Weber Shandwick

Company: Weber Shandwick, New York, NY
Company Description: Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in 76 countries around the world. The firm’s success is built on its deep commitment to client service, our people, creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates - engaging stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Public Relations Agency of the Year

Nomination Title: Weber Shandwick – Advocacy Starts Here

1. Tell the story about what this nominated agency achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Weber Shandwick had quite a year in 2009, winning awards for transformational
campaigns across the new media landscape. In a down economy and down year for
most, we ended the year with modest growth in our North America business. We
also continued to invest in the industry’s best talent.

Weber Shandwick’s mission is to give every client what they truly need to grow
in this new world of engagement – a legion of believers, supporters and fans.
The firm’s success is built on its deep commitment to client service, people,
creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates – engaging
stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation, whether
it is offline or online – what we call our “inline” approach.

The Holmes Report captured Weber Shandwick’s unique selling proposition in
January 2010 when it said that the firm “…is now an industry giant not only in
terms of size but also—and more importantly—in terms of quality, having
consistently outperformed the market over the past five years and established
itself as a leader and thought leader around the world.”

Our commitment to excellence ultimately culminated in the firm being named to
Advertising Age's Agency A-List and The Bulldog Reporter’s Large Agency of the
Year. In 2009, Weber Shandwick was recognized as PRWeek’s inaugural Global
Agency Report Card Gold Medal Winner, an ‘Agency of the Decade’ by Advertising
Age, Global Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report, and International
Consultancy of the Year by PRWeek UK. The firm also won numerous ‘best place to
work’ awards around the world including PR News and The Holmes Report and won
an inaugural Cannes Lions Award for Best PR-led Integrated Campaign. And CEO
Harris Diamond was named 'PR Agency Executive of the Decade' by The Holmes
Report.

Great campaigns included:

• PepsiCo: helping the company achieve its goal of digital dominance in
their business categories, we oversee multiple efforts, including orchestrating
PepsiCo’s presence at South by Southwest Festival, the “Super Bowl” of digital
media.
• Census 2010: working on one of the industry’s largest communications
campaigns this year, an integrated effort to mobilize 305 million Americans to
stand up and be counted in 2010.
• Electrolux: creating “appliance lust” by building alliances with Kelly
Ripa and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, which resulted in a dynamic
integrated social media campaign, the first-ever “virtual bakesale.”
• KFC: deepening brand loyalty and driving store traffic by leveraging
new menu items like the blockbuster Kentucky Grilled Chicken to keep KFC
relevant in the health, wellness and value environment.
• U.S. Army: working on a mega-integrated campaign that combines earned
media, social media and grassroots outreach to deepen understanding of the
value of the Army and what it means to be a soldier.

We’ve added an impressive number of new, high-profile clients to our roster in
2009, including Pepsi, MySpace, Samsung, Symantec and Juniper Networks. We also
saw growth in many of our existing accounts including Abbott, American
Airlines, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson and Merck.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

To learn more about Weber Shandwick and our achievements over this past year,
please visit our micro-site.

http://www.webershandwick.com/StevieAwards

Username: Stevie
Password: Calendar2010
(*username and password are case sensitive)

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this agency:

Harris Diamond, CEO, Weber Shandwick
Harris Diamond is CEO of global public relations firm Weber Shandwick. He was
named "PR Agency Executive of the Decade" by The Holmes Report and Ranked No. 1
on PRWeek’s 2009 Power List, he is regarded as one of the industry’s leading
experts on corporate and industry positioning, and provides high-level
strategic communication counsel to an array of clients.