Thirty-five days.

Over 90,000 images.

One video.

One PR Daily Awards winner.

When wholesale power generation company NRG Energy (NRG) signed on Burson-Marsteller (B-M) to showcase its work for a solar installation on the Washington Redskins’ FedExField, the firm’s roster of impressive clients could only have been a good sign of the end product that was still to come.

And come, it did.

As a company used to serving more than 1.8 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers, failure was not an option for NRG in the community. It needed to establish itself as a pioneering, consumer and B2B focused leader of alternative energy solutions.

Knowing this, B-M and project lead Mark Devito brought Proof Integrated Communications into play to help work on the Solar Bowl, a campaign that would not only announce NRG’s partnership with the Redskins organization, but do so in a creative, captivating way.

The concept: Create a video that embodies NRG’s innovative approach, showcasing the installation process in a unique and visual experience.

Beginning in August 2011 and utilizing four strategically placed cameras around the edge of the football arena—all primarily powered by solar panels themselves—the team snapped 90,000 photos over the 35-day course of NRG’s installation process.

After the project wrapped, a press conference was held on Sept. 15, 2011, to unveil the work, where more than 25 reporters from national networks and local affiliates gathered, helping secure coverage in print and online from USA Today, NPR radio and National Geographic.

Aside from its impressive media placement, the work also resulted in Proof Integrated Communications’ triumph on behalf of NRG as winner of the Best PR Video in this year’s PR Daily Awards.

You’ll have to pardon the folks at Weber Shandwick: They’re perhaps a little less interested in advising on old-style corporate-giving campaigns for their clients than they once were. You know, the kind of giving that splits its largesse more or less evenly among 10 to 100 beneficiaries, each receiving from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars every year. 

There! Our civic duty’s done for the year. Come back during next year’s giving period, please. 

Just as Bill and Melinda sidestepped traditional scientific and epidemiological thinking about how to eliminate malaria, so has the Weber Shandwick team decided that, while the United Way is fine, excellent, there’s also room for revolutionary, holistic new thinking about vast social problems. And the agency is determined to be a player in this new CSR game.

For its path-breaking work in 2014 to bring powerful new forces and apple-cart-upsetting new ideas to global CSR, Weber Shandwick is the clear winner of the Grand Prize: CSR Agency of the Year in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

What did the Weber Shandwick team do in 2014 to carry off our big prize? This:
• Big corporations search for causes that are a good fit for their businesses. Weber Shandwick devoted itself to finding these perfect matches for its clients.
• The agency’s Social Impact Team zeroed in on how its clients Nike, Unilever, and Nestlé each built shared value, equity, and sustainability—and Weber Shandwick created employee, consumer, and public engagement with these values and goals for each of the three companies.
• Weber Shandwick’s Project Sunlight for Unilever publicized the deeds of remarkable young people and boosted causes to improve the health, well-being, and future of all children.
• The agency assisted Bank of America in launching the bank’s “Elizabeth Street Capital” venture, which gives women entrepreneurs mentoring and access to capital.
• In partnership with KRC Research, Weber Shandwick produced the report “Employees Rising: Seizing the Opportunity in Employee Activism,” finding a new social cause sparked by social media. The report shows organizations how to ignite activism in employees and employee groups.
• Weber Shandwick practices what it preaches; its Impact Project, started in 2013, urges its offices around the globe to do pro bono work in three areas: the environment and sustainability, education, and technology.

That’s the short list of Weber Shandwick’s 2014 CSR achievements. Congratulations to the idealists in 126 Weber Shandwick offices in 81 countries who made possible this transformation in the agency’s thinking about an important slice of its business.

Since 2008, Pedigree has donated more than 20 million pounds of food to shelter dogs, demonstrating the impact nutritious food can have on these animals. The company challenged its agencies to bring the stories of these dogs to life, ensuring the message spread to and engaged customers. 

The PR effort to raise awareness of Pedigree’s endeavors—and the importance of good food for the health of dogs—started with outreach to customers, asking them to share their stories in order to both raise awareness of the need to help shelter dogs and increase donations to the cause. 

