LeadPoint Digital won nine awards in eight categories, including Best of Show, in the 2023 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Blue Ridge Summit Awards. The honors were handed out on Feb. 8, 2024, at a luncheon and were for work done between October 2022 and September 2023.
The PRSA Blue Ridge chapter is a professional association serving Central and Southwest Virginia public relations practitioners. With awards for eight different client projects, LeadPoint Digital stood out at this year’s Summit Awards for excellence and outstanding contributions to the communications field.
“At the end of the day, we’re a relationship company,” said Brad Timofeev, LeadPoint Digital Managing Partner. “We’re proud to be recognized for the results we drive for our clients because when they succeed, we succeed.”
LeadPoint Digital, a Roanoke-based marketing agency, submitted client projects in eight categories: earned media, public service announcement, shared media, public relations campaign, internal communications, website, paid media, and special events. Each sample is an example of a results-driven strategy. Here’s a look at each winning campaign.
WEBSITE
Franklin County Economic Development, Gold and Best in Show
Franklin County Economic Development wanted a new website with a modern design that would showcase the vibrancy of the county for both business prospects looking to relocate and people who already live in the region. They also desired an interface that allowed them to continue to add content and resources. The new website includes robust imagery, interactive features, and fully rewritten content with calls to action that has seen increased user activity since its launch in August 2023. LeadPoint Digital did a deep-dive into website content and analytics to better understand Franklin County Economic Development and develop a digital strategy to help them provide information about living and working here. Within the first month of launch, the website saw a 30% increase in traffic.
The website received a perfect score, earning it PRSA’s Best in Show, a premier award from the PRSA Blue Ridge chapter. It is awarded to the entry receiving the highest point total in each category (Campaigns and Tactics). All categories are eligible for Best-in-Show with the exception of the student portfolio category.
EARNED MEDIA
Roanoke Biotechnology Project, Silver Award
The Roanoke Biotechnology Project was the kickstart of a campaign to launch and promote building a biotechnology incubator in downtown Roanoke, a major economic development project involving multiple partners. The campaign included a press release followed by a series of op-eds, search engine optimization and content creation, and social media designed to generate support for biotech development, often through media mentions. Measurable goals were to create media attention while increasing awareness of the project. Our strategy helped generate significant awareness and buzz. Within 24 hours of the press conference, the project garnered 15 local media mentions, with at least one mention a month afterward. The story was also picked up by the national wire and appeared in more than 50 other publications.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Buzz4Good, Silver Award
The City of Roanoke highlighted plenty of reasons to move a business here but didn’t offer opportunities to showcase the arts. LeadPoint partnered with Buzz4Good and the arts community to create a song and music video about the city’s vibrant art scene. LeadPoint created a landing page to help showcase information about the thriving Roanoke arts industry with a primary goal of generating awareness, helping people understand “It’s Here” when referring to the arts. The music video has been viewed 37,000 times on YouTube, the Buzz episode was aired on PBS, and the effort was featured in the Roanoke Times. The landing page got a lot of buzz and has helped provide usable collateral for Roanoke Economic Development.
SHARED MEDIA
Byrider Roanoke, Gold Award
The local Byrider franchise in Roanoke is a buy-here, pay-here car dealership in operation for almost 30 years. Once a year they do a weeklong customer appreciation event to thank existing customers and attract new customers. In years past, the customer appreciation event was held in-person at the dealership. This year the week-long customer appreciation event was done completely on Facebook running June 5-10, as a way to help grow their social media presence. The Facebook-only customer appreciation event was a huge success as the likes and follows grew not only during the event, but increased growth for several months post event.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Cardinal Bicycle, Silver Award
Cardinal Bicycle wanted a renewed presence online to help drive shoppers to their two retail locations in Roanoke, Virginia. The public relations campaign consisted of organic social media, email marketing, content creation, and Google Ads to help drive cyclists – from the beginner to the pro rider – to interact and visit. In seven months, Cardinal saw website visitors increase 60% over the previous year (with 86% increase in visits from SEO).
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Carter Machinery, Silver Award
Carter Machinery wanted to communicate to employees about the importance of the Employee Opinion Survey (EOS). The communications campaign consisted of weekly emails sent over a seven-week period starting on August 9, 2023. Each email would touch on different topic such as communication, training, teamwork, collaboration, accountability, and safety. The goal was to maintain the baseline of survey responses from the previous year. Research was done to determine the best day and time for employee engagement and resulted in above-average click-through and survey completion rates.
PAID MEDIA
Flotrace, Gold Award
FloTrace, a new, up-and-coming provider of heat trace solutions competes with well-established brands in the industry. They partnered with LeadPoint Digital to revolutionize their online presence and drive sales through a meticulously crafted Google Ads campaign. Leveraging in-depth research, creative innovation, and strategic planning, LeadPoint Digital developed a comprehensive marketing strategy, including a new website to optimize the online checkout process. The results of the campaign far exceeded FloTrace’s expectations. As a result of LeadPoint’s efforts, Flotrace more than quadrupled their sales and made over 2,273% return on advertising spend.
SPECIAL EVENTS
RBTC’s TechNite, Silver Award
TechNite is the annual celebration of the Roanoke-Blacksburg region’s technology community, hosted by the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC). The evening includes a keynote speaker and awards presentation to celebrate leaders, innovators, and companies in the regional tech community. LeadPoint Digital worked with RBTC to manage the event promotion and ticket sales, including social media marketing, email marketing, the website landing page, and registration platform. Overall, TechNite was a huge success. Registration was closed a week prior to the event because it was sold out. Much of the success of this event was in part to planning and a consistent drip of information to potential attendees.
“We spend time getting to know our clients so we can tailor our strategies to meet their needs,” said Carrie Cousins, Director of Digital Marketing. “It’s an honor to be recognized for the passion we pour into this work.”
LeadPoint Digital is a marketing agency specializing in digital marketing and website design, located in Downtown Roanoke. A deep understanding of online behavior allows LeadPoint Digital to develop and execute practical strategies that drive results. If you are looking for a marketing partnership that is rooted in strategic and operational values, contact us.
