Crisis Communications Awards 2021 Winners

Atrium Health Mass Vaccination

Health Care

Atrium Health launches massive effort to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine on a wide scale

Mass vaccination events at Charlotte Motor Speedway and other sports venues drew thousands and helped spread the word about the safety of the vaccine. Atrium Health is a winner in the ‘Crisis Response by Industry: Health Care’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

North Carolina was among the worst-performing states for delivering the COVID-19 vaccine to the public. Charlotte-based Atrium Health was determined to change that, hatching a plan for mass vaccinations events that would draw thousands to get the shot.

The plan was a partnership with Honeywell, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Atrium Health had tens of thousands of doses ready to give at the region’s two biggest sports venues, but it had to convince people to come. In 2020, it had enlisted community partners like the YMCA and local churches to encourage people to get tested. Adapting the strategy for vaccinations, Atrium Health work with 150 community partners across the Carolinas and Georgia to get the word out.

During the first two mass vaccination events at Bank of America Stadium, more than 20,000 people got vaccinated. At Charlotte Motor Speedway more than 16,000 people got their drive-through shot in the pits after taking a lap around the speedway. The team delivered 1,500 vaccinations per hour, with an average wait time of less than 30 minutes.

Visuals were crucial to publicizing these events, but HIPAA privacy laws created challenges: Advance signed permission is required from every person in a photo or video shot. At the mass vaccination events, Atrium Health’s communications team captured HIPAA-compliant photographs, b-roll and interview footage, sharing it with local and national media.

Atrium Health, along with Honeywell, became thought leaders in mass vaccination events through appearances in national and local media, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, NPR and Bloomberg TV. Atrium Health not only became the face of large-scale vaccination events in Charlotte, but became a leader nationally too.

The mass vaccination events brought North Carolina from the bottom tier of vaccinations to among the best in the nation. Beyond that, they created a model that could be used to improve public health all over the country.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia

Nonprofit/Association

Keeping youth on track during the COVID-19 crisis

Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia stuck to its mission of serving community youth, offering emergency meals, in-person programming and more throughout the pandemic. It’s a winner in the ‘Nonprofit/Association’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

The mission of Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia is to help all young people, especially those in need, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. That mission was put in jeopardy by the arrival of COVID-19, as Philadelphia’s most vulnerable youth suddenly faced a lack of internet connectivity, increased food insecurity and educational abandonment.

Throughout the 2020-21 school year, BGCP provided 792 youths with full-day in-person programming, supporting them during virtual school, offering Project Learn, STEM and literacy enrichment opportunities and ensuring that they had access to mentors during this difficult time.

At the onset of the pandemic, BGCP immediately adapted its programs to meet the growing needs of kids and communities, serving more than 300,000 emergency meals, launching a virtual programming platform and engaging youth in full-day in-person programming while schools were closed.

BGCP also opened 15 Access Center locations to provide full-day programming for youth while school doors were closed. Its full-day program model offered kids a sense of belonging as well as resources to help them stay on track for future academic achievement. This included Internet access, which became vital to their schoolwork, and three meals daily. With the introduction of virtual programming during the crisis, BGCP increased participants’ weekly engagement time in STEM activities from 1.5 hours to 3.75 hours.

During the summer of 2021, BGCP served more than 1,000 youths in camps aimed at addressing summer learning loss. Since September 2021, its enrolled more than 2,000 young people in after-school and evening programs across 16 locations.

In a survey for youth participating in social/emotional development programming, 42% of youth demonstrated improved intellectual functioning from September 2020 to December 2020.

Cruise Reboot: Carnival Cruise Line Resumes Cruising Operations for the First Time Since March 2020

Travel, Hospitality and Tourism

All aboard! Carnival relaunches its cruise line after pandemic shutdown

July 4^th festivities and an innovative new ship drew coverage nationwide. It’s a winner in the ‘Travel, Hospitality & Tourism’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Carnival Cruise Line entered 2020 riding a wave of record profits and passenger growth. Then the pandemic struck. On March 14, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) banned U.S. cruise operations. But as COVID-19 vaccines were introduced in late 2020 and early 2021 and cases began to decline, the CDC allowed sailing to resume with strict safety protocols.

To sail again, Carnival’s communications team prepared an international media relations and events strategy to build anticipation and generate positive news and excitement, while also reinforcing the company’s commitment to health and safety.