Supporting the effort was syndicated content featuring celebrity partners—MLB player David Ortiz, actor Josh Duhamel, and country music star Miranda Lambert, dog lovers all—appearing in videos and live appearances. In particular, Lambert donated time and influence to the effort to renovate a local shelter. Social media was employed, adopting the #DogTales hashtag, with Pedigree donating a bowl of food to a shelter every time the hashtag was used by a consumer to articulate what their dog meant to them. 

The campaign paid off as a top-3 driver of Pedigree sales in 2014, earning 516 million impressions, surpassing by more than 100 percent the goal set for the campaign. Videos shared on Facebook earned 20 million impressions, and the #DogTales hashtag was the most widely used in brand history, generating some 430,000 interactions. 

Pedigree and its PR partner, Weber Shandwick, offer a lesson in generating support for a charitable cause and are worthy recipients of the Grand Prize: CSR Campaign of the Year in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Teens are at tremendous risk when they obtain their driver’s licenses. According to the National Safety Council, it’s the most dangerous period of a person’s entire lifetime. And as distractions increase—notably smartphones and the temptation to text while driving—the risk has grown exponentially greater. 

In response to these dangers, Toyota’s TeenDrive365 program offered online tools, expert advice, local events and social media elements to inspire parents and teens to be safe drivers together. It’s the winner in the “Public Health/Safety Initiative” category of PR Daily’s 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

A key component of TeenDrive365 was its Video Challenge, designed to inspire teens to create videos that raise awareness among their peers of the dangers of distracted driving. Aimed at students in grades 9-12, the program drew more than 1,500 entries in 2016. They were viewed and voted on by tens of thousands of people, the result of a grassroots social media and marketing campaign carried out by participants, their families, friends and schools. 

Coverage of the challenge resulted in 16 million impressions. The students behind the 10 best public service announcements were encouraged to mount their own PR campaigns to build support, and press releases were distributed to finalists’ local media outlets. 

The finalists’ stories were covered in a number of local newspapers, online news sites and radio and TV stations. The winners were given even more publicity, leading to more views of their outstanding work. 

For a well-planned and effective campaign and results, congratulations to the team of Elizabeth Hillman, Shawnee Cohn, Helena Poda, Lauren DeNu and Karen Polan.

Existing charitable giving and volunteer activities were already noteworthy at RSA Insurance, which builds community into its tagline, “Making Things Better, Together.” Employees in the company’s regions are encouraged to donate time to local organizations, and a matching-funds program ensures both staff and the organization are contributing hard dollars to a number of nonprofits. The company even acknowledges that its employees are committed to their communities with the label “Big Hearted.” 

For 2014, though, the company took the local concept a step further, introducing a process that led to identifying employees’ top three charities or causes in each region. Volunteer committees in each region drove awareness of the campaign with a modest budget provided by the company. 

The strategy paid off with accelerated volunteerism and donations. For example, the Ontario regional office organized a Thanksgiving food drive that produced 3,750 food items for a local food bank, while in Quebec City, 24 participants ran in the Breast Cancer Foundation’s Run for the Cure, raising nearly $6,500. 

For applying grassroots sensibility to a corporate campaign, RSA Insurance is deserving of recognition with our award for Best Stakeholder/Employee Engagement in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Awareness of bullying as a significant problem is growing, as evidenced by the number of entries in this year’s Corporate Social Responsibility Awards that address the issue. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada had launched its National Day to End Bullying in 2013—and was successful enough with the initiative to draw the attention of Canada’s Prime Minister. But the campaign’s identity lacked pizzazz, leading to an effort to revitalize it for 2014. 

The result—a “busy bee” who would generate “buzz” for #Belonging—was designed to propagate across social media. The campaign’s cornerstone was a video distributed across multiple channels, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the Web. With no paid media, the video earned 5,000 views on YouTube and more than 11,000 on Facebook (supporting the idea that Facebook is increasingly an effective venue for video). The campaign also leveraged the #Belonging hashtag, which became a trending topic across Canada on both Facebook and Twitter. 

