NonProfit PR Awards: Press Release

Campaign: NHLBI’s Pounds Lost Weight Loss Study—A Diet for Media Success

Winner: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute & Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

To drive home its core messaging—the importance of eating a reduced-calorie, heart-healthy diet to lose weight—NHBLI’s AOR, Ogilvy PR, sought to provide media exposure of its findings from the Pounds Lost study in February 2009. The study, funded by NHLBI, focused on diets and weight loss.

A key linchpin of the media outreach was the press release. To make sure reporters from across all media platforms understood the data, an effort was made to translate it into reader-friendly language.

In addition to the straight press release, Ogilvy PR worked with a video production company to create a multimedia news release that would feature a video interviews with the NHBLI director Elizabeth G. Nadel and other medical experts.

The Pounds Lost campaign reached an audience of 190 million across all media platforms. A highlight was a placement in The Wall Street Journal, which included materials from the multimedia news release.

Honorable Mentions:

San Diego Zoo: Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog Population Discovered—After the discovery of the nearly extinct frog species in the San Bernadino Forest, the zoo created a press release and sent it to news agencies, resulting in articles appearing in all major newspapers in Southern California.

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Gov. Clements Gift—In to keep the public up to date on UT Southwestern Medical School news, press releases are created and distributed via listserv to journalists, faculty, students and many more. The June 12, 2009, Gov. Clements Gift received more than 230 placements.

Full Court Press: New Data on High School Exit Exam—On behalf of the James Irvine Foundation, FCP helped release a study revealing the impact of the California High School Exit Exam on the state’s lowest performing students, generating media coverage that consistently contained key messages.

November 9, 2009