PITTSBURGH – Gatesman was awarded two PRSA East Central District Diamond Awards; one within the integrated marketing campaign category and one within the media relations tactic category.

The PRSA East Central District represents 17 PRSA chapters across Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and recognizes public relations campaigns and tactics that successfully address a communication challenge with creativity and resourcefulness. This year, Gatesman’s “Name That Lange” campaign for S&T Bank was recognized with a Diamond Award, and its “#BALovesPittsburgh” campaign for British Airways earned an Award of Merit.

“We are thrilled to be recognized among such impressive work in our region,” said Susan English, SVP, director of PR and social media, Gatesman. “The creativity and collaboration that went into bringing these two very unique activations to life is something we are tremendously proud of as an agency. This work speaks volumes of the big-thinking here at Gatesman.”

Gatesman’s “Name That Lange” campaign, which leveraged S&T Bank’s partnership with Penguins Radio Network’s legendary host Mike Lange (who is known for his famous, off-the-wall goal calls), sought to surpass Facebook community growth goals and drive positive conversation surrounding the bank through an engaging social media contest. Over the course of three months, Gatesman deployed a mix of shared, owned, earned and paid tactics to encourage the Pittsburgh community to submit their most creative catch phrases for Mike Lange to adopt into his repertoire.

Upon completion of the campaign, S&T Bank increased its fanbase by more than 1,000 fans, received over 1,600 submissions, reached more than 267,000 people and achieved 533,000 social media impressions. Most notably, the nature of the campaign drove the hashtag #NewMikeLangeGoalCall to trend nationally on Twitter. This viral reaction sparked momentous coverage in the media resulting in more than 58.6 million impressions on a local and national level.

Gatesman’s “#BALovesPittsburgh” campaign supported British Airways, VisitBritain and the Pittsburgh International Airport in their efforts to make a splash throughout the Pittsburgh market to drive sales of the newly launched nonstop flight from Pittsburgh International Airport to London Heathrow. To do so, Gatesman developed a newsworthy, surprise-and-delight activation that intercepted audiences in high-traffic areas of downtown Pittsburgh using the iconic, red telephone booth.

The exciting, two-day activation garnered coverage from every major news outlet in Pittsburgh including an exclusive with KDKA-TV that resulted in a more than two-minute long package. In total, the activation garnered 14 total broadcast placements, 10 print/digital placements and six radio placements which surmounted to 7.6 million media impressions altogether. This media success along with the support of social media and paid influencers helped to drive a spike in searches on BA.com (5,500 searches over the typical 10,000), increased positive sentiment surrounding the British Airways brand and most importantly, increased overall interest in visiting Great Britain.

“Both of these projects were rooted in a noteworthy insight and engaging idea,” continued English. “That’s what allowed our team to not only capture the right audience, but create something bigger that attracted amplified attention and achieved positive business results for our clients.”

About Gatesman:

With offices in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Springfield, Missouri, Gatesman offers expertise in strategy/branding, advertising, public relations, social media, digital and analytics. Gatesman is a partner in AMIN Worldwide, an alliance of over 50 independent marketing agencies, and IPREX, a global communications network. Gatesman acquired Quest Fore in 2014 and Noble Communications in 2017.