As anyone who has ever frequented a mall food court and passed by an Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop can attest, that tantalizing scent of freshly baked dough practically sells itself. In fact, it’s unlikely that anyone has ever actually “passed by an Auntie Anne’s.” 

You stop. You buy. You enjoy.

Sadly, you can’t package those tantalizing aromas online. What you can do is offer both customers and prospective franchisees a means of engagement, which is precisely what the brand has done.

Under the digital leadership of Shannon Zimmerman, PR and social media manager with the company, Auntie Anne’s has cultivated far more than just a burgeoning online fan base. 

In fact, as the company targets the nontraditional growth of its stores, Zimmerman has also taken a nontraditional approach to the media strategy it uses to lure in both new owners and consumers.

Launching Auntie Anne’s Social Media Strategic Team in April 2009, over the past three years, Zimmerman has situated each of its digital channels as a source of true brand value. The numbers speak to this themselves:

• Facebook: From 25,000 fans to 659,000 fans
• Twitter: From 0 followers to 27,000 followers
• YouTube: From 0 presence to 37 videos with 212,000 video views and 375 channel subscribers
• Pinterest: From 0 presence to 420 followers

What the numbers can’t show, however, are Zimmerman and her team’s simplistic, yet successful methods for engaging stakeholders and followers alike.

On Facebook, the brand asks its fans to post images of their “pretzel love” for a chance to not just be named its “Pretzel FANatic,” but also have participants’ photos featured as part of its cover art.

It also pushes its franchise options through the social network using a Facebook app for connecting the brand with potential business partners.

Meanwhile, the #PretzelLove and franchise push continues on Twitter, where the brand plugs its webinars, as well as a regular TweetChat offered the second Wednesday of each month for imminent proprietors of the company.

Both expansion and engagement remain the heart on YouTube, too, where Zimmerman has harnessed the power of video to add a splash to the brand’s content.

Case in point: While turning to a variety of social media channels to help promote its annual Free Pretzel Day, the company also posted this video:

Furthermore, the company has chronicled competitions using YouTube, a highlight being its crowd-pleasing search for the fastest pretzel roller amid the brand’s network of managers and franchise associates.

As for consumers, Auntie Anne’s recently began promoting its recipe challenge to further the awareness of its At-Home Baking Kits:

Of course, all of the personalized content in the world—and more specifically, World Wide Web—wouldn’t mean a thing to Zimmerman or her team if not for inciting results on Auntie Anne’s behalf.

The company topped the 2011 food franchise list by the Franchise Business Review. 

Even more representative of Zimmerman’s diligent work, the company also saw itself named No. 20 on FranchiseHelp.com’s 2011 Franchises in Social Media Rankings. Similarly, Auntie Anne’s also nabbed a place on Restaurant Business magazine’s “Social 50.”

Left no room for arguing against her efforts or their many upshots, it pleases us to name Shannon Zimmerman the Best Social Media Director in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards. Congratulations—we eagerly look on with hungry eyes at what more you’ll undoubtedly engage us with in the future.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

How does a company that makes cleaning products appeal to moms on social media?  

It resorts to potty humor. 

That’s no joke; it’s the premise of The Clorox Lounge, a social media hub featuring contests, giveaways, coupons, and—perhaps most importantly—comic relief to entertain moms during their “potty breaks.” 

This combined effort from three communication agencies—Current, Matter, and EQAL—as well as Clorox Toilet Products garners top honors in the Best Social Media Campaign category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards. 

Believe it or not, combining social media and the toilet makes sense. 

One study says 75 percent of Americans use their mobile devices on the commode—a stat that inspired The Clorox Lounge website, which aims to offer moms, who might seek a few minutes of sanctuary on the toilet, some light escapism. 

Here’s what that escapism has included:

• Last Comic Sitting: Each week, mom and dad comedians squared off on the TheCloroxLounge.com; consumers voted for their favorites, and it culminated in a live comedy event hosted by Sherri Shepherd, comedian and co-host of “The View.” 
• Ode to the Commode: The campaign sought to build on the pre-existing Facebook page, Ode to the Commode, which has nearly 200,000 likes, and includes humorous pictures, infographics on potty-related topics (for instance, “Toilets of Government”), and ongoing conversations among consumers (such as a debate on the merits of toilet seat covers). 
• Various contests: The recent Games for Thrones contest—a play on the HBO series “Game of Thrones”—gave one winner a $10,000 makeover, while another visitor to the site won $10,000 for her “toilet confession.” 
• Forum discussions: Robust discussion boards cover very useful topics such as cleaning tips and tricks, and other very scary ones like bathroom disasters. 
• Blog: A recent caption contest on The Clorox Lounge blog inspired 47 comments.

