BPAA Wins Two Prestigious Mercury Awards for 2010 Celebrity Bowling Hall of Fame Campaign Public Relations Efforts

BPAA Honored with Silver Award in Special Event/Brand Awareness Category; Bronze Award in Publicity/Sports Category

Arlington, TX  March XX, 2011 – The Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA), in conjunction with its public relations firm MWW Group, will be honored with two prestigious communications industry awards for the 2010 Celebrity Bowling Hall of Fame campaign.  The campaign will receive a Silver Mercury Award in the Special Event/Brand Awareness category and a Bronze Mercury Award in the Publicity/Sports category.

Each year, the BPAA honors a celebrity inductee as a member of the Bowling Hall of Fame for their contributions to raising the profile of the sport of bowling.  For the first time ever in 2010, the BPAA put the selection process in the hands of the public to vote for their favorite Celebrity Bowling Hall of Fame candidate through GoBowling.com; nominees included Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Jeff Bridges, Pauley Perrette, Kim Kardashian, Bill Murray and Jimmy Fallon.  Following each vote, fans received a downloadable coupon for a free game to be used on World Record Day of National Bowling Week.  At the conclusion of the campaign, Taylor Swift edged fellow pop star Justin Beiber as the 2010 inductee.

The month-long campaign, which kicked off in July 2010 and ran through National Bowling Week in August, garnered an all-time high in GoBowling.com visitors, with more than 1.3 million votes cast and included a media partnership with OK! magazine.  In total, through traditional, online and social media outreach, the campaign reached 776 million people through media relations and a total advertising equivalent of more than $3 million. 

“Just as the bowling industry continues to evolve and stay relevant – we took the Celebrity Bowling Hall of Fame to a new level in 2010 and launched a viral campaign that put the power in the hands of the people.  The response was absolutely incredible and – with fans rallying behind inductee Taylor Swift – speaks to the rising popularity of bowling among youth and female audiences,” said Steve Johnson, executive director, BPAA.

Hosted by Mercomm, the Mercury Awards honor high standards of achievement within the communications industry and celebrate creative professionals whose determination, innovation, originality and smart thinking stand at the forefront of the industry.  Previous winners include:  Hasbro, Subway, American Airlines, ESPN, Omni Hotels, Goodyear, Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and Bank of China.  

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