Stevie-winner Nobul real estate marketplace platform was built to disrupt North American real estate by empowering home buyers/sellers and increasing healthy competition and transparency among agents.

Nobul empowers home buyers and sellers with unprecedented information transparency,
choice and control when it comes to their real estate transactions, which, for many people, is the largest transaction of their lives.

Approximately 90% of today’s consumers rely on online reviews (such as Yelp, Google, etc) before choosing/visiting a business. Until now, there hasn’t been the right resource with aggregated ratings for prospective home buyers/sellers to objectively evaluate real estate agents. What’s worse, they usually end up paying a price far removed from the actual estimated property value.

Nobul solves this problem by providing a transparent, centralized platform that supports all aspects of the real estate experience, including traditional multiple listing service (MLS) listings, agent transaction history, services offered, and more. After a user inputs information about a property that they may be looking to buy or sell, the Nobul platform leverages advanced AI technology to assign a “match score” for each agent based on criteria applied by the consumer, for instance, years of experience, local knowledge, language, etc.

Consider this example: if a user is looking to purchase a condo or lock in a 4% commission agreement over a 5% one, they will get matched with someone who has a high-rank score based on those factors. Users then receive multiple bids from these agents, who are further evaluated based on commission, real estate transaction track record, and other key data points.

And, realtors win, too. Real estate agents get matched with buyers and sellers who are a good fit for their services and expertise without having to spend money upfront on marketing and advertisement.

Finally, Nobul provides the consumer with an upfront estimate of how much they will spend or save by working with that agent. The goal is to put the transaction power back in the hands of the home buyers/sellers and elevate the overall experience of real estate transactions for a new generation.

Since Winning Their Stevie
Nobul has achieved billions of dollars in sales across more than 100 markets throughout North America. In December 2021, Nobul surpassed over $5 billion dollars in completed sales.

Nobul is continuing its nationwide rollout into key markets across the United States. In May 2022. Nobul made its marketplace available throughout Texas, including but not limited to Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso. With Nobul, buyers and sellers in Texas can now review criteria and data to help them choose the right real estate agent for them while agents compete for their business in real time. 

Nobul won a Gold Stevie Award in the Mobile Web & App Awards category - Real Estate in The 2022