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Company: The Harbinger Group
Company Description: The Harbinger Group is a thought-leadership marketing consultancy. We help companies and organizations tell their best story. We are deeply experienced in marketing communications and public relations, with significant depth in these sectors: Financial Services, Education, Healthcare, Professional Services and Real Estate.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Non-Profit / Charity
 Nomination Title: 2020 and 2021 Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Leadership
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated PR campaign or program, or written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Optional: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 238 words used.
Earned Media
Beginning in 2020, THG built more social media traffic for the Golden Apple Foundation, leveraging the announcements of both milestones. Each teacher and leader award recipient was featured on the Golden Apple Newsroom. This link and information were included in media pitching. Links to create an online congratulatory card were also included on the site.
Social & Digital Media
In addition, in each media pitch we asked journalists to consider linking to the Golden Apple website in their coverage, to create backlinks and additional awareness for the work of Golden Apple. This contributed to increased traffic to the Golden Apple website and social engagement. 9/10 of the top performing Facebook posts in the past three years were achieved during Surprise Visits 2020.
E-mail Marketing
After the surprises, The Harbinger Group’s team sent e-mails to each school, City Council, and alumni group with links to the video, photos and press releases of their respective educator, with encouragement to share it on their social media feeds, newsletters and websites.
Supporting Materials
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
2021 campaign: Feb. 23, 2021
2020 campaign: Jan. 23, 2020
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
For more than 30 years, Golden Apple, the leading Illinois nonprofit committed to preparing, honoring and supporting exemplary educators who advance educational opportunities for students, has honored Illinois teachers and school leaders with the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Leadership. The program was initiated to recognize Illinois educators for their extraordinary impact in their school communities. Throughout the pandemic, recognizing the exceptional work of Illinois educators generated much-needed recognition of the pivots and tremendous dedication they have exemplified during this challenging time.
Golden Apple calls for nominations from around Illinois of both teachers and school leaders, who are selected through a highly competitive award process.
During the 2020 and 2021 school years, teachers faced challenges including continuity of learning during the global pandemic, and a time of racial awakening, while providing social-emotional support students need. Critical teaching roles remained unfilled (in 2020 over 6,000 teaching and support staff positions were reported unfilled in Illinois, with a 50% increase in retirements over the previous year).
The Harbinger Group (THG) was tasked with driving awareness of our client’s work to elevate the teacher and school leader professions. THG highlighted the critical roles educators have in our society, and showcased how Golden Apple addresses the teacher shortage in Illinois. This was done by leveraging the organization’s annual Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Leadership–despite the pandemic, depleted news teams and competing educational news from Chicago Public Schools including the CEO’s resignation and a teachers union strike.
6. If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 233 words used.
The Harbinger team promoted Golden Apple Awards finalists and award recipients through campaigns in 2020 and 2021 which began with an announcement of the award finalists. The award recipients were notified via surprise visits at their school, held later in the spring. THG orchestrated each announcement on behalf of Golden Apple and included media/community relations and digital marketing. Each award recipient was surprised with the award in their classroom or school, after having gone through an intensive process of applications, classroom visits and interviews during the finalist stage.
THG leveraged the inherent human-interest stories behind each nominee and finalist. Press releases were distributed, followed by hyperlocal media pitching and digital marketing tactics. We encouraged journalists to interview the teacher and Golden Apple’s president, to hear directly from the teacher and increase awareness of Golden Apple and its work to elevate the importance of educators statewide and the teacher shortage. This strategy included leveraging extensive, highly-targeted earned media promotion, paid social media advertising and e-mail marketing.
During the pandemic, our strategy for announcing and surprising the educators shifted considerably based on local guidelines. In 2020, THG led a shift to virtual or socially-distant surprises for the award recipients due to school closures. In 2021, while the surprise visits were able to be held mostly in-person, we helped lead a virtual event to honor the finalists in lieu of what is historically an in-person event.
7. If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2020. Even if your initiative started before 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 215 words used.
Print/Online/Broadcast Media Relations
Prior to and during the award finalists and awardee surprise visit announcements, The Harbinger Group pitched stories to a targeted list of local media outlets throughout Illinois, focusing primarily on markets in which awards finalists work and live. We pitched the media to cover the personal and professional stories of the educators at the finalist stage and later their selection as award recipients, which is revealed during surprise visits at their schools.
Social & Digital Media
To better engage Golden Apple’s audience, The Harbinger Group's team promoted and produced a Facebook Live stream of the Celebration of Excellence featuring award finalists in 2020 (pre-pandemic) and served a co-producing role to transition the event to a virtual format due to the pandemic for the 2021 Celebration of Excellence. For surprise visit announcements of the awardees, we created individual video posts for each surprise visit and used Facebook advertising to boost each video immediately within the awardees’ local communities. Each video was then posted to Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to increase the reach across social media channels.
Results of the campaigns:
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545 pieces of earned media coverage secured
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7,700,000 estimated online views of secured media coverage
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99,000 social media shares of media coverage
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272,763 engagements on client’s social media channels
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