The Client
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter is a professional organization serving San Diego’s communications community by providing members lifelong learning opportunities and leading-edge resources to enhance professional connections and support them at every stage of their career. Tenacious Marketing Co-Founder, Tanita Antonio, has been an active volunteer with PRSA since 2017 and has been serving as the Digital Communication Director on the San Diego/ Imperial Counties Board of Directors since 2019.
The Challenge
PRSA SD/IC’s most popular event is their annual Edward L. Bernays Awards. The event recognizes the expertise and dedication of public relations programs, tactics, and communications professionals in the community. While this event is traditionally celebrated in person, the chapter faced unprecedented challenges with COVID-19 during their 2020 plans. Being active members of the chapter and digital communications experts, we knew we could help recreate the buzz of this highly anticipated event online through an organic strategy.
The Plan
In past years, the Bernays Awards filled a lavish venue and spanned several hours of fun, food, and drinks. Attendees have time for networking, speeches, and recognition of award recipients. Amid the pandemic, the PRSA SD/IC Board of Directors prioritized the safety of members by moving the event online. The plan was to re-create the event as an online experience while keeping the classic Bernays spark. We advised in creating an organic full-day Twitter event coupled with a Zoom reception. This strategy would allow the PRSA SD/IC Chapter to recognize Special Award recipients in person while limiting Zoom-fatigue. Additionally, the full-day Twitter event would act as a social location where members could celebrate together on their own time.
Crafting the tools
Working with the Chapter’s 2020 Bernays team, we began by drafting a strategy for an organic virtual campaign that would come to life for members. The PRSA team began drafting tweets, while we created a set of eight graphic designs falling in line with the Bernays Award theme of #Resilience2020: Bronze Merit, Silver Merit, Bronze Excellence, Silver Excellence, Special Awards, Best in Show, Intro and Outro Backgrounds, and promotional. These graphics were the main visual representation of the awards online. We created a total of 71 graphics and published 97 tweets during the event.
The Results
We developed a total of 71 graphics to go along with pre-drafted Twitter posts by the 2020 Bernays Team. Publishing time was an important aspect of the event, so we developed a posting schedule with 5-15 minute increments. Co-Founder Tanita managed the distribution of posts and replies on the day of the Twitter event. Below are the resulting analytics from this organic strategy.
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“Tanita and I worked closely during the 2020 Edward L. Bernays Mark of Excellence awards program in which she and her team developed beautiful videos and graphics for the online awards ceremony. She also advised on the social media strategy for the virtual awards program and helped expertly manage the many moving pieces around the rollout of the award winners on PRSA SD/IC’s social media channels. Tanita is highly collaborative, creative and fun to work with!”
Amber Winans
PRSA SD/IC Edward L. Bernays Mark of Excellence Awards Committee Co-chair