| OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program |
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| Web Brief (Nov 07) |
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ODOT wins two awards for bridge program communications
It is said that good news never makes news, but that’s not been the case with the bridge program. ODOT’s innovative practices on the OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program have generated a lot of good news over the past five years. And, through a steady stream of news releases, articles, editorials and other public outreach campaigns, the bridge program communications team makes sure that all of this good news gets out.
At a ceremony Oct. 11, the Portland Metro Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America—a prestigious communications industry association—recognized the team with two of its top honors, a first place Spotlight Award and a Merit Award.
The Spotlight Awards were created to acknowledge communications teams for “successfully address[ing] a communications challenge with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness….” For the bridge program communications team, the challenge was to kick off one of the busiest construction seasons in Oregon’s history and convey important safety information to motorists.
The Spotlight Award recognized the team’s successful placement of the editorial—with a link to the webcast—in 22 newspapers throughout the state, with a total circulation of more than 950,000. Prominent among them were The Oregonian, Salem Statesman Journal, Portland Tribune and Albany Democrat-Herald. The webcast was also posted to the Web sites of influential stakeholders and media outlets including Travel Oregon, NBC affiliates KOBI/KOTI (Medford, Klamath Falls), radio stations K103-FM and KEX-AM (Portland) and the Oregon Trucking Associations.
In addition to the first place Spotlight Award, the communications team also received a Merit Award in the category of public affairs for overall communications on the bridge program. PRSA recognized the team’s ongoing work to proactively publicize the bridge program locally and nationally, which has resulted in more than 350 positive media placements in 141 publications since the program began in 2004.
Almost five years into the 10-year program, the PRSA Spotlight and Merit awards bring the tally of industry award wins on the bridge program to nine.
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