A PR NEWS Platinum PR Award has always been an illustrious honor, but this year's winners are particularly distinguished. The winning campaigns were not only astoundingly
creative, brilliantly implemented, scrupulously budget-conscious and wildly successful, they also surpassed hundreds of other entries that demonstrated excellence in
communications.
Our panel of internal and external judges selected 10 winning campaigns embodying the best in public relations across a variety of categories - everything from cutting edge
campaigns waged for Web-based copyrights, to inventive event strategies that brought "mom" to college kids, to the traditional principles of outstanding media relations - as they
apply to pitching molding food and filthy bathrooms.
Our judges also awarded three special awards this year: Best Overall Agency, Best Overall Campaign for a Corporation, and Best Overall Campaign for a Nonprofit. The winners:
Best Agency: Manning, Selvage & Lee with a total of four winners and honorable mentions.
Best Corporate Campaign: PR21 for Apartments.com Messiest College Apartment Contest, a clever concept, an hilarious campaign and an outstanding success garnering millions of
media hits for a very few dollars.
Best Nonprofit Campaign: Orange County Water's New Contaminant in Drinking Water Campaign, a proactive campaign that turned a potential Erin Brockovich-scale crisis into non-
news.
In this very special issue, we give you a look inside the top campaigns of 2000. We think you'll agree, they're worth their weight in platinum. Congratulations to all the
winners and thanks to all who entered! Don't miss the chance to enter next year's Platinum PR Awards. For more information see http://www.PRandMarketing.com/awards.htm. Deadline is June 1, 2002.
Platinum PR Award Winners
Community Relations
Bromley/Manning, Selvage & Lee for Boy Scouts of America "Scouting!
Vale La Pena"
Crisis Management
Orange County Water for Orange County Water District: New Contaminant in
Drinking Water
Event Marketing
Best Buy for Best Buy Stores New York Grand Opening
Financial/Investor Relations
Metzger Associates for Exabyte Makes Mammoth Impression on Wall Street
Interactive
APCO for GlobeXplorer
Internal Communications
Centura Bank for Fraud Prevention
Marketing Communications
Thornley Fallis Communications for Molson Canadian "I AM Canadian" Rant
Media Relations
PR21 for Apartments.com Messiest College Apartment contest
New Product Launch
Manning, Selvage & Lee for Downy Wrinkle Releaser Wrinkle-Free Laundry
Week
Start-Up
Schwartz Communications for Salary.com: The Trusted Online Compensation
Source
Honorable Mentions
-- Community Relations, VSP for Sight for Students and The Marcus Group
for Garbage In, Garbage Out; Crisis Management, Ignition Strategic Communications
for Hack Attack: Testing the Limits of Copyright Law in Cyberspace; Event Marketing,
Manning, Selvage & Lee for San Diego's Got Guts; Financial/Investor Relations,
Access Communications for Autotrader; Interactive, Widmeyer Communications for
Channel One: The Leading Edge; Internal Communications, John Deere for Genuine
Value: The John Deere Journey; Marketing Communications, Patrice Tanaka For
Godiva Chocolatier's 2000 Chocolates & Diamonds Valentine's Day Promotion;
Media Relations, Edelman for Home Depot Orange to Gold Olympic Sponsorship And
Integrity PR for Buffalo Technology Airstation Launch; New Product Launch, Manning,
Selvage & Lee for Crest White Strips' It's Okay to Wear White After Labor
Day Campaign and Dome Communications for Dips-for-One National Roll-Out; Start-Up,
Edelman for The Launch of Dairy.com *Honorable Mentions will be profiled in
upcoming issues of PR NEWS