Esurance's Trevor Project Campaign Wins 2011 PR Newswire Earnie Award

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Esurance, the direct-to-consumer personal car insurance company, has won PR Newswire's Earnie award in the "Best Connection to Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook Audience" category for its campaign in support of The Trevor Project.

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The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

The innovative campaign pledged $10 to The Trevor Project for each new "Like" on Esurance's Facebook page, raising a total of $50,000 to help support the Trevor Lifeline. The 24/7 crisis intervention phone service offers free and confidential suicide prevention counseling to youth nationwide.

"This campaign displayed creative use of social media to engage an audience and drive business growth – and the results reiterate the impact social media has on today's earned-media landscape," said Rachel Meranus, vice president of marketing and communications at PR Newswire. "We were excited to see the impressive response from the broader social community and Esurance can accept the award knowing it was selected by its peers."

"Esurance actively uses social media to engage with people on issues of social responsibility, and our partnership with The Trevor Project was a way to bring attention to an issue we're passionate about," said Esurance Vice President of Marketing Darren Howard. "We would like to thank the people who voted for us to help promote diversity and equality. It's also gratifying to be recognized by PR Newswire for our social media efforts."

PR Newswire's Earnies awards — the first community-chosen awards program dedicated to earned-media campaigns executed through social media channels — was created to recognize innovation in social media campaigns. The award entries were judged based on strategy, creativity, and results, as well as the overall "awesomeness" of the campaigns. A panel of expert judges reviewed the submissions, creating a short list of three finalists in each category before community voting on the AGILITY@work website determined the winner.

The Earnies awards program was open to individual practitioners as well as brands and organizations. In its first year, the Earnies launched in the U.S. but will expand globally next year.

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, and public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 57 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize, and target content — from rich media to online video to multimedia — and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile, and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

About Esurance®

Esurance, an Allstate company, provides personal auto insurance direct to consumers online and through select agents, including sister company Answer Financial. Esurance is dedicated to constantly improving the way people shop for, buy, and manage their auto insurance. By combining the best of technology with industry know-how, Esurance is able to offer hassle-free coverage with 24/7 customer service and claims handling at competitive prices. For more information, visit www.esurance.com and www.answerfinancial.com.

About The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ youth. Every day, The Trevor Project saves young lives through its free and confidential lifeline, in-school workshops, educational materials, online resources, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.TheTrevorProject.org.

SOURCE Esurance