By partnering with other organizations—both private and public—the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada was able to further spread the message, which was further bolstered by some real-world collateral, including T-shirts paid for by sponsors and distributed to youngsters across the country. Thousands of emails and a weekly e-bulletin also contributed to awareness of the campaign, which not only made a dent in the bullying problem but also let people know that the Boys and Girls Clubs offered a safe haven where kids could, indeed, belong. 

For a multifaceted approach to a complex issue, we award the prize for Best Social Media Campaign in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards to Mathieu Chantelois, Rachel Gouin, Mary O’Connell, Susan Sullivan, and Marshall Taylor.

Mutual fund fee billing, OTC derivatives regulation, transaction banking … sounds like a PR person’s worst nightmare, right?

But for Angela M. Byrne, who joined a communications firm in the financial services sector, these are topics she thrives in—even though she’s only worked at the firm for a little more than a year and had no previous experience in the financial sector or PR.  

“It’s hard for anyone at the firm to remember what life was like before her,” says Oksana Poltavets, who works at Cognito and submitted her application. “Admittedly, she did not have a lot of PR experience, but Angela’s unwavering hunger to learn about the industry and succeed for her clients has catapulted her to the top of the firm.”

We honor Byrne with being named PR Rookie of the Year (Corporate or Agency) in this year’s PR Daily Awards.

During her time at Cognito, she’s managed more than 19 clients and has already been promoted, Poltavets says. When Byrne first joined, Poltavets said she had about “five minutes” to familiarize herself with some of the clients, but the complicated financial and technical nature of the industry didn’t deter her.

“Angela pitched and secured press opportunities for key clients with top-tier publications, such as Bloomberg, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal,” Poltavets says. “She drafts countless thought leadership articles on complex issues such as the Dodd-Frank Act with the eloquence of someone who has been in the market for decades.”

But it’s not just Poltavets who praises Byrne. It’s her clients, too.

“In working with Angela, I found her to exude professionalism and integrity in her role,” a client says. “She has a personable nature and is well-organized and disciplined with getting tasks done. She contributed ideas in meetings and was extremely responsive to anything asked of her.”

Byrne also plays an active role in her community.

“She co-heads the philanthropy project at Cognito, working pro bono for the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) annual financial services gala,” Poltavets says. “Last year, Angela went above and beyond for this client, conducting local publicity and media relations, developing increased donor relations and developing advertisements featured in a national newspaper and positioning statements for the organization. A total of $1.6 million was raised, breaking previous ACS records for this event.”

Poltavets describes Byrne not only as a star employee, but a “perfect co-worker,” who can always spot someone in distress and is willing to offer a sympathetic ear, along with encouraging people to get together after work.

“She has the ability to elevate those around her and to motivate everyone to do their best,” Poltavets says.

Oh, and one more thing: She came up with the idea to have exercise balls in the office replace the chairs. The team took her up on it.

Angela M. Byrne, we believe that receiving this award is just the beginning for you and your PR career. Congratulations!

Sustainability reports as a whole can be difficult to read. They comply with a variety of reporting standards that allow for apples-to-apples comparisons of organizations, but the format in which these facts are presented have generally lacked creativity and fell flat for the average consumer. Producing such a document must have driven communicators crazy at Coca-Cola, known for stellar content delivered through a variety of channels and housed on its award-winning Coca-Cola Journey, the content portal that has taken over the brand’s home page. 

As noted in the company’s entry for this award, Coca-Cola opted to connect “concise human narratives, strategic information architecture, thoughtful context, and accessible formats to engage varied stakeholders—consumers, employees and others who may skim the report and deeper dives for influencers who demand detail.” The decision led to innovative development of the typically one-dimensional PDF, weaving interactive content, breadcrumbs, and hyperlinks into the document. 

The report was also a jumping-off point, a portal to additional materials housed on the Journey. (The report was also easily discovered in a lot of related content published on the Journey, leading consumers who might otherwise never see the sustainability report to open and engage with it.) Focusing on past-year information by eliminating evergreen material from the report enhanced its conciseness, while a deeper dive into policy and historical context was a click away, easily accessible to those with an interest in perusing it. 

