2014 Thoth Winning Entries

Dr Pepper SnappleGroup with Ketchum
McKayla Maroney is Impressed…with 7UP TEN®

Dr Pepper Snapple Group was introducing TEN™, 10-calorie versions of five soda brands, into a competitive and crowded soda and beverage category. The PR team saw an opportunity to impress consumers with the new line by tapping into a pop culture meme sensation: “McKayla Maroney Is Not Impressed.”

When McKayla agreed to endorse the brand, we introduced the world to McKayla’s “impressed face” and also impressed consumers through a sampling event at our branded “TEN Station” in Penn Station. McKayla and 7UP TEN® appeared everywhere – from CNN, to Jimmy Kimmel Live!, to The Wall Street Journal – helping to boost sales.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Know Stroke: A Fresh Take on a Classic Campaign
Since 2001, the NINDS Know Stroke campaign has educated Americans about the signs of stroke and the importance of calling 9-1-1 immediately. In 2009, NINDS launched a campaign Facebook page, which had just 3,800 ‘likes’ after four years. In 2013, Ogilvy and NINDS “went digital” in recognition of Stroke Awareness Month in order to make the Facebook page more central to the campaign. Modern graphics paired with an outreach strategy throughout the month-long observance resulted in more than 15,000 new page ‘likes,’ high engagement with content (comments, shares, and ‘likes’), and greater reach to audiences most at risk for stroke.

Certificate of Excellence
Public Interest Registry with Allison+Partners
Promoting the Power of .ORG Worldwide: Going Global in Advance of the Internet Evolution

This year, the Internet, as we know it, will change. The likes of .COM, .NET and .ORG will be joined by new domains such as .GOOGLE, .YOUTUBE, .CANON and 1400+ others! As the nonprofit operator of the .ORG domain (the third largest domain with nearly 10.5 million registrations), Public Interest Registry aims to be a part of the Internet evolution by not only strengthening international brand awareness of its flagship offering .ORG, but also by introducing a brand new domain called .NGO which will be an exclusive online home to non-governmental organizations worldwide.

We knew that DoubleTree travelers love to tell and share stories. But how could DoubleTree leverage these to highlight its international portfolio and beautiful properties?

We worked with Google to build DTour, the first-ever YouTube channel integrating social media networks to streamline travel sharing. Then, we created the “DTour of a Lifetime” competition – a search for six “DTourists” to travel to one of the six continents with DoubleTree properties. Each “DTourist” embarks on a two- to four-week trip and shares highlights on DTour.

Booz Allen Hamilton for the U.S. Navy
“Keep What YOu’ve Earned” Campaign

The U.S. Navy contracted Booz Allen Hamilton to develop and implement a social marketing campaign to encourage Sailors to drink responsibly. The “Keep What You’ve Earned” campaign, launched in April 2013, aims to encourage Sailors to drink responsibly through the use of affirmative messaging, reminding them of all they have accomplished in their Navy careers. The campaign has received tremendous support Navy-wide from social media on the official U.S. Navy Facebook and Twitter accounts to Sailor-run events encouraging fellow Sailors to make responsible decisions. The campaign, along with additional policy changes in the Navy, has led to fewer alcohol-related incidents.

DC Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration with Octane PR and Advertising
K2 Zombie: DC’s Youth Synthetic Marijuana Public Education Campaign

In Washington, DC the average age of a synthetic marijuana user is 13 ½ years old. With names like “Scooby Snacks” and “OMG!” this drug is sold in colorful pouches decorated with designs, including cartoon characters at local gas stations and convenience stores.

Youth smoke it and experience negative health and psychological effects. Octane launched the first comprehensive youth synthetic marijuana social marketing campaign — K2 Zombie DC — to educate youth about the dangers of the drug. Octane created compelling advertising/materials and engaged youth at events, via social media as well as with an interactive website resulting in increased awareness about this drug.

Internal Communications (for organizations with fewer than 10,000 employees or members)

U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center
USAASC “51Charlie” Internal Communications

“I want YOU for the U.S. Army” may have worked for Uncle Sam, but budget cuts and competition present the U.S. Army entirely new challenges for recruiting the best of the best—even from within the U.S. Army. That was true in 2013 for a team dedicated to recruiting a diverse group of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) to reclassify to the 51C (“51 Charlie”) MOS, or the acquisition, logistics, and technology contracting NCO military occupation specialty (MOS).