To lead off the campaign, two of Carnival Cruise Line’s ships arrived at the Port of Galveston on May 2 for a rally at the port to discuss the economic impact of the pause in operations. On June 4, Carnival’s newest and most innovative ship, Mardi Gras, made her U.S. debut at Port Canaveral, with more than 2000 Carnival fans cheering as she arrived.

When Carnival resumed guest operations on July 3, 2021, the team pulled out all the stops to celebrate the return with a July 4th-style bang. When Carnival Vista sailed from Galveston on July 3, Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy, the Carnival Vista captain and local officials led a “Back to Fun” ribbon-cutting ceremony officially welcoming guests back on board.

Mardi Gras departed on her maiden voyage from Port Canaveral on July 31, 2021 with a “Sip & Sea” preview event the day before for hundreds of media outlets, bloggers, influencers, travel agents and community leaders.

The team’s efforts generated 5,700 stories and more than 188 media impressions across the United States, Caribbean, Mexico and beyond. The campaign garnered national coverage as well as significant coverage from travel and industry trade media. Additionally, TV and radio coverage appeared in each of the top 25 designated marketing areas and coverage in most of the top 150 DMAs.

Communications response to Hurricane Ida

Utility/Energy

Hurricane Ida poses severe comms challenge for utility company

Entergy created a microsite devoted to the hurricane and kept the community informed with a dedicated storm center and newsroom. It’s a winner in the ‘Utility/Energy’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Entergy powers 3 million homes and businesses across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. When hurricane Ida made landfall on Aug. 19, 2021 as a Category 4 hurricane near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, it caused severe damage to Entergy’s distribution system, resulting in 948,000 outages and more than $65 billion in damages. Storm-related damage also disrupted customer communications systems, making some of Entergy’s outage tools (outage texting, online outages map) inaccurate.

In response, Entergy deployed its largest restoration effort ever, with 28,000 workers from 41 states—amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Entergy StormCenter & Newsroom, an online, mobile-optimized communications platform, shared restoration updates and feature stories along with useful information like planning for a disaster, making an emergency kit, hurricane facts and safety measures. The Hurricane Ida Microsite, a site dedicated specifically to Ida, communicated detailed information to customers, including estimated times of restoration for communities and progress in damage assessments.

Thirteen social media channels shared information as well, allowing Entergy to address customer concerns and improve customer satisfaction. Entergy’s social media messages and visual posts focused on company storm prep, personal preparedness and safety before, during and after the storm, along with restoration updates, personnel/field interviews and unique situations captured in written stories and video.

Entergy told its story through an integrated approach, resulting in 109 Entergy StormCenter posts and 1.2 million visits to Entergy StormCenter. The team generated 1,361 proactive social media posts. Entergy also shared 3,853 paid radio spots and earned 22 million digital advertising impressions.

All this work resulted in an 81% positive/neutral net sentiment. With more than 200 media inquiries and an overall reach exceeding 59 million people through social media channels, sentiment remained overwhelmingly positive or neutral.

Putting Patients First— Preventing Three Nursing Strikes During COVID-19 Pandemic

Disinformation Response & Health Care

Strategic comms plan averts nurses’ strike during COVID-19 surge

HCA Healthcare gathered insights from the public and key stakeholders to craft a campaign to shape the narrative. It’s a double winner for ‘Disinformation Response’ and ‘Health Care Crisis Response’ in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

In December 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 winter surge, HCA Healthcare faced the threat of a nurses’ strike at three of its southern California hospitals. After a collective bargaining agreement expired and negotiations stalled, the nurses’ union had set Christmas Eve as a strike date, when ICUs were filled to capacity with COVID-19 patients and hospitals were converting any additional space to care for more patients than ever.

HCA’s goal: Stop the strike through consumer support, accurate reporting and the strategic theme, “Now Is not the time.”

HCA Healthcare conducted an online opinion poll of 800 health care consumers across the region the three hospitals served, testing consumers’ attitudes and support for union strikes during a nursing shortage and the COVID-19 surge. It also gathered insights from key stakeholders, who felt that the state was hit hard by the pandemic, the health care system was under extreme duress and the community was worried.