The results of Coca-Cola’s rethinking of its report are impressive, with visits to the report increasing more than 70 percent over the prior year’s document and page views rising almost 85 percent. By employing key social media channels, the number of impressions the report garnered is equally remarkable. The online content is not static; there were 75 published updates to the sustainability page on Journey in the first 45 days after it was published, making it a living portal to content about Coca-Cola’s commitment to sustainability. 

For raising the bar on sustainability reporting, we’re delighted to recognize The Coca-Cola Company with the prize for Best Report in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Measurement standards are hard to come by in public relations, but that didn’t stop Determinus from developing a successful measurement system for its client, the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance.

Determinus’ efforts earned it top honors in the Best PR Research category in the 2012 PR Daily Awards. We congratulate GinaMarie Mangiaracina and Stephanie Mui for their work on this project.

The STOP Obesity Alliance wanted to measure how successfully it engaged the organizations that comprise its steering committee and associate members. The steering committee and associate members help the STOP Obesity Alliance further its mission of preventing the spread of obesity-related chronic diseases in America.

Determinus had to create a way to measure engagement that the Alliance could use in the future, as well as provide a basis for future comparisons. The result? Determinus created the METRIC Model (Measuring Engagement and TRacking Influencer Communications).

Determinus based the METRIC Model on a hierarchy of actions the Alliance wanted the organizations in its steering committee to take. These included participating in Alliance meetings and calls, contributing as guest bloggers to the Alliance blog, and participating in speaking events or conferences on behalf of the Alliance.

Determinus then grouped these actions into five categories based on the amount of involvement they required: limited, basic, intermediate, advanced and full engagement. Each category carried a point value between one and five. Accomplishing a task in the limited category earned an organization one point, whereas a task in the full engagement category earned an organization five points.

With the METRIC Model, the Alliance could numerically see how engaged the organizations were with its cause.

The results from the METRIC Model also allowed the Alliance to show sponsors the dedication and passion of each organization involved, as well as help the Alliance create strategic recruitment plans for the future.

For oil refiner CITGO, the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita was personal. “The Gulf Coast is home to more than 3,000 employees, contractors, marketers and retailers, approximately 100 independently owned CITGO retail stations, and two of its three refineries,” the organization writes. Nine years later, the Gulf ecosystems are still suffering in the aftermath of those catastrophic hurricanes. 

To address the lingering effects, CITGO coordinated a series of events with local environmental organizations designed to spur direct action. The success of these events has earned CITGO first place in the “Events” category of PR Daily’s 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Under the banner, “CITGO Caring for Our Coast,” the organization launched volunteer events that brought communities and employees together. The goal: To get people engaged in environmental activities and also heighten awareness of CITGO’s commitment to the communities in which it operates. 

A website was launched to aggregate information about the program and enlist volunteers for the series of events, which culminated in activities centered around the 10-year anniversaries of the hurricanes. 

Among the many activities, volunteers planted 1,000 trees across forested wetland sites in Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area, helping to prevent coastal erosion. In addition, they planted 60,000 dune grass plugs along six miles of beach, and repaired nearly one and a half miles of sand fence to restore protective dunes and boost soil retention along shoreline in Southwest Louisiana. 

More than 2,700 volunteers turned out at the events (including 300 CITGO employees). News coverage expanded awareness of the activities, achieving some 1.25 billion impressions. (That’s billion with a “b.”) 

Congratulations to the team behind the campaign, including (from CITGO) April Altazan, Missy Amidon, Pete Colarelli, Larry Elizondo, Ray Fohr, Fernando Garay, Lisa Hinojosa, Dana Keel, Shannon McNary, Victoria Morales, Brenda Rivera, Jennifer Stocks, James Sullivan and Patrick Valdes; from PR agency Burson-Marsteller, Steve Burns, Robin Levy, Jennifer Marsico, Whitney Williamson, Rachel Milkovich, Caitlin Lupton and Allison Yeaman; and from ad agency BVK Benjamin Gray, Fred Ziegler, Corey Sampson and Cassie Housaman.

