PR Awards Round-Up

Seigenthaler Tops Nashville PR Awards

Seigenthaler PR, Nashville, won Best in Show honors at PRSA/Nashville's annual Parthenon Awards May 1 for its media relations work on behalf of sewing brands marketer SVP Worldwide.

DVL PR & Advertising took home eight Parthenons, followed by Seigenthaler (7), McNeely, Piggott & Fox (6) and the YMCA of Middle Tennessee (2).

Paula Lovell of Lovell Communications received the chapter's Hercules Award for contributions to the industry and Kallie Bienvenu of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee was honored with the Mercury Award for achievement by a young PR pro.

The PR program at Western Kentucky University's School of Journalism & Broadcasting, along with its student-run agency, Imagewest, swept the student category for several endeavors, including a healthy eating campaign and production of the university's human resources benefits booklet.

WKU PR team

Palomar, Cook & Schmid Take San Diego Health PR Honors

Palomar Health, the public health district in San Diego County, won Best in Show honors from the Health Care Communicators of San Diego for PR campaign to open the new Palomar Medical Center.

The HCCSD honors marketing campaigns in PR, advertising, A/V, new media and events, among other categories.

Cook & Schmid won four gold awards at the event, including in the overall campaign, community relations, multicultural marketing and health & wellness PR categories for its "Fight the Bite" public education campaign supporting West Nile Virus prevention with the San Diego County Dept. of Environmental Health. 

An internal communications campaign for ExxonMobil by American Specialty Health was another gold PR winner.

Full list of winners is at hccsd.org.

Seng Honored for Healthcare PR Career

Seng

John Seng, founder and president of Washington-based healthcare PR specialist Spectrum, was given the 2013 Frank J. Weaver Lifetime Achievement Award by the PRSA Health Academy May 1 in Indianapolis.

Seng, who did stints at Pfizer, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and InterScience, is a 30-year industry veteran. "Although I earned my degree in journalism, I’ve never regretted, even for one day, choosing public relations as my profession,” he said.

The Academy also honored David Blom, president/CEO of OhioHealth of Columbus with the MacEachern Chief Executive Officer Award, which goes to a CEO who uses PR in an effective way. Blom added the chief communications officer title to a senior VP at his company, one of six SVPs reporting directly to him.

Largemouth Gulps Best in Show from PRSA/NC

Largemouth Communications of Durham took Best in Show honors at PRSA/North Carolina's annual InSpire Awards May 1 for its PR efforts for convenience store chain Kangaroo Express.

Largemouth's marketing campaign touting KE's 25-cent beverage cup, the RooCup, was tops in the Silver category. S&A Cherokee took home Best in Show honors for the bronze category with its campaign for Cirque du Soleil's Dralion in Raleigh.

Multiple "best in category" winners included Clairemont Communications, Raleigh (7 awards), S&A Cherokee, Cary (5), and FleishmanHillard, Charlotte (2).

The Elite PR team from the Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill took home top student PR honors for its "Real Change – Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness" campaign.

Full list of winners, including awards of excellence and honorable mentions, is at https://ncprsa.org/content.php?page=Winners.

Black Feted By Harlow Foundation

Charlie Black, chairman of Burson-Marsteller's Washington-based Prime Policy Group lobbying and public affairs unit, received the Bryce Harlow Foundation Business-Government Relations Award April 16 at the foundation's annual awards dinner in D.C.

The annual award goes to a leader in the professional advocacy sector with a lifelong career in lobbying.

The veteran Republican strategist counsels corporations and trade groups in addition to candidates, including Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.

McCain presented Black the Harlow award, noting, "“We have talked at least once a week for the last 31 years, sometimes three or four times a day depending on what’s going on."

Black was also a spokesman for President George H. W. Bush's 1992 campaign.

Texas Instruments Honors M/C/C

M/C/C, Dallas, won the Texas Instruments 2012 Supplier Excellence Award, one of only 12 vendors out 12,000 which supply services to the Dallas electronics giant.

M/C/C handles media management, creative and media planning work for the company.

TI gives the honors annually to suppliers with exemplary performance in areas like cost, social responsibility, technology, assurance of supply and quality.