WASHINGTON, D.C., June 10, 2016 – The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored Stratacomm with a prestigious Silver Anvil Award during a ceremony last night in New York. The award recognizes the strategic communications firm for excellence in helping its long-time client – the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) – defeat a proposed ban on winter-time wood burning in Utah. This sweeping proposal would have outlawed even low-emission woodstoves certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The state’s regulatory process left little time to spare,” said Bill Buff, Stratacomm managing partner. “We had less than 90 days to mobilize grassroots support for a more reasonable alternative favoring both cleaner air and responsible home heating.”

Working closely with HPBA and an in-state partner, Wilkinson Ferrari & Co., Stratacomm organized and launched Utahns for Responsible Burning in a matter of weeks. The campaign sparked a public outcry that forced regulators to rescind the proposal and prompted state lawmakers to overwhelmingly pass legislation supported by HPBA that prevents Utah’s Air Quality Board from imposing a similar ban in the future. Other results included:

• 2,000 attendees packed seven public hearings, with the crowd nearly unanimously opposed to the wood burning ban
• Almost 100 news articles and local TV segments generating more than 25 million media impressions
• 3,500 petition signatures supporting responsible burning in less than a month
• 3,000 new subscribers to the campaign e-mail list, 2,500 followers on social media and 25,000 unique visits to the website during its first four weeks online

“The campaign designed by Stratacomm was a perfect textbook exercise in how to defeat ill-conceived government action,” said Jack Goldman, HPBA’s president and CEO. He applauded the campaign’s effectiveness in activating large numbers of concerned citizens to advocate against the burning ban.

For more than 70 years, PRSA’s Silver Anvil Award has served as the most distinguished honor in the field of public relations, recognizing complete communications campaigns that incorporate measurable and sound research, planning, execution and evaluation. The awards are judged by an elite group of national public relations professionals. Stratacomm and HPBA received the Silver Anvil Award in the Community Relations for Associations/Nonprofit Organizations category.

###

About Stratacomm LLC

With offices in Washington, D.C. and Detroit, Stratacomm is an independently-owned and operated, full-service communications consultancy. The firm provides trusted counsel and tactical support to help clients educate, persuade and motivate targeted audiences to achieve measurable results. Using research to set benchmarks and identify insights that guide the way, Stratacomm creates and runs integrated communications campaigns that raise awareness, enhance reputation, shape policy and build market share. We harness the full range of communications platforms including earned, shared, owned and paid media channels. Our core competencies include transportation, energy and environment, infrastructure, and public health and safety.