Platinum Dell Inc. Gold Peabody Energy Obata Design, Inc. Silver Coca-Cola FEMSA Paragraphs Design Bronze Lear Corporation Campbell-Ewald	Platinum Caterpillar Inc. Converse Marketing Gold Agrium Inc. Nonfiction Studios Inc. Silver DIS AG Bronze Central Florida YMCA	Platinum Syngenta Addison Corporate Marketing Gold Gables Residential Corporate Reports, Inc. Silver The Stanley Works Keiler & Co. Bronze Linde AG KW43-brandbuilding and design	Platinum Commonwealth Industries Paragraphs Design Gold NIC modern8 Silver BankCorp RI The Link Agency Bronze International Rectifier Corporation
Platinum Transcontinental Inc. Gold Peabody Energy Obata Design, Inc. Silver Edwards Lifesciences Stoyan Design Bronze Devon Energy	Platinum General Electric VSA Partners, Inc. Gold The Heritage Foundation Silver DOMTAR Inc. Bronze Emerson Obata Design, Inc.	Platinum Merck KGaA Buebery Park Gold Hormel Foods Corp. Silver MVV Energie AG Anja Helm, Agentur für Gestaltung Bronze NW Natural	Platinum Southern Company Lucid Partners Gold WPP Group PLC Silver Ameren Obata Design, Inc. Bronze Caesars Entertainment

HOW THE COMPETITION WAS JUDGED

INTRODUCTION

The competition was judged by a field of communications professionals affiliated with LACP.  Their expertise spans a broad spectrum of PR functions ranging from corporate, executive, and internal communications for Fortune 500 organizations to product, service, and non-profit publicity expertise.  Judges are screened to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.

COMPETITION CLASSES

Award results are based on the judging of submissions within peer-level competition classes.  Competition classes are established to create the most level playing field possible between entries.  They are determined according to company size, annual revenue, and other pertinent factors included on the entry form.

SCORING

Scoring is derived according to a proprietary judging system developed by LACP, which assigns point values to various criteria of an entry. The Competition Scorecard provides further details on these criteria as well as the scores earned. A composite score, based on a 100-point scale, is then determined by summing the results of all judging criteria.

Narrative descriptions can be correlated to an entry’s scores according to the following chart:

The entry with the highest total score within its competition class is presented with the Platinum Award.  The entries with the second-, third-, and fourth-highest total scores within their competition class garner the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, respectively.  In the event of a tie, multiple awards are distributed per award level.

Honorable Mentions are earned by entries not scoring within the top four award levels of any given competition class but achieving a minimum score of 75.

TOP 100

Top 100 awards are given to the highest-scoring entries regardless of competition class. Ties are broken by weighting various judging criteria according to overall importance.