AARP Financial’s MoneySmarts Program Brings Home Three Awards from Annual PRSA Competition

Launched to Help Investors Overcome Financial Jargon, MoneySmarts^SM Wins Silver Anvil Award of Excellence in Marketing Communications/Financial Services

New York, June 5 — AARP Financial’s MoneySmarts program was recognized with three awards at the prestigious 2009 Silver Anvil Awards competition here on June 4th. The Silver Anvil and its companion award, the Bronze Anvil, are sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and recognize outstanding achievement in strategic public relations planning and implementation. MoneySmarts was one of only five PR programs in America to win as many as three awards.

In the Silver Anvil competition, MoneySmarts received a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence for best overall PR program in the Marketing Communications, Financial Services category — one of only three finalists.

The MoneySmarts program was designed to help people overcome one of the biggest impediments to effective saving and investing: financial jargon. AARP Financial and Tiller polled investors nationwide on their knowledge of financial terms and concepts, and used the findings as the basis of a national media campaign and an easy-to-use website, MoneySmarts.com, aimed at demystifying the investment process with straightforward information on financial terminology.

“The finalists in this year’s Silver Anvil Awards represent some of the most strategic, creative and best public relations campaigns in the industry,” said Joice Truban Curry, 2009 PRSA Honors and Awards Committee chair and president/CEO of c3 Communications. “These programs exemplify how the best practices of research, planning and execution deliver measurable and impactful results.”

In the Bronze Anvil category — awards created by PRSA in 1969 to recognize excellence in items or components of programs or campaigns — MoneySmarts was recognized with two awards. The program won a Bronze Anvil for Best Editorial/Op-Ed Column for an article by AARP President Richard "Mac" Hisey on how financial advisors can help solve the jargon problem, which appeared in the September 2008 edition of Financial Planning magazine. MoneySmarts also received a Bronze Anvil Award of Commendation for Best Press Kit by a services company.

“MoneySmarts powerfully addressed our need to demonstrate AARP Financial’s advocacy for the interests of all investors,” said Fred Yager, Manager, Media Relations, AARP Financial. “The PRSA awards are clear testimony to the program’s benefits and impact— as well as the by-product of incredibly constructive and successful client/agency partnership.”

“Tiller uses groundbreaking research, highly visible media coverage and consumer friendly marketing communications to help corporations build both brand and business, through delivery of solutions for urgent market issues,” said Rob Densen, CEO, Tiller, LLC. “MoneySmarts is our model at work at its best, and we’re proud to have earned this extraordinary industry-wide recognition of the value of our advocacy approach.”

Tiller, LLC (www.tillerllc.com) is one of the nation’s leading consultancies in the creation and implementation of advocacy marketing programs for major U.S. corporations. The firm has offices in New York City and Chicago.   

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