Krakoff Communications Honored with Three PRSA Pittsburgh Renaissance Awards

We are excited to share that our team has won three awards at the 2025 PRSA Pittsburgh Renaissance Awards held January 30, 2025, at the Fairmont Pittsburgh, where we were proud to be a sponsor.

This year’s awards highlight our work for the Canon-McMillan School District and Core Natural Resources (formerly CONSOL Energy).

Canon-McMillan School District

Nestled among some of the best schools in the region, Canon-McMillan School District not only boasts high student test scores but also a thriving community. With this in mind, they sought help communicating their story to the broader region.

Krakoff Communications was tasked with crafting a sales piece for the District to share with new families, as well as a wider distribution to local professionals, such as realtors, banks, libraries and beyond. Through this piece, Canon-McMillan School District aimed to highlight its successes in education and encourage new and growing families to join the District. Our strategy focused on promoting the District’s high academic achievement, diverse extracurricular opportunities and strong community spirit.

This “Brag Book” was a brochure centered around the District’s mission: Educating the Whole Student. The brochure reflects Canon-McMillan’s strong academic achievement and abundance of arts, athletics and other extracurricular opportunities that contribute to students graduating as well-rounded individuals. Additionally, we highlighted the efforts behind the school’s $100 million in renovations.

We designed the piece incorporating impactful, high-quality photography to capture the essence of the District’s new mission statement and convey the stories within the community. After interviewing two dozen people in the District to identify the offerings that were unique and important to them, we shared the stories of students achieving at the highest levels–including attending Ivy League universities, playing Division I and professional athletics and receiving national awards for the arts, including a Grammy Award. Additionally, we highlighted Canon-McMillan’s technology offerings and explored the community’s diverse makeup, spanning rural, urban and suburban families.

Through the implementation of the Brag Book, Krakoff Communications impressed the Superintendent and other administrators, and we’ve been told that a record number of families have either contacted or moved into the District in the several months since the Brag Book was created and distributed.

Core Natural Resources

To combat a lot of misinformation regarding the future uses of coal and the transition to renewable energy, Core Natural Resources, formerly CONSOL Energy, launched its Not So Fast campaign. Aiming to provide public awareness of a balanced and fact-based perspective on the ongoing energy transition, the campaign highlights coal’s critical role in supporting current and future energy needs.

To kick off the campaign, Krakoff Communications, along with partner agency Applebox Studios, developed a comprehensive media kit and media-trained several executives, providing the media with access to executives with a range of expertise, including sustainability, safety and innovation within the coal industry.

To prepare, we built a comprehensive media list comprising hundreds of trade and consumer print, TV, radio and online media outlets as well as podcasts and influencers interested in the energy/sustainability story. To kick off the campaign in December 2023, CONSOL Energy hosted a pop-up event in downtown Pittsburgh called “Coal for Christmas,” playing on the narrative that coal isn’t just for “bad” kids but is essential for powering the world we live in. During the event, literature, toys and real lumps of coal were distributed over four hours.

For the rest of the year, we reached out to media outlets and secured 785 total media placements, reaching 501.11 million people. This included coverage in top outlets, a mix of trade, local and national media and podcasts.

The Key to Our Success

These award accomplishments highlight our ability to understand our clients’ needs and our capability to execute campaigns that exceed their expectations. For Canon-McMillan School District, the goal was to develop a comprehensive brochure to share their successes with target audiences within the community. With Core Natural Resources, the focus was on researching and understanding the landscape and developing and executing a proactive and reactive media relations campaign.

The recognition we have received for these awards is not only a testament to our team’s diverse skills but also showcases the trust our clients have in us to bring their ideas to life in an engaging and impactful way.

Are you looking to showcase your organization’s best qualities through a creative campaign or project? Please contact us at .