To promote the site offline, the PR team at Clorox tapped Shepherd for TV interviews with a variety of networks nationwide as well as interviews with print magazines such as People and OK! Weekly. 

The Clorox Lounge launched on Jan. 26, 2012, and within three months it spurred a 60 percent increase in the number of likes on the Ode to the Commode Facebook page, and nearly 10,000 registered users at TheCloroxLounge.com; the campaign led to nearly 750 million impressions on traditional and social media. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

When planning an event that draws 30,000 people annually, how do you make sure you get the information to the people who need it, in a way they can use it, so that the schedule is easily accessible, the venue easy to navigate, and the experience worth the time?

The University of California at Berkeley has the answer—you build a better website. While you’re at it, so that guests can access it throughout the day, make the website mobile-friendly and add an iPhone app. Add social media and location-based services, and you’ve got a winner.

UC Berkeley’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs hosts its “Cal Day” open house annually for a day of discovery and serious fun, but the event’s old website needed a makeover.

Think not just “makeover” here, but imagine a website accessorized to the max.

Here is what helped the Cal Day website garner top honors for UC Berkeley in the Best Relaunch or Redesign of a Site category of PR Daily’s Digital PR and Social Media Awards.

The new snappy, more visual and interactive website includes:

• Site navigation that makes it easy for prospective students and families with kids to find information tailored for them
• Tips about transportation, parking, food, visitor services, and first aid
• Updated branding
• A Twitter feed for #sharecalday
• Live crowdsourced photo-sharing
• A revolving events slide show

The mobile website uses a geolocation-based, dynamic event search, which includes walking directions and useful tips.

The attendance numbers aren’t the only statistics indicating the website’s success. Visitors to the site browsed twice as many pages in 2012 as the last three years, mobile traffic doubled on Cal Day, and for the first time since the University has had a Web presence about the day, the site received more visits on Cal Day than any previous day.

A look at screen captures of the Web pages gathered during the April 2012 event had our judges convinced the engaging new website should be among top contenders for this category. Seeing how it lives on and creates anticipation for the next Cal Day sealed the deal.

Take a look for yourself. Visit the UC Berkeley Cal Day website here, and see if it doesn’t make you wish you could attend the event in 2013.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Almost weekly these days, some organization or another goes into crisis communication mode. 

Social media—with its breadth and immediacy—is as great a threat to branding as it is a marvel of modern-day convenience. A company’s reputation can be lost in an online wildfire—if wildfires could spread as far and as fast as damaging words do.

A crisis is no time for panic, though. It’s a time for savvy stewardship. But whose?

In combing the Internet for a strong, reliable voice, officers of a company will come upon myriad crisis PR presences. They will find one that’s striking yet smart at Levick.com, the winner for Best New Website in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

Right up front, visitors to the site will see a black-and-white photo of a Levick executive; immediately the company has a face—and not a dry, corporate mug shot, but an engaging portrait.

There’s an arrow to activate a short (less than a minute) video that includes images of recent disasters and subsequent crises of confidence (think BP and AIG). Its slogan, “Communicating trust,” prevails as a theme throughout.  

Within the site, more portraits show the faces of the company, consistently reinforcing a motif of putting potential customers in touch with real people. As one clicks through the superbly organized site, one finds available categories covering case studies, experience, and insights, as well as fields such as public affairs, financial communication, and litigation.

At almost every turn is a button to click to access the specialist in that area of crisis comms. All contact information is available immediately; you can learn who’s who within minutes. 

All the tabs and pull-down menus are clear and comprehensive. They’re also quick. When you haven’t a nanosecond to lose, such speed is crucial. If you’re scouting for the sake of preparedness, the attention to detail offers assurance.

The website was overhauled as part of Levick’s larger branding. It certainly has put its best faces forward. Our congratulations for offering a how-to in website design.

To peruse the site, visit www.Levick.com. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

As the 2012 Southwest By Southwest Interactive festival approached, PR firm Waggener Edstrom faced a challenge. It wanted to highlight its digital creativity, but the annual festival is awash with shiny new apps, gadgets, and Web platforms. 

Standing out among this crowd is no easy task for even the savviest tech minds. 

Waggener Edstrom answered this problem with beer. Just six weeks prior to the 2012 SXSWi festival, the Portland-based firm partnered with local creative agency tenfour to create the Tweet-a-Beer app, which enables users to buy someone a beer via Twitter. It was such a hit that some bloggers called it the breakout app of the festival—and now it’s an award winner. 

PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Award for Best Mobile App goes to Tweet-a-Beer for its highly creative concept and ability to spark significant buzz for the agencies behind it, Waggener Edstrom and tenfour. 

“We wanted to make it so that the southern hospitality that flows between two people in a Texas pub could happen anywhere,” says Kate Keefe, marketing director at Waggener Edstrom. “Tweet-a-Beer is simply about sharing admiration and appreciation with a click when you can’t clink.” 

As you probably guessed, there’s no actual beer moving from tweet to tweet. Instead, the app uses technology by Chirpify (a service that moves money safely via social media) to sync Twitter and PayPal accounts. Once a user signs in to the app, he or she can transfer $5 from one PayPal account to another—earmarked for a beer—as well as send the recipient a message via Twitter. 

“We took a tool built on tenfour’s clever concept and Chirpify’s elegant technology, and handed it to an audience that was eager to start paying it forward, one frosty mug at a time,” says Keefe. 

The app is free, so neither Waggener Edstrom nor tenfour profits from it directly; however, Tweet-a-Beer highlighted both agencies’ digital creativity. Various media outlets covered the app, resulting in more than 100 unique stories, including pieces by CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, Mashable, PCMag, and L.A. Weekly. 

Better yet, Tweet-a-Beer was more than just a cool widget of the moment. It appealed to people outside of SXSWi and continues to attract users. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Facts and numbers are useful for conveying information, but to move people’s emotions, nothing beats the power of a well-told story. 

That’s the idea behind Colorado KaleidosCOpe: Stories of a State’s Health. It’s a microsite from the Colorado Health Foundation, and it’s also the first-place winner in the Best Microsite or Custom Website category in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

The Colorado Health Foundation is a nonprofit grantmaking organization that invests nearly $100 million annually to improve health and health care throughout the state. 

To help grantees get the word out about its programs, it launched a site in 2011 packed with video and narrative storytelling. It received more than 5,000 visits and approximately 1,900 video views as of June 2012.

The premise is simple: real people telling their true-life tales of medical issues and challenges. 

Visitors to the site meet Maryann, an MBA graduate without a job whose young daughter struggled to gain weight after birth. It’s a two-and-a-half-minute video that serves as an introductory example of what the site is all about: stories of how ordinary Coloradans have benefited from the programs the Foundation helps to fund. A gallery of 20 more video submissions offers more evidence of the Foundation’s good work.

But the site is about helping grantees tell their own stories, not just presenting feel-good videos. 

Interested visitors can view a 57-minute how-to webinar, look through a list of FAQs on the process, download a “Storytelling 101 Toolkit,” and run through a checklist for submissions. 

There’s also a link to contact a team of professional videographers for a 15-minute phone consultation on technical issues and questions. And at the end, of course, viewers can access a page where they’re able to submit videos and narratives for consideration. 

Colorado KaleidosCOpe met its 2011 production goal of 10 projects, publishing 11 grantee videos and two narratives, and at the time of its entry was on track for meeting its 2012 goals. It adds up to 27 total submissions (23 videos, four narratives) as of June 2012.

Drumming up awareness

To build excitement and awareness about the initiative while the site was in development, the Foundation issued a challenge to its grantee organizations, asking them to submit suggestions for the site’s name, with the winning idea receiving a $5,000 grant. 

Once the official name Colorado KaleidosCOpe was chosen, the campaign was promoted through the organizational blog, and the site was launched on June 1, 2011.

Grantees are invited to contribute raw video and written narrative submissions, and are eligible to receive general operating funding ($5,000 for videos and $1,000 for narratives) for published submissions. Stories chosen for publication are professionally edited and featured on the microsite.

Participants of Colorado KaleidosCOpe tout its impact. 

“Colorado KaleidosCOpe has given us public relations resources that a small nonprofit like ours couldn’t otherwise afford,” says Mara Rose, executive director of the Wellness Initiative. 

“By working with the Foundation on the [Colorado] KaleidosCOpe project, we’ve gotten publicity on TV and in newspapers, which has helped us spread our message and get more elementary schools interested in our services.”

Everyone loves a good story. Colorado KaleidosCOpe’s success demonstrates the power that a structured approach to storytelling can have.

To visit the site: http://www.coloradokaleidoscope.org/

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

The money wasted on unnecessary tests, examinations, X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and lab procedures in the U.S. each year amounts to $700 billion, or as much as 30 percent of the $2.3 trillion we spend on health care, experts say.

The main culprit is the patient, primed by fear and armed with a superficial knowledge of diseases he or she may have read about in a transit ad. The patient, imagining the worst, demands expensive tests and screenings. But physicians share the blame, too.
 