The union had successfully positioned the potential strike as a fight between health care heroes and a big, uncaring, profitable hospital system. Yet stakeholders, including government and elected officials, local businesses, unions, patients, physicians and the local community were concerned about the impact of a lack of nursing care at the height of the pandemic.

The team launched an integrated communications plan to shape the public narrative and encourage accurate reporting. Between Dec. 14–20, HCA Healthcare fielded more than 150 unique media inquiries and made more than 100 unique media pitches. National outlets like CNN, Fox and others shared the company’s key messages and covered the potential strikes as a public emergency. The team also placed op-eds in local publications throughout southern California.

The effort garnered more than 4 billion earned and social media impressions, with improved key message pull-through and significantly improved tone. It also won support from key organizations and stakeholders like the California Hospital Association, the mayor of La Quinta and the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce, who all applied public pressure to the unions.

On Dec. 19, the union called off the strike, agreeing to a new contract.

COVID-19 Crisis Communications

Covid-19 Campaign

Intel fought to keep employees informed and safe during COVID

The internal comms team provided timely information on its intranet hub and encouraged vaccinations with incentives and sweepstakes, making it a winner in the ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued through 2021, the internal communications team at Intel had one overarching goal: Keep employees informed, safe and thriving amid COVID-19.

Intel has more than 110,000 employees in 46 countries, along with 10 manufacturing sites in seven countries. The team embraced speed, clarity and simplicity in their communications with employees about COVID, seeking to ensure employees knew where to find the latest information on a regular basis.

With employees working across multiple locations—many on-site as essential workers and others remotely—providing one single, clear intranet hub for everything about COVID was essential. User-friendly categories and chat functions ensured that all employees knew where to find the latest content, policy updates and site status. An ever-evolving 50+ page FAQ was designed to be immediate, accessible, logical and easily navigable by employees.

As companies began planning to resume in-office operations, the Intel team developed a detailed three-phase approach to returning to the workplace, communicating regularly to ensure employees knew how Intel was preparing to safely bring workers back on site. The communications team also introduced a vision for the future of Intel’s workplace, introducing a flexible, dynamic framework that enables each employee to get their best work done, whether on-site, remotely or in a hybrid manner.

An ongoing campaign to encourage employee vaccinations was essential to the COVID fight. The team launched webinars, incentives and sweepstakes as the U.S. government moved to implement vaccination and testing mandates.

As evidence of the campaign’s impact, three COVID-19 vaccine posts on Intel’s intranet drove 102,093 unique viewers and received 820 total likes; three COVID-19 vaccine emails delivered a 79% open rate and 17% click-thru rate. Plus, a COVID-19 sweepstakes email delivered a click-thru rate of 18%, five points above benchmark averages.

Resolved & Resilient: Johnson & Johnson Responds to COVID-19

Covid-19 Campaign & Health Care

Johnson & Johnson’s pandemic priority: employee trust

Its microsite, newsletters, town halls and more kept employees connected and engaged as COVID-19 raged. The team is a winner in the ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ and ‘Crisis Response by Industry: Health Care’ categories of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Johnson & Johnson faced high stakes as it became obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t going away quietly. Delivering its lifesaving medicines and products to millions of patients and health care providers around the world required seamless effort by J&J’s global workforce of more than 135,000 employees and more than 100,000 contractors. Keeping the trust of the J&J workforce was paramount.

Working with Gagen MacDonald, J&J provided employees with vital information in several formats. The J&J Responds Coronavirus microsite became the central hub for daily updates and featured content, including a health and safety series, FAQs, the latest vaccine development news and more.

The site has 2 million page views to date, breaking records for engagement and click rates and setting the enterprise standard for design.

Additional communications efforts included:

Enterprise newsletters. J&J Responds addressed the employee pandemic experience while another newsletter focused on health and well-being. The open rate for J&J Responds was 75%.
Do The Caring Thing. This campaign educated and motivated employees to follow COVID-19 health and safety protocols while recognizing the risks facing J&J’s on-site heroes.
Visual History Book. A publication documented and highlighted significant milestones throughout the pandemic from the perspective of the J&J employee.
Better Together. The inspirational, informational campaign focused on employees’ return-to-workplace experience.

