2016 RPRS Awards Banquet in Review

We loved getting to celebrate excellence in communications with so many of our Triangle-area peers in the public relations and corporate communications fields last week at our annual awards banquet. Our thanks to Charlotte Agenda (and Raleigh Agenda) Co-Founder and Creative Director Katie Levans for serving as our keynote speaker and guest emcee for the evening, as well!

Many local organizations took home Sir Walter Raleigh Awards for Excellence in Communication and one very deserving professional received the Watt Huntley Award for Lifetime Achievement.

2016 Watt Huntley Award for Lifetime Achievement Winner: Pamela Meek – SAS

Pamela Meek, Senior Director of External Communications at SAS, has come a long way since her first job at Record Bar as a newly minted UNC-Chapel Hill journalism graduate. She began her career in internal communications at Record Bar, a Durham-based music store chain. Except for two years there and a five-month stint at the Duke University News Bureau, she has spent her entire professional life growing and developing the corporate communications program at Cary, N.C.-based SAS, the world’s leading analytics software maker.

In 30 years – 25 of them in leadership roles – she has influenced almost every aspect of SAS’ internal and external communications program. Her fingerprints are on everything from narrative on www.sas.com to the nuances of executive speeches to SAS’ presence on social media. She leads product and workplace culture public relations initiatives that cross company divisions and involve colleagues in other countries. A capable corporate spokesperson herself, she counsels executives to represent SAS in media interviews and speaking engagements at highly visible venues.

She built a world-class team whose accomplishments include producing the entries that won SAS an unbroken streak of 19 appearances on Fortune magazine’s elite list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. At a recent celebration of her three decades at SAS, co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight lauded her success, describing her and her teams as innovative and crediting them with establishing and expanding SAS’ reputation as analytics leader.

2016 Sir Walter Raleigh Awards for Excellence in Communication Winners

Division 1: Total Campaign
Category 1 – Promotional Campaign
Honorable Mention
French|West|Vaughan – Wrangler Honors Greensboro’s Textile History
Clairemont Communications – Briar Chapel Adds Heat to the 8th Annual Pepper Festival
Clairemont Communications – Papa Spuds Delivers Farm Fresh Food to Your Doorstep
Fleishman Hillard – Cree + Abby Wambach
Fleishman Hillard – Baby+Co. Grand Opening

Silver Winner
French|West|Vaughan – Showcasing the Best of the West- Dude Ranch-Style

Gold Winners
French/West/Vaughan – Meet me for Midnight
North Carolina Art Museum – Reaching Millennials at M.C. Escher

Category 2 – Organizational Identity/Promotion
Honorable Mention
French|West|Vaughan – PSCU Goes Back to the Future

Silver Winners
Clairemont Communications-Unveiling New Digs: II Palio Revamps and Renews
Fleishman Hillard- Sirtex-SIRFLOX Study

Gold Winner
French|West|Vaughan- NC State ISE Rises to No. 2 National Ranking

Category 6 – Miscellaneous Special Events
Honorable Mention
French|West|Vaughan- Riders by Lee Shines New Light on Body Positivity with “Mirror, Mirror” NYC Media Event

Silver Winners
French|West|Vaughan – Feed the Force: Moe’s Exclusive Premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens
S&A Communications – Second Annual Triangle Oktoberfest

Gold Winners
Clairemont Communications – Raising the Barn- Wendell Falls Grand Opening
Clairemont Communications – The Lincoln Apartments Ribbon Cutting

Best in Division for Total Campaign:
North Carolina Museum of Art- Reaching Millennials at M.C. Escher

Division 2: Publications
Category 8b – Brochure, Handbook or Guidebook with Three or More Colors
Silver Winner
Largemouth Communications-Eaton: There’s More to Our Story

Category 10b – Magazine with Three or More Colors
Gold Winner
S.T. Wooten Corporation- Beyond the Specs

Best in Division for Publications:
S.T. Wooten Corporation- Beyond the Specs

Division 3: Public Relations Writing
Category 13- Opinion/Feature Writing
Gold Winner
S&A Communications- Smith Anderson Article on Entrepreneur.com

Category 14- News Release
Gold Winner
Clairemont Communications- Growers Reinvent Farming Practice with New Technologies
Best in Division for Public Relations Writing
S&A Communications- Smith Anderson Article on Entreprenuer.com

Division 4: Digital Communications
Category 16 – Website
Silver Winner
French|West|Vaughan – Wrangling Multimedia Content for the Western Lifestyle

Category 17 – Social Media
Gold Winner
French|West|Vaughan – Pendleton Midnight Launch

Category 19- Video and Film
Honorable Mention
Fleishman Hillard – Cree Abby Wambach Tribute Video

Silver Winner
French|West|Vaughan – Pendleton Midnight Launch

Gold Winner
Clairemont Communications- Clairemont Communications Celebrates Six Years with Good to Be Alive Video

Best in Division for Digital Communications
Clairemont Communications – Clairemont Communications Celebrates Six Years with Good to Be Alive Video

Division 5: More Bang for the Buck
Category 21- Special Event/Campaign
Honorable Mention
S&A Communications – Cary Family Dental’s Fourth Annual Dentistry From the Heart Event

Silver Winners
French|West|Vaughan – Carolina Beach Kicks Off Beach Season with Boardwalk Grand Opening
Fleishman Hillard – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation- Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Campaign

Gold Winner
French|West|Vaughan – Golf Driving PTSD Road to Recovery

Best in Division for More Bang for the Buck
French|West|Vaughan – Golf Driving PTSD Road to Recovery