Narrative PR worked the phones and came away with one of Canadian PR’s highest accolades.
The agency’s “Best Conversation Ever” initiative for client Wind Mobile was the big winner at the Toronto chapter of the International Association of Business Communicator’s (IABC) 27th annual Ovation Awards this week. It captured the People’s Choice Award as the best communications program of the year. IABC members vote on the award.
The “Conversation” initiative, which also received an Award of Excellence in Media Relations, facilitated telephone conversations between ordinary Canadians and heroes such as NHL star Sidney Crosby and Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan while also raising $500,000 for charity.
The program overachieved on all of its stated objectives, including media impressions (46.5 million as opposed to the stated goal of 20 million), media hits (183 versus the stated goal of 50) and Facebook page likes (31,925 versus 16,500).
“We exceeded all of our expectations on many fronts,” said Lindsay Mattick Davidson, director of public relations and lead creative strategist for Narrative. “It blew all the targets we set with the client out of the water.”
Among the campaign’s biggest “gets” were Pittsburgh Penguins star Crosby – “there are about a billion people that want to talk to Sidney, so that was pretty significant” said Davidson – and Nolan, who spoke with an aspiring filmmaker from Vancouver while on the U.K. set of this summer’s The Dark Night Rises.
“We knew it would be challenging, but it was incredible to get to the right people to connect with him,” said Davidson. “Every single conversation had its own magic.”
The Ovation Awards also handed out five awards of distinction:
• Diana Degan & Associates, the IABC/Toronto Boutique Agency of the Year
• Maverick PR, Small Agency of the Year
• Strategic Objectives, Mid-size Agency of the Year
• Edelman Canada, Large Agency of the Year
• Barrick Gold Corporation, Corporate Communications Department of the Year