The team also created opportunities for employees to engage with company leadership. Three all-employee town halls, where employees could engage directly with leadership, broke the pre-pandemic record; two—in March and April 2020—more than doubled it. Videos featuring the executive committee offered employees updates, and “Ask the Experts” sessions featured J&J scientists and doctors responding to employees’ questions.

Pulse surveys showed strong employee satisfaction with the company’s COVID-19 communications, consistently hitting 80% or higher and often exceeding 90%. Communications also had a measurable impact on employee vaccination rates, which exceeded 97.5% in North America. Return-to-workplace communications achieved a notable impact as well, with on-site presence in North America averaging 66% of target as of December 2021 (versus 50% of target prior to the pandemic).

Julie Parker, John Stolnis, and Timothy Barber

Government/NGOs & Reputation Turnaround Campaign

U.S. Capitol Police takes its place in the spotlight after Capitol attack

Julie Parker Communications provided media training for spokespeople and reactivated the agency’s dormant social media accounts to rebuild its reputation. It’s a double winner in the ‘Reputation Turnaround Campaign’ and ‘Government/NGOs’ categories of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Police was forced to respond to a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Before that day, the department had been a forgotten, faceless, often misunderstood law enforcement agency. Now it was in the spotlight and facing its own public relations nightmare.

Its first news release wasn’t issued until nearly 24 hours after the attack had played out on live TV, and mainly reiterated what people had already witnessed on the news the day before. The department had to quickly adopt a more active communications stance.

Julie Parker Communications was called in on Feb. 1 to transform the department’s public information office, rehabilitate the department’s reputation and start telling officers’ stories.

The agency prioritized media training for the chiefs and command staff, holding weekend sessions to ensure the acting chief was prepared to speak publicly for Congressional hearings and future news events. One session happened the day before a USCP officer was hit and killed by a driver outside the U.S. Capitol. With the on-site assistance of the Julie Parker team, the acting chief held a news conference within hours. The team also prepped USCP Captain Carneysha Mendoza before her Congressional testimony, which was viewed by millions of people around the world.

The department’s Twitter and Facebook accounts hadn’t been used in years—so long that nobody even knew their passwords. The team worked with the social media companies to reactivate the Facebook account and get the Twitter account verified, also launching accounts on Instagram and YouTube to broaden the department’s reach and share new recruiting videos.

Since then, the department has posted 214 tweets, and the Twitter account has 59,000 followers, along with 106 Facebook posts and 4,022 followers. After 42 Instagram posts the department has 484 Instagram followers, and with seven YouTube videos, the account has 208 subscribers.

In 2021, department leaders have held four news conferences, and USCP officers told their stories to countless local and national outlets. Once shrouded in secrecy, the United States Capitol Police now promptly responds to media requests with more detail than ever.

MIA Cares- Fly Safe, Fly Smart

Covid-19 Campaign & Public Relations Campaign

MIA fights the pandemic with facts and a vaccination campaign

Miami International Airport’s MIACares campaign offered information on travel and testing mandates. It also vaccinated more than 100,000 people. It’s a double winner for ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ and ‘Public Relations Campaign’ in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Miami International Airport (MIA) weathered the COVID-19 pandemic with a number of initiatives designed to empower passengers, employees and the community to protect themselves from the deadly virus.

MIA created the MIACares social media campaign shortly after the pandemic began to assure passengers, employees and visitors that MIA was doing everything possible to ensure a safe travel experience. With different travel restrictions in place and information coming in from multiple outlets, the team designed MIACares to provide clarification on travel mandates, information on services like COVID-19 vaccination and testing locations, and helpful resources for passengers—a one-stop shop for everything related to COVID-19.

The digital marketing team designed graphics; it took photos and video of sites, improvements and staff at MIA; it also produced videos and created Instagram story stickers. It also kept track of frequently asked questions from social media comments and MIA’s web chatbot, and conducted its own research on other airports’ messaging, graphic styles and language.

MIA also served as a COVID-19 vaccination site from May 10 to July 20. Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida shared a goal of providing vaccine shots in as many arms as possible. With MIA serving an average of 112,000 daily passengers, and employing more than 30,000 people, it was an obvious vaccination site for reaching a large, high-demand population.

MIA promoted the vaccination operation through a media relations campaign that began with a kickoff press conference on May 10 and continued throughout the 71 days of the vaccination operation. MIA’s communications division also coordinated interviews and video shoots for local, national and international media outlets before the peak Memorial Day weekend travel season; ABC World News Tonight and CNN aired live segments from MIA throughout the day on May 27.

