NATIONAL Public Relations wins big at the 2012 SABRE Awards in New York and 2012 CPRS Toronto ACE Awards

TORONTO, May 10, 2012 /CNW/ - On Tuesday, NATIONAL Public Relations accepted the 2012 Gold SABRE award for Best Canadian Campaign of the year for the "Harlequin Office for the Preservation of the Kiss."

The NATIONAL team received the coveted SABRE award on Tuesday night at Cipriani's in New York City, at the annual gala presented by the Holmes Report. The SABRE Awards, which attract close to 2,000 entries each year from across North America, provide the premier showcase for the best that public relations has to offer. Winning campaigns can claim to have been measured against - and triumphed in competition with - the best public relations campaigns in the world. The campaign was also a 2012 Silver SABRE Award finalist for Publicity Stunt.

"We are so proud to have been able to conceive and execute such a great and multiple award-winning campaign with the team at NATIONAL, Sonic Boom and Burson-Marsteller," said Michelle Renaud, Senior Manager of Public Relations at Harlequin, famed publisher of books for women. "The results have far exceeded our wildest expectations.  We are thrilled with how this integrated and interactive program has been received and experienced by our loyal readers, by the media, and now, by our public relations peers."

This integrated campaign, conceived and executed by NATIONAL in partnership with Harlequin, Sonic Boom Creative Media and Burson-Marsteller, was also the recipient of the recent Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) ACE award for Best Creative PR Campaign of the year.

NATIONAL brought home four additional CPRS awards including:

• Best Use of Media Relations (Budget over $50,000) - Gold Award - Harlequin Office for the Preservation of the Kiss
• Best Use of Media Relations (Budget under $50,000) - Gold Award - ShopWise - Smart Shopping is in the Palm of Your Hand
• Best Digital Communications Campaign of the Year - Gold Award - Vaughan Mills New Media Challenge: The Thrill of the Find
• New Product or Service Launch Campaign of the Year - Silver Award - ShopWise - Smart Shopping is in the Palm of Your Hand

"These awards reflect NATIONAL's creativity and ability to produce truly integrated and industry leading digital campaigns that deliver fantastic results for our clients. It is a great honour for our team," said Catherine Cano, Managing Partner of the Toronto office, NATIONAL Public Relations.

The Harlequin Office for the Preservation of the Kiss
When approaching the "Harlequin Office for the Preservation of the Kiss" campaign, the team aimed to drive a new level of engagement and prove once and for all that 'Harlequin owns romance'.  What better way to own something than to patent it?  NATIONAL and the team submitted a fully researched provisional patent application for the "Essential Romantic Kiss" to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Pending).  Filing this patent application was the first official act of the newly created Harlequin Office for the Preservation of the Kiss (HOPK). The HOPK and its website (patentyourkiss.com) became an instant online hit and were the focus of a North American wide communications campaign. People from more than 164 countries visited the HOPK's online office.  Even celebrities such as Kim Kardashian were tweeting about 'patenting a kiss' and engaging with our online kiss-creation tool.  This fully integrated campaign with multiple components was strategically aligned to ignite and hold the attention of the target audiences.

The HOPK campaign has also been awarded a Gold Award of Excellence in the Communications Management (programs with budgets over $150,000) at the CPRS National Awards, and a Bronze Award from the Canadian Marketing Association in the Public Relations - Consumer Services category.

You can view a short campaign video at http://bit.ly/HOPKAward.

About NATIONAL Public Relations
NATIONAL Public Relations is the largest public relations consultancy in Canada with offices in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John, Halifax, St. John's, New York and London. The Firm serves leading corporate, government and institutional clients and offers the full range of communications services, including corporate communications, investor relations, public affairs, employee engagement, public consultation and participation, marketing, technology and healthcare communications, as well as digital communications. It provides medical communications, public relations and clinical trial support services to a wide section of the leading pharmaceutical and medical devices companies internationally under the name AXON Communications. NATIONAL is a subsidiary of RES PUBLICA Consulting Group which also owns Cohn & Wolfe | Canada, another communications firm with offices in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal. At the international level, the Firm is affiliated with Burson-Marsteller, part of WPP Group, the largest communications company in the world.

Jeffrey Spivock
NATIONAL Public Relations
416-586-1914
[email protected]

Kristen King
NATIONAL Public Relations
416-848-1427
[email protected]