In early 2011, the American College of Physicians (ACP) began its assault on runaway medical costs with its “High Value, Cost-Conscious Care” initiative. And the ACP’s public relations department provided the publicity firepower for this much-imitated campaign.

For recognizing the vital stakes in this fight, for bringing the nation the message that we cannot continue to spend recklessly for medical care of little or no value, and for identifying the ways this recklessness threatens the practice of medicine itself, the American College of Physicians public relations department is the winner of the Best Media Relations Campaign category in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

Here is what ACP PR department team members accomplished in 2011 and 2012:

• From Jan. 1, 2011, to June 14, 2012, they exposed more than 236 million readers and viewers to the ideas and arguments in the ACP’s “High Value, Cost-Conscious Care” case.
• They held two press conferences in 2012 about the “High Value, Cost-Conscious Care” and “Choosing Wisely” initiatives with Consumer Reports and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation.
• They submitted op-eds and letters to the editor, produced audio and matte news releases, and engaged on social media to promote awareness of high-cost, valueless testing.
• They appealed to readers of the most influential publications: The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, AARP Bulletin, and NPR, among others.
• In the aftermath of the campaign’s success, they fielded requests for collaboration from the American Board of Internal Medicine and Consumer Reports, revving up the media blitz significantly.
• They established the ACP as a national thought leader on the vitally important subject of out-of-control health care costs.
• Eight other big national medical specialty groups followed the ACP’s decision to publicize wasteful spending for five commonly prescribed tests and procedures, resulting in a list of 45 procedures marked for drastic reductions in orders for tests written by MDs.
• Most important, the ACP campaign collated, for perhaps the first time, the little-known causes of the explosive growth of high-cost, valueless tests: 

1. Demands by uninformed patients for exhaustive testing.
2. Physicians’ fear of legal vulnerability if they don’t test, even for good reasons.
3. Medical school faculties grading aspiring doctors down for not ordering tests.
4. Physicians’ professional ethics: Leave no stone unturned.
5. Doctors not knowing or caring how much expensive procedures cost.
6. The likely resistance of patient advocacy groups to clinical recommendations that could be seen as limiting or denying standard care.
7. The fact that excessive tests often reveal other seeming abnormalities that require yet more testing.
8. Proliferating tests doing real damage to the health of patients, thus adding untold costs to the national health care burden.
9. The ambiguity of “evidence” on X-ray film, for instance: Tests sometimes aren’t very good at explaining the reason for illness and pain, and this means retesting, or trying an alternative—and more expense.

Congratulations to the team members of the American College of Physicians public relations department who collaborated on the winning work: Allison Ewing, Steve Majewski, and Laura Baldwing.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

What grabbed our attention about this entry was powerful storytelling—both from the communicator herself and the people she reported about. 

Mindy Mizell, World Vision media relations director, was sent to the Horn of Africa as a communicator representing World Vision’s emergency response team to the drought and famine crisis. She traveled throughout the region from July to September, only carrying a laptop, a lavaliere microphone, and a hand-held Flip camera. For this intrepid communications idea, we award World Vision with top honors in the Best Location-Based Campaign category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards. 

Even though her communications equipment was limited, Mizell was able to launch new and innovative social media sites for World Vision’s response team to tell untold stories about Somali refugees. 

“What I didn’t expect to learn was that social media sites let me tell the ‘raw’ stories in nearly real time straight from the front lines of the crisis in a way that our staff learned what Somali children really had to say about the harsh realities of the crisis, without the spin or bias of marketing,” Mizell says. 

She produced more than 40 Flip cam videos that were uploaded within hours. Many of the videos were targeted to donors or potential donors around the world, including churches that eventually provided more than $1 million in funding due to the social media content that was exposing the crisis, Mizell says. 

Here’s a look at what Mizell was able to accomplish during her time: 

• World Vision’s Facebook page was for its aid workers deployed to the Horn of Africa, to upload social media content directly from the front lines. 
• The blog served as a one-stop shop for accessing many other blogs, vlogs, and videos that were provided.
• This real-time interview with a Somali child in a refugee camp was shared on Facebook and Twitter. 
• These videos were sent directly to churches, urging donors to contribute to the response effort. Take a look here to see all 40 unedited videos. 

Congratulations on your award and your ability to share such powerful stories, World Vision. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Imagine you’re at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) looking to tell the story of affordable, clean energy living, and helping to build America’s clean energy workforce of the future.  How would you bring that vision to life?