During the 71 days of the vaccination operation, more than 100,000 people were vaccinated at MIA, for an average of 1,408 per day. MIA’s media relations efforts generated feature stories and mentions that reached an audience of more than 13 million, for a publicity value of more than $800,000.

Guiding the Washington Football Team into the Future

Change Management Campaign & Public Relations Campaign

Washington Football Team rebrands its name and image to win back fans

The least-liked football team recruited new leadership and focused on enhancing the fan experience. It’s a winner in the ‘Change Management Campaign’ and ‘PR Campaign’ categories of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

The Washington Football Team—formerly the Washington Redskins—faced multiple crises. Allegations of sexism and harassment, poor on-field performance and a widely disliked team owner made the WFT the team everyone loved to hate.

Working with PR agency MikeWorldWide, the WFT sought to rebuild the team’s reputation, transform the fan experience and position it as a team of the future.

Rehabilitating the team’s reputation required going beyond its name change. The team started by hiring Jason Wright, former NFL player and McKinsey & Co. partner—the first Black team president in NFL history. To further diversify its ranks, the WFT also brought in Julie Donaldson as the first female lead in an NFL radio booth.

MikeWorldWide used the new management team to illustrate the team’s commitment to organizational change. Jason Wright conducted 100 interviews in his first weeks as president to highlight the WFT’s ambition and his vision for the team, and Ron Rivera, the new head coach, communicated his own vision. Petra Pope, cheerleader coach, built a new co-ed dance team, reimagining it as a key element of the fan experience.

To transform the fan experience, the team introduced a multiplatform series that provided fans unprecedented access into players’ and coaches’ personalities and lives off the field. It also launched the “Washington Journey” digital hub; fans could submit name and logo ideas, which drew more than 40,000 submissions from 61 countries.

The new Fan Ambassador Network (FAN) was created as a diverse group of WFT fans to serve as the voice of the fan base and provide perspective on all aspects of the fan experience. A new co-ed entertainment team showcased local dancers and modern influencers, and fans and TikTok influencers joined prospective entertainment team members to take part in a Tiktok dance challenge launched by audition choreographer.

In addition, the team produced videos, hosted Clubhouse rooms and penned President’s Briefs to provide updates on the rebrand, fan engagement opportunities, the entertainment team and more.

As a result of these efforts, negative sentiment dropped from 97% in June 2020 to 10% at the end of the year. The WFT showed “what’s possible when you welcome all perspectives,” said The Washington Post

OPCD Hurricane Ida Crisis Communications Campaign

Government/NGOs

With Hurricane Ida approaching, New Orleans’ OPCD went to work

Despite a 911 system failure, the Orleans Parish Communication District got word out on social media with messaging that kept city residents safe. It’s a winner in the ‘Government/NGO’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

When Hurricane Ida hit southern Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021—the 16^th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—the Orleans Parish Communication District had been working closely with New Orleans public safety agencies for two weeks, preparing for the storm.

The battle plan had been set and shifts were scheduled when the day arrived. Then 911 functionality failed. Although it was quickly restored, it was lost again for days across multiple parishes. The damage across the city was extensive.

OPCD developed a crisis communications campaign in real time, addressing all audiences—most specifically the residents of New Orleans. The OPCD team implemented a 24-hour media monitoring effort, tracking discussions around the needs of New Orleans residents through social media and traditional media, both manually and through media monitoring software.

OPCD and NOLA-311 used social media channels to deliver image- and graphic-oriented tactics with quick-hit informational messaging, helping target audiences digest and share messages easily. The graphics centered around four main topics:

Informing the public that emergency communications services were down.
How to reach first responders in the event of an emergency.
How to remain safe in the damage-stricken city during and after the storm.
What services were available and how to access them.

Press releases and media advisories were delivered to local and national media outlets through email campaigns and website posts. Daily press conferences with agency leaders were held to keep target audiences updated on new developments.

OPCD and NOLA-311’s social media followers grew by more than 36% from Aug. 25–Oct. 1, 2021, compared to the same timeframe from the two months prior. In that same period, NOLA-311 experienced a 26% increase in service requests—about 3,000 request more than the previous two months.

