PR Newswire Launches 2nd Annual Earnies Awards Program to Recognize Successful Earned Media Campaigns

-- Online community to help choose the winners through public voting

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PR Newswire today announced the launch of the 2nd annual Earnies awards, the first community-chosen awards program developed to recognize creative and successful earned media campaigns executed through social media channels.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121015/NY93087 )
(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110719/NY37427LOGO )

"The ongoing emergence of new social media platforms provides brands numerous unique opportunities to earn media, engage audiences and increase brand visibility," said Rachel Meranus, vice president, Marketing & Communications, PR Newswire.  "Communicators need to be even more strategic, innovative and agile in order to capture the attention of all of their audiences.  The Earnies will recognize how they are doing so successfully."

The Earnies award program, which is open to individual practitioners as well as brands and organizations, focuses on the unique approach and strategy used to implement a campaign.  Hosted on the AGILITY@work web site, all submissions will be reviewed by an independent panel of social media thought leaders. From a shortlist of finalists selected by the panel, final winners will be determined by community voting through social media.  The Earnies award program is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. based campaigns, however submissions are accepted in English only.

For its second year, PR Newswire has added additional categories to allow organizations even more chances to showcase their successful earned media campaigns.  The categories include:  The Earnies Grand Prix; Best Use of Video in Social Media; Best Connection to Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook Audience; We Can't Believe That Worked!; Best Use of Social Listening for Campaign Planning; Best Visual Campaign through Pinterest & Instagram; Best Use of an Infographic; Best Global Communications Program; Best Integrated Campaign on a Shoestring Budget and Best Piece of Branded Content. 

To learn more about the awards program, review the categories and enter a submission, visit AGILITY@work.  The deadline to submit is November 16, 2012 and there is no cost to enter. Final winners will be announced via @AgilityAtWork in early 2013.  Judges panel to be announced shortly.

Join the conversation and follow the progress of the awards process on Twitter @AgilityAtWork. 

About PR Newswire
PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 58 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content — from rich media to online video to multimedia — and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

Media Contacts:
Rachel Meranus
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
PR Newswire
+1.201.360.6776
Rachel.Meranus@prnewswire.com