Last Thursday, I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to drive to the Memphis airport and board one of four flights I’d take in the next 36 or so hours. It was so early, my dogs didn’t even get up—they just burrowed their heads deeper into blankets and ignored me. Thanks, dogs.
As a person who values sleep very highly, there had to be a good reason for willingly waking up before the sun. There definitely was—I was expected to meet Ole Miss chief communications officer Tom Eppes at the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Awards ceremony in Manhattan later that evening.
The Silver Anvils are considered the top awards in the industry, and Ole Miss Communications’ campaign, “Ole Miss, We Have a Parking Problem,” was a 2014 finalist in the company of the agencies for brands like AT&T, Wendy’s, Microsoft, WalMart and Netflix. The 156 finalists were chosen from a pool of 843 entries.
A component of the award-winning campaign
At the ceremony, we learned about (and met the people behind) some of the most successful PR campaigns of 2013. AT&T and FleishmanHillard’s “It Can Wait” public service campaign discouraging texting and driving took the Best of Silver Anvil Award. The multi-year campaign evolved into a social movement when AT&T’s competitors got on board to raise awareness about the danger of texting behind the wheel.
A repeat winner was Nicholas’ Garden, which positioned 8-year-old Nicholas Come as a “Kid Healthy Food Advocate” and helped launch an accompanying mobile app as well as raise funds. (As one of the many other results, Nicholas was named to a “40 Under 40 list”—pretty impressive for an eight-year-old, I’d say.)
After traveling more than 2,000 miles and several delayed flights, Tom and I returned to Mississippi with a PRSA Award of Excellence for our campaign in tow. It’s pretty cool to know that we’re in such good company.
Then, I slept for a really long time.
Fun fact: This isn’t the first time the university has received a Silver Anvil award. Robin Street, PR teacher extraordinaire, accepted an Award of Excellence for her “Diversity Rocks!” campaign in 2012.