Winner: Paine PR – Iams Home 4 the Holidays Continues Its Mission to Save the Lives of Homeless Pets
Building on a successful 2008 campaign that featured celebrity spokesperson Felicity Huffman, in 2009 Paine PR tapped another well-known actress, Oscar winner Hilary Swank, to trumpet the plight of homeless animals and the importance of their adoption, and help lift the Iams pet food brand in the process. Swank’s participation was promoted across platforms, including online, in-store, media outreach, and PSAs.
Coinciding with the release of her movie Amelia, Swank garnered top-tier appearances on shows like Today, Rachael Ray and The Oprah Winfrey Show, Paine also pitched 350 pet bloggers and distributed “How To” guides to help 3,500 shelter partners promote Home 4 the Holidays locally. As a result, nearly 1.4 million pets were adopted during the three-month campaign; nearly 430 million media impressions were generated; and during the campaign, the Iams brand had the highest sales quarter in three years. Now that’s something to bark about.
American Urological Association (AUA) Foundation/Zeno Group - Know Your Stats About Prostate Cancer: The AUA Foundation and the NFL teamed up to generate awareness of prostate cancer, leveraging football legends Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen and others via media appearances and through PSAs.
Dialogue - Buchanan’s Forever: Agency Dialogue and premium drinks company Diageo used music as the catalyst to promote the Buchanan’s whisky brand while raising more than $1 million for communities in Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia.
Hill & Knowlton - Text4baby Launch: Hill & Knowlton used digital PR, celebrity moms and outreach to influential polititions to tout Text4baby, a mobile information service that promote safe pregnancy and healthy birth outcomes.
Macy’s/Make a Wish Foundation - 2009 “Believe” Campaign: Nearly 700 Believe Shops in Macy’s stores nationwide—where children could write to Santa—were the centerpiece of the "Believe" campaign, which led to a $1 million donation to the Make a Wish Foundation and increased in-store traffic.
Pollo Tropical - Pollo Tropical Helping Handhelds Campaign: This one-day campaign resulted in 2,000 handheld phones collected for the Women In Distress organization, and 4,000 handheld sandwiches distributed at restaurant chain Pollo Tropical.