Cramer-Krasselt wins 17 PR awards in one month.

Bulldog Reporter — June 23, 2017

The public relations practice of Chicago-headquartered Cramer-Krasselt (C-K), an integrated marketing and communications agency, has won 17 public relations awards in less than four weeks for work that ranges from men’s and women’s razors, to some of the nation’s largest amusement parks, to grocery chains and libraries. This included work for clients such as BIC, divisions of Kroger and Knott’s Berry Farm. Included in the agency’s award wins is the prestigious Public Relations Society of America Silver and Bronze Anvils, several Best of Show honors and an Effie for both creativity and results.

Why? Because the C-K PR practice is integrated. It reoriented itself to access every form of data and communication sources within C-K. Using its in-house search marketing (SEO and SEM) and analytics teams, proprietary predictive media planning tool, programmatic trading deck, data management platform and data scientists, user experience (UX) team, creative technologists and custom qualitative research, C-K’s public relations group had enormous data-driven depth, resulting in a much broader context in which the practice delivered its award-winning campaigns.

“PR is no longer a practice with guard rails. Whether clients or agencies realize it, PR is now an integral part of any communication strategy,” noted Karen Seamen, president and COO of C-K. “It has to be data driven and behavioral with validated results. That is a huge difference. It’s no longer merely the old measure of impressions; it’s what action it elicits, what behavior it changes that is trackable and measurable that counts.”

“Our public relations practice is bearing fruit because we have built C-K for integration since day one and PR is now armed with massive data and analytics that lead to depth of insight that affects action. PR here gets to start with all of the hard numbers and insights to make data-driven work, work,” said Mary Gura, senior vice president, director of public relations and social media at C-K in Chicago.

“Extreme collaboration is our secret weapon,” said John Mose, senior vice president, director of public relations and social media at C-K in Milwaukee. “It’s why you see data scientists, writers, media relations experts, planners and media buyers in the same rooms, every day, and on every PR project. You don’t find that anywhere else.”

Details for the agency’s 17 public relations honors include: one PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence (category: Marketing Consumer Products) for BIC, “BIC Flex 5 Smooths Up Millennial Men”; three PRSA Bronze Anvils (categories: Press Conferences, Video Programs, and Creative Tactics) for the Paper and Packaging Board and the Milwaukee Public Museum; six PRSA Chicago Skyline Awards (categories: Consumer Products, Integrated Communications, Press Kits/Media Kits, Events and Observances and Media Relations/Consumer Services/Travel and Tourism) for BIC Flex 5, BIC Soleil, Knott’s Berry Farm and Cedar Fair Entertainment Company; two Publicity Club of Chicago Golden Trumpet Awards (categories: Marketing, Consumer and Social Media Campaign) for BIC Soleil (Silver Trumpet) and Knott’s Berry Farm (First Place Golden Trumpet and Buell Patterson Technology Award); and four National Council for Marketing & Public Relations (NCMPR) Paragon Awards (categories: Integrated Communications, Media Relations, Posters, Social Media Campaign) for the Paper and Packaging Board, Milwaukee Public Museum, the Milwaukee Public Library and Pick ‘n Save. The agency was also recently awarded a Bronze Effie Award for its work on the Milwaukee Public Museum’s “Ultimate Dinosaur” exhibit campaign in which public relations and social media played a chief role in driving success for the integrated campaign.