Announcing that you’re moving from your hometown is never easy. Even on a small scale, there’s a lot at stake including the unknown reactions of friends and family members. Now imagine announcing such a move for a Fortune 300 company with more than 26,000 employees.

Hertz faced this challenge in May 2013 when it planned to announce it was relocating its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Florida. Ketchum’s program managed the multi-million-dollar announcement, preventing leaks and creating third-party support that neutralized detractors – ensuring Hertz’s smart business rationale became the main news and resulting in 93% neutral-positive coverage.

Ketchum worked with BD’s new division, BDRx, to launch its new line of generic pre-filled injectables, BD Simplist™. Ketchum leveraged research showing the high cost and instance of injectable medication errors to position BDRx as not only a newcomer to the space, but a potential solution to this problem. A pre-approval awareness program and a business-focused media strategy positioned BDRx as the state-of-the-art entrant into the industry. The media campaign included an exclusive in The Wall
Street Journal and two FDA approvals within a month. BD Simplist sales exceeded expectations, and media characterized the market as in need of BDRx.

The Clorox Company with Ketchum
Don’t Cry Over Ick…Laugh It Up With Clorox

As Clorox entered its Centennial year, it was clear today’s consumers, or “Newly Responsibles,” were losing touch with he hard-scrubbing ways of their parents.

To make Clorox relevant to today’s generation of cleaners, we needed to show how laughable life’s messes can be once the mess is gone.

Clorox joined the conversation on mess, inserted its products as solutions and made mess fun. Online conversations discussing Clorox increased, consumers began making a connection between life’s messes and Clorox, the team put several hundred dirty terms up in our lexicon of laughter and more than 5.5K “Bleachable Moments” were confessed.

Marc L. Apter, Image Power, Inc.
The Nation’s First Civil Rights “Foot Soldiers”Memorial

On August 28, 2013, MLK Jr. Committee, a (501 (c)(3) organization in Annapolis, MD, dedicated the first national memorial to the foot soldiers of the 1963 March on Washington. Erected in Annapolis, the monument honors the ordinary folks who brought international attention the civil rights struggle for African Americans. The pro bono Public Relations program conducted by Image Power, Inc., reached out to attendees of the March; raised funds for the commission of the memorial; coordinated the unveiling and publicized the event to local, state and national media. This recognition helped educate a new generation about the Civil Rights struggle.

Biotechnology Industry Association
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – Updating the Excise Tax on New Vaccines

Inaccurate news stories threatened to derail critical public health legislation to update the flu vaccine excise tax to include recent approvals. The backdrop of this campaign was the negative sentiment toward any new tax.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 established the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program during a time when many vaccine manufacturers were leaving the market due to litigation concerns. The Program established a “no-fault” alternative for resolving injury claims.

BIO turned negative press attention and growing sentiment on the Hill to withdraw support for this critical public health bill into a major win for the industry.

Distracted driving is responsible for at least 3,000 fatalities and 400,000 injuries per year. The meteoric rise of voice-based technologies in the car has led to a growing concern about a looming public safety crisis. In line with its long history as a road safety advocate, and on behalf of 54 million members and the American public, AAA stepped in to shed light on a new concern: cognitive distraction. AAA’s public outreach secured more than 320 million media impressions and successfully influenced the media’s discussion on driver distraction.

National Association of Broadcasters with Ogilvy Washington
OK2TALK: Giving Youth a Voice to Discuss Mental Health

Following the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Ogilvy Washington partnered with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to produce a compelling PSA campaign to chip away at the stigma surrounding mental illness and create an online community for teens struggling with mental health problems to share personal stories. With nine TV and four radio PSAs along with launching OK2TALK.org, a Tumblr-based platform, we garnered 293,380 TV and radio airings to date. OK2TALK.org reached over 100,000 click-throughs to get help and consumer engagement contributed to a 7% increase in calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

DC Addiction prevention and Recovery Administration with Octane PR & Advertising
K2: Zombie: DC’s Youth Synthetic Marijuana Public Education Campaign

In Washington, DC the average age of a synthetic marijuana user is 13 ½ years old. With names like “Scooby Snacks” and “OMG!”
this drug is sold in colorful pouches decorated with designs, including cartoon characters at local gas stations and convenience stores.

