GillespieHall Walks Away With Six National 2013 Service Industry Advertising Awards

The Atlanta-based Service Industry Advertising Awards (SIAA) announced today that local social marketing and public relations firm GillespieHall received two gold awards, one silver award, one bronze award and two merit awards in the 2013 SIAA competition.

GillespieHall (GH) was awarded gold for its social media campaign with Healthy Air Pennsylvania and for the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic Mini-Grant annual report, delivering GH its seventh gold award in the last three years. GH also received a silver award for its outdoor underage drinking awareness ad campaign for the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, and a bronze award for its social media campaign with the Delaware Prevention Coalition, Hollywood Invades Delaware. In addition to the four medal awards, GillespieHall received two merit awards: one for a logo designed for an anti-tobacco youth movement campaign , “WAKE UP,” and another for the Brandywine Counseling and Community Services’ Needle Exchange Program printed literature. Nearly 3,000 entries were received in this year’s SIAA competition. Entries were submitted from corporate giants such as AAA, Independence Blue Cross, the Washington Post, and Vanguard, as well as 1,000 other corporations and at least 600 agencies from across the country. GH’s work was evaluated by a national panel of judges.

SIAA is the only advertising awards to specifically recognize communication excellence in the service industry. Many other advertising awards are dominated by consumer goods, packaged goods and other tangible products. SIAA recognizes the creativity and communication accomplishments of organizations influencing positive behaviors.
GillespieHall, a minority-owned social marketing and public relations firm based in Hockessin, Delaware, is an award-winning business with an unusual history. Global public relations practitioner Bridget Gillespie Paverd and Harvard-trained physician Neal Hall head-up a dynamic communications team. With a long-standing history of producing distinctive public awareness and publicity campaigns, GH is best known for elevating reputations and causes through powerful and diverse communication programs, especially social media. This year GH won two top MarCom Awards for two entirely different social media campaigns: Healthy Air PA for the American Lung Association in Pennsylvania, and Hollywood Invades Delaware for the Delaware Prevention Coalition, both of which received SIAA awards.

“This is just tremendous,” says GillespieHall’s founding partner, Bridget Gillespie Paverd. “We celebrate the fact that our social media initiatives have once again received national recognition. The SIAA are the “Oscars” of service industry marketing. Everyone at GillespieHall is very proud and delighted about winning for our clients – the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic, Brandywine Counseling & Community Services, the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, and the Delaware Prevention Coalition. Our clients know at GillespieHall, we live and breathe their respective visions.”
Paverd’s partner Dr. Neal Hall is equally pleased. “We know the panel of SIAA judges is made up of tough professionals who appreciate out-of-the-box thinking and how challenging it is for agencies like ours to produce national award-winning campaigns on conservative budgets.”
“Our clients trust us to spread their message using every means at our disposal,” says Paverd. “Changing behaviors is a big goal to go after. We fuse commercial marketing techniques with social science – the results are convincing.”

GH was one of the first businesses in the region to have a totally dedicated social media team. “We are one of the only firms in the northeast with a medical doctor and a sociologist on our full time social media team,” says Paverd. “We have to understand behaviors first before we change them,” says Hall. “We comprehend that it takes time and know-how to build an authentic social media community. It is not all about “likes” – it is about engagement and influence.”

Steve Groft, Director of Client Services, displays proudly one of GH’s 7 Gold Winner Service Industry Advertising Awards.

Be Mine, Media-tine: Creating successful relationships with the media

This blog post was written by Bobby S., a senior at the University of Delaware and a communications intern at GillespieHall.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, couples everywhere will celebrate their relationships. For some, it’s only been a few months. For others, it’s been years. Some will buy flowers, some will buy chocolates and some will go on expensive dates, all to declare their love.

But the most successful couples don’t just nurture their relationship on one day – they nurture it always.

Professionals that specialize in media relations must understand that they too are responsible for creating relationships, primarily with reporters and editors.  Here are some tips for successful relationship-building in media relations:

1. Get to know the reporters/editors who are relevant.

Just like in everyday relationships, media relations pros should get to know reporters and editors as much as possible. Read newspapers and publications to identify reporters to pitch to, read specific columns and determine a reporter’s specialization, and follow reporters on Twitter – it is a great place to make relationships. Retweet content from reporters to your followers.

2. Communicate newsworthiness.

The core of the word “news” is “new.” Media relations professionals first must understand that not everything is news and they must communicate newsworthy stories to journalists when news exists. It’s fine to say “I think your readers will find this interesting” or “this piece of news will affect your audience because…”

3. Provide reporters with as many resources as possible.

Make it easy for reporters to get access to documents, pictures and interviews with newsmakers. Part of a media relations strategy must include anticipating questions from a reporter as well as lining up individuals to speak on behalf of or about the organization.

If media relations professionals follow these simple tips, pitching will be much easier. The reporter will see that the PR professional put in time and effort to create a relationship, and mutual respect will form. After creating relationships, pitches become much more targeted and relevant.

Looking to foster relationships with the media? Contact GillespieHall. We can help you put together a comprehensive public relations and media strategy that will get you results.