Raleigh Public Relations Agency Archives - Clairemont Communications

Clairemont Takes Home Top PR Awards

October 30, 2019July 15, 2022 Cherith AndesAwards, Blog, The Clairemont TeamPR Awards, Raleigh PR Agency, Raleigh PR Team of Year, Raleigh Public Relations Agency, Watt Huntley AwardLeave a Comment

Clairemont Communications secured two prestigious PR industry awards at the 2019 Sir Walter Raleigh Awards banquet hosted by the Raleigh Public Relations Society (RPRS). RPRS named Dana Phelps, founder and CEO of Clairemont, as the recipient of the Watt Huntley Award for Lifetime Achievement. Considered the highest honor given by RPRS, the Watt Huntley Award recognizes “an individual who has made lasting and meaningful contributions to the field of public relations over the course of a career.”

The Clairemont team also received the distinction of 2019 Team of the Year, an honor recognizing its creativity, strategy, tenacity, client successes and excellence in the public relations industry. In addition to these prestigious honors, RPRS recognized several of Clairemont’s PR client campaigns in media relations, social media, events, branding and writing, including two Platinum Awards. Other awards included:

Silver Award for Media Events in Campaigns: Vita Vite Midtown Hosts a Toast-Worthy Preview
Honorable Mention Award for Organizational or Branding in Campaigns: Who Says? Journelle Forces Lingerie Conversations into Limelight
Silver Award for Organizational or Branding in Campaigns: Western Governors University Builds a Brand in North Carolina
Silver Award for Special Events in Campaigns: Theodore Alexander and Charles, 9th Earl Spencer Debut Royal Furniture Line
Gold Award for Social Media in Campaigns: Reimagining Holiday Traditions with Riceland
Platinum Award for Community Relations in Campaigns: Lighting a Fire for Everyday Heroes
Silver Award for Websites in Tactics: Your People Are Here – Briar Chapel’s Website Refresh
Silver Award for Writing – Op/Ed in Tactics: WGU North Carolina Takes Higher Education to Another Level
Gold Award for Writing – News Releases in Tactics: Transfer Co. Food Hall Hits the Downtown Scene
Silver Award for Writing – Blog or Feature in Tactics: Briar Chapel’s Four Great Gains of Going Green
Platinum Award for Media Relations in Tactics: Royal Media Affairs with Lord Spencer and Theodore Alexander

We are humbled and grateful to do work we love with clients we love every day. Thank you to our wonderful partners, clients and industry friends. We’re excited to celebrate more than 230 awards and nearly a decade of Clairemont with you!

Photo of the Week: Team Time!

April 1, 2016July 15, 2022 Jasmin SessomsBlog, Photo of the Week, The Clairemont Teamaward winning PR, Clairemont Communications, creative PR agency, Raleigh PR, Raleigh Public Relations Agency, the clairemont teamLeave a Comment

Cosmopolitans and Bloody Marys should be an everyday treat at work. Okay, maybe not every single day, but possibly once a quarter for the Clairemont team! On Monday, we piled into Dana’s Acura and gallivanted off to North Hills for an undisclosed afternoon of fun. First, we stopped by Coquette to nab a quick cocktail and then headed next door to the big silver screen. The laughs (and cringes!) we shared over Hello, My Name Is Doris at the movies were priceless.

Need a suggestion for your next team outing? Check out these ideas. Want to get the inside scoop on how awesome it is to work at Clairemont? Follow us on Facebook!

Photo of the Week: Foodie Dinner

November 20, 2015July 15, 2022 Jasmin SessomsBlog, Marketing, Restaurant PR + Hospitality PRaward winning PR, creative PR agency, il palio, italian restaurant, Marketing, networking, Raleigh Public Relations Agency, Restaurant PR, Social MediaLeave a Comment

Ever wonder how foodies take such fabulous photos of mouth-watering, scrumptious-looking plates? In this case, a little teamwork makes the dream work. Check out Trish Witek’s photo of food bloggers collaborating on how to get the best shot at Il Palio’s (client) VIP foodie dinner. As one food blogger shines an iPhone flashlight onto the dish, another friend zooms in on his camera for the perfect (well-lit!) shot.

As a strategy to engage key influencers in an ever-changing food industry and to highlight the grand reopening of the restaurant, Il Palio hosted 16 of the Triangle’s leading food bloggers for a special, four-course dinner event.