Finn Partners and the Embassy for the Republic of Korea
U.S. Korea Connect – Building U.S. Awareness of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement

Finn Partners established the Embassy of the Republic of Korea’s reputation as the premiere thought leader on the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) through the U.S. Korea Connect program. The integrated program generates awareness of the economic benefits of the FTA and establishes Korea’s importance as a U.S. trade partner. Through the development and distribution of business success stories, trade-focused tools and other original content U.S. Korea Connect has organically cultivated an engaged network of more than 25,000 individuals representing businesses, government and media who look to the Embassy of Korea as THE source for KORUS FTA information.

Component Winners

On behalf of Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Transplantation (HRSA/DoT) an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Crosby Marketing Communications developed an information card that HRSA, organ procurement organizations (OPOs), and other groups can distribute to provide quick information about organ donation, answer frequently asked questions, and provide details about how to register to become a donor. By producing an easy-to-view brochure that gave top-level facts about organ donation, readers were able to scan the QR code on their smartphones and visit our mobile site. HRSA/DoT distributed more than 12,000 cards through these conferences and through orders from different organizations across the country

DC Water Office of External Affairs
Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant Brochure

A brochure for The Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant includes relevant technical information but is re-written for a lay audience and with all-important discussion of environmental stewardship and financial impacts up front. Re-imagining a 12-page brochure, External Affairs created a brochure with important thematic discussion of DC Water’s environmental stewardship through the service of cleansing wastewater from more than 2 million people in the Metropolitan area. Discussion is given to other sources of nutrients to the Chesapeake Bay, shedding light on a problem only solved by a wider watershed solution. Discussion of the importance of recovering resources is included.

HRSA/DoT and Crosby Marketing
“Organ Donation and Transplantation: How Does it Work?”Animated Video

\On behalf of Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Transplantation (HRSA/DoT) an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Crosby Marketing Communications developed the “Organ Donation and Transplantation: How Does It Work?” animated video to inform viewers about the process of organ donation and transplantation. There are currently more than 123,000 people on the national transplant waiting list, so it is vital to increase the number of registered donors to enable more people to receive life-saving organs. The video has received over 29,000 YouTube views and over 5,000 likes and almost 6,000 shares on Facebook.

Easter Seals Dixon Center’s op-ed campaign promoted effective, shareable solutions to support veterans’ education, employment and health/well-being. Placements in Forbes, Hearst Newspapers, PolicyMic and Huffington Post helped achieve the organization’s primary goal of building its reputation as a leading advocate for veterans and military families while extending the influence of COL David Sutherland within social media.

On Veteran’s Day 2013, the Richmond Times Dispatch published an op-ed written by Susan Davis International on behalf of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Our goal was to encourage interest in visiting the National Museum of the Marine Corps, not by promoting new museum features, but by enlightening the perspective of potential visitors. Our team wanted to prove that this Museum had a higher purpose. The Museum recorded a 10 percent increase in visitors in the month the piece was published, over the same month in 2012 – the largest growth in visitors for one month between 2012 and 2013.

Susan Davis International
Horse of a Different Color. Marine Red, to be Exact

On July 26, 2013, Susan Davis International’s client, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, dedicated a monument to Sgt Reckless – a Marine Corps Korean War Horse – outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps. SDI leveraged the event to earn media coverage beyond the usual museum and military media; we targeted international, national, regional, equine, animal and history media. The results were spectacular. Media attending and covering the event hailed from around the world. Nearly every national news network aired stories, as did their affiliates across the country. The coverage totaled to nearly 200 million media impressions

Hertz set out to reinvent the process of renting a car as we know it and change consumers’ perception that it was just another “large” and “costly” brand. To do so, Ketchum developed and executed a high-powered media campaign to launch the company’s transformative initiative, under the name Project North Star, to help the brand strikingly stand out from competitors by launching a “fleet” of innovative new services addressing important customer needs and desires around car rental. Ketchum secured 245 media placements garnering more than 400 million media impressions, helping Hertz increase net revenue by 22% year over year.

Since 2007, PadillaCRT has worked to raise the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) profile and that of physical therapists for the role they play in preventing injuries and maintaining fitness and mobility as you age. In 2013, PadillaCRT created an initiative during National Physical Therapy Month, generating national news coverage and delivering message points about APTA’s broader mission. Wanting to be seen as thought-leaders in the mobility space, APTA sought to target Baby Boomers. Our solution tied into the media’s insatiable interest in “Best Places to Live” by launching a research project to determine the “Fittest Baby Boomer Cities in America.”

