The Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) is pleased to announce:
Bill Peters, Manager of Communications with St-Boniface Hospital Research Centre, is the recipient of the 2013 Manitoba Communicator of the Year Award (MCOY).
Please join us as Bill is presented the MCOY Award at a special luncheon event on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, at the Hotel Fort Garry. Following his acceptance of the award, Bill will speak about his experiences and the knowledge he gained from a public awareness campaign.
Bill had the task of developing a campaign for the Canadian Centre for Agri-Food Research in Health and Medicine (CCARM). His goal was to build awareness of CCARM’s booth at “Ag in the City” that features recent work on pulse crops (beans). With a budget of under $1,000 that had to include two banner signs, Bill came up with “Consider the Bean” a concept that leveraged international exposure for CCARM – the creation of a portrait of Rowan Atkinson’s TV character “Mr. Bean” – out of thousands of beans valued at about $4. From there, the campaign went on to earn the following accolades:
- – Booth was one of the most popular at Ag in the City
- Local TV and radio coverage, including a three-minute segment on CTV and a five-minute radio interview on CJOB
- Article in the Winnipeg Free Press and newspapers in Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal
- Hundreds of references on ag-related websites
- Hundreds of re-tweets, reposts on Facebook
- Inquiries from industry partners including, Manitoba Canola Growers Association, Canadian Lentils, Saskatchewan Growers Association.
Bill then approached Mr. Bean’s Facebook administrators who posted the image and a subsequent video, which resulted in more than 8,000 “likes” and 75,000 views. It didn’t stop there. Bill and his team produced T-shirts, posters and an interactive beans graphic for the CCARM website that when moused over brought up nutritional information.
Last year, Bill was invited to the International Conference on Health & Science Communications in Providence, Rhode Island to speak about Consider the Bean and on how to use social media in communications.
CPRS Manitoba established the Manitoba Communicator of the Year Award to honour individuals or organizations that have demonstrated excellence in public communications in business, politics, entertainment, non-profits or the community at large. The Communicator of the Year was selected by a panel of senior CPRS Manitoba members and public relations professionals. Previous award recipients are Scott Brown of True North Sports and Entertainment (2012), Kevin Walters of Manitoba Homecoming 2010 (2011), Clare MacKay of The Forks North Portage Partnership (2010) and Heather Plett of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (2009). Inaugural MCOY winners were Gail Asper and Kim Jasper for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (2008).
Both the award recipient and all the highly qualified nominees demonstrate creativity and solid communications strategies. CPRS Manitoba is proud to be able to recognize the best in the profession.
| WHEN | Wednesday, April 17, 2013 11:45 AM – 1:30 PM |
| WHERE | The Fort Garry Hotel 222 Broadway, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0R3 |
| FEE | MCOY Gala Luncheon Registration Member fee $40.00 Non-member fee $55.00 Student fee $25.00 View Event Summary |
| RSVP | Monday, April 15, 2013Click here to register!!
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