Tag: NCPRSA

When Square Dancing Pays Off

Cherith AndesAwards, Blog, The Clairemont Team, , , , , , ,

To all of those wonderful media people who whipped out their best square dancing moves at the Wendell Falls Hoedown Showdown last May … thank you.

On May 10, the North Carolina Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA) hosted its 2017 InSpire Awards recognizing outstanding public relations and marketing campaigns in a variety of categories. The Clairemont team almost danced its pants off when we received 27 accolades from NCPRSA, adding to the agency’s existing 137 awards. Our most favorite, of course, was the Best in Show award for the Wendell Falls Hoedown Showdown … because who doesn’t love cuttin’ a rug for a good cause?

Clairemont’s 2017 InSpire Awards included:

  • Best in Show for “Creative Tactics: Hoedown Showdown at Wendell Falls”
  • Best in Category for “Creative Tactics: Hoedown Showdown at Wendell Falls”
  • Best in Category for “Events and Observances: Fire It Up! Briar Chapel’s 9th Annual Pepper Festival“
  • Best in Category for “Media Relations: The Media Digs Chef Teddy Diggs”
  • Best in Category for “Social Media: A Taste of Italy at Il Palio”
  • Best in Category for “Video: Our Coffee Cares at Wendell Falls”
  • Best in Category for “Feature Stories: Briar Chapel Unveils Encore”
  • Best in Category for “Brochures: Unlocking Your Child’s Future with Wendell Falls”
  • Best in Category for “Press Kits/Media Kits: Applebee’s Hand-Cut Wood-Fired Media Kit”
  • Best in Category for “Editorial/Op-Ed Columns: Piña Coladas, Creativity and #PinkBeetle“
  • Best in Category for “Advertorial: Newland Communities Advertorial for Wake Living”
  • Award of Excellence for “Creative Tactics: Hoedown Showdown at Wendell Falls”
  • Award of Excellence for “Creative Tactics: Vita Vite Creates Raleigh’s Sunday Spot”
  • Award of Excellence for “Creative Tactics: Briar Chapel Asks, ‘How Spicy is Your Personality?’”
  • Award of Excellence for “Events and Observances: Fire It Up! Briar Chapel’s 9th Annual Pepper Festival”
  • Award of Excellence for “Media Relations: The Media Digs Chef Teddy Diggs”
  • Award of Excellence for “Media Relations: DQ’s Miracle Treat Day to Benefit Duke Children’s Hospital“
  • Award of Excellence for “Social Media: A Taste of Italy at Il Palio”
  • Award of Excellence for “Video: Our Coffee Cares at Wendell Falls”
  • Award of Excellence for “Feature Stories: Briar Chapel Unveils Encore“
  • Award of Excellence for “Brochures: Unlocking Your Child’s Future with Wendell Falls”
  • Award of Excellence for “Press Kits/Media Kits: Applebee’s Hand-Cut Wood-Fired Media Kit”
  • Award of Excellence for “Editorial/Op-Ed Columns: Piña Coladas, Creativity and #PinkBeetle”
  • Award of Excellence for “Advertorial: Newland Communities Advertorial for Wake Living”
  • Award of Excellence for “Reputation/Brand Management: Il Palio Dishes Up Something New”
  • Award of Excellence for “Integrated Communications: Il Palio Dishes Up Something New”
  • Honorable Mention for “Social Media: Briar Chapel Asks, ‘How Spicy is Your Personality?‘”

We love what we do. We love our clients. We love doing what we love to do with the clients we love. (Whew! That’s a mouthful!) Thank you to our wonderful partners and clients who allow us to live out our dream and do great work for our community!

Want to know more about what we do? Check out a few of our case studies!

Read More

Award-Winning Social Media Campaigns

Dana PhelpsBlog, Case Studies, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , ,

The trends and best strategies for social media campaigns seem to change faster than our Facebook feed, but that’s an exciting challenge for us at Clairemont Communications. We’ve received 20 awards over the years in social media –eight Sir Walter Raleigh awards from the Raleigh Public Relations Society and an even dozen InSpire awards from the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA).

