PR Newswire Announces the Winners of 'The Earnies' Awards Program, Honoring Innovation in Today's Earned Media Evolved World

NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PR Newswire, the global leader of innovative marketing and communications solutions, today announced the winners of The Earnies, the first community-chosen awards program dedicated to earned media campaigns executed through social media channels.

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"The winning campaigns each displayed creative use of social media to engage and audience and drive business growth – and their results reiterate the impact social media has on today's earned media landscape," said Rachel Meranus, vice president of marketing and communications, PR Newswire.  "We were excited to see the impressive response from the broader social community and the winners can accept the award knowing they were selected by their peers."

Community voting was open for a span of two weeks and brought nearly 3,000 of votes.  Voters were encouraged to consider strategy, creativity, results and overall 'awesomeness' of the campaign.

The winners are:

The Earnies Grand Prix: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Through a campaign entitled Hoops for St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital designed a program to drive sports fans within their social networks to their campaign web site to learn more about their mission to help children fight cancer. Additionally, they hoped to raise awareness of professional sports organizations' involvement with St. Jude. By sharing engaging, relevant content through social media, St. Jude significantly increased their social interaction, impressions and traffic to their campaign site.

To see the winning entry, click here.

Best Use of Video in Social Media: Status Creative

With an objective to refute Newsweek's claim that Grand Rapids, Michigan is a dying city, Status Creative set out produce a creative, musical video that highlights why one would want to visit Grand Rapids.  Resulting in millions of YouTube video views, millions of dollars in public relations and tourism generated and notable media coverage, they successfully proved that Grand Rapids, Michigan is worth a visit.

To see the complete winning entry, click here.

Best Connection to Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook Audience: Esurance

When Esurance heard about the Trevor Project, the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth, they immediately recognized a shared objective to keep people safe and wanted to do their part to spread awareness of the organization.  Just two weeks after setting up a donation-based campaign on Facebook and initiating promotion, it gained extraordinary social media buzz and involvement from celebrity supporters.  Esurance's results and ultimate contribution to The Trevor Project exceeded campaign objectives

To see the winning entry, click here.

We Can't Believe That Worked!: Motion Marketing & Media

In order to introduce Michigan to a broader audience, explore the state's business climate and overall perception, and understand how social media affects business big and small, Motion Marketing & Media's M3 Special PRops team set out on a 2 week adventure to all 83 counties in Michigan.  After meeting with hundreds of business owners and community leaders, the team had engaging case studies, blog posts, and video footage to share, as well as a greater understanding of the advantages of social media for businesses.

To see the winning entry, click here.

Best Outcome Based on Listening/Monitoring/Measurement:  National Drowning Prevention Alliance

The National Drowning Prevention Alliance executed an inbound marketing strategy that focused on listening and monitoring for brand conversations and topics about drowning prevention on channels including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.  With a goal to increase social media reach, drive website traffic, and convert traffic into advocates of drowning prevention, NDPA was able to leverage the insight to launch additional campaigns through social media and reach a broader, engaged audience.

To see the winning entry, click here.

About PR Newswire:

PR Newswire is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 57 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content — from rich media to online video to multimedia — and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

Media Contacts:
Rachel Meranus
Vice President, Marketing & Communications
201-360-6776
[email protected]

Meryl Serouya
Marketing & Communications Associate
201-360-6009
[email protected]

SOURCE PR Newswire Association LLC