PRSA Cleveland Rocks AwardsVirtual Event:“We Will Rock You”

Impact transformed an in person awards event into a virtual celebration

Honoring nominees and winner with a glamorous, celebrity-studded gala

The Project

Impact was selected by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Cleveland Chapter to produce a virtual awards event celebration to honor its members’ award-winning communications work from 2020. Over the past 17 years the event drew a live audience to venues such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for a gala evening. We made sure that this night would be no less of a party, even in the virtual realm. Impact brought the PRSA back to the Rock Hall where more than 100 attendees rocked out to encore musical performances from the Rock Hall’s greatest jam sessions, welcomed celebrity awards presenters from Sirius XM Radio’s Classic Rock and Classic Rewind and raised funds for the chapter’s scholarship funds through a live silent auction. Impact also supported our fellow communicators by serving as the event’s production sponsor.

Client

The PRSA Cleveland Chapter is the organization that brings together public relations, communications and marketing professionals throughout greater Northeast Ohio.

Audience

PRSA members, their clients, friends and families; communications industry professionals and communications students.

Objective

Celebrate – virtually – honor excellence in communication from the past year and provide an opportunity for PRSA membership to reunite in a social – and socially distant – format.

30000

PRSA Members Nationwide

60+

Awards Presented

4

Wardrobe Changes by Presenter Katherine Boyd

Our Process

Impact team members created and hosted the event website. The site offered attendee registration, reminder e-mails and push notifications to generate top of mind awareness of the event, while on show day, the site became the viewing platform for the pre-recorded content. We collaborated with PRSA leadership to produce each presentation, conducting multiple video shoots at the Rock Hall with PRSA event committee members and show sponsors. Impact also conducted remote recording sessions with the four celebrity award presenters, DJs from Sirius XM that included MTV alumna Downtown Julie Brown. All video elements along with custom-created graphics were edited together into the final program that was streamed to attendees. Live chat and the chance to bid on silent auction items enlivened the program with interactivity. The seamless production garnered rave reviews.

Dreaming

Securing Star Power
Infuse with Interactivity

Storytelling

Collaborating with Clients to hone and enhance messaging

Creating

Videography
Editing
Graphic Production
Event Hosting
Registration and notification creation
Gamification
Technical Support

Lights, Camera, Rock

Some of rock’s most iconic artifacts became the backdrop for our PRSA presenters’ videos.

Star Powered Production

Downtown Julie Brown, Nik Carter, Rachel Steele, Katherine Boyd from Sirius XM Radio announced the PRSA award winners.

Like a Backstage Pass

Custom-created website gave attendees all access to the virtual event.

An Award for the Awards

Impact rocked the 19th annual Public Relations Society of America Greater Cleveland Chapter awards, clinching the gold in the Events Non-Profits category for our outstanding production of the 2020 Cleveland Rocks Awards.