for energy efficiency. The campaign also secured 2 billion CSR media impressions, while social media engagement leapt considerably.

Congratulations to Jon Sullivan, Chris Ehrhart, Kristen Fraser, Buffy Swinehart, Darcy Brito and Catherine Hernandez-Blades.

Consumer products company Clio was about to disrupt Walmart with a partnership to sell its plusOne vibrators in stores across the country. To complicate matters, Clio had no experience in the sexual wellness space, though its mission was to make sexual wellness as approachable and mainstream as its other personal care products. Working with PR agency Hotwire, Clio established metrics around building awareness and trust while driving sales. The campaign has won first place in the “Product or Service Launch” category of the PR Daily Awards.

Research was crucial to positioning the product effectively. Hotwire dove into women’s attitudes, an analysis of search engine optimization trends (revealing that the word “vibrators” is searched 600% more often than “sexual wellness”), and how the media were talking to consumers about the topic.

Ultimately, the team determined that nobody yet owned the sexual wellness space. Targeting millennial women, the strategy centered on providing online research about the brand and its products, delivered through social sharing, search engines and reviews with positive messaging to empower women to own their own sexual wellness.

The team worked with a popular sex-positive commentator to develop an in-depth feature including interviews and research, which appeared in Vox. A New York Times feature with the CEO of plusOne was also secured, along with coverage in outlets like Cosmopolitan.

A social media campaign also contributed to the campaign’s success, as did influencer engagement. The team also developed themed campaign components, such as a Valentine’s Day competition titled, “Repair a Broken Heart with Some Self-Love,” which received more than 10,000 competition entries. The campaign contributed to plusOne grabbing 26% of the sexual massager market in just seven months.

Congratulations to Clio and Hotwire.

The winner of the “Print Publication” category in the PR Daily Awards, paper manufacturer Domtar, is an outstanding example of what can be delivered with print.

Vibrant colors and big, bold graphics complement well-written copy and superb organization. The report was structured around the company’s three sustainability pillars: responsibility, engagement and efficiency. The report sought to express what drives the business under each of the pillars and how they are progressing towards the goals the company has set.

The report focused on setting an example to the business world of how collaboration with stakeholders can produce content and data that inform and inspire readers. The report’s editors captured input from more than 100 stakeholders, ranging from employees to advocacy groups, from communities to customers and shareholders.

The editors also gathered input from the company’s sales teams, as well as collecting personal interviews, precise data and corporate statistics. The production of the report married a creative approach to reporting the company’s approach to sustainability with visuals and text that were assembled across multiple platforms.

The company has used the report as a launch pad for additional materials, including two four-page brochures that capture report highlights, a series of videos, articles on the company’s award-winning online newsroom, a scavenger hunt quiz for employees and more. It has also been used at university campuses and job fairs to attract new staff and executives have shared it at conferences and speaking engagements.

Congratulations to Paige Goff, David Struhs, Brian Kozlowski, Courtney St. Onge and Marguerite Butler.

During the world’s largest dental fair, up to 11 press conferences are conducted daily. Standing out in this scheduled loaded with media events, dental products and technology company Dentsply Sirona sought to stand out. The goals were not unlike most of the other companies making their pitches to the press: clearly communicate the company’s dynamics and innovation while focusing on customer needs. The tactics the company employed and the results it produced have earned it first place in the “Press Event or Media Tour” category of the PR Daily Awards.

It’s not likely the press covering the event had attended a press conference like this one before. The products were presented through entertaining segments with semi-live demonstrations in dental offices timed to the second. The moderators seemed to be in direct dialogue with dentists. As a surprise at the end, one of the treating dentists appeared ostensibly directly from his practice, live on stage and answered questions. The press kit distributed at the conference had digital, business card-sized handouts that were as surprising as the content of the press conference itself.

More than 200 participants from 26 countries gave the event a round of applause—not at all common at press conferences. But the real proof of the effectiveness of the approach was demonstrated by the 400 articles reaching more than 2.4 million people in print and 19.3 million online.

Congratulations to Marion Par-Weixlberger, Dr. Tanja Lauinger, Günther Schmidhuber, Anna Bruns and Marie-Therese Baldinger.

