When it comes to award-winning publicity campaigns, forget gold.  Griffin Communications Group dons platinum.  The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals granted its prestigious 2009 Platinum MarCom Award to the full-service communications firm for its work in educating the public on the value and benefits of human space exploration.

Griffin’s client, the Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition), wanted to garner national media coverage of NASA’s 50th anniversary, which took place in October 2008.  Such coverage was critical to the Coalition’s mission of educating audiences of all ages on the continued importance and value of human space exploration. 

The agency conceptualized and implemented a satellite media tour themed “Passing the Torch:  NASA’s 50th Anniversary” to highlight the administration’s accomplishments over the past five decades and to paint a vision for its future.  The tour featured former Apollo astronaut Capt. Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon, and a young female aerospace engineer currently vying for a seat in the astronaut corps.  Over a six-hour period, the duo appeared together in numerous satellite media interviews.  The effort far surpassed expectations, resulting in 84 placements on radio and television stations throughout the nation that reached 5.7 million people.

“Besides generating these powerful results, we caught NASA’s attention, the Coalition’s most important customer,” said Gwen Griffin, managing director of Griffin Communications Group. “We received several appreciative calls and e-mails from NASA personnel expressing gratitude to the Coalition for hosting such a tremendous media event for the 50th anniversary.  You can’t put a price tag on that type of acknowledgement.”

In addition to the platinum award, Griffin also took home an honorable mention MarCom Award in the video/film/non-profit category for its “Keep America in Space” public service announcement on behalf of the Coalition.  The inspirational, viral video campaign, which was produced by Space City Films, stressed the true need for continued human space exploration and called upon viewers to spread the word.  Griffin managed the production process and coordinated distribution.