2 min read
We are honored to have been named a Bronze winner at the American Business Awards for our work on the RiseSmart Super Bowl campaign. The ABA, also known as the Stevies, announced the winners on June 13 in Chicago.
Our win came in the Communications or PR Campaign of the Year category for B2B campaigns. RiseSmart has become known for its Super Bowl prediction, which guesses the Super Bowl winner based on unemployment rates. Traditionally, the campaign has been highly successful for RiseSmart. This year, however, the results were downright amazing.
About the Campaign
In the past 20 out of 25 Super Bowls, the winning team has come from the metropolitan area with the lower unemployment rate. This year was no exception. When the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos were announced as the teams who would face off at New Meadowlands Stadium, RiseSmart predicted Seattle, with an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent, would beat Denver, which had an unemployment rate of 6.7 percent.
We created a targeted media relations campaign that included press releases, a media alert, blog posts, an infographic and video. Account Supervisor Stephanie Wick also took the extra steps of pitching to news outlets in Seattle and Denver. Thanks to this and our speedy turnaround (we published a custom infographic detailing our prediction just two days after the Super Bowl contenders were announced), the media had nearly two weeks to discuss RiseSmart’s prediction.
Dozens of outlets covered the prediction, including The Boston Globe, MSN, CNBC and multiple Fox and CBS affiliates. ESPN ran a segment discussing the prediction, Fox Business Network ran a 34-second report and a Wall Street Journal reporter discussed the prediction on a radio program.
The day after the Seahawks beat the Broncos, we issued a final press release outlining the continued success of RiseSmart’s prediction, and establishing the company's thought leadership on the topic of unemployment. As the company's CEO says in the release, "Never underestimate the power of having a job."
About the American Business Awards
The American Business Awards is a leading business awards program that recognizes outstanding performances in the workplace. More than 150 preliminary judges selected the finalists, and members of specialized judging committees made the final judgments.
