Winner: Association of American Railroads/Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide – Freight Rail Works
Dirty. Inefficient. Old. These were some of the words congressional influencers were using to describe freight rail before Ogilvy PR and AAR launched an advocacy advertising campaign that would educate beltway consumers about freight rail’s benefits and turn the tides against reregulation.
The campaign started with thorough in-person and online focus groups to gauge public perception. To address misconceptions, Ogilvy hosted an “AAR Media Day,” and targeted TV and radio ads helped support AAR’s political platform, centered around a new tagline: “Freight Rail Works.” Among the featured stats: Each freight train is equivalent to 280 trucks in terms of fuel used. The campaign helped prevent the Senate Judiciary Committee from fast-tracking antitrust legislation targeting freight rail in June 2009.
Honorable Mentions:
American Lung Association and Porter Novelli - Quitter in You Campaign: Porter Novelli leveraged the American Lung Association's research showing that the stigma of failing to quit prevented many from repeating their quitting efforts. ALA and Porter Novelli's Quitter in You Campaign was focused on one theme—repeated failures to quit smoking was better than no attempts at all.
America’s Natural Gas Alliance/Hill & Knowlton - Growing Demand for Natural Gas Through Strategic Research: To increase awareness of a cleaner gas option, Hill & Knowlton tested key messages through eight focus groups that identified positive or negative associations with natural gas. The research influenced campaign tactics, resulting in an 8% increase in positive media coverage.
The Coca-Cola Company/FD – A Growing Curve of Refreshment: The Coca-Cola Company’s Roadmap for Winning: To reinvigorate growth in the North American market, Coca-Cola enlisted FD to target and conduct interviews with over 100 key stakeholders. The efforts were combined with an informational webcast that was shared throughout the company.
General Electric – PR Insight for Marketing Innovation Through Research, Data Visualization and Impact Analysis:
GE leveraged PR to gauge the insight their campaigns had achieved, which led to understanding that PR could address data visualization issues with other teams.
Kaiser Permanente – Message Pull-Through: As a result of developing a company-wide message article—through which messaging was streamlined to be in sync throughout the company branches—positive stories in the media about Kaiser Permanente increased by 12%.
Northwestern Mutual/Gagen MacDonald – Making the Case: Measuring the Value of Employee Engagement at Northwestern Mutual: Northwestern Mutual engaged in a comprehensive employee monitoring effort to boost productivity and morale. Not only did employee engagement increase in treatment groups, actual productivity performance improved as well.