The InSpire Social Media awards we’ve received every year since 2011 include four Best in Category or Best in Show awards for one of our first social media clients, Thomasville Furniture. We began managing the company’s Facebook page in July 2010 at a time when social media for business was relatively new, after confirming Facebook’s potential as a customer engagement channel.

Established in 1904, Thomasville Furniture is a leading name in the home furnishings industry. We helped the company honor its long history by visually documenting its milestones with historic photos on its About page.

At the same time, we developed strategies to help younger customers understand Thomasville Furniture as a fashionable brand as well as a venerable one. Videos featuring younger actors and a more relaxed feel, and creative content about interior design increased the company’s 18 to 34-year old Facebook fans from 20 percent to 30 percent of the total fan base.

Our work with Thomasville Furniture exemplifies the passion that helped start Clairemont Communications — developing strategies that use both traditional and emerging forms of communications. One campaign for the company and its sister company Drexel Heritage combined local media and trade magazines with blog posts and Facebook content to boost brand recognition among consumers.

At Clairemont, we stay on top of new social media tools and their potential to help our clients. In 2015 we built and managed a customer application using the social engagement platform Shoutlet to host a special giveaway promotion for Thomasville. The company asked us to help it build brand awareness during its annual Memorial Day Sale; the resulting giveaway campaign increased its Facebook fan count by nearly 11,000 likes, created at least one million total daily impressions, and captured more than 100,000 new consumer leads.

A key to using social media effectively is understanding that it is not a broadcast medium; success comes from creating interaction and active engagement. We had confidence in our Memorial Day campaign because our previous experience managing Thomasville’s Facebook page had shown giveaways to be effective traffic-driving tools. In 2011 we promoted special giveaways throughout the year to build and sustain fan engagement. We also designed our interior design posts to get fans talking about their own design ideas. As a result, weekly interactions increased 155 percent, and the total Facebook fan base increased almost 178 percent from the previous year.

Since our work with Thomasville in Clairemont’s early history, we have had the pleasure to work with several other clients to develop social media strategies and support the day-to-day management of social media tactics. Examples of other client campaigns and our thoughts on emerging digital communications tools can be found on our blog under the social media category.

Maybe you love social media as much as we do. Or maybe keeping up with its  constant evolution feels daunting or too time-consuming. Either way, we’d love to help you put social media to work for your business! Email me at d@clairemontcommunications.com to schedule a call.

 

Read More

Clairemont’s Hughens Joins NCPRSA Panel

Clairemont InternBlog, In Our Community, PR People, , , ,

From NCPRSA…

Understanding Industry Awards From Industry Experts: Learn How To Construct Award-Winning Entries in Preparation for the NCPRSA InSpire Awards!

The NCPRSA InSpire awards recognize the most outstanding public relations campaigns, programs and tactics, and the dedication and contributions of public relations and communications professionals. Whether you are part of an agency, a non-profit organization or a corporation, being recognized with an InSpire Award can help elevate your career, help improve your business and put your personal stamp on the public relations profession.

Join us Wednesday, February 15 for a panel discussion to learn pro tips from these previous award participants and winners representing a variety of industry perspectives.

Panelist Bios:

Dana Phelps Hughens
CEO, Clairemont Communications
As chief executive officer of Clairemont Communications, Dana is living her dream, backed by 20 years of experience in public relations and marketing. She leads the Clairemont team in building communications strategies that include traditional media relations, marketing communications, and social media promotions for national and international brands.

Dana’s focus on creating magical client experiences began the year she interned in guest relations at Walt Disney World and was the co-founder of a student-run public relations agency on her college campus. Prior to launching Clairemont Communications, she served as a senior vice president and global practice group co-chair of Fleishman-Hillard. In addition to her agency work, Dana has held corporate communications positions, including the role of key lieutenant to Nortel’s chief marketing officer. She was responsible for global planning and integration of all marketing functions including corporate communications, branding and advertising, employee communications, tradeshows and events.

