At its Platinum PR Awards luncheon in New York on Oct. 19, PR News inducted four communications campaigns into its Platinum Hall of Fame, which honors communications campaigns or initiatives that have become inspirational benchmarks for other communicators. These are campaigns that have had a larger cultural or business impact than even their creators might have imagined.
2016 Platinum Hall of Fame inductees
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse
In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention played on the deathless popularity of zombies in movies and TV with a blog post that offered real emergency preparedness tips in the context of a zombie invasion. The CDC post asked, "Are you prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse?" and described what to include in an emergency kit and how to develop a plan to find shelter from floods, tornadoes—or zombies. This inspired repackaging of its usual message about how to put together an emergency preparedness kit went viral, and in turn inspired PR News to name the CDC a winner in two 2011 Platinum PR Award categories (Blog and Wow! Campaign).
The original blog post has since spawned a host of Zombie Apocalypse-themed products and content from the CDC. This includes a Zombie Preparedness page on the CDC site that links to Zombie posters, a graphic novella, emergency preparedness e-cards and, of course, practical information about emergency preparedness and resources for emergency health professionals.
Coca-Cola Company – #ShareaCoke
Coca-Cola's "debranding" Share a Coke campaign originally launched in Australia in 2011, and by 2014 an international toolkit had circled the globe, bringing with it a message of personalization. In the U.S. it began with Coca-Cola replacing three of its logos on 20-oz. bottles with the 250 most popular first names among American teens and millennials, and suggesting that consumers buy and share bottles with their own names. Coke promoted its #ShareaCoke hashtag so consumers could share their stories and photos of real and virtual bottles for the chance to be featured on interactive Coke billboards.
Since then the campaign has expanded to include national tours and, in 2016, a “Share a Song” component, with consumers’ favorite song lyrics added to the bottle labels. At a Share a Coke site, consumers can now order bottles with their names on the label, place bulk orders for events and buy Share a Coke apparel. Investopedia reported in 2015 that Share a Coke was one of the best-performing marketing campaigns in the company's history. In the first year after the personalization campaign launched in the U.S., Coke grew sales volume for the first time since 2000, according to Beverage Digest.
T-Mobile – Un-carrier
The T-Mobile “Un-carrier” campaign began in 2013 and has come to shape much of the company’s communications. This branding has moved beyond promoting new plans and service features to becoming integral to the company’s identity, thanks in large part to T-Mobile’s charismatic and eminently social CEO, John Legere. It’s evolved through 11 iterations, beginning with “Simple Choice - No Service Contracts” to the current “T-Mobile Tuesday” promotion, and shows no signs of slowing.
Just one example of T-Mobile's communications prowess during this long-term campaign: In 2014 T-Mobile created an app that enabled consumers to create a break-up letter to be sent to their current carrier. Consumers were then tasked to post their letter to their social channels, to not only make a public spectacle of breaking up with their current provider, but to also encourage their community to do the same. Over the course of the campaign there were over 113,000 letters created, 2.7 million app page views and 67 million impressions generated. To personalize the experience even more, Legere welcomed new customers by retweeting their posts.
United Nations Foundation and 92nd Street Y – #GivingTuesday
This isn't the first time PR News is recognizing United Nations Foundation and 92nd Street Y's #GivingTuesday campaign, which has elbowed its way into the holiday season vernacular alongside "Black Friday." It won PR News Social Media Icon Awards in 2013, 2014 and 2015; a PR News Nonprofit PR Award in 2016; and a PR News Platinum PR Award in 2014. Since the inception of #GivingTuesday in 2012, the UN Foundation and 92nd Street Y’s effort to spur charitable giving in the face of the rampant consumerism that follows Thanksgiving has been able to increase donations by an estimated 470%. The #GivingTuesday movement boosted the idea of giving—of time, energy and expertise—throughout the holiday season by creating a new day on the calendar to mark the opening of the giving season.
Social media has been at the heart of the #GivingTuesday campaign from day one, as illustrated by the name of the movement itself—a hashtag. The goal of the social aspect is to build a groundswell through digital technology that would raise awareness, involve thought leaders and energize Americans and individuals around the globe to give. It's also had great success reeling in brands. In 2015, Levi’s used #GivingTuesday to ask followers to donate their “gently used” clothes “and we’ll give $10 to Goodwill.”