Seeking to make the workplace a laboratory for a culture change would improve working conditions and influence behaviors away from the job, if Con Edison’s strategy succeeded. Focused on the issue of bullying, the campaign was designed to raise awareness, educate employees, and lead to an environment in which everybody feels included and respected. 

The company had a rationale for its “Stop. Think.” campaign beyond doing the right thing. Knowing that research found more than a quarter of employees in the U.S. had experienced abusive conduct on the job, Con Edison believed a culture of respect would improve productivity, morale, and reputation while reducing the risk of litigation. 

Among the publications the company produced to drive these messages home were attention-grabbing collateral pieces, such as posters, wall clings, and table tent cards. Managers received a “Talking Points” document (via email) that featured a “You Make the Call” scenario drawn from a real-world workplace incident. These (and other) published materials were coordinated with seminars and other campaign elements to deliver impressive results, not the least of which is evidence that the culture at Con Edison truly is undergoing a transformation to one of respect and acceptance. 

For its work to address an increasingly important issue, we’re pleased to present the prize for Best Publication (Print or Electronic) in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards to the Con Edison team of Kellie Tabron, Carrie Beddell, Janice Maron, Nadine Rivellese, Kimberly Strong, Ann Cameron, Hilary Kliros, and Natalie Daminoff.

In early 2011, Lockheed Martin decided that the forthcoming shift in defense spending to other areas of the federal budget warranted an extraordinary effort “to protect our stock.” Team members felt that “we need[ed] to ensure that analysts [and] investors understand how diverse and robust our product portfolio is … to weather these challenges better than other defense firms.”

They converted a 30,000-square-foot test facility on Lockheed’s Moorestown, N.J., campus into “a dynamic product showcase [for] 35 key products” and invited 238 analysts and the top 100 institutional stockholders from Wall Street investment banks to see for themselves in May of 2011.

Their objectives:

• Garner attendance from 20 percent of Lockheed’s top 25 institutional stockholders. Result: They got 40 percent, double their goal.
• Motivate the writing of favorable research reports by analysts after the show, reports holding messages about the depth, diversity and potential of Lockheed’s ES products. Result: All attending firms published reports, with vital positives messages in every report.
• Exercise a positive influence on Lockheed’s stock price. Result: Lockheed’s report on the show emphasizes, “While it’s virtually impossible to tie attendance and reports to stock price, we’re confident we provided the information investors and analysts needed to understand how we would cope with the coming challenges.”

This targeted effort, and its stellar results, earned Lockheed Martin the honor of Best PR Presentation to a Financial Analyst in the 2012 PR Daily Awards.

The team that accomplished all this included Nancy Nelson (lead), Kathleen Baier, Antoinina D’Amico, Caroly Fray, Wendy Kershner, Jill Krugman, Don McClain, Len Rizzo, Vikki Sanders, Dan Scully and Warren Wright. The budget was considerable, but Lockheed felt the extraordinary circumstances validated the extra expense. 

There are many ways to build buzz, and word of mouth is among the best. Sometimes the words (and mouths) are on the radio or captured in a podcast for later listening.

The hourlong program “Eyes on the Future,” airing weekly on local AM radio station 1180 WHAM and covering commerce in Greater Rochester, N.Y., easily repackages as a podcast, convenient for area businesspeople to access anytime.

In providing its increasingly popular forum for promoting area businesses, Greater Rochester Enterprise and Dixon Schwabl (a Rochester PR/marketing agency) are the 2012 winners for Best Podcast in Ragan’s PR Daily Awards for “Eyes on the Future.”

The success encompasses several key elements:

• Flexible focus: The overriding subject of the show—living and working in Greater Rochester—is specific and easy to grasp, yet it affords great latitude within its parameters.
• Audience engagement: Many listeners are potential guests; each holds a stake in the community. Callers offer salient insights and ideas for the host, panelists and other listeners.
• Return on Investment: The elusive ROI metric is quite easily discernible here. With the lion’s share of costs picked up by sponsors, GRE’s outlay is minimal and the amount of exposure for its message is wide—and growing. Talk is indeed cheap, but its value is abundant.