Enter Solar Decathlon, a biennial competition of college students from 20 teams of U.S. and foreign institutions of higher learning who strive to build the best-looking, most energy-efficient, most affordable house.

Twenty real houses. Houses people could live in, cook in, sleep in, get warm in, for the 10 days the judging goes on.

As the nation searched for cost-saving options, job opportunities and energy security solutions, DOE partnered with Stratacomm, LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Washington, D.C., to emphasize the affordability, accessibility and impact of clean energy products and tell the story of the collegiate teams to the world.

Stratacomm and DOE’s inventive, versatile social media strategy wins top honors in the Best Government Social Media Communications category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

The team brought the Solar Decathlon to life online, including the following achievements:

• Facebook fans of Solar Decathlon grew by 289 percent to 7,700. Facebook referred 25,940 visits to SolarDecathlon.gov.
• Twitter followers rose by 588 percent to 5,300; 3,325 people linked to @Solar_Decathlon; more than 3,500 people used the #SC2011 hashtag.
• There were more than 490,000 views of Solar Decathlon’s YouTube channel in 2011. Total YouTube views since 2009: more than 600,000.
• Views of photos on Flickr nearly tripled to more than 500,000 in 2011.
• The 20 Solar Decathlon properties on Foursquare drew approx. 900 check-ins.
• All 20 student teams established Facebook and Twitter profiles.
• Many student teams were inspired to build YouTube, Flickr, and blog sites.
• Website traffic grew by 20 percent compared to 2009, with 1,186,000 page views during the two-week event.
• The Team Blog on SolarDecathlon.gov attracted more than 5,000 readers; the blog featured up to 10 entries from student teams every day.
• QR codes drew more than 8,500 scans and accounted for 23 percent of visits to the mobile website.

With teams coming from four continents and five countries, all Solar Decathlon fans weren’t able to make it onsite to tour the houses. Here’s how Stratacomm and DOE helped fans across the country and around the world experience the competition online:

• They encouraged the student contestants to serve as spokespeople, telling their own unique stories through media and social media.
• They prewrote 1,000+ posts to appear on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr in the eight months before the live house display.
• They then used these 1,000+ posts to double as an editorial calendar and ensured a steady flow of interactive content.
• They introduced QR codes and Foursquare check-ins throughout the Solar Village.
• They set up two TweetChats and a live blogger and media webcast to let online audiences see and talk to student contestants and DOE reps.
• They posted daily captioned photos on Facebook, Flickr, newswires, and SolarDecathlon.gov.
• They encouraged student teams to shoot video and computer-animated walkthroughs of their houses.
• They created an overview video and online virtual tours of each house for the DOE’s YouTube channel and SolarDecathlon.gov.
• They built a content-rich online press room and a media guide featuring tips for reporters on what to cover.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Reporters do a lot of different things: write, edit, ask questions, churn out copy, and ask more questions. 

But can they spin music? 

That’s the question digital communications agency HORN wanted to find out. For its month-long campaign, it turned 14 top reporters into disc jockeys and helped raise $10,000 for the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child. HORN wins the award for Best Event or Stunt in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards because the agency brought together several different industries, all in the spirit of helping one charity. 

This event was part of HORN’s holiday campaign, Tech the Halls, a national fundraiser for One Laptop Per Child. HORN teamed up with the nonprofit and a music startup, Turntable.fm, a social listening platform that lets users DJ online together.

HORN brought together the reporters for a nationwide music competition for one day, with reporters competing head-to-head for the charity. The event raised $10,000, which is enough money to provide 50 laptops for students with disabilities. 

Developing a sound strategy

HORN faced two big challenges, says John Lee, who submitted the winning entry: 

1.No reporter likes to be “pitched” over the holidays.
2.HORN is an agency—and why would anyone, especially the media, want to go to an agency event? 

The agency recruited reporters from top publications such as Advertising Age, Adweek, and Fast Company. These journalists would compete for a one-day industry “battle royale,” with the journalists squared against each other. Audience members would vote on the best DJ. 

Before the competition, HORN conducted a month-long fundraiser for One Laptop Per Child. To highlight the event, the agency started with Twitter and created a calendar of tweets, showcasing matchups, fundraising updates, and information, under the #techthehalls hashtag. Also, on Twitter, users could see two custom landing pages—one for DJ battles and another for people to donate. 

Then, after a month of fundraising, it was time for the DJs to go head-to-head. People were able to vote for their favorite DJs (and they could also vote from a live chat function). All DJ battles were held in specially designed DJ rooms, which was a bonus for HORN because the agency’s branding was quite visible. 

Was it a success? 