Aflac, the supplemental insurance company, has a long-established track record for its community engagement work. However, the company wasn’t getting the credit it deserved. Despite regularly earning a spot on lists like Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies,” Aflac was not well regarded for community commitment; one report found consumers thought Aflac was lacking in its CSR profile. The company’s campaign to rectify that misunderstanding has been named the “Grand Prize: PR Campaign of the Year” in the PR Daily Awards.

The campaign was specifically designed to raise awareness of Aflac’s record for ethical leadership, its diverse and inclusive workforce, its philanthropy and its work in environmental sustainability. Executive interviews and public appearances elevated the company’s leaders to thought leadership status. The company undertook a variety of other efforts to solidify its CSR credentials, such as improving its methodology to assure gender equity in staff compensation.

The CSR campaign promoted the naming of Aflac’s first Chief Officer for Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and its continued efforts to donate its My Special Aflac Duck to childhood cancer patients. The company has also earned considerable recognition for its CSR efforts, including Ethisphere’s award for the World’s Most Ethical Company, a PRSA Silver Anvil, a Holmes Report SABRE (both North America and Global) and a listing in Black Enterprise’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity.

The campaign led to a 2.8-point rise in the Reputation Institute’s RepTrack rankings. Aflac became the first insurance company to earn the ISO 50001:2011 certification for energy efficiency. The campaign also secured 2 billion CSR media impressions while social media engagement leapt considerably.

Congratulations to Joe Sullivan, Chris Ehrhart, Kristen Fraser, Buffy Swinehart, Darcy Brito and Catherine Hernandez-Blades.

Online newsrooms have come a long way since the days of listing press releases, media coverage and press contacts. For not only including a wide array of relevant content but for doing it in a logical and visually appealing way, paper company Domtar’s newsroom has earned first place in the “Online Newsroom” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The page is dominated with articles in a tile format covering the material the company most wants on display, while a hamburger menu provides access to all the materials a reporter or others may want, including industry insights, ideas and innovation, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and a more traditional media center featuring company locations, executive bios, an image gallery, brand assets and press releases.

In addition to the media, the newsroom was designed to connect with existing stakeholders (to build on existing relationships and foster engagement with customers, employees and investors), business leaders, consumers and employees. The team behind the newsroom wisely makes it accessible from a variety of places in addition to the company’s primary website, including the intranet, social media posts and a monthly newsroom email newsletter. Content is frequently aligned with trending topics and hashtags to become part of existing conversations (such as the call to ban plastic straws).

The newsroom has attracted an average of 31,729 visitors per month, thanks in part to a paid social media effort promoting individual newsroom stories. Most of the traffic comes from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. A number of articles on the site have been picked up by trade publications as well.

Congratulations to Kathy Wholley, Courtney St. Onge, Marisa Lemen, Leo Makowski, Donna Atkinson, Jan Martin, Dominique Huet, Elise Grose and Eric Demski.

The more common online interactions become, the more privacy is a concern. In 2018, Europe responded with the General Data Protection Act; several U.S. states drafted their own privacy bills. Believing that a federal privacy bill was the best approach for the U.S., Intel called for comprehensive U.S. privacy legislation and posted its own draft of a bill on an interactive site that allowed for public feedback. The campaign to promote the bill has won first place in the “Niche Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

Intel contracted with RH Strategic to get the word out to the niche privacy audience that includes members of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission, chief privacy officers and their privacy lobbyists, and third-party experts and NGOs.

The campaign sought to establish Intel as a champion of privacy legislation, gain exposure for the draft bill and establish the company’s Global Privacy Officer as a thought leader. RH Strategic developed a press advisory to D.C. policy media and established messaging and a Q&A for the launch of the draft bill. They wrote and distributed media pitches with multiple pitch subject lines and drafted and placed thought leadership pieces in The Hill, which led to interest from The New York Times.

On the social media side, RH wrote more than 300 social media posts and drafted three blog posts on behalf of Intel’s privacy officer. The team also coordinated social coverage of multiple in-person events, including a Tech + Policy event and multiple speaking engagements. The effort delivered significant media coverage and a variety of other metrics that demonstrate the campaign’s effectiveness.

Congratulations to Trish Rimo, Emily Field and Aaron Edelstein.

A heavy equipment operator at Pittsburgh International Airport—father of a four-year-old autistic son—dropped an idea into the airport employee suggestion box: a sensory room for people with sensory-processing sensitivities.

