More than 500 award-winning brand and agency communicators gathered at the Grand Hyatt in New York City last evening (Sept. 17) to celebrate the PRNEWS Platinum PR Awards. PRNEWS' most prestigious honors, the Platinums recognize outstanding work in PR, marketing and communications.
During the festivities, PRNEWS inducted campaigns from Nike and Sandy Hook Promise into its Platinum Hall of Fame.
Guest presenters included Jeff Boron, VP, digital communications,PepsiCo, Jackie Jags, director, PR, Chick-fil-A, and Savile Lord, manager, the SPAM Museum and community relations, Hormel Foods. In addition, the gala event included a vibrant cocktail hour, the comedy of Sara Armour, a sumptuous dinner and delicious cake pops touting PRNEWS' 75th anniversary.
Awards were presented to brands, agencies and nonprofit/governmental organizations, including the U.S. Postal Service, T-Mobile, Finn Partners, BCW, and Hilton. A complete list of winners and honorable mentions is available at the 2019 Platinum PR Awards site.
Why Some Stories Stick
Award-winning marketer and best-selling author David Brier provided a keynote focused on storytelling and branding. He asked, “Why do some stories stick, when others die?” Brier touched on the importance of uniqueness when it comes to creating something that people will remember.
“Branding is the art of differentiation,” Brier said. ["It’s about] taking people on a journey—not mere facts.”
Brier also noted communicators' responsibility for controlling brand messaging.
“If you don’t give the market a story to talk about, it will define your brand’s story for you,” he said. “The market will talk about your CEO, the product line. A story [that someone else creates usually] is worse than the one you want. If we don’t own the story, we add to the noise...our job is to rise above the noise.”
Brier offered these guidelines for powerful storytelling:
- Avoid cliches
- Differentiate your ass off
- Embrace values. Their values.
- Build your brand’s stories on those values
- Be a superhero badass of “I didn’t know that”
- Gain worldwide recognition
Platinum Tweets
Attendees told their stories through Twitter, with posts celebrating wins and team camaraderie.
The @USPS team has got eyes on the prize at the #PRNews award ceremony! pic.twitter.com/SkI56zJ2mB
— Xavier C. Hernandez (@XavierUSPSNYC) September 17, 2019
Honored to accept the Social Good #PRNews Platinum award for #BeTheGift on behalf of my amazing team @FinnPartners @DVLSeigenthaler pic.twitter.com/d5gupSERpi
— Christian Lail (@lail_christian) September 18, 2019
Brenda and Lea are representing our talented travel team and #client @GrandIsleResort tonight at the @PRNews Platinum PR Awards ?
We are a finalist in the “Media Relations” category for our Shark Tagging Adventure campaign with Grand Isle and @beneaththewaves #PRNEWS pic.twitter.com/PUfow89T1h
— Berk Communications (@BerkComm) September 17, 2019
PRNEWS congratulates all the winners and honorable mentions on their innovative, always-important work.