The NOLA-311 AI chat function also saw a significant increase, conducting approximately 5,500 communications with New Orleans residents compared to 742 communications two months prior. Top actions included questions about service (50%), service requests (15%) and information about city service requests (35%).

Riot Connect

Employee Communication & Travel, Hospitality and Tourism

Riot Hospitality succeeds at bringing employees closer together

The Riot Connect app served employees without constant internet access. They embraced it quickly for news and COVID-19 updates. It’s a multi-winner for ‘Employee Communication’ and ‘Travel, Hospitality and Tourism,’ as well as a Technology Partner of the Year, in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Riot Hospitality Group wanted to create an app for employees who didn’t have access to corporate email or the internet on an everyday basis. It chose Speakap for the job, and when “Riot Connect” was released into the Apple Store and Google Play, more than 50% of employees activated it within 24 hours, and 80% activated it within the first 14 days.

Setting up the platform and app took only four weeks. To ensure a smooth launch, the communications team attended weekly 30-minute project management calls with Speakap; multiple Zoom training sessions equipped managers to spread the message and get their teams on board, especially those without a Riot Hospitality corporate email address and corporate phone.

The team created and distributed infographics and videos to employees across the business, helping staff get excited about the launch as well.

During the first month of the app’s launch, weekly project management calls between the communications team and Speakap continued as everyone worked to ensure the adoption of Riot Connect at a healthy pace, and to allow the team to discuss and address issues immediately.

In the months following the app’s launch, the team used surveys to measure success and collect feedback from employees. It also discussed and interpreted analytics from Speakap’s dashboard. New app features were rolled out, and training sessions for managers at Riot Hospitality locations helped keep them informed and excited about getting started.

On average, employees log in to Riot Connect three times a day. Eighty percent of them are active on the app at least once per day, and 100% are active at least once per week. Interaction rates (likes and comments, as compared to unique logins) are around 50%.

Subway® Tuna Lawsuit

Reputation Turnaround Campaign

Subway fires back when fish story threatens its big campaign

A lawsuit claiming its tuna sandwiches had no tuna forced Subway and partner Current Global to snap into action on the eve of a major marketing campaign. The results make it a winner in the ‘Reputation Turnaround Campaign’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

When a frivolous lawsuit threatened the launch of Subway’s Eat Fresh Refresh campaign, Subway’s communications team and its agency partner Current Global had to address the false information directly and turn media interest generated by the lawsuit to their advantage.

The lawsuit claimed Subway was serving tuna subs, wraps and salads that don’t contain real tuna. An initial wave of negative media coverage spread in January 2021; six months later The New York Times resurrected the story by commissioning DNA tests of Subway’s tuna from an unnamed lab, which came back inconclusive.

A second wave of media coverage occurred a week before Subway launched its Eat Fresh Refresh campaign, which representing nearly two years of strategic planning and investment. The misinformation about Subway’s tuna had the potential to distract from the campaign launch.

The team launched a microsite, SubwayTunaFacts.com, to address the allegations with facts, an infographic of Subway’s tuna supply chain, a detailed Q&A and statements from experts and suppliers. Subway CEO John Chidsey’s strong defense of Subway’s tuna during the Eat Fresh Refresh rollout resulted in national and trade stories about the tuna from CNN, Fox Business, the TODAY Show, SeafoodSource and Business Insider.

On July 13, a week after the launch of Eat Fresh Refresh, Inside Edition conducted its own DNA test and concluded that there was tuna in Subway’s tuna product. The show’s results were picked up and cited across multiple outlets.

Although the lawsuit, previously dismissed, was amended and refiled by the plaintiffs with new allegations, the team’s work to shift the narrative and reinforce the messaging about its tuna resulted in more neutral headlines, balanced reporting, inclusion of the brand’s messaging and unprompted mentions of SubwayTunaFacts.com.

#LoveWhereYouWork - Internal Communications Team

Covid-19 Campaign & Employee Communication

Twitter confronts the challenge of COVID communications on multiple fronts

Communicators implemented monthly check-ins, resources for managers and dedicated Slack channels for employees to share support. The team is a winner in the ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ and ‘Employee Communication’ categories, as well as the ‘Communications Team of the Year’ in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Twitter’s internal communications team works to serve the internal conversation in all directions. That conversation shifted overnight as COVID-19 struck in 2020. Employees expected real-time communication from management, but how do you communicate effectively to more than 6,000 employees across 30 countries when teams are scrambling to deal with a crisis?

