Organization: American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Timeframe: April to October 2006
It is safe to say that most PR professionals love award announcements - the concept of rewarding excellence and promoting clever people with special celebrations and the
presentation of trophies or statuettes. If there is a problem with this PR endeavor, it is not in the quality of award winners but the quantity.
For some award competitions offering a manageable number of honors, such as the Nobel Prize (six categories), this is not a problem. For others who present a somewhat higher
number, such as the Academy Awards (24 categories), there is the tendency to place the PR emphasis on a handful of the higher-visibility winners.
But then there is the extreme case of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, which was founded by John Adams in 1780 and is considered to be the nation's oldest
continuously operating think tank. In announcing its 2006 Class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members, there was no shortage of honorees: 175 new fellows and 20 foreign
honorary members covering the fields of mathematical and physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts, and the combined (by Academy definition)
class of public affairs, business and administration.
So here is the PR challenge: How do you give 195 honorees their equal slice of spotlight? For Paul Karoff, chief communications officer with the Academy, the answer is both
simple and complex: Multiple press releases.
"We issue a general press release, a geographic release to major media markets highlighting new Fellows from that area, institution-specific releases (primarily to academic
institutions that often have more than one faculty or administrator who have been elected), industry-specific releases to specialized media that cover that sector, and releases to
the publications of discipline-specific professional associations," explains Karoff. "In sum, we probably send upwards of 150 tailored press releases and/or advisories."
Indeed, no professional stone is left unturned - in the case of the public relations industry, Karoff created an individualized release calling attention to the election of PR
veteran Gershon Kekst, chairman of New York's Kekst and Company, in the Class of 2006. The release gave Kekst top billing over some of the more famous new Fellows,
including former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Chief Justice John Roberts, New Yorker editor David Remnick, poet Rita Dove, journalist Gwen Ifill and
filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
From Karoff's vantage point, the Fellows election process gives him enough lead time to plan his PR strategy. "Election of new members of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, both Fellows and Honorary Foreign Members, is a several-part process," he explains. "The final step occurs during a Saturday meeting of the governing board at which the
final list is approved and the press announcement occurs the following Monday."
While a few names can be added or removed at the Saturday meeting, Karoff already has a general idea of who is up for election two to three weeks ahead of the media release,
allowing him to research the appropriate media entities for his outreach.
Around The World
Getting the word out is, admittedly, labor intensive. "It is a very manual, targeted process, but the results have been good," adds Karoff. "Following our April 2006
announcement, the story was carried in a variety of local, regional and national media ranging from US News & World Report to the Singapore News to the Contra
Costa Times in California. In the academic community, election to the Academy is widely recognized as a very prestigious honor. Thus, we have achieved prominent coverage in
print and electronic news outlets at virtually 100% of the universities we contact. In communicating with the public affairs directors at the new Fellows' home institutions or
companies, we work closely with them to enlist them to pitch the story to their local and regional press."
But actually, the announcement is only the first step - there is the ceremony itself, called the Induction, which is slated for October 7 in Cambridge, MA.
"We generally get better than 75% of the new Fellows at the Induction, which is remarkable considering the caliber of individuals involved," he says. "Those unable to attend
are invited to be formally inducted in a subsequent year and increasing numbers are availing themselves of that opportunity."
Karoff adds the Academy uses the day to both honor the new members and actively engage them to be involved in Academy projects and events.
For They're All Jolly Good Fellows!
Karoff is currently at work planning the PR push for the Induction. "We seek media coverage in two ways," he explains. "First, we pitch the event itself. It is obviously a
local story but one with national and international personalities taking part. Last year, Tom Brokaw was one of the featured speakers and he generated a fair amount of buzz. The
comments of Nobel laureate physicist Eric Cornell, on the topic of intelligent design, was published a few weeks later as a 'My Turn' essay in Newsweek Magazine."
Furthermore, Karoff sends tailored press releases to local media, hometown papers, alumni publications, and the like, similar to his April push - but this time with the benefit
of specific media contacts supplied to him via a questionnaire filled out by the new Fellows themselves as part of their election materials.
However, Karoff acknowledges that despite the names attached to this happening, name recognition for the Academy is still uneven.
"Awareness of the Academy varies depending on the audience," he says. "Within the academic community and in a great many professions, and in policy circles, the Academy is well
known. Among the general public, it has less recognition, notwithstanding a 226-year history. That's mostly because the Academy is a fairly small organization and its work is
sharply focused."
He adds that more than once he needed to diplomatically work with reporters who confused his organization with the National Academy of Science. "But most media people have at
least a vague understanding of who we are and what we do," he says.
Contact: Paul Karoff, [email protected].
Lessons Learned: Winning With Winners
If you are planning to distribute an awards-related press release, here are trophy-snagging tips to incorporate into your PR push:
- Think globally and locally. Steal an idea from Paul Karoff in our case study and tailor your press releases to reach as many media outlets as possible: Global,
national, regional, local, even college newspapers and alumni publications.
- Stress the significance of the honor. To paraphrase the central question of the Passover seder: What makes this award different from all other awards? Don't assume
everyone is familiar with the honor in the spotlight (consider Karoff's problems in spreading the word on his organization, which has been around since 1780). Feel free to spell
out the importance of winning this honor.
- Standing on ceremony. Announcing the award is one thing. Bringing the media to the award ceremony is another matter. Make sure there is plenty of advanced lead time
in preparing the media coverage for award ceremonies, and feel free to provide your own photographers and videographers to fill in for media outlets who are unable to attend.