Throughout her career, Dana has led her teams to win several industry awards including: a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil, a PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, Inspire Best in Show awards by the North Carolina PRSA chapter and several other Inspire and Raleigh Public Relations Society Sir Walter Raleigh awards.

Eva R. Hornak, APR
Communications Manager, S.T. Wooten Corporation
Eva is the first and only communications pro at S.T. Wooten, a 65-year-old construction company. She focuses on employee communications for nearly 1,000 co-workers, writing the award-winning employee magazine and several internal newsletters. She also works with the management team on a variety of corporate and executive communications, including the website, videos and presentations. After contracting with a local PR firm in 2016, Evie now oversees the company’s social media and trade media outreach as well.

Eva started her career in 2004, spending six years with Raleigh public relations agency Epley Associates, which later became The Catevo Group. Clients she served included John Deere, BB&T, Lawn Doctor, Novozymes Biologicals, Misys, MediClick and Raytheon. She next served as communications manager for the Irrigation Association, where she managed member publications and reports, media relations and member committees.

Eva earned her accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America in 2013 and is a past president of the North Carolina chapter of PRSA. She served two years as secretary of the PRSA Southeast District board and has held various board roles for the Raleigh Public Relations Society. She is a past awards chair of both NCPRSA and RPRS.

Kim Strazisar
Kim Strazisar Communications, LLC
With more than a decade of experience, Kim is dedicated to giving her clients personal, practical, and professional public relations and communications services. She specializes in working with small business and non-profit organizations, because a limited budget, full schedule, or small staff shouldn’t keep quality communication out of reach. Her passion is teaching and speaking on communications topics. Most recently she has taught branding workshops at Meredith College and started hosting communication workshops for small businesses.

Before launching Kim Strazisar Communications, LLC in September 2014, she spent six years as Communications Director of the North Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association (NCNLA); responsible for developing, coordinating, marketing and publishing all NCNLA publications and advertising, along with grant writing, and event planning and management. She also worked as an account executive at The Rossman Group (now Truscott Rossman) in Lansing, Michigan, providing public relations services for multiple clients including The Michigan Oil & Gas Association (promoting Michigan Trust Fund Sites), DTE Energy (fighting energy deregulation), and Children’s Trust Fund of Michigan (raising awareness and funds for child abuse prevention). Her work won the agency several PACE Awards from the PRSA Central Michigan Chapter, including “Best in Show” for her work for The Michigan Oil & Gas Association. She has also volunteered for previous NCPRSA Award committees.

Her communication experience all started at The Phoenix Group (now Minacs Analytics) providing market research support for automotive clients like Daimler Chrysler.

Click here to register for the event.

Read More

On the Record: NCPRSA Seminar & Awards

Sarah HattmanBlog, On the Record, Professional Development, , , , ,

Ask anyone in PR, and they will tell you they welcome the opportunity to work with a client year after year. It allows us to get to really get to know our clients and their expectations and become embedded with their cultures, brands and products.

However, it can also come with the challenge of keeping it fresh. How do you sustain a multi-year campaign when the event or message is the same every year? That’s the question The North Carolina Public Relations Society of America is facing after 10 years of hosting its annual seminar and awards banquet.

Let’s go On the Record to find out what changes are taking place this year with NCPRSA’s seminar and awards programs.

Video Player

 

Want to know more about the seminar and awards banquet? Shoot me an email at s@clairemontcommunications.com.

Read More

On the Record: Goals and Productivity

Sarah HattmanBlog, On the Record, Professional Development, , , , , ,

How often do you find yourself wishing you had more hours in the day? I’m guessing quite often, and you’re not alone. This phrase is often muttered when someone is experiencing a sense of motivation, but quickly becomes frustrated because they are over committed and do not have time to do all that they want to do.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Tracey Gritz, productivity expert and owner of the Efficient Office, speak at an NCPRSA professional development luncheon. She discussed steps you can take to regain control and spend your valuable time on the work that really matters so that you end your day feeling energized instead of drained. Let’s go On the Record to learn some helpful tips to improve your quality of life through productivity.

 

Video Player

Interested in more productivity tips? Check out our advice on how to battle distractions.

Read More