Lou Hammond & Assocs. took home PR 23 awards and Laura Davidson PR won “Best of Show” at the 55th annual Adrian Awards banquet Feb. 27 attended by 800+ at the New York Marriott Marquis.

Recognized was Davidson’s campaign for the opening of the Kerzner International “CRUSH” Teen Club at the Atlantis, Paradise island.

Adrian Awards
More than 800 industry and agency pros attended the event.
Davidson was the second biggest PR winner with 16 awards besides “Best of Show” including one Platinum, five Gold, Five Silver and Five Bronze.

Other Davidson Gold and Silver winners were for Abercombie & Kent (two awards); Tourism Victoria (Australia); The Resort at Paws Up; Sanctuary Retreats; Tourisme Montreal (two awards) and Trump SoHo, New York.

Hammond, which for eleven years in a row has been the top HSMAI PR award winner, had three Golds among its awards. They were for TV feature placements for the Holliday Companies Iron Chef and the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, and for the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Opening.

Weber Shandwick Wins 13


Weber Shandwick had 13 winners including two Platinums, five Gold, three Silver and three Bronze.

WS has won a record 15 Platinum Awards in the past 16 years.

Platinum Awards were for the “Bonjour Montreal” promotion for the Canadian Tourism Commission featuring Kathie Lee and partner Hoda and for the Chicago Sun-Times coverage of the Seafood Festival for the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. Gold awards (besides those picked for Platinum) were for Harbour Island, Bahamas, Rand McNally, and feature placement-TV for Royal Caribbean’s Kathie Lee & Hoda segment.

Rene Mack is president of the WS Travel & Lifestyle practice.

Quinn & Co. also won 13 awards including Golds for Conrad Maldives Turns First Underwater Restaurant into Underwater Bedroom; Finger Lakes Tourism; World’s Only True President Suite Goes Live, and Outdoor Space at Affinia Hotels.

MMGY Global Won 17 in PR & Digital


Timothy Messer-Kruse
Gendron accepts the Winthrop W. Grice Award for PR excellence.
MMGY Global, a $150 million integrated global marketing firm which now includes the former Y Partnership of Orlando, garnered 16 awards including a Platinum for Travel Guard for the “World’s Unluckiest Traveler” campaign; Gold and Bronze awards for Hotel Missoni; Silver for the Mayfair Hotel, and Bronze awards for Rocky Mountaineer, Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Vacation Rental Managers Assn.

It won five awards for advertising campaigns and four for digital campaigns.

Also winning Platinum PR awards were Peter Island Resort & Spa with Anson-Stoner; Wildcatter Ranch & Resort with Tucker & Assocs., and Hilton HHonors with Edelman.

The Winthrop W. Grice Award for lifetime public relations excellence was given to Mary Gendron, president of Middleton & Gendron Brand Communications.

Gendron said that since receiving the award she has had to adjust to being “in the limelight myself after a career of putting others in the limelight.” She thanked co-workers for their support over the past three decades.