At the end of the dot-com era, the Orlando Business Journal asked PR guy Richard Laermer what he thought of WordWise, a local firm that had hired a person full-time to get them a horde of industry awards.
Laermer says WordWise did no advertising but “this hardly-shy communications agency pursued a different strategy: it won awards.”
Actually, by 2001, Laermer says, WordWise had racked up nearly 300 awards—23 that year alone. They included Florida Public Relations Association’s Dick Pope All Florida Golden Image Award and the Grand Golden Image Award. Their employee was all over the award circuit.
Laermer, author of the book “Full Frontal PR,” says that when the business journal called him, the reporter “wanted me to stop laughing and give a comment.”
Laermer hates the PR industry’s Oscar-envy this time of year and writes more about it in “Navel-Gazing for PR People: The Tumult of Awards, Groups & Parties.”
What I found so remarkable was the sloppy way WordWise displays the press clippings announcing its awards. Check out this one posted at its website.
This from a marketing communications firm? So much for awards.