At the top of their game: A look at Ragan’s PR Daily Awards past winners

PR can take many forms. It can be a video series that informs the public about a campaign to make the world a better place or a tease for a product that entertains the audience. Capturing the magic that engages an audience isn’t always easy, but the best manage to make it look simple.

We’ve highlighted some of the winners from the 2023 Ragan’s PR Daily Awards to take a closer look at their strategies and successes. Also, don’t forget to apply to this year’s Ragan’s PR Daily Awards before the deadline on June 21.

Technology and Information Services Campaign: IW Group, McDonald’s Lunarverse 

The background: In a world that’s so immersed in technology, it can be tough to create an innovative, tech-first campaign that stands out. But for IW Group, the McDonald’s Lunarverse project helps showcase the fast-food chain’s commitment to intercultural connection through a celebration of the Lunar New Year via a Web3 approach that sought to engage younger audiences.

In the Lunarverse campaign, IW Group and McDonald’s sought to engage Gen Z audiences through Web3 content, including AI-created materials, as well as through authentic partnerships in the Asian-American community. Events in the campaign included an AI-powered commercial, a metaverse for people to learn about and celebrate the Lunar New Year, and an AR filter celebrating the transition to the Year of the Rabbit.

Outside the metaverse, campaign initiatives included a billboard in New York Times Square and a physical booth where people could experience the metaverse in.

The campaign reached over 400 million users and earned press in Fast Company, Ad Age and Yahoo News.

The takeaway: Embracing new technologies can form undiscovered pathways to new audiences.

DE&I Communications: TD, TD Stories

The background: Every organization has a story to tell, especially those that display the diverse stories and backgrounds that make up a company. TD Stories, the content platform for TD Bank, creates content for all occasions and recognizes the fact that diversity efforts don’t end whenever a holiday or month of recognition does.

For instance, TD Stories supports the company’s LQBTQ+ community with year-round content drips under the motto “Forever Proud, Forever Progressing.” With over 175 published materials during 2022-23, the campaign earned over 140,000 in-house views.

Additionally, TD Stories features video content to help colleagues empathize with one another’s experiences. One series, Dis/Mantle, helped employees learn about the black experience in Canada through the eyes of an executive. The video was featured across TD’s social channels and with more than 146,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter). 

The takeaway: Recognition of diversity is a year-round job and takes many forms.

ESG Communications: Geotab: Unlocking the Power of Data for a Sustainable Future 

The background: The climate crisis is on all of us to solve, and more and more companies are taking a stand on climate issues. For Geotab, a company in the transportation tech space, it was key to figure out how to tell those stories in a transparent and inspiring way.

As part of its content strategy, Geotab created a plan for future impact on climate. It explored Geotab’s sustainability successes and what needed to be done going forward. The campaign included three main aspects:

• Accelerating decarbonization in the transportation industry.
• Powering driver and road safety.
• Advancing progress to net zero through data, research and partnerships.

Geotab employed a 58-page report, press releases, both internal and external communications, and more to spread the word about its commitment to sustainability. It also included eight customer sustainability success stories in the content drip.

The campaign saw numerous successes in the metrics, including 783 media pickups in a month and a year-over-year increase of 8600% in the potential readership of the report.

The takeaway: Backing up your sustainability commitments matters.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time, he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.