PRWeek recently spotlighted the unique skywriting campaign dreamed up by Harvest PR & Marketing, Inc., for long-time client General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Milwaukee, Wis.

A bold venture into the social media and viral marketing realms, “the campaign was designed to spread the word through both traditional and new media, and connect the audience with the brand and lure visitors to flyMKE.com,” wrote PRWeek Washington bureau chief Ted McKenna.

Harvest PR hired a skywriter to freehand “skymailme.com” over Chicago’s Wrigley Field during the highly attended Cubs-White Sox game, at which MKE sponsored a rooftop media party. Visitors to the viral site could create their own virtual skywriting message to send to friends and incidentally promote flyMKE.com. Launched in June 2008, the campaign generated a combined 16,000 visits to both Web sites, and northern Illinois traffic at the airport is up 29.3 percent.

Mitchell Airport spokesperson Pat Rowe was quoted: “It was a campaign that really caught the imagination of our target audience and broke through the clutter.”

Last night, the Portland Metro Chapter of PRSA honored the accomplishments of PR professionals throughout the City of Roses with the 2008 Spotlight Awards.  We are pleased to announce that our work was among the winners!  Harvest earned a total of six awards: three prestigious Spotlight Awards and three Awards of Excellence.

Spotlight Awards:
              www.PearPanache.com – Web site – Tactic
              www.CottonseedOilTour.com – Web site – Tactic
              The Bartender’s Guide to Pear Cocktails – Publication – Tactic

Awards of Excellence:
              Cottonseed Oil Comeback Tour – Integrated Marketing Campaign
              Have a ball with MKE – Media Event
              www.SkyMailMe.com – Word of Mouth – Tactic

Harvest PR & Marketing brought home another national award for its work with Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport (MKE). The North American Chapter of Airports Council International’s 2008 Excellence in Marketing & Communications Contest awarded the agency a second place finish in the Special Events category for its “Have a Ball with MKE” media event.

The Chicago rooftop event, designed to launch a new viral campaign for MKE – www.skymailme.com – to Chicagoland air travelers, involved orchestrating a skywriting stunt over the sold-out Cubs-White Sox game at Wrigley Field in June, generating an estimated 2.4 million site impressions within a week of the event.

The “Excellence in Airport Marketing & Communications Contest” honors airport professionals that offer expertise and talent in a variety of categories, including web site design, annual reports, newsletters, advertising campaigns, special event planning and more. The award won by Harvest PR was one of only 31 chosen from more than 300 entries.

For some, there is nothing better than biting into a fresh pear. For others, imbibing a cocktail made with tender, teardrop-shaped fruit can’t be beat. To encourage the use of fresh pears beyond the kitchen, Harvest PR teamed up with USA Pears to create The Bartender’s Guide to Pear Cocktails. The professional guide is full of drink recipes and tips created by top mixologists from around the country. Check out the book online to mix up a drink of your own.

Mixing up fresh insPEARation for bartenders nationwide!

The American Agricultural Editors Association announced the winners of its second annual MarComm awards in Tampa, Fla., and Harvest PR came out on top. The agency won the first place award for Public Relations Web Content for its work with the National Cottonseed Products Association. Check out our campaign Web site and you’ll see why!

This weekend, Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport (MKE) was the buzz around the Windy City. With help from Harvest PR, the airport hosted a number of skywriting stunts around town, generating news in both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. The stunts advertised the airport’s newest Web site, www.skymailme.com, where you can customize your own skywriting message and send it to a friend.

Our pilot freehands a message to Illinois travelers over Grant Park

It’s official! Harvest PR & Marketing, Inc. has been selected as the public relations agency of record by Pacific Coast Fruit Company, one of the largest independent wholesale produce distributors on the West Coast.

Harvest PR will develop and execute a public relations and marketing campaign to raise Pacific Coast’s profile among fine-dining restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.

The companies’ shared values and complementary experiences along farm-to-fork channels make this an ideal client-agency fit.

The National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA), the largest professional association for professionals in marketing and agribusiness, announced winners of the national Best of NAMA Awards competition in Kansas City, Mo., presenting four awards to Harvest PR for its work with Pear Bureau Northwest.

Harvest PR received top honors in the news release category for its entry, “Pears make splash as fresh cocktail flavor in 2007.” Additionally, Harvest PR received second-place awards for best Web site, media relations program and consumer-directed PR program.

Harvest PR added two new employees, Erin Griffin and Kate Bugher. Griffin joins Harvest PR as an account executive, bringing a passion for purposeful marketing from her previous post at Goodwill Industries in Tacoma, Wash. Bugher joins the boutique as studio manager, putting into practice use the skills she honed in internships with such PR powerhouses as Fleishman-Hillard and Cision.