B2B

A Brand-New Brand Award

After a 12-month research and judging process (more than 1 million nomination forms were sent to business leaders around the world), @erwwpr has been given a 2012 Corporate INTL Global Award in the category of Advisory Firm of the Year in New York for Brand Positioning. Readers of the magazine are legal and financial advisers, [...]


@erwwpr Wins at the PRWeek Awards

On Thursday night, PRWeek honored our agency with its top award in the Multicultural Marketing Campaign category for our “Meeting the Eye Health Needs of Culturally Diverse Groups” program for Transitions Optical. “Euro RSCG’s efforts to make diverse communities ‘see’ their eye health needs is brilliant,” said one judge. Our agency was also one of [...]


Our Pittsburgh Office Continues Its Long Awards Streak

On Thursday night, @erwwpr’s Pittsburgh staff brought home 15 honors from the PRSA Renaissance Awards. Leading the list was Katie McSorley, President, Mid-Atlantic, who won the PRSA Pittsburgh Chapter’s Hall of Fame Award. Other winners—in creative tactic, special event, brochure, speech and community relations categories—include Transitions Optical and our very own initiative to (successfully) bring [...]


@erwwpr Gets Finalist Nods for 2012 PRWeek Awards

The “Portraits of Heroes” song contest we created for Sears to honor our country’s warriors (Josh Gracin’s hit song “Can’t Say Goodbye” was the result) was recognized in the Cause-Related Campaign of the Year category. And our “Meeting the Eye Health Needs of Culturally Diverse Groups” for Transitions Optical was named a finalist for Multicultural [...]


iSee It Now

iSee It Now

Among all the news coverage about Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple CEO, the most interesting to me was Piers Morgan’s interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Remember him? (Oh, heck, some of you weren’t even born!) Remember when you first heard the name Apple? Why on earth would someone name a company after a [...]


What a Difference a Decade Makes

What a Difference a Decade Makes

It might be early August, but a part of me is already fixated on one month from today: 9/11. My head tells me it’s an important milestone, but my heart is telling me I must somehow rise to the occasion and make Sept. 11 this year something more. It’s hard not to think what a [...]


Hands Off Ronald!

Hands Off Ronald!

Far be it from me to condone the nutritional value of the food at McDonald’s (although they have been trying a little harder lately), but when it comes to Ronald? Hands off! In one of the more potentially forgettable yet memorable points in my early public relations career, I spent several days chauffeuring a Ronald [...]


To Stay Connected…or Not to Stay Connected?

To Stay Connected…or Not to Stay Connected?

I’ve recently returned from parents’ weekend at Penn State University, where my oldest daughter is a freshman. In the seven weeks since she left home, we’ve Skyped a few times, texted and had the occasional phone call. (The phone calls generally come at random times as she’s crisscrossing the massive campus.) I’ve tried mightily to [...]


Reflections on a PR Education

Reflections on a PR Education

With a daughter heading off to college this fall, I’ve got a lot to reflect on when it comes to career decisions and higher education. I’m ambivalent about the fact that my daughter is pragmatic and has chosen an undergraduate business school over a liberal arts education. Yet a liberal arts education feels like a [...]


Snow Business in the Age of Facebook

Snow Business in the Age of Facebook

Speaking from the snow-bound city of Pittsburgh, nowhere has social media been the bearer of the now-prized real-time news and an exemplar of the trend toward hyperlocal news than during the blizzard of school closings and delays that have rocked our lives in the past week. One of my most vivid childhood memories comes to [...]


An Attempt to Curb Teen Excess

An Attempt to Curb Teen Excess

In the early days of 2010, I am reflecting on weaning two teens from a consumption mindset. It’s been interesting. For starters, there were no allowance increases in 2009. I urged my two girls to share more (as if that would happen, with bickering daughters) and to babysit more (as if the local families with [...]


The World Is Flat

The World Is Flat

Christopher Columbus was warned about sailing to the New World because conventional wisdom was that the world was flat. Wise and gutsy Chris proved the world was big and round and that even long, arduous journeys were worth taking. Now, more than 517 years after Columbus set sail in the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, [...]


Old News

Old News

I don’t know what has landed in your home’s snail-mail box this season, but it appears the annual holiday letter has finally gone the way of ski boots that lace. All along, I was ambivalent about holiday letters. For many years, they were the only way to keep tabs on far-flung and long-lost family and [...]