Love the work we do at Clairemont? Be sure to read our other foodie posts on the blog.

CLAIREMONT INTERNS: INTRODUCING SAM HALLE

October 22, 2013July 15, 2022 Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont TeamClairemont Team interns, Internships, PR, PR Agency, public relations internships, Raleigh Public Relations Agency, Raleigh Public Relations Internships1 Comment

Clairemont intern Margot Pien sat down with fellow intern Sam Halle to learn a little bit more about her. Help Margot and Clairemont welcome Sam!

This week, I sat down with Sam Halle, who is one of the two interns I am working alongside at Clairemont Communications this fall. After chatting about school, our past experiences and discovering a mutual love for otters (seriously – she adopted an otter for a year at a local park when she was a kid), I’m here to tell you what I learned about Sam.

A senior at UNC-Chapel Hill (Go Tar Heels!), Sam is a Journalism & Mass Communication major, with a concentration in public relations. She is also pursuing a second major in public policy and a minor in psychology. It’s hard to keep track of all the organizations and activities she has been involved in during the past few years, but they include:

Interning at Ogilvy & Mather in Chicago as a strategic brand planner this past summer (where she got to explore all of Chicago’s free concert offerings)
Interning in Vietnam last summer with a client of a venture capital firm
Serving as chapter director of Camp Kesem NC, which is a free camp run by UNC-CH and Duke University for kids with parents affected by cancer
Serving as PR chair of UNC-CH’s Order of the Bell Tower
Guest writing for the website “HelloGrief.org,” which she helped develop while in high school

Phew, that was quite the list. Is there anything that girl doesn’t do? Want to know more about Sam? Here are few more facts:

She’s from Richmond, Virginia (not too far from my Maryland home)
Sam loves the Dave Matthews Band and even met Dave himself after he came to UNC-CH to perform on a special taping of The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon (side note: the episode featured President Barack Obama – watch Jimmy and Barack Slow Jam the News)
She’s a vegetarian who, oddly enough, lives with 3 other vegetarians (and 2 meat-eaters)
She loves coffee, chocolate, concerts and rollercoasters
When Sam was a kid, she once got her long hair stuck in a vacuum while doing some chores. She had to cut her long locks off after that
She loved living in Vietnam during her internship last summer – she fondly recalls buying fruit on the street and visiting amazing beaches
Her family just got an adorable Golden Retriever puppy named Zuko (as in Grease’s Danny). I saw a photo and I can vouch that the puppy’s extremely cute

CLAIREMONT INTERNS: INTRODUCING MARGOT PIEN

October 17, 2013July 15, 2022 Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont TeamClairemont Team, interns, PR, PR Agency, PR Internships, public relations internships, Raleigh PR Agency, Raleigh Public Relations AgencyLeave a Comment

Every semester, we always manage to find some AMAZING interns, and we love to tell you all about each of them. This semester, we have three up and coming PR pros – Kate Fedder (who continues interning at Clairemont after a successful summer internship), Sam Halle and Margot Pien (YES! There are two Clairemont “Margots” now!). Sam Halle (we’ll introduce Sam to you in our next blog post) recently sat down with her fellow fall intern, Margot Pien to learn a bit about her. Here’s what she learned:

Margot is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (class of 2013) with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, with a concentration in advertising, and a minor in English.

While at Carolina, she worked with Chapel Hill’s WXYC 89.3 FM radio station. An already avid concertgoer, Margot’s time at WXYC helped her to realize she could work with music. She has since interned at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Music Maker Relief Foundation and Merge Records, and she would love to ultimately work in the music industry or arts management. Currently, Margot shares her time between interning at Clairemont and interning at Redeye Distribution, a distributor for independent music of the southeast.

Want to know more about Margot? Here are few additional fun facts:

Hailing from Bethesda, MD, Margot now lives in Durham
While at UNC, she served as the managing editor for Blue & White Magazine and was an active member of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed community service fraternity
She loves to travel, and her favorite destination thus far is Greece
She has a knack for photography and frequents museums and art exhibits
She (like myself) is vegetarian and otter-lover
Considering her spirit animal is a sea otter, it’s fitting that she has quite the affinity for fountains. Her favorite fountain? Rome’s Fontana di Trevi