The team started by kicking off monthly check-ins to give employees a safe place to speak to their manager about their personal and work challenges and help managers understand how team members were balancing work and wellness.

To make sure managers felt supported too, the team implemented bimonthly all-hands meetings called “Managers, Assemble!” where they could get updates, ask questions and build community.

The team also streamlined existing channels and resources, using the intranet to house FAQs and detailed information about our productivity allowances for home offices, flexible time off options for parents and caregivers, interactive COVID-19 maps for all offices around the world and more.

Slack played a big part in the strategy. The team created channels for specific purposes to provide employees with on-demand support: a work-from-home channel (#wfh) dedicated to sharing resources, best practices and tips, and a wellness channel (#wellness) for people looking for advice from their peers or announcements from the wellness team on upcoming programs.

One assign that the efforts paid off: An all-hands meeting announcing a mandatory WFH policy after the pandemic began saw a 106% increase in attendance over a meeting held before COVID-19 began to rise, indicating that employees recognized the importance of internal communication. From March 2020 to October 2021, attendance has increased 67% at companywide all-hands meetings.

Also, in an April 2021 employee engagement survey, internal communications earned a score of 76—13 points higher than the industry benchmark and six points higher than the previous pre-COVID survey.

UW Medicine Media Relations & Internal Communications COVID-19 Campaign

Covid-19 Campaign

UW Medicine shines a steady light on COVID-19 issues, winning wide coverage

The health system’s media and communications team worked with experts and leaders across the system in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered messages to underserved communities about testing and vaccination. It’s a winner in the ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

Ever since a UW Medicine laboratory identified the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. in early 2020, the Seattle-based health system has been a focal point for COVID-19 news. From December 2020 through November 2021, UW Medicine produced 104 press releases or blog posts and 57 news videos, and its experts were mentioned in 13,757 articles. The media team also created videos about our COVID-19 response that were used in many news stories, and its work to establish UW Medicine’s faculty and staff as thought leaders led to the publication of 14 op-eds in local and national media outlets.

The team provided daily internal messages to keep its workforce of more than 30,000 people informed about COVID-19. Some very popular health and well-being messages took an informal and personal approach to help people soldier on through the pandemic.

Several media outreach efforts focused on communities of color and other vulnerable populations, such as the Pacific Islander Community Association. Designed to encourage testing and vaccinations when they became available, these efforts included a partnership with the Seattle Mariners. These messages were picked up by local media, both mainstream and specialty, and included some messages in Spanish by a Spanish-speaking infectious diseases expert.

UW Medicine’s media coverage included mentions in The Seattle Times, Seattle broadcast media and national media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. On Twitter, the UW Medicine Newsroom gained 1,525 followers, a 40% increase over its pre-pandemic reach, for a total of 5,423 followers. Its top Twitter post, “No vaccine is 100% effective,” in August 2021 received 145,000 impressions.

Walgreens COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Covid-19 Campaign

Walgreens and partner PharmWPP take the lead in national vaccine rollout

In-depth analysis of the issues was key to a campaign that included a TODAY show segment and a bus vaccination tour. The team is a ‘Crisis Agency of the Year’ and a winner in the ‘COVID-19 Campaign’ category of Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout thrust Walgreens into the spotlight as the White House recruited retail pharmacies across the country to provide vaccinations to millions of Americans. Walgreens’ corporate comms and issues team, along with agency partner The PharmWPP, chose to see this not as a challenge, but as an opportunity to create a campaign strategy that would enhance Walgreens’ reputation.

The strategy began with dozens of in-the-moment analyses of emerging topics, enabling Walgreens to stay ahead of potential issues and provide operations and field team members with relevant support.

The effort ensured that every one of the 3,500+ issues-related inquiries received were assessed by the appropriate internal or agency party, and that responses provided approved, accurate and concise information.

The media campaign included a live vaccination segment with the TODAY show staff, educational segments on vaccine safety on Good Morning America and a mobile bus vaccination tour that drove across the U.S. vaccinating the most vulnerable populations.

