By Monty Hagler
For the second year, RLF Communications had the honor to work with the Cucalorus Film Festival as a sponsor and public relations partner. The 21st annual festival was a huge hit, and our team had the opportunity to attend numerous screenings, interact with filmmakers and engage in countless conversations with creative thinkers.
Continue reading “Raising Bertie”
Category: Client News
New Client Spotlight: Unity FI Solutions
By Adam Bowers
RLF has extensive experience designing eye-catching websites and creating compelling content to populate them. We recently partnered with Unity FI Solutions to redesign its website, which launched earlier this year.
Unity FI Solutions is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based provider of electronic payment solutions to financial institutions and other corporate clients. Within the industry, Unity FI Solutions is well known for its ability to tailor solutions to meet very specific and complex client needs. This client-centric approach reflects RLF’s own commitment to service and has made for a strong and mutually beneficial partnership.
Continue reading “New Client Spotlight: Unity FI Solutions”
New Client Spotlight: Cucalorus
By Steffany Reeve
Late this summer, RLF started working for a new entertainment and tourism client with quite a distinctive and funny name: Cucalorus, an internationally-recognized film festival located in Wilmington, North Carolina, and one of the largest independent film showcases in the United States. The five-day festival was named “One of the Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by MovieMaker Magazine in 2013.
This year, the Cucalorus Film Festival, being held from Nov. 12-16, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an impressive line-up of films ranging from love-lost unicorns and teenage bank robbers to family flicks and social justice documentaries. In total, more than 200 independent films will be screened, including two films debuting as world premieres, a host of films making their inaugural Southeast U.S. showing, award-winning international films and original works from both well-known and up-and-coming filmmakers.
Last year, nearly 15,000 people attended the Cucalorus Film Festival and this year’s attendance is forecast to be even greater.
As storytellers ourselves, the RLF team is proud to support Cucalorus and all of the artists, producers and filmmakers who turn their dreams into films that inspire, inform, entertain and shape the way we view our world. Our team is working closely with the festival’s marketing staff to share the unique story of the Cucalorus Film Festival and the compelling films it will feature this year.
Cucalorus is an important alternative outlet and launch pad for artistic, thought-provoking and educational films from exceptionally talented people. We look forward to helping the festival reach its potential and continue to gain traction to be one of the top film festivals in the world.
To learn more about the Cucalorus Film Festival, visit www.cucalorus.org.
New Client Spotlight: Brooks Pierce
By Alyssa Bedrosian
Since RLF’s founding in 2007, business-to-business communications has been a core strength of our agency. We have experience working with financial and professional services clients, and enjoy helping these clients achieve their business goals and share their stories.
We recently added law firm Brooks Pierce to our list of professional services clients. Brooks Pierce is a comprehensive business law firm advising businesses, individuals, government and nonprofit organizations, and prides itself on taking on clients and cases that involve very complex, often precedent-setting, legal issues. The firm’s expertise extends to every aspect of business law including antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, banking, corporate finance, environment, real estate, and litigation.
Brooks Pierce has offices in Greensboro, Raleigh and Wilmington, North Carolina, but represents clients across the United States and around the globe. And, like RLF, the firm is known for its commitment to clients and ethics, both on a professional and personal level.
We are very excited to be working with Brooks Pierce, using our expertise to raise the profile of the firm, its attorneys and their expertise.
2010 Sabre Awards Dinner
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.
And the Winner Is…..RLF Communications
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
Click here to see more creative work for the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.