PRSA recently announced the winners of the 2023 Anvil Awards, which recognize the best public relations tactics and campaigns of the year and the highest standards of performance for the profession.
“Every year at the Anvil ceremony we get the chance to see the exceptional and trailblazing work taking place throughout our community,” said Michelle Egan, APR, Fellow PRSA, 2023 PRSA Chair, “all of which continues to make me proud to say that I am a communications professional. Congratulations to the winners and participants.”
Among all winners, tactics and campaigns encompassed a wide breadth of topics, causes and themes. These included a campaign showcasing the need for U.S. support in Ukraine by providing developments on the ground to U.S. media; a documentary following real characters whose struggles with sleep threaten to unravel their waking lives; and a campaign created by and for Washington’s Black community to encourage the unvaccinated to reconsider their choice.
This year’s Best of Silver Anvil Award was presented to the Florida Power and Light Company with rbb Communications for their campaign, “A Sound Response to a Record-Setting Storm: FPL Gets the Lights Back On After Hurricane Ian.”
On September 28th, 2022, the Southwest Florida community was forever changed when Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4, on the verge of Category 5 strength. With deadly flooding, storm surge and wind speeds topping 155 miles per hour, Ian caused catastrophic damage to homes, businesses and lives.
Florida Power & Light Company was ready for the storm and delivered when it mattered most. With its year-round preparation, in-field reporting and real-time communication, the strategic implementation and flawless execution of their response plan led The Daily Sun to declare: “We’ll happily tout Florida Power and Light’s response as one of the best planned recoveries from any disaster to ever hit Florida.”
Through the campaign, from September to November 2022, FPL storm message awareness scores jumped from 62% to 75% statewide, and coverage featuring storm messaging generated over 1.45 billion impressions with 99.7% of more than 9,874 stories identified as positive/neutral.
A total of 38 Silver Anvil Awards, 21 Bronze Anvil Awards, 34 Awards of Excellence and 25 Awards of Commendation were presented during the evening. Click here to see the full list of winners.
