PRSA Puget Sound Chapter Recognizes Best Practices among Area Communication Professionals

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Puget Sound Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) named Steve Poole of Smith Bucklin Associates and Lisa Kelly, Diana Steeble, Adrienne Matthews, and Brienne Baltzell of Publicis Consultants | PR as winners of the 2007 Totem Awards “Best of Show.” Their entry, “Taking the Trans Out: U.S. Soybean Growers Deliver Healthy Options to the Food Industry” — a PR program developed on behalf of The United Soybean Board — received 99 points out of a maximum 100.

“The Totem Awards allow us an annual opportunity to recognize our peers who have achieved extraordinary results”

Two practitioners were honored this year with the 2007 “Outstanding Young Professional Award”: Joy Radford of PRR for the program “Sara Gabriel Veiling and Headpieces” and Karla Lindula of Seattle Southside for the program “Every Map Leads to a Treasure.” The Young Professional Award is given to a practitioner with three or fewer years of experience in the PR industry and whose performance as the lead on the program submitted for entry has taken them to the highest level.

The evening marked the debut of the People’s Choice Award, selected from a field of three finalists by attendees of the 2007 Totem Awards Gala. This award honors the PR program that excels in creativity despite limited resources (such as time, budget, or staff). Jennifer Gamelin, Greta Smoke, Dane Estes, Eric Walter, and Dan McConnell of DDB Seattle took the award for “Paint the State Contest for Montana Meth Project.”

A total of 22 Totem Awards and 21 Certificates of Excellence and were presented at the Totem Awards gala, held on Thursday, February 8, before more than 150 local communications professionals at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club north of downtown Seattle. KING-TV news journalist Brad Goode served as emcee of the event, which attracted 74 entries. Totem Awards are given for a successful PR campaign or an individual component of a campaign, measuring excellence in three areas: research, planning, and execution. Each entry was judged on its own merits based on a point system with 100 total points possible. Collectively, the entries reflected the 2007 Totem Awards theme, “Back to the Basics”: nothing flashy, but an emphasis on strong public relations planning and execution — the nuts and bolts.

“The Totem Awards allow us an annual opportunity to recognize our peers who have achieved extraordinary results,” said David Blandford, President, PRSA Puget Sound. The Puget Sound chapter’s competition is open to all public relations and marketing professionals in the region, with awards distributed in more than 25 categories and representing professional work ranging from media relations to marketing communications. Specific industries including technology, travel, food, and non-profit organizations are well represented. This year’s entries represent many Washington state companies including Boeing, Microsoft, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, Holland America Line, Cranium, Inc., Weyerhaeuser, Getty Inc., Washington Dairy Products Commission, and The Allen Institute for Brain Science, among other regional and national organizations.

A full list of winners of the 2007 Totem Award is available on the Puget Sound Chapter’s Web site located at: www.prsapugetsound.org/awards-totem.

Sponsors for the event included: Bacon’s, Edelman, Publicis Consultants | PR, and Business Wire.

About PRSA

The Puget Sound chapter of PRSA is the region’s largest professional organization for public relations professionals, with nearly 400 members from throughout Western Washington. Members of this non-profit association represent corporations, agencies, sole practitioners, military, government, health care and other service organizations. The Puget Sound group is one of 116 chapters affiliated with the national PRSA organization, which serves 20,000 members. For more information: www.prsapugetsound.org.