MURDER, SEX, and GREED? It’s an unusual approach for the floral industry, but Ogilvy Washington was determined to create awareness for how the American Floral Endowment is the “greenhouse” for the floriculture industry and is a growth mechanism for its future sustainability. Ogilvy created this provocative video to surprise and engage industry members and showcase how AFE is developing young industry leaders and is the funder of valuable research. The release of the video has exceeded all expectations, being showcased at major industry conferences, offered free advertising and editorial in industry publications and distributed and shared widely by its leadership.

Clorox set out to introduce the new Clorox Ick-tionary (www.icktionary.com): a wiki-style dictionary that brings to life the icky situations parents and others face with made-up terms to become the new “language of mess.” To do so, Clorox teamed up with Ick-sperts: influential modern moms and dads with a strong online and social media presence to help create and launch the Clorox Ick-tionary. With their help in addition to traditional media tactics, the Clorox Ick-tionary saw more than 977,385 page views in the first three months of launch, 40% of which were a direct result of PR activations.

Annie E. Casey Foundation & News Generation
Childhood Development Across Education, Health and Other Critical Areas of Well-Being

Hager Sharp and the Annie E. Casey Foundation engaged News Generation to raise awareness of a series of reports on the development of children in key areas of education, health, and social development. Three radio media tours and one audio bite line distribution were utilized to most effectively reach targeted audiences, including providing localized information to statewide networks and local stations. The campaign dramatically over-delivered the target reach of fifty million by 33 percent, pulling in more than 66 million listeners and efficiently utilized a $39,400 budget, investing just six one-hundredth of one penny per earned listener.

In 2013, Best Buy turned to Strauss Media Strategies to complete one of their largest television campaigns ever that included several Satellite Media Tours, in-studio interviews, and on-site events to support the messaging for the holiday season. Strauss Media managed a nationwide television outreach that included interviews on ESPN SportsCenter, the Today Show, CNN, ABC News, and on local affiliates in the top 20 media markets. The successful television campaign resulted in 63 interviews all across the country, resulting in 100 airings in the month between Black Friday and Christmas Eve.

The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors® RE+VIEW magazine, a valued member benefit, is mailed bi-monthly to Realtors® and others, offering timely information about:
► industry practices and strategies;
► local and national demographics;
► housing statistics and trends;
► industry and association events;
► industry legislation and Realtor® PAC news;
► educational classes and related content.

The editorial staff strives to deliver the latest professional news, with recurring columnists, guest contributors and freelance feature articles about newsworthy topics. A top-ranked membership communication tool, RE+VIEW magazine is accessible to everyone as an online digital publication on www.nvar.com.

National Education Foundation with Lyons PR
Read Across America at the NY Public Library

To commemorate Dr. Seuss’s birthday and launch its nationwide Read Across America celebration, the National Education Association (NEA) hosted a star-studded kickoff event at the New York Public Library in Manhattan on March 1, 2013.

NEA teamed with Lyons PR to produce a webcast to share the event with NEA’s 3 million members around the country. The webcast could be viewed from the Read Across America Facebook page and the HD production featured multiple camera angles, on-screen graphics to identify speakers and provide fun facts, and even a social media crawl to incorporate Tweets and Facebook comments from those watching.

Entertainment Software Association
Check the Ratings: An Integrated Public Education Campaign to Heighten Awareness of Video Game Ratings and Parental Controls

In 2013, amid a heightened national dialogue about gun violence in the United States, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) sought to heighten awareness among parents of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating system and the parental controls available on all current video game devices.
ESA developed a first-of-its-kind national public service announcement (PSA) and engaged in a robust public education campaign that leveraged the unique interconnectivity and reach of the video game industry’s platforms and partnerships – through which the industry has more than 300 million interactions with consumers each day – to promote the PSA.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) made a significant impact in 2013.

To illustrate our successes, the NAM published Impact, a report highlighting the NAM’s activities on a number of fronts, from lobbying on Capitol Hill, to advocacy campaigns in the states, to media coverage throughout the country.

Through spectacular original photography, bold graphics and engaging text, Impact tells the story of the NAM’s leadership as the most effective and influential advocate for the manufacturing economy and reflects the innovative and dynamic nature of the NAM’s membership.

