Awards

Harris Diamond, CEO of the giant Interpublic (NYSE: IPG) agency Weber-Shandwick jumps to the number one spot on PRWeek's 2009 Power List, topping Richard Edelman, the top dog for the last two years.

The trade magazine cites the number of fingers Diamond has in IPG's Constituency Management Group (CMG) division as the reason for the jump, as well as his dominion over other IPG divisions that help Weber intergrate including sports marketing agency Octagon and events firm Jack Morton. PRWeek also credits Diamond's thumping on leadership and reputation as the two main qualities helping WS deal with the bad economy.

Edelman sticks around at #2, and the recently-retired Charlotte Otto from Proctor & Gamble maintains third. Leslie Dach from Walmart moves up from 6th to 4th, and Jon Iwata rounds out the top five (down from #2 from 2008).

Power players six through 25 are after the jump, with the full list of 25 here:

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[Case study video for Cummins Nitro's PR Lions Grand Prix and Direct Lions Grand Prix winning campaign]

The advertising industry this year finally let PR agencies into their annual festival/awards show/schmooze-fest that is the Cannes Lions.

Several American agencies won awards, including New York-based Taylor for their work with Guiness, Ketchum for work with Haagen-Dazs, MS&L for work with Proctor & Gamble and Weber Shandwick for their work with BPEX. View the complete list of PR Lions winners here. The top award, the PR Lions Grand Prix, went to Australian agency Cummins Nitro for their "Best Job in the World" campaign for Tourism Queensland.

Read AgencySpy's initial round up of the festival here, and stay tuned for more updates.

[Howard Rubenstein with St. John's president, the Rev. F. Donald Harrington. Image: NY Post]

The NY Post calls Howard Rubenstein "the most impressive Rolodex in New York," which sounds about right. The PR legend was honored by his alma mater St. Johns University at an event this week attended by New York Gov. David Paterson, Ivanka Trump and Al Roker, among others.

Rubenstein received the Caritas Medal, in honor of his charitable work over the years. The PR exec "beamed like a boy" when he received two Yankee stadium seats from George Steinbrenner's daughter Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal. Rubenstein has long repped the New York Yankees.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs--or PS2POTUS as I've dubbed him in a previous post--won the Public Relations Society of America's PR Professional of the Year for his work on the Obama campaign.

The individual award was given during PRSA's annual Silver Anvil Awards dinner in Manhattan last night. The release explains that Gibbs won it for the campaign's message and ability to stay on it, its use of new media, and the "visible emphasis on communications transparency, openness and expediency, and generated a feeling of real-time connectedness with the electorate due to the active dialog with voters."

The PRSA held their New York chapter Big Apple Awards dinner last week at the Rainbow Room to give out 37 prizes in various categories, 18 honorable mentions. The annual John W. Hill (for leadership and public service, named for the Hill & Knowlton founder), the Philip Dorf (for mentorship) and the President's Award (for service to the Chapter) were also given.

PainePR took the top prize for their work on the Iams Home 4 the Holidays campaign launched to place a million pets in good homes. Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman fronted the effort which actually placed over 1.2 million animals. The agency is a 75 person shop with offices in New York, L.A., and Orange County.

The full list of Big Apple winners can be found after the jump:

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[To illustrate the plight of the honey bee, Haagen-Dazs killed off a few on the dance floor, via HelptheHoneyBees YouTube channel]

Day one of Nielsen's CLIO festival in Vegas is in the books, and the first ever awards for PR were given to nine campaigns in crisis, corporate and consumer categories.

Ketchum displayed Eastern Bloc dominance by winning a Gold, two Silvers, and a Bronze. The Olympic theme holds true here as one of Ketchum's silvers was for "Beyond Beijing: How Lenovo Built Its Brand at the Olympics" and Golin-Harris' bronze for "McDonald's Global 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Sponsorship 'Bringing People Together Like Never Before'."

