Calhoun, Ga.—Mohawk Flooring has been named a winner of the 2016 PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence and the PRSA Bronze Anvil Award of Commendation for its year-long SmartStrand Forever Clean launch campaign centered around the company’s 2015 sponsorship of the Tough Mudder obstacle race. Largely known as the public relations industry’s top honor, the Silver Anvil indicates Mohawk’s far-reaching and strategic campaign development designed to lead customers to its retailers across the U.S., Canada and Australia.
“We are truly honored to be among the 2016 PRSA Silver and Bronze Anvil program award winners and give recognition to the hard work of so many talented Mohawk associates,” said Mollie Surratt, senior director of public relations, content and social media for Mohawk Flooring. “Last year’s award-winning campaign placed our SmartStrand Forever Clean carpet in the middle of an international obstacle challenge. In the course of the campaign, our product faced a variety of challenges and opportunities head-on to ultimately showcase the cleanability of SmartStrand Forever Clean for the entire world to see. It was a powerful activation for the Mohawk brand and, most importantly, our retail partners.”
Recognizing public relations skill, creativity and resourcefulness, the Silver Anvil Award has served as the public relations industry’s most distinguished honor for more than 60 years. The coveted awards program recognizes the most influential and creative PR campaigns throughout the nation and allows winners to promote and share best practices. This year’s ceremony was held on June 9 at the AXA Equitable Center in New York City; Mohawk Flooring was recognized in the Marketing, Products category.
The PRSA Bronze Anvil awards program recognizes and honors the very best public relations tactics executed every year. Of the 639 entries submitted in 2016, only 65 organizations were selected as winners by the Bronze Anvil judges. Mohawk Flooring’s SmartStrand campaign won in the Word-of-Mouth category.
At the heart of Mohawk Flooring’s award-winning campaign was the multifaceted sponsorship of the Tough Mudder Challenge torture test, which put the new SmartStrand carpet “to the test” in Tough Mudder’s internationally known obstacle races. Twenty feet of SmartStrand Forever Clean carpet was rolled out on eight Tough Mudder course, where it was stomped on by more than 10,000 muddy participants at each location. The carpet was then shoveled out of the mud and successfully cleaned using only water.
The campaign was supported by robust in-store marketing materials, local event activation kits, national social media sweepstakes and local social media content. Mohawk also worked with leading bloggers to communicate about the campaign.