Flock and Rally Earns IABC/SC Palmetto Awards of Excellence
Integrated marketing agency earns three awards for media relations, marketing, advertising and brand communication
Flock and Rally, a women-owned integrated communications and marketing agency headquartered in Columbia, S.C., was honored with three 2020 Palmetto Awards of Excellence for exceptional marketing and communications work. The awards were presented by the International Association of Business Communicators’ South Carolina chapter (IABC/SC).
The agency was recognized with 2020 Palmetto Awards for Central Carolina Community Foundation’s Midlands Gives campaign; the “Saving Sarah’s Seat” campaign developed with The COMET; and the 2020 Drive-Through S.C. State Fair campaign.
“Our team is dedicated to collaborating with our clients and project partners to help tell their brand stories, especially during trying times,” says Merritt McNeely, executive vice president at Flock and Rally. “We strive to develop innovative strategies and compelling creative assets that set our clients’ campaigns apart.”
Details about each campaign are noted below.
Central Carolina Community Foundation’s Midlands Gives Campaign
The Midlands Gives 2020 campaign earned a Palmetto Award of Excellence in Media Relations. Midlands Gives is a year-round giving platform and annual 18-hour online giving event held each May. The annual online giving challenge — hosted by Central Carolina Community Foundation — rallies the community around philanthropy by raising money and awareness for hundreds of local nonprofits in one day. Flock and Rally has been working with the Community Foundation to manage media relations for the campaign since 2015, the event’s second year.
Midlands Gives had a record-breaking year — despite the unique challenges presented by the pandemic — raising more than $3.32 million in donations in 2020. Flock and Rally worked alongside the Community Foundation team again during the 2021 campaign, which broke records yet again, raising over $3.34 million in donations.
The COMET: Honoring Sarah Mae Flemming
The COMET’s campaign to honor Sarah Mae Flemming garnered a Palmetto Award of Excellence in Marketing, Advertising and Brand Communication for the “Her Seat Is Saved” campaign. Sarah Mae Flemming was a Black woman from Eastover, S.C. who was expelled from a Columbia city bus for sitting in a whites-only seat in 1954 — 17 months before Rosa Parks’ historic action in Alabama. The campaign was created to honor Sarah Mae Flemming’s legacy and create awareness of her vital role in our civil rights history. The campaign launched on June 22, 2020, to commemorate the 66th anniversary of her ride.
Flock and Rally worked with The COMET’s in-house team to launch the campaign via traditional and digital advertising, social media, water bill inserts, and more, including life-size cutouts of Flemming being placed on each of The COMET’s buses from June through August 2020, with printed information about her life and legacy and a tagline that read, “Her Seat Is Saved.”
The South Carolina State Fair: Free, Drive-Through Fair
The 2020 Drive-Through South Carolina State Fair campaign won a Palmetto Award of Excellence in Marketing, Advertising and Brand Communication. Flock and Rally has worked with the S.C. State Fair since its 150th anniversary fair in 2019, and the team was eager to be a part of this reimagined event, where guests could enjoy free admission to drive through the fairgrounds and experience car-friendly attractions and indulge in their favorite fair foods, all from the safety of their vehicles. In addition to completely pivoting on the 2020 event’s advertising and marketing plan, the agency developed a visual concept for the S.C. State Fair’s response to the COVID-19 crisis and many fun, heart-warming illustrations that showed how people could enjoy the fair, even amidst the developing pandemic.
Flock and Rally is a full-serve agency that offers a range of services to clients across the South and beyond, from research, branding, strategy and planning to implementation services in marketing, public relations, social media and production management as well as traditional and digital advertising. The firm has been in business since 2010 and is federally certified as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE). View the firm’s work, team and more at https://www.flockandrally.com/.
About Flock and Rally: Integrated Communications & Marketing
Founded in 2010, Flock and Rally is a full-service, women-owned creative agency based in Columbia, South Carolina. The firm integrates branding, public relations, marketing, traditional advertising, digital advertising, social media and more into campaigns for a diverse base of clients, ranging from regional nonprofits to large-scale businesses across South Carolina and beyond. Serving industry sectors ranging from lifestyle and tourism to business, technology, real estate, higher education, government, economic development and more, Flock and Rally’s mission is to rally the community around great ideas. Learn more at www.flockandrally.com.
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