The sentiment of the show/podcast—that the Rochester area is a swell place to live and do business—might seem a glad-handing premise. The deeper value lies in the program’s focus on how businesses can thrive and support one another.

On the submitted podcast, there was discussion about coaxing national chain restaurants to serve local products—in this case, beers and ales from Genesee Brewing Co. Panelists offered ways to nudge said eateries to do so. A caller suggested a more blunt approach: If he is told they don’t serve Genesee products, he said, “I get up and walk out.”

The liveliness and relevance of the discussions give audiences a reason to tune in—or download the award-winning podcasts, as you can do by clicking here.

Kudos to Jon Alhart and the Dixon Schwabl team.

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s (TCCAF) response to the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa was impressive, centering on a $200,000 donation that assisted health professionals on the ground working to prevent the further spread of the deadly disease. Through its partner, MedShare, TCCAF played a key role in the delivery of containers to affected countries carrying protective equipment, syringes, and other materials essential to the reduction of infection for health care workers, as well as to improve the level of service patients received. 

Hill & Knowlton, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies, was tasked with ensuring TCCAF’s role was well known. Through a campaign that took advantage of both earned and owned media, four cornerstone documents were deployed, including a press release and a thought leadership piece. Core to the effort, though, was a partnership with the CNN Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards, a program with which Coca-Cola already had a five-year history. By establishing the Ebola outbreak as the program’s annual panel discussion topic, H&K turned the tables on journalists by using the panel to challenge the finalists—all journalists—to become the voice of Africa in the battle against the disease. 

The results of the combined efforts included media coverage in key African nations, including 16 top-tier publications and broadcasts. Top journalists participating in the breakfast panel expressed enthusiasm, calling it the most successful ever; the subject matter also inspired other journalists to attend. H&K also developed an online community where participants could continue the discussion after the event was over. 

We’re pleased to present the prize for Best Public Health/Safety Initiative in PR Daily’s 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards to Hill & Knowlton’s Jennifer Leppington-Clark and Wilma den Hartigh.

Giving voice to the voiceless can be difficult. When those voiceless legions are children in underdeveloped nations and their nemesis is AIDS, the task can seem downright daunting.

That is, however, what Charles Lyons succeeded in doing. Lyons, who is president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, wrote an op-ed piece for The Huffington Post that keyed on a speech by Secretary of State Clinton on the topic.

The op-ed garnered immediate attention and led to follow-up pieces on the issue. It also won the Glaser Foundation the top spot as Best Op-Ed in Ragan’s 2012 PR Daily Awards.

The piece succeeds for several key reasons:

• It keys on a high-profile news event—a landmark speech by Secretary of State Clinton.
• It details significant progress against a medical scourge—pediatric AIDS.
• It concludes with a call to action—that this progress must continue worldwide.

The op-ed trumpets medical progress—notably the use of antiretroviral drugs—but notes that said progress hasn’t gained much attention:

 … new HIV cases in children dropped dramatically in the U.S. and other countries, to the point where we have virtually eliminated pediatric AIDS in the developed world.

In many respects, it’s been a relatively quiet success. Most Americans aren’t even aware that an HIV-positive woman can have an HIV-negative baby.

Lyons’ piece concludes with a prescient quote from Elizabeth Glaser herself and then, coming full circle by giving voice to the voiceless, it offers a rhetorical question that might be posed by future generations:

In the early days of the epidemic, our founder Elizabeth Glaser was vocal about the need for urgent action to stop the spread of AIDS in children—and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“There should be an uproar of children shouting, ‘What about me?’” she said.

… We need to make their fight our fight, and finish the job of ending pediatric AIDS and building an AIDS-free generation.

If we don’t, a new generation still grappling with the scourge of HIV/AIDS will look back at this time, and ask us:

“What were you waiting for?”

To view the winning op-ed in its entirety, please click here.