Last night, at the annual PRWeek Awards, RLF Communications’ campaign for the International Civil Rights Center & Museum’s grand opening won the Promotional Event of the Year award. RLF’s campaign was recognized over successful campaigns from much larger agencies.
One of the judges noted that the RLF team “hit it out of the park” with the opening.
The event drew 3,000 spectators; more than 200 members of various media; 500 VIPs; and elected federal and state officials – far exceeding the museum’s objectives of attracting between 2,000 and 2,500 diverse attendees to the ceremony.
With 192 million media impressions and 700 broadcast stories nationally, coverage included ABC World News and CBS Evening News, as well as a USA Today cover, among others. The museum’s Facebook fan page attracted more than 11,000 fans in the six weeks before and immediately after the opening.
Last night, RLF Communications and the International Civil Rights Center & Museum were honored with a Triad first for advertising – the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) prestigious Mosaic award for AAF’s District 3 (NC, SC and Va). The Mosaic award recognizes advertising and creative excellence for successfully integrated multicultural and diversity campaigns. The event was hosted by the Triad chapter of the AAF and held at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.
Even in a deep recession, the public relations profession is turning out amazing and meaningful work for clients.
That thought has resonated for me during the last month, since I attended the SABRE awards dinner at the gorgeous Cipriani building across from Grand Central Station in New York City in May. More than 1,000 public relations professionals had gathered for one of the big three awards shows to honor the best campaigns and teams in our industry (the PR Week Awards and Silver Anvil Awards are the other two major national awards).
Paul Holmes, the organizer of the SABRE Awards – which stands for Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation – set the tone for the evening when he remarked that despite all of the economic troubles that have challenged our industry, the number of entries for SABRE recognition set a record (1,700) and the quality had never been higher.
As Paul noted, public relations has demonstrated that reach and frequency are not enough to create successful outcomes in today’s world. There must be engagement as well, and public relations has taken a leadership position among the communications disciplines in creating engaging, meaningful campaigns. This is particularly true in the realm of social media, which our profession has done a remarkable job of weaving into the overall communications mix.
Over the course of five hours (from the first cocktail to the closing coffee), Aleasha Vuncannon and I had the opportunity to talk with fascinating professionals from around the country, review the lists of finalists for the awards in each category, and enjoy the pageantry of an event as a participant (instead of as a behind-the-scenes organizer, which is our normal role!).
And when our time came, when the finalists for the top campaign in the category of Educational & Cultural Institutions were announced, we were thrilled to hear that our work in partnership with the International Civil Rights Center & Museum had been recognized as the best in our business. We had felt like it was worthy of this recognition. We knew how hard our team had worked and how much had been accomplished. Yet, we still held our breath in anticipation as the winner was announced, because every campaign that had made the finals had strong results. It felt good to scream when we heard the results.
Here is a brief glimpse into the work that we did for the grand opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum:
After the dinner, Aleasha and I walked through Times Square at midnight, dressed in our best clothes, carrying a deceptively heavy trophy and reflecting on the evening (not surprisingly, no one batted an eye at us or thought we were out-of-place in the crazy scene that is Times Square). It feels good to do great work for clients, to create campaigns that generate meaningful results and advance our client’s objectives. We do this work not for awards, but when we strive to be one of the very best agencies in our industry, it is evenings like this that provide the mileposts to let us know that our agency is on the right road.
RLF Communications, led by its Creative Director Ron Irons, had a big night at the AAF Triad’s Addy Awards on Saturday. More than 150 people representing advertising agencies throughout the Triad attended this annual event honoring the best creative work in the region. Though it was RLF’s first time entering this competition, it sure wasn’t beginner’s luck that we ended the night with 14 awards – all for work done on behalf of our client, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.
RLF won the “Best of Show”, the evening’s highest honor, for the following ad:
RLF won a “Judge’s Choice” award (one of two) for the following ad:
In addition, RLF took home eight Gold ADDY awards and four Silver ADDY awards for other creative work on behalf of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Congratulations to Ron Irons and everyone at RLF Communications for these well-earned honors
RLF’s creative department recently contributed pro-bono design work to a client sponsored event in Orlando, Florida.
CNL Financial Group presented One Night, an annual fund-raising and awareness gala with Orlando Regional Healthcare to celebrate excellence in trauma care. In Central Florida there are 47 emergency rooms and only level one trauma center. This heartwarming event raises funds to build a new level one trauma center at Orlando Regional.
The highlight of the evening occurred when a 16-year-old boy shared his own trauma story. The aspiring baseball player was severely injured in a boating accident, but thanks to the trauma center and the work of some great medical staff, he survived.
Below are some photos of the event signage created by RLF.
It’s not just politicians competing for hearts and minds – and votes – this fall. Marketers should treat election season as a time that’s a little different from the rest of the year, even if the product or service you’re promoting has nothing to do with politics.
So here is a short list of factors that marketers should consider when politicians are prowling around the media looking for votes.
More election coverage competes for air time and space with traditional news, including the stories you’re pitching about your or your client’s products and services. And just because you’re pitching something lifestyle-related, don’t think that political coverage doesn’t seep into “lighter” areas of the news media, such as newspaper feature sections. The New York Times just wrote about author Christopher Buckley in its Fashion & Style section, in large part because he was fired after endorsing Sen. Barack Obama. (Buckley is the son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, who founded the National Review, the magazine that fired Christopher for his column.) Over at the Los Angeles Times, reporters and editors in the paper’s health section took a look at the competing health care proposals from the two major presidential campaigns.
More election ads mean there’s more competition for your ads, and that could mean higher advertising rates in some cases, particularly in markets where election ad spending is spiking right around now. It also means potentially more noise that has the potential to drown out your messages.
Has your CEO or another high profile executive been a high profile supporter or funder of one candidate or the other? Then expect questions from reporters about that executive’s campaign contributions and political opinions. That could end up putting your company’s name or brand in a distinctly political light. Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced this week he would campaign for Barack Obama, but told reporters that the company he leads is “officially neutral” in the campaign. That didn’t stop the Wall Street Journal, for one, from bringing up the fact that Congress is considering laws that could affect Google. Putting Google’s strong brand in that perspective may or may not hurt the company in the long run. But in any case the marketers and public relations pros charged with safeguarding Google’s brand presumably were prepared for this and had calculated the risks and benefits to the company.
Finally, election-themed ad campaigns always seem popular during high-profile real-life elections. “Advertising that tries to ride the coattails of interest in politics is always popular in election years, particularly when the presidency is at stake,” New York Times reporter Stuart Elliott wrote during the 2004 campaign. There’s no shortage of those this year, either. The NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes are running an election-themed campaign around a fictional character named Pierre. Convenience store chain 7-Eleven, as it has in elections past, is referencing the presidential campaign more directly by offering Obama and McCain cups to its customers and keeping track of how many of each are sold. The results, on a state-by-state basis, are available on the company’s 7-Election mini site. Be careful before you go this route, though, as poorly done election-themed campaigns could easily come off as clichéd.
So what do the elections mean for you and your clients? Chime in with your own vote in the comments below. (Thanks to our intern, Rachel Shaw, for bringing up the question about what happens when a company or CEO becomes involved in politics.)
Last night, at the annual PRWeek Awards, RLF Communications’ campaign for the International Civil Rights Center & Museum’s grand opening won the Promotional Event of the Year award. RLF’s campaign was recognized over successful campaigns from much larger agencies.
