To the average person, November signifies the start of the most wonderful time of the year. But as a Georgia-based influencer marketing agency, it’s exciting for a different reason: the PRSA Phoenix Awards. This annual celebration recognizes the most creative and effective PR campaigns of the year.

Influencers are an increasingly utilized tactic to create awareness through storytelling, and because we consider ourselves among the best in the influencer marketing game, we were eager to solidify our position by earning some more hardware to add to our trophy case.

Last year, we won three. How’d we do this year? Pretty great, actually. Here’s some more insight on our campaigns that racked up seven (!!!) awards total, with five bona fide Phoenix Awards and two Awards of Excellence.

Kelley Blue Book’s Best Buy Awards: An online database with tools for consumers in the car-buying process, Kelley Blue Book (KBB) was eager to build brand awareness among women and multicultural audiences for its Best Buy Awards – an annual summary of the best vehicles in a variety of categories. Instead of suggesting the predictable “mommy blogger” we suggested KBB collaborate with a clever, very funny, dad influencer who could reach both men and women. Good thing we did, since this effort won a Phoenix Award for Best YouTube Engagement.

We worked with LaGuardia Cross of New Father Chronicles, an African American father of two who is also a bonafide YouTube star. He asked his daughters to offer their insights on car buying, and the resulting adorable video garnered 200K+ views and drove nearly 40K clicks to the KBB site. Collaborating with New Father Chronicles allowed Kelley Blue Book to create meaningful connections with a segment of consumers that had yet to be introduced to the brand’s host of resources, such as the Best Buy Awards.

Ball Mason Jars’ Nashville Pop-Up: Those familiar Ball® Mason Jars aren’t just your granny’s staple. Today’s trendsetter uses them for everything from serving signature cocktails to displaying flower arrangements. Through a partnership with Domino magazine, the chic, home décor and lifestyle publication, Newell Brands hosted a VIP event at the trendy Noelle Hotel in Nashville to showcase the versatility of the containers. What better way to create buzz for this iconic vessel than by enlisting 10 hip, Nashville-based influencers to attend the event and illustrate how they creatively put the jars to use? We couldn’t think of one.

Not only did the influencers expand awareness for the Ball® Mason Jar brand as a versatile organization and décor tool, they also drove over 5K clicks to the Target landing page. Their audiences were also motivated to make purchases via a compelling coupon offer furnished by the Ibotta app. This campaign won two awards of excellence in the Best Paid Influencer Promotion and Instagram Communications categories. We’d say the jar is half full.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Macy’s tasked us with creating digital discussion and inspiring viewership of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We contracted 80 high-tier influencers to create authentic, story-driven content that would persuade potential viewers to turn away from the turkey and hop on the couch to tune in promptly at 9 a.m. Our creative brief for the influencers encouraged them to share old family photos, other holiday traditions, and favorite Thanksgiving memories allowing for deeply personal stories that connected naturally to the promotion of viewing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The #MacysParade hashtag accumulated over 164 million impressions and a 69 percent engagement rate, with 575 conversations driven by our influencers alone! Based on Nielsen data, over 43 million viewers tuned in to watch all or some of the parade program. The parade marked the highest-rated non-sports program of the year since ABC’s Academy Awards –proof that good, old-fashioned parades can be amplified by digital tactics to create TV-viewing magic. Oh, and it won a Phoenix Award for Best Use of Branded Content – Arts, Sports and Entertainment.

UP TV’s #GilmoreTheMerrier: UP TV is a national television network that airs syndicated episodes of the cult-classic television series of the early 2000s, Gilmore Girls, among other things. After last year’s blockbuster #GilmoretheMerrier activation, which was powered by a round-the-clock Twitter viewing party, UP TV opted to deliver another week-long marathon of the hit. The previous effort resulted in the network’s highest viewership to date – so no pressure on topping that success.

Everywhere Agency identified micro-influencers who were fans of the show with substantial and engaged Twitter audiences to create buzz leading up to the binge-a-thon week. The 2017 #GilmoreTheMerrier campaign surpassed impressions from 2016 and delivered UP its best viewership totals for the year with 5.6 million tune-ins, in addition to winning the Phoenix Award for Twitter Engagement. UP TV saw a mega return of their target audience of millennial women, doubling their viewership in this vitally important demographic. Additionally, UP TV’s Twitter following increased by nearly 1,500 over the course of the binge-a-thon.