WORKHOUSE WINS Platinum PR WOW! Award

2012 Platinum PR Awards: WOW! Award09/15/2012By PR News
Winner: Co-Winner: H&R Block - The ’Stache Act, a case study of the greatest 
mustache campaign in history 

The public relations business is full of creative, talented people, so we come to expect great campaigns. Every once in a while, though, a campaign comes along that just blows you away. Take the case of Wow! Award winner H&R Block. H&R Block teamed with their agency Elasticity to expand awareness of the brand to the critical 21-35 year-old male demographic. Face it, when you think of H&R Block, words like stodgy, staid and venerable come to mind. Not exactly the words you’d associate with this target audience. So, how do you reach them? Through humor.
​Co-Winner: OWS with Workhouse Publicity - Occupy Wall Street: The Revolution Will Be Editorialized
It’s hard to believe now, but the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement went unreported in New York and national news outlets for weeks after the initial encampment. It wasn’t until the OWS organizers reached out to Workhouse, late in September 2011, that the word began to get out about what was happening in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. Workhouse first visited the site on September 26 and, after some quick, intensive research, decided that the best way to get the world’s attention was to photograph the scene and events surrounding the occupation.
Workhouse created multiple, topic-based, photo galleries. The photos were graphic and powerful. These images were then distributed to Workhouse’s database of over 500,000 subscribers, including journalists, celebrities and government officials. They were further promoted through Workhouse’s network of social media accounts.
It was the brilliant use of these photographs that showed the nation and the world that the events happening at OWS were not only happening, they signified the birth of a major international social and political movement. 
The results, obviously, have been spectacular. There’s hardly a newspaper, Internet or broadcast media outlet that hasn’t covered OWS. There have been “Occupy” demonstrations in over 900 cities around the world. At the close of 2011, Time magazine named “The Protester” as its Person of the Year. —JG