The two Golds were given to two advocacy consumer campaigns. Ketchum won for their work with Haagen-Dazs and disappearing honey bees (AdAge has a thorough case study) and Edelman for Brita's FilterForGood: Better Water, Less Waste campaign. The latter seemed to contribute to a slight shift in consumer behavior evidenced by the display of expensive aluminum Sigg water bottles (the use of metal also fueled by the BPA scare).

Related: PR CLIOs Shortlist Favors Big Agencies

All nine winners after the jump:

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Nielsen published shortlists of nominees for their 50th annual CLIO awards ahead of the event in Las Vegas next week. The first ever CLIOs for PR looks to favor large firms, with some very familiar campaigns such as Ketchum's Man Lives in IKEA campaign.

The strategic communications & public relations awards will be doled out by Jury Chair Richard Edelman, for Consumer, Crisis, and Corporate campaigns.

Ketchum leads the way with four nods, Ogilvy with three, Edelman, Golin-Harris, and Fleishman-Hillard with two, and MS&L and Peppercom each with one. San Fran boutique Flashpoint PR earned a spot with their Lego work.

Full list of nominees after the jump:

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[The winning entry to MWW's contest from Ashoka, a non-profit that facilitates social entrepreneurship]

MWW Group announced the winners of their "100 Words for 100 Days" contest to one company, and one individual today. Entries were judged on how they answered the questions "What Change Are You Ready For In The First 100 Days? What Can YOU Do to Bring About This Change?" as well as the likelihood MWW could help achieve the latter.

The non-profit Ashoka picked up the $30,000 worth of PR services with the video entry above. Emory University junior Mallory Goldberg won the $5000 internship by taking a creative approach to her 100 words, writing it in the first person as a bridge in need of repair. Her essay "Improve Infrastructure, Generate Jobs," called for a renewed commitment to the nations bridges, tunnels and roadways.

Goldberg is going for a double major in journalism and business at Emory's Goizueta Business School. She will complete her internship at MWW's New York offices.

Related: MWW's Free PR Awarded Tomorrow for "100 Words for 100 Days"

The Public Relations Society of America, or PRSA, announced the 126 finalists for the 2009 Silver Anvil Awards from a record number of entries. The traditional PR organization for accredited professionals (APR) has been awarding Anvils since 1946.

The majority of the campaigns are either big brand + big agency (Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, Porter-Novelli, MS&L), or public service-type campaigns getting the word out for things like the Cord Blood Registry, Dave Thomas Foundation, and the Hunger Task Force of Wisconsin and others.

Others in the vast array of campaigns include things like PainePR's campaign for FreeCreditReport.com, which turned the financially-challenged Ed McMahon in to a viral McGangsta. Incidentally, McMahon is a Howard Bragman client.

Winners receive an actual statuette (above), which is kind of a cross between the Silver Surfer and Thor, hammering his shirtless message rigorously upon an anvil.

The winners will be announced at a PRSA event in New York on June 4th.

Since I've received a number of tips in the past about the cost of such submissions, I'll do the quick math for you: at $295 per entry, the PRSA is bringing in $263,435 for the entries alone, more if you consider a percentage of those entries are paying the $395 non-entry price.

[A video entry to MWW's contest from Ashoka, a non-profit that facilitates social entrepreneurship]

MWW Group's "100 Words for a 100 Days" contest wraps up tomorrow at the firm's headquarters in East Rutherford, NJ when the winners are chosen. I'll be one of the outside judges.

MWW will award three months of PR services (value $30,000) to an organization, and a $5,000 internship to an individual for the best answers to:

What Change Are You Ready For In The First 100 Days?
What Can YOU Do to Bring About This Change?

As I reported at the time of the Inauguration, MWW CEO Michael Kempner was very involved in the Hillary Clinton campaign, and then did fund raising for the Obama campaign.

The organization and individual who can tie together the message of the campaign with their own goals in an inspiring way will take the prizes. Stay tuned for the winners tomorrow.

UPDATE: The list of 100 entries will be narrowed to five finalists tomorrow. A winner will then be selected via online voting form sent to staff across all 11 MWW offices.