Bulldog Reporter Honors AllianceBernstein's College Savings Crunch As Nation's Best Media Relations Campaign, Program Also Receives Prestigious Silver Anvil Award

New York, NY - AllianceBernstein Investments' College Savings Crunch was honored as the best media relations campaign in the nation, topping all other campaigns in all other categories on all topics, at the 2007 Bulldog Awards for Excellence in Media Relations & Publicity.

Sponsored by Bulldog Reporter, the awards represent the only public relations competition judged by working journalists, and recognize a program's "ability to influence public opinion through the media" as well as "creativity and originality, strategic brilliance, fast thinking, quick turnaround, and results."

Conceived and implemented with the help of Tiller, College Savings Crunch is a research-based, integrated marketing communications campaign that leverages original research, robust media coverage, and targeted marketing communications to educate and motivate families to save for college, particularly through tax-advantaged savings vehicles such as 529 plans. The program has generated over 115 million media impressions including segments on "The Today Show," "Oprah and Friends" on XM Radio, "CNN Headline News" and NBC, CBS and ABC network affiliates across the U.S. Stories also appeared in BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Money magazine and on MTVNews.com, USNews.com and Fool.com.

Bulldog Reporter noted, "This impressive campaign highlighted the formidable challenge of parents' quests to save and invest for their children's college educations," proving that "in this campaign, Tiller demonstrated once again that thorough, meticulous, original research scores big in the national media." Bulldog Reporter positioned AllianceBernstein Investments "as a thought-leader and advocate for the college savings challenge."

In addition to "Grand Prize Winner/Best Media Campaign of the Year" honors, the program also took home four second place Silver Awards in the categories of Investment, Banking and Financial Services; Issue/Cause Advocacy; Public Service/Public Education, and Research Measurement/Consumer.

Campaign Also Receives Prestigious Silver Anvil Award

College Savings Crunch also took home the 2007 Silver Anvil Award in the Marketing Consumer Services, Financial Services category presented during the Silver Anvil Awards Evening June 14 in New York City. The Silver Anvil, sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), recognizes outstanding achievement in strategic public relations planning and implementation.

"The PRSA Silver Anvil Awards are the highest watermark of success for any public relations practitioner," said Sherry Goldman, 2007 PRSA Silver Anvil Awards chair and president, Goldman Communications Group, Inc. "We congratulate both AllianceBernstein and Tiller for their public relations program that incorporated measurable and sound research, planning, execution and evaluation. This program contributes to the best practices of our industry."

The Silver Anvil Awards has grown in scope and stature since its inception in 1946. The Silver Anvils are awarded to programs in 54 categories. In the 60 years since the inception of the program, more than 1,000 organizations have received Silver Anvils for excellence in strategic public relations planning and implementation. College Savings Crunch also received two Bronze Anvil Awards of Commendation in the categories Press Kits/Media Kits & Services and Research/Evaluation. The Bronze Anvil Awards were created by PRSA in 1969 to recognize outstanding public relations tactics, the individual items or components of programs or campaigns.

Tiller founder and CEO, Rob Densen, states "Winning the Bulldog and a Silver Anvil has been immensely satisfying. It is tremendously gratifying to win awards from two such prestigious organizations. It is a wonderful validation of the Tiller approach and the success of this program has brought attention to a topic that is crucial today."

  ^{EMAIL A FRIEND}