The campaign took a tailored approach to vaccine education, capitalizing on national, regional and localized moments. During national updates, key executives were deployed to educate and inform the general public. For more localized efforts, like the mobile bus clinic or local vaccine equity clinics, the team enlisted key opinion leaders, local officials and famous faces to promote vaccine access within specific communities of need.

Earned broadcast coverage alone reached more than 50 million Americans. Walgreens won the majority share of voice during the six-month period of vaccine rollout coverage, 54% vs. its chief competitor. Positive coverage of Walgreens’ vaccine rollout also outnumbered positive coverage of its No. 1 competitor’s rollout, with 13.1K placements vs. the competitor’s 11.7K.

Crisis Communications Providing Reassuring Customer Experiences

Technology Partner of the Year

Korbyt Anywhere’s ‘workplace experience platform’ keeps client’s employee engagement high

The tech company provided its client with tools to communicate with its remote workforce via desktop and mobile. It’s a Technology Partner of the Year in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

When the pandemic hit, millions of workers started working at home. Tech company Korbyt Anywhere’s longtime client, an energy company, was using its platform to handle digital signage. When they suddenly had to send their agents home, they looked to Korbyt to understand how a “workplace experience platform” could help.

They found two solutions that made the difference: desktop and mobile. With agents and supervisors at home, their digital signage wallboards weren’t visible. Korbyt’s desktop application bought the wallboard from the office to the agent’s screen. In addition to the desktop application, supervisors can use their mobile devices to access the same content. When they see escalating numbers or an issue with average call times, they can jump into action.

The platform gave agents and supervisors the real-time data they needed to make solid decisions. Plus, if waiting for a human decision takes too long, data can trigger automated actions, like sending an alert to the desktop and mobile device using the same tools that update an agent’s screen or wallboard.

During the winter storms of February 2021, the client was able to integrate Korbyt Anywhere with a real-time feed of power outages by zip code, presented on an interactive map that let agents quickly zoom in, find the area and inform customers of the repair status for their zip code.

Success for Korbyt’s client is measured in terms of business continuity, productivity and customer experience—all of which start with employee engagement. The platform lets the client analyze how many employees have viewed specific messages, delivering time-bound metric displays, read-receipts, and email deliverability metrics that help the company measure its reach. The client can now identify the content employees like best, helping it improve engagement and productivity.

Corporate Communications

Communications Team of the Year

A global expansion and a hacking crisis tested Pax8’s comms team in 2021

The cloud tech distributor’s team met the challenges with determination and award-winning results. It’s a Communications Team of the Year in Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards.

The corporate communications team at Pax8, a distributor of cloud technology, already had a lot on its plate before 2021. It deals with crises, change, growth, employee communication and more, meeting weekly to manage requests and draft alert messages to ensure partners are informed, supported and equipped to address updates effectively.

Then, in 2021, Pax8 began a global expansion, acquiring four companies and adopting a new account management approach. In January, Pax8 launched its UK office with the acquisition of Wirehive, a cloud consulting company in the region.

The corporate communications team helped welcome Wirehive to Pax8 by drafting a welcome letter from the CEO, establishing virtual calls introducing leaders from both companies, and incorporating the new leaders into Pax8’s monthly all-hands meeting.

The team explained how the expansion and acquisition would affect Pax8 through emails, the monthly Pax8 partner video and presentations at industry events. A media campaign including press releases, interviews with leading publications, case studies, video testimonials and influencer support spelled out the story of the expansion and explained its benefits to the global IT channel.

In March, hackers attacked an estimated 250,000 on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers, affecting some 30,000 organizations—including possibly some of Pax8 partners’ clients. Working late in the evening, corporate communications quickly posted a message on social media informing partners that Pax8 was gathering the facts and working to provide solutions and guidance.

The team collaborated interdepartmentally to produce a webcast in less than 24 hours, also drafting a defensive communication plan, creating partner resources and posting on the Pax8 blog. The webcast attracted 175 partners, and more than 200 viewed the blog. The quick response informed partners of the issue in record time and provided resources to keep their clients safe.

In 2021, the team produced more 550 positive media placements, doubling its yearly average of 240, and helped Pax8 earn more than 35 leading business and industry awards, 12 more than in 2020. These awards included several recognitions for female leaders, which attracted more women candidates. Additionally, the team’s work helped Pax8 win more than 50 awards at industry events over the year.