Introducing The SPOKEies™, the PR Industry’s First Awards To Recognize Best Brand, Corporate & Non-Profit Spokespersons
NEW YORK, NY – With political spokespeople and CEO missteps dominating today’s 24/7 news cycle shouldn’t the best of the best in the corporate and non-profit worlds have an award that recognizes their skills in delivering their organization’s message? Today, The SPOKEies™ were born to do just that.
The SPOKEies™ are the first awards program to honor the best spokespeople representing brands, non-profits and corporations. There are more than 40 awards in six categories including 24 for corporate and brand spokespeople and 18 for non-profits. Categories include C-Suite Leader, Most Authentic, Most Engaging, and Crisis Management. Additionally, The SPOKEies will include specific awards in financial services, healthcare, sports, technology, entertainment and start-ups. Social media awards will be selected through a Twitter vote.
Spokespeople will be judged based on their trust and authenticity, plus their ability to engage the audience and cogently communicate their organization’s messages.The judges represent the best in the business. They include executives with the Better Business Bureaus, Twitter, Google, Barron’s, Edelman, Weber-Shandwick and others. A complete list of judges is here.
Judges feel The SPOKEies™ will make a difference:
- “When you think about The SPOKEies™, you think to yourself, why hasn’t that existed historically.” — Alex Josephson, Head of Global Brand Strategy, Twitter
- “It’s incredibly important for a CEO to be recognized as an effective communicator.” — Silvia Davi, CCO at Equities.com.
- “One of the key elements of the SPOKEies is communicators and trust. Trust” – Scott Monty, CEO and Co-Managing Partner, Brain + Trust Partners
- “There is great ROI if your leader is a great spokesperson,” — Fay Shapiro, Publisher of CommPro.biz, the industry trade site that is handling the technology for the award submissions.
“In developing these awards, we were surprised to learn that nothing like them exists in any of the spokesperson-driven communications fields,” noted Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media and founder of the awards. The SPOKEies will offer an education/professional development component on best practices that will feature many of the esteemed judges, nominees and award winners. “Finally, the best spokespeople in brand, corporate and non-profit communications will get the recognition they deserve,” says Simon.
Nominations must be filled out online at spokeies.com. The deadline is September 15, 2017. The award winners will be announced in October during Communications Week in New York City.
About D S Simon Media
Influencer marketing is the story in 2017. D S Simon Media has been doing this for 30 years turning our client’s experts and leaders into influencers. We get spokespeople from leading brands and non-profits on television through Influencer Media Tours, Video Series, Media Packages and Junkets and partner with influencers to extend their reach through YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and online media using the power of video.
CommPRO.biz
An acronym for “Communications Professional Resources Online,” CommPRO.biz is the destination for the answers marketing communications professionals need to be successful, whether they’re in public relations, investor relations, corporate communications, marketing, advertising or social media.