More on our PR win at SoSara.com.

I’m happy to say that blue.0 and partner Rueckert Advertising & PR has won the Public Relations Society of America Capital Region Chapter’s Empire Award for Social Media. This was based on the work that we did for the 2009 Freihofer’s Run for Women, an elite 5k race that takes place in Albany, NY every year. We used blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to help increase race registration 19% over 2008, resulting in 4,029 women signing up to run — a record field.

In 2008, Rueckert Advertising won top honors in the Empire Award’s “Integrated Campaign” category for its comprehensive public relations program for the race. They’ve been the race’s PR firm for 14 years and do an excellent job. I’m happy that we’re able to work with such a great company.

More here.

This is a great event and we’re happy to be a part of it each year:

Rueckert Advertising & Public Relations taps into PR, social media to drive record field at 31st Annual Friehofer’s Run

ALBANY, NY (July 29, 2009) — A comprehensive public relations and social media campaign employed by Rueckert Advertising & Public Relations LLC and its partners helped draw 4,029 women — the largest field ever — to participate in this year’s 31st annual Freihofer’s Run for Women.

To raise awareness of the prestigious 5km road race, the full-service marketing communications agency generated 57 million impressions from 585 pre- and post-event print and electronic stories. This record coverage, which included in-depth articles in industry trade publications like Runners World and TV segments on the YES Network’s Running HD show and the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Running Roadshow, was valued at more than $1.6 million.

The agency also partnered with local social media firm blue.0 to launch an aggressive social media campaign.

“As the news hole shrinks social media is becoming an increasingly powerful communication tool,” said Rueckert Advertising Account Executive Chris Rueckert, noting that social media helped boost attendance by 19% this year. “This new communications tool enables us to tell our story with our audience on multiple fronts.”

Among the social networking tactics employed were the creation of a Run for Women Twitter page (@freihofersrun), which allowed organizers to drive viewers to the event’s Web site to read complete stories and press releases, and a Facebook group page, which enabled 364 members to stay abreast of the latest race news, as well as communicate directly with one another.

A new Freihofer’s Run for Women blog (http://blog.freihofersrun.com) — featuring news, video interviews with event staff and runners, elite athlete updates, women’s health and fitness news, media stories about the race, and general running news — was also introduced. Meanwhile, YouTube was used to promote various aspects of the race through video.

“With such a strong running community in the Capital Region and with so many Freihofer’s Run for Women participants blogging about their training, races and interests, it made sense to establish ways for them to connect with one another online,” explained Chris Bowcutt, founder of blue.0. “Hopefully these connections will translate into an even bigger turnout next year.”

Obviously, we have even bigger plans for next year…

From the Times Union:

Getting social in women’s racing
Freihofer’s Run gaining with Facebook, Twitter

By PETE IORIZZO, Staff writer
First published in print: Monday, May 25, 2009
The Freihofer’s Run for Women wants to be your Facebook friend.

Or it can follow you on Twitter. Just send it a tweet.

The annual 3.1-mile race through downtown Albany, which attracts thousands of local women as well as elite athletes from around the world, is now using social-networking Web sites to find new runners and foster a community among its longtime participants.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” said event director George Regan, who has his own Facebook page as well.

A Freihofer’s Run for Women group on Facebook includes more than 275 members. And its page on Twitter.com, a site on which bloggers offer brief but frequent updates, includes more than 140 followers. The Freihofer’s tweets and posts on walls.

Regan said social-networking is one reason registrations are on pace to be higher than in recent years. As of this past week, almost 2,800 women had registered for the race, which is more than 350 runners ahead of the pace from 2008, when a total of 3,387 women turned out.

“It’s a great communications tool,” Regan said. “Any way that you can communicate to your audience is a good thing. And for young people, this is what they’re doing. My daughters couldn’t believe I have a Facebook page.”

The Freihofer’s is just one example of many companies and events now marketing through social-networking Web sites. Since signing up is free, the publicity comes far cheaper than through traditional means, like billboards, newspaper ads or in-store flyers.

Sanjay Putrevu, chairman of the marketing department for the University at Albany, said research shows that sites like Facebook and Twitter are particularly popular among women and young adults, which are a large part of the Freihofer’s target audience.

“This forum has become very convenient when you want to share information,” Putrevu said. “For some types of information, e-mail is not convenient. You need to know the person’s coordinates. Here, you have a wall for the public to see.”

Most Freihofer’s runners already appear to be Web-savvy. Regan said almost 65 percent of registrations from the 2008 run happened online.

Though growing in the number of users, the race’s Twitter and Facebook pages are right now limited to mostly news releases, with links to the race’s Web site (http://www.freihofersrun.com). The vast majority of updates come from race officials.

Chris Bowcutt, a Web marketing consultant who helped established the Freihofer’s social-networking pages, said the race’s goal in coming years is to have those pages become forums where runners, volunteers and the event staff all converse.

“That is the goal — to form a community,” Bowcutt said. “One of the future efforts for Freihofer’s is to have it driven by people who run the race, just the common people who run. They can drive the process themselves and have it be a fun thing.”

Um, ha ha, I’m clearly not that media savvy yet. “Common people” and “fun thing” sound a bit juvenile.

No matter.

Onward.

The Freihofer’s also might include incentives for joining its Facebook page. For instance, Regan said he might in the next few years offer those who register through Facebook autographed pictures from the elite runners or coupons.

“Not only are we going to continue doing these things,” Regan said, “but we’re going to expand on them.”

Original article here.