Co-Winner: FleishmanHillard — The St. Baldrick's Foundation
Since 2007, FleishmanHillard has partnered with St. Baldrick’s, the largest nonprofit funder of childhood cancer research, to build a dynamic media and public relations program that showcases stories of kids with cancer, head-shaving events, researchers, grants and outstanding volunteers. This year the challenge was to earn national media coverage from a top-tier outlet to increase awareness and raise funds for childhood cancer research. FH rose to the challenge and successfully secured an innovative live segment with NBC’s “TODAY” show that resulted in millions of impressions, as well as raised awareness and significant funds raised for childhood cancer research.
FleishmanHillard and TODAY focused on using the show’s Guinness World Record week to engage and entertain while raising awareness for this important cause. The successful placement of St. Baldrick’s on a top-tier national morning show resulted in nearly 20 million media impressions and contributed to both raising money and awareness for childhood cancer research.
Co-Winner: Meet Minneapolis — I Want to Marry You in Minneapolis
Meet Minneapolis, in partnership with the mayor’s office of the City of Minneapolis, executed the I Want to Marry You in Minneapolis campaign. The initiative sought to make the LGBT community aware that there was no need to wait until their states allowed them to marry; they could get married in Minneapolis now. In one month after same-sex marriage became legal in Minnesota, 1,640 same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses. Meet Minneapolis and the Mayors office looked to offer their marriage services to same-sex couples in neighboring states where marriage equality hadn’t been realized.
The Minnezpolis.org same-sex marriage cite received over 1,800 page views and more than 1,434 unique page views. The campaign reached couples in 13 states including Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia Tennessee and Wisconsin. Media outreach for the campaign totaled almost 823 million media impressions across broadcast news and print placements. Stories about the campaign continued to pop up for several months following its launch.
Honorable Mentions
- allen & gerritsen - Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life
- ASPIRE Communications - ASPIRE Races to the Rescue of Rescue Ranch
- Brevard Public Schools - Financial Facts Informational Campaign
- Denha Media Group - Detroit's Loyola High School: A Plea to Pope Francis
- Harden Communications Partners - East Bay Vintners Alliance: Urban Wine Xperience
- United Nations Foundation, Girl Up Campaign - #GIRLHERO campaign
- Weber Shandwick with Reboot - Taking a Tech Detox: Nat’l Day of Unplugging