Impact, advocate, influence, engage … these are the words and themes that pop.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention with Ogilvy Washington
Dating Matters® / i2i: What R U Looking 4® Campaign

Since 2007, Ogilvy Washington has worked with CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention to prevent teen dating violence. Ogilvy developed a direct-to-youth communications program to be implemented by four grantee communities, i2i: What R U Looking 4®. i2i promotes respectful, nonviolent dating relationships among youth living in high-risk, urban communities ages 11-14. i2i reaches the primary audience by recruiting brand ambassadors ages 15-18 to co-create and spread i2i through events and digital components, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instragram. To help communities promote i2i and Being i2i, and host i2i events, Ogilvy developed a toolkit with a mix of in-hand and customizable materials.

DC Water is using social media to inform the public about its massive tunnel boring machine and the journey she is making underneath the city. Lady Bird’s twitter feed uses humor and multimedia content to communicate about the Clean Rivers Project, a tunnel system that will improve the region’s waterways.

On behalf of Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Transplantation (HRSA/DoT) an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, Crosby Marketing Communications developed a Facebook Shareable Graphic Campaign to help inspire more Americans to become organ donors. This enhanced social media offering provided users with compelling and highly engaging graphics to share with their Facebook friends leading to over 60,000 new likes to the page and driving 9,000 new visitors to organdonor.gov where they could obtain further information and sign up as a donor.

Tapit Metro D.C. is a network of partnering businesses in the metropolitan Washington region. Partners offer free drinking water to anyone with a reusable container to promote tap water as a sustainable, healthy and affordable alternative to bottled water or sugary beverages. The free Tapit Metro, D.C. smartphone application makes it easy to find participating businesses and allows users to endorse the service on social media. The app increases the convenience of tap water and helps DC Water and regional Tapit Metro, D.C. supporters to communicate the value of tap water.

Susan Davis International
ShareYour Story: Engaging Museum and Library Communities

In 2013, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) an independent federal agency providing the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,500 museums, retained SDI to promote the National Medal program and refresh the outdated perception many have about libraries and museums. SDI expanded IMLS” Natitonal Medal communications program by growing IMLS’ Facebook presence, increasing engagement and awareness of the unique programs at museums and libraries nationwide through the Share Your Story Initiative. Immediately successful, the IMLD Facebook page grew from 200 to over 2000 likes in just two weeks.

Hilton Worldwide with Ketchum with Ketchum
DoubleTree by Hilton’s Dtour of a Lifetime

We knew that DoubleTree travelers love to tell and share stories. But how could DoubleTree leverage these to highlight its international portfolio and beautiful properties?

National Associate of Broadcasters with Ogilvy Washington
OK2TALK: Giving Youth a Voice to Discuss Mental Health

Following the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Ogilvy Washington partnered with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to produce a compelling PSA campaign to chip away at the stigma surrounding mental illness and create an online community for teens struggling with mental health problems to share personal stories. With the launch of OK2TALK.org, a Tumblr-based platform, we reached over 100,000 click-throughs to get help and consumer engagement contributed to a 7% increase in calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Enroll America with Ogilvy Washington
Get Covered America – Your Health. Your Choice.

Enroll America needed a website where people could get clear, fact-based information about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), request help, and start the application process.

To meet an extremely accelerated timeline, Ogilvy adopted an agile approach to web design and development, sacrificing traditional deliverables like static page comps in favor of functional prototypes. The web team worked hyper-collaboratively building a content-rich, responsive site, with custom functionality, on the open source WordPress platform.

By the end of open enrollment in March 31, the website had two million unique visitors and connected 380,000 people to their marketplace or to application assistance online.

Certificate of Excellence

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Health Library

Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) provides an online Health Library of encyclopedic content for thousands of diseases, conditions, treatments and procedures. In 2013, JHM’s strategic plan called for the organization to be the national leader in patient and family-centered care. With this in mind, the Internet Strategy team initiated a goal to position JHM as the leading provider of online health information and embarked on a three-pronged approach to 1) introduce original JHM content into the Library, 2) develop a taxonomy to connect the user-friendly terms in the Library with faculty specialties in the Find a Doctor directory and 3) rebuild the Library using responsive design techniques.

2014 Thoth Winning Entries

Program Winners

Component Winners

Program Winners

Component Winners

Program Winners

Component Winners

Program Winners

Component Winners

Sign Up for Our Email List