LeadPoint Digital won nine awards in eight categories, including Best of Show, in the 2023 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Blue Ridge Summit Awards. The honors were handed out on Feb. 8, 2024, at a luncheon and were for work done between October 2022 and September 2023.
The PRSA Blue Ridge chapter is a professional association serving Central and Southwest Virginia public relations practitioners. With awards for eight different client projects, LeadPoint Digital stood out at this year’s Summit Awards for excellence and outstanding contributions to the communications field.
“At the end of the day, we’re a relationship company,” said Brad Timofeev, LeadPoint Digital Managing Partner. “We’re proud to be recognized for the results we drive for our clients because when they succeed, we succeed.”
LeadPoint Digital, a Roanoke-based marketing agency, submitted client projects in eight categories: earned media, public service announcement, shared media, public relations campaign, internal communications, website, paid media, and special events. Each sample is an example of a results-driven strategy. Here’s a look at each winning campaign.
EARNED MEDIA
Roanoke Biotechnology Project, Silver Award
The Roanoke Biotechnology Project was the kickstart of a campaign to launch and promote building a biotechnology incubator in downtown Roanoke, a major economic development project involving multiple partners. The campaign included a press release followed by a series of op-eds, search engine optimization and content creation, and social media designed to generate support for biotech development, often through media mentions. Measurable goals were to create media attention while increasing awareness of the project. Our strategy helped generate significant awareness and buzz. Within 24 hours of the press conference, the project garnered 15 local media mentions, with at least one mention a month afterward. The story was also picked up by the national wire and appeared in more than 50 other publications.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Buzz4Good, Silver Award
The City of Roanoke highlighted plenty of reasons to move a business here but didn’t offer opportunities to showcase the arts. LeadPoint partnered with Buzz4Good and the arts community to create a song and music video about the city’s vibrant art scene. LeadPoint created a landing page to help showcase information about the thriving Roanoke arts industry with a primary goal of generating awareness, helping people understand “It’s Here” when referring to the arts. The music video has been viewed 37,000 times on YouTube, the Buzz episode was aired on PBS, and the effort was featured in the Roanoke Times. The landing page got a lot of buzz and has helped provide usable collateral for Roanoke Economic Development.
Read more about LeadPoint Digital’s PRSA Awards here.