The idea became reality with the July 23, 2019 unveiling of Presley’s Place, named for Presley Rudge, the four-year-old diagnosed two years ago. The Marketing & Communications team developed a communication plan to take advantage of the room’s debut; their work has earned first place in the “Media Pitch” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The goals were simple: Let people know of the facility’s existence and position the airport as a global aviation leader whose model other airports could follow. The campaign took on multiple forms, including traditional pitching (both one-on-one and with a press release), articles on the airport’s news website, videos, events, internal communications and a message to all airport employees from the airport’s CEO.

The pitches were particularly effective, delivering an estimated reach of nearly 220 million people through media coverage of the event. Among outlets covering the room’s debut were the “Today” show, The Washington Post, NPR and Lonely Planet.

Ultimately, there were more than 200 placements in more than 200 media outlets. The other channels were also successful: Social media engagement, for example, produced more than 8,000 engagements and more than 7,000 page views.

Congratulations to Bob Kerlik, Paul O’Rourke, Ashlee Wallace, Matt Neistein, Kristin Cullen, Beth Hollerich, Natalie Fiorilli, Laura Whitaker, Jeff Martinelli, Elise Farris and Samantha Stedford.

Spring is a popular time for people to buy and sell homes, with home closings reaching their height in May (which led May 1 to become National Homeowner’s Day and May to become “Mover’s Month”).  Consumers view Home Depot as a great source for boxes and tape, but the chain offers far more, from helping homeowners prep their homes for sale to putting finishing touches on their new homes.

The company used its 2018 campaign on National Homeowner’s Day to target movers at all stages of the cycle through tailored in-store, web and social messaging. The campaign has earned first place in the “Marketing Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

The big-box home improvement chain brought multiple teams together for the effort, including PR, agile marketing, social media, merchandise marketing, content marketing and in-store workshops. Working together, the teams created a strategy that would deliver relevant messaging to distinct audiences, notably new/pre-movers and recent movers.

The team researched the kinds of projects these audiences would find most resonant, then created a “Your New Home” landing page replete with how-to guides on the projects and products that make moving easier.

Media events were held in key markets. Influencer engagement also played a role, resulting in 31,000 consumers registering for workshops in May, 238.1 million media impressions, top-tier media coverage and marketing that reached 2.83 million unique individuals.

Congratulations to Yanique Griffin-Woodall, Stephanie Meyering, Tiffany Mitsui, Allison Cawley, Shebreka Fisher, Sara Roberts, Emmaline Harvey, Mike Cushing, Kristen Heetland, Lisa DeStefano, Sarah Fishburne, Sally Lane, Caroline Dallas. MSL: Josh Shapiro, Nupur Raghunath, Hannah Van Malssen, Monica Khattar, Alan Danzis, Ailyn Kelly. Edelman: Emily Teeter, Megan Milam, Telleen Gegner, Michelle Hartigan and Maria Moraitakis.

In 2017, the PGA Tour event in Fort Worth, Texas, found itself without a title sponsor, which could lead to its ejection from the PGA Tour calendar. The investment company Charles Schwab had been the Tour’s official investment firm since 1997 and was interested in taking its next step in its partnership by signing on to sponsor a local tournament. The Fort Worth tournament made special sense, because the company would relocate its headquarters to Dallas-Fort Worth from its original home in San Francisco. The result has earned top prize in the “Location-Based Campaign” category of the PR Daily Awards.

Seeking to capitalize on a title sponsorship, the communications team developed a six-month plan to reinforce its support for the local community and build positive sentiment for the brand. The team built an integrated, multichannel campaign that included sports marketing, special events, executive communications, social media, internal communications and media relations.

Much of the messaging was future-focused (while celebrating the tournament’s 70-year history), with owned and earned storytelling exploring the community programs Schwab was bringing to the area. The team also helped deepen community relationships by addressing employment and other benefits of Schwab’s increased commitment to the area. Communications also helped build employee pride by enlisting employees as tournament advocates.

The campaign produced more than 9,000 pieces of earned media with a reach of 22 billion impressions. Media tours led to a dozen national and regional media interviews. The social conversation rose 2,600% during tournament week, and hundreds of Schwab employees participated in tournament-related activities.

Congratulations to all the members of the Charles Schwab Corporate Marketing and Corporate Reputation teams.