The event exceeded HORN’s expectations. Here are just a few things the event achieved, says Lee:

• HORN enjoyed increased visibility, including editorial coverage in Advertising Age, Billboard, Newsweek, The Next Web, PRNewser, TechCrunch, and Wired.
• Tech the Halls tweets reached a network of nearly 5 million users, thanks to coverage from TechCrunch, AdFreak, Advertising Age, Fast Company, Gizmodo, Men’s Fitness, MediaPost, The Next Web, and Wired. 
• More than 2,500 listeners tuned in (significant, as each DJ room can only hold 200 users at a time). 
• The nonprofit raised $10,000, all through crowdsourcing. 

Perhaps the most significant result was the demonstration of what the PR industry can accomplish when it works together with other agencies.

“By partnering with non-clients, crowdsourcing fundraising, turning reporters into DJs, HORN successfully created a never-before-done event, uniting peers and competitors alike for a tremendous cause, and exemplifying the creativity, execution, and impact that define an award-winning campaign,” Lee says. 

We agree. Congratulations on your award. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

The best newsletters, email or print, tend to focus on doing a few essential things very, very well. The 511, a monthly e-newsletter from Hunter Public Relations, does exactly five things well.

This one-page publication from the New York-based public relations agency offers a list of five bullet points on a single topic, from Pinterest to geosocial networking. The format is simple: “Five Things You Need to Know About …” 

What, for example, do you need to know about … Pinterest? “Visual content drives engagement” is point No. 1: “On Facebook, which is still the social network by which all others are measured, photos receive higher engagement rates than link, text, and video posts (eMarketer). On Pinterest, text-only posts are not an option, which is one of the reasons initial engagement on the site is so high.” 

Other entries include stats on Pinterest’s growing audience, and information about how brands like Whole Foods, Pillsbury, and Blockbuster are using Pinterest to connect with consumers.

In case you were wondering about Google+, another issue of The 511 tells readers about the social networking site’s Brand Pages (currently in beta); Circles, which enable marketers to categorize consumers based on age, location, or product interest; and Hangouts, which allow live video chat. These represent an opportunity for marketers to hold live Q&A discussions between consumers and spokespeople.

Each issue features prominent sharing buttons for email, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as links to newsletter archives and links to each of Hunter’s social assets (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, blog).

Issues of The 511 have included poll questions, YouTube videos, infographics, and PowerPoint presentations. A regular sidebar offers information on Hunter’s core agency competencies relating to social and digital media. 

And, of course, there’s a “subscribe” button. 

The open rate for The 511 is 29 percent, more than three times the 9.4 percent average for marketing newsletters in 2011.  Since its March 2011 launch, The 511 has gone from bi-monthly to monthly distribution. The total number of new subscribers has risen by 80 percent, increasing at a rate of 10 percent after each new issue. 

It’s short, simple, and to the point, and it’s the winner in the Best Email Newsletter category in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

With a simple, easy-to-peruse design that delivers compelling content for marketers, The 511 stands out as an award winner as well as an e-newsletter to watch. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Eight national nonprofit organizations banded together in 2005 to form the Smoke-Free Texas (SFT) coalition. 

The fact that these were national, not state organizations gives an idea of the depth and fervor of ordinary citizen sentiment behind Texas’ entrenched local opposition to nonsmoking laws. 

The SFT coalition, after five years of the good fight, decided to change tactics in 2010. Still determined to turn Texas into a state where workers’ health would not be compromised by second-hand smoke, SFT hired Noble Strategic Partners Inc., an Austin public affairs firm. 

Noble’s mission: Plan an “email advocacy campaign to recruit, educate, and engage an army of grassroots supporters” to change the minds of legislators notoriously suspicious of either state or federal government intrusion into the affairs of private citizens. 

The goal: Persuade the 82nd Texas Legislature to pass a law in 2011 forbidding smokers to light up in the workplace. 

Noble planned an email campaign so imaginative, so ingenious that it is the winner in the Best Email Marketing Campaign category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards. The results Noble achieved:

• In months, Noble built one of the largest, broadest grassroots movements ever in Texas.
• Its 100+ email alerts had an open rate of 31.8 percent, 35 percent higher than the national average.
• Email alerts earned a 3–4 percent click-through rate, and 1.5–2 percent action rates (some emails got a 4.55 percent click-through rate and 3.35 percent action rates). All of these rates are unusually high.
• Email calls to action spurred more than 8,000 contacts with lawmakers by Texans.
• Noble’s emails doubled SFT’s supporters, from less than 14,000 to more than 27,000.
• A smoke-free bill was passed by the Texas House, but failed in the Senate in 2011.
• The anti-smoking bill made it further than ever and gained more support than in any previous effort.
• The 2013 Smoke-Free Texas campaign is underway for the 83rd Legislative Session. 

Noble went grassroots because the opposition boasted more than just a minority of moneyed, influential stick-in-the-muds: Workplace smoking had millions of supporters in a state where the freedom to do as one pleases is perhaps more highly prized than in any other state.

Noble knew it had to change minds on a massive scale in a state of almost 26 million citizens living in an area larger than France, Belgium, and Denmark combined. Here’s what the team did:

• Sent 100+ email calls to action to SFT supporters, which were then echoed in social media, online advertising, the SFT website, earned media, phone banking, and direct mail.
• Engaged supporters by encouraging them to contact their lawmakers, write letters to the editor and op-eds, and tell their personal stories on SFT’s site.
• Enabled supporters to write emails to their legislators by clicking on a link taking them to a template letter they could edit and send directly to their lawmakers.
• Incorporated video and other enticing content within email alerts to keep supporters informed and educated throughout the campaign.
• Encouraged visitors to the SFT website to join the coalition to get updates on smoke-free legislation. An SFT Facebook page also had a tab to sign up for email alerts.
• Linked SFT’s Twitter account to the email alerts sign-up page on SFT’s website.
• Conducted direct mail campaigns inviting people to sign up for SFT email alerts.
• Used online software to profile supporters by analyzing their online habits in order to identify the most influential SFT fans, then called on these influencers at critical times.
• Exploited the website Change.org by sending nine emails to individuals who had signed up for email alerts on Change.org, and recruited 8,590 new SFT supporters this way.
• Sent email messages to audiences and local SFT leaders tailored by geographic location, political views, the anti-smoking political situation at the moment, and other relevant factors.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Clorox Bleach has been on the shelves for 100 years. The problem: It was collecting dust. 

Those in charge of buying bleach were aging, and the company had to find a way to reach a younger generation of buyers who didn’t see how bleach was relevant to their lives.

Clorox teamed with PR firm Ketchum to go after its target audience of young parents who are active online. 

The resulting “Bleach it Away” campaign infused Clorox Bleach into existing conversations on Twitter, online forums, Facebook, blogs, and newsletters. The campaign also enlisted 11 digital influencers who shared their bleachable moments with its audience, and encouraged readers to do the same.

The campaign definitely deserves top honors in the Best Digital PR Campaign category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

What are your ‘bleachable moments’? 

Fortunately for Clorox, young parents are active online, talking about everyday extreme moments—poopy diapers, anyone? The PR team coined those situations “bleachable moments.” 

They discovered that poop, pee, and puke—stains that Clorox Bleach can remove—were prevalent topics of conversation among young parents. However, cleanup solutions were rarely discussed. 

The PR team seized that opportunity and jumped into discussions that were happening on social media, encouraging parents to share stories and cleaning solutions on BleachItAway.com. 

There were games and contests (with rewards) to incentivize moms and dads to engage with Clorox online, including a contest in which Clorox’s Facebook fans voted for the most “bleachable moment.” 
Ketchum also reached out to 11 digital influencers whom its audience trusts to spread messages about Clorox to their online fans through blog posts, Twitter/Facebook contests, viral videos, and more. 
For instance, Bethenny Frankel was paired with high-profile mom bloggers (including Alice Bradley, one of Babble’s Top 50 Mom Blogs) to create a series of online videos highlighting personal messy moment experiences.

Influencers shared their stories with Clorox and encouraged their fans to do the same in return for prizes and tips on how to clean up stains. Influencer categories included beauty/fashion, home improvement, pets, newly responsible, food/nutrition, DIY, and mom bloggers.

It’s all in the numbers

The “Bleach it Away” campaign surpassed its traditional and social media goals. It secured program coverage through print, broadcast, radio, and online placements, including The New York Times Media Decoder blog, SiriusXM, Woman’s World, and MommyCast.

Through more than 83 million media impressions—including nearly 13 million social media impressions, 2,500 #BleachItAway hashtag mentions, 35 influencer blog posts, and 21,670 stories shared—“Bleach it Away” shifted the household mess online conversation and increased Clorox Bleach’s digital engagement. 

Other numbers:

• A 38 percent increase in Clorox Bleach online conversation
• A 131 percent increase in Clorox Bleach and mess correlations online; Clorox now owns more than 70 percent of mess-related conversation online
• A 72 percent click-through rate on Twitter that led to the “Bleach it Away” hub
• More than 21,670 “Bleach it Away” story submissions
• More than 25,000 tweets using the program hashtag #BleachItAway

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Digital newsrooms often are repositories of meaningless press releases trumpeting nothing news.

But Just A Pinch Recipe Club offers a different approach. It creates content—and gets it in local media. Its unique approach wins top honors in the Best Digital Newsroom category of PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

The food-focused social network allows users to find and share recipes, win blue ribbons, and connect with like-minded cooks. And while they’re at it, they can get ink in local papers hungry for food-page content.

Through a proprietary press release publishing tool and syndicated pipeline of recipe content, Just A Pinch created a nationwide newsfeed to deliver blue ribbon recipe award news directly to local media, including the hometown papers of its award-winning cooks.

While it’s an online community, Just A Pinch connects people with tangible prizes. Just A Pinch awards and mails blue ribbons (real, not virtual) to its top cooks. 

The site leverages these into media coverage in local markets, using automated press releases to generate buzz and relevant awareness about the site, creating news media outlets around the country.

It also creates content: Prepackaged food columns about the blue ribbon-winning recipes offer seamless integration into food or lifestyle pages. Two columns are emailed to editors weekly in a variety of size options for download from the media site. 

The press releases are emailed by a PR team so that the information comes from a real person who can answer questions and arrange interviews. A newspaper relations team manages the syndicated media site content, which is offered in multiple column sizes and as text with images for editors to build their own columns.

Fourteen percent of the more than 1,000 press releases sent about blue ribbon winners have resulted in stories that were shared with the PR team by the home cook or were spotted via a Google alert, Just A Pinch reports.

Just A Pinch promotes the blue ribbon content in a daily e-newsletter (400,000 subscribers) and blog (50,000 page views monthly), and it features the recipes weekly on the home page (1.4 million monthly visitors to date).

It took more than a pinch of savvy to pull all that off.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx

Claire Bean, Heather Campion, and Richard Wayne planned to retire from banking and spend subsequent years helping nonprofits. Instead, they invented a scheme that allowed an online savings bank to benefit good causes while it reinvigorated the venerable savings bank idea. They named their online-only savings institution “ableBanking.” 

They hired Cramer, a Boston PR and advertising agency, to draw up a campaign that appealed to women. Cramer’s digital marketing plan was the decisive winner in the Best Digital Marketing Campaign category in PR Daily’s Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

The Cramer media plan won, first of all, because it met a solid business need. Cramer combined an irresistible appeal to the self-interest of customers—“You’ll earn more interest on your savings at ableBanking than at your present bank”—with an imaginative appeal to the philanthropic passions of professional women. 

AbleBanking wooed an intelligent, educated, upscale audience of civic-minded women with these potent lures in its teaser website: 

• It promised to give away $25 of the bank’s money to each new member’s favorite charity simply for signing up as an ableBanking customer. 
• It promised to donate $25 more to a customer’s favorite charity if the customer referred a friend to ableBanking. 
• It guaranteed to pay out of the bank’s pocket 0.25 percent of a member’s total average annual savings balance to any charity she chose. Savers were pleased to see favorite charities benefit simply from the way they banked.
• It made short videos about the work of six worthy local causes to help customers decide how to give away the bank’s money, and showed what these charities could do with $25.
• It showed that the annual returns on its money market accounts and its CDs were substantially greater than the returns promised by the physical, all-service banks. How was this possible? AbleBanking was online only; it had no branches, and no traditional advertising. Therefore, it had very little overhead, and no banking fees. It said up front, “We’re NOT a full-service bank. We can’t replace your everyday bank. We’re an online savings bank. And because we don’t have branches or multiple services, we pay you higher interest.”
• The teaser site combined a persuasive “hero video” (“I am able”) with a call to action (sign up for launch alerts) and a memorable offer (get an exclusive invitation to join).
• Cramer’s marketing deftly made new sign-ups feel not just like customers, but like privileged members of a benevolent club or association, as indeed they were. 

The results were, predictably, remarkable:

• 8,000 leads (persons who completed registration pages in order to be notified when ableBanking officially launched)
• More than 7,000 Facebook likes
• 900 leads captured at the Massachusetts Conference for Women (13 percent of the 7,000 attendees)
• 5,000 blog visits
• 20,000 visits to the website
• 40 percent of emails opened, and a 15 percent click-through rate (both well above national averages)

Cramer team members wrote and designed a beautifully simple website outlining these unusual incentives. They had the good sense to recognize that the scheme would sell itself. And their transparent, sober, plain English for ableBanking’s website is a pleasure to read.

It is possible to read the website to get the whole picture of ableBanking’s ingenious offer in about 90 seconds. The website is online minimalism at its very best.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx