The Virginia Lottery, along with its PR partner Padilla, was honored with a pair of 2017 Silver Anvil Awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on June 8. The annual event held in New York City honors organizations that have successfully addressed a contemporary public relations issue with exemplary professional skill, creativity, and resourcefulness. Silver Anvil Judges evaluate entries for their strategic nature of public relations programs using four key components — research, planning, execution, and evaluation.
The Lottery’s innovative Thank a Teacher campaign garnered the anvils in the Community Relations and Events and Observances (more than seven days) categories for government organizations.
The campaign encouraged the public to send thank-you notes to K-12 school teachers they value, while highlighting the fact that all lottery profits support K-12 education in Virginia. Qualifying teachers who received a thank-you note could enter a drawing for a chance to win a Virginia vacation from the Virginia Tourism Corporation. More than 30,000 print and digital notes were sent to teachers with the help of the Virginia PTA.
The Lottery also won 12 trophies at the Virginia Public Relations Awards ceremony in May from PRSA Richmond including the Best in Show Award.
The Best in Show Commonwealth Award was for internal communications and the campaign “Virginia Lottery ‘Smooves’ into New Headquarters.” This campaign engaged Lottery employees as the entire office staff, the public-facing Prize Zone and massive computer operations moved to Main Street Centre in downtown Richmond.
“We’re so gratified that the hard work of our Communications team and other Lottery partners is being recognized,” said Virginia Lottery Director of Communications Jill Vaughan, APR. “These campaigns support our agency strategy of being a top employer in the Commonwealth and a trusted gaming source. It’s essential that we find creative ways to inform Virginians where their money goes when they purchase a simple lottery ticket- to K-12 schools.”
A complete list of 2017 Silver Anvil and Silver Anvil Award of Excellence winners is available here.
When it comes to education, the Virginia Lottery is game. In fact, it’s the reason we play. We generate more than $1.6 million per day for Virginia’s K-12 public schools. Operating entirely on revenue from the sale of Lottery products, the Virginia Lottery generated more than a half-billion dollars for Virginia’s public schools in Fiscal Year 2016. For more info, visit our website, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and check us out on YouTube. Please play responsibly.