Local Voices
Atlanta Independent Public Relations Agencies Take Home Three Phoenix Awards at 2013 Awards Gala
Three of Atlanta’s top independent public relation agencies were honored November 7, 2013, at the Public Relations Society of America/Georgia Chapter’s annual Phoenix awards. The awards are given for excellence in a range of public relations and marketing categories.
Leff & Associates won a Phoenix Award of Excellence for its work with All About Developmental Disabilities.The agency worked to raise overall awareness of developmental disability issues, to change the law in Georgia regarding execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities, and obtain state funding for post-secondary programs for students with developmental disabilities.
Stories on developmental disability issues ran in newspapers, wire services, television and radio stations across the state.
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For the post-secondary effort, AADD received $100,000 to support new programs on selected college campuses.
On the death penalty issue, publicity generated results in two stays of execution for a prisoner on death row. Also, the Georgia Legislature agreed to conduct a Study Group to review the issues around the death penalty and consider changing the state law.
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Fitzgerald PR won a Phoenix Award of Excellence for business to business media relations in the professional or financial services category. The efforts were on behalf of investment banking firm Commerce Street Capital for its 11th annual bank conference held in Dallas, Texas. As part of a strategy to solidify the firm’s experts as thought leaders in community banking, financial reporters were invited to cover the event which resulted in approximately 1,320,000 print and online impressions. Other highlights included:
Five media reporters attended the event and developed 11 separate stories
Interviews were coordinated at the conference with firm’s CEO as well as three other guest speakers.
Peloton Sports won the overall Phoenix Award for best Press Conference. The agency, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, organized and executed for its sports client, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. The Tour has contracted Peloton Sports for the past three years to oversee its public relations campaign, as well as media operations activities. This event, conducted in Cedar City, Utah in February 2013, generated a record number of attendees and media coverage from across the U.S. for the professional cycling stage race.
Envision a weeklong Tour de France on American soil and you have The Tour of Utah. The internationally-sanctioned cycling event featured 16 of the world’s top cycling teams racing across 586 miles in 2013.
To generate interest for the 10 new start/finish cities that would host the event, Peloton Sports staged a press conference at the airport terminal in one of the new communities in the southern part of Utah.
To encourage coverage across the country with sports newscasts and news outlets, media partner KJZZ-TV was incorporated to videotape the event and provide b-roll for distribution and for the Tour’s web site.
The attendance for the press conference exceeded expectations by 60%, with 200 media and guests at the Cedar City venue. The b-roll created was used by multiple television stations in Salt Lake City, the primary target market, as well as national web coverage in all targeted sports media. A total of 7.25 million media impressions were generated. Of the 98 stories produced from earned media coverage, 73% listed the names of all 10 host cities for the Tour. All of these results surpassed the benchmarks set by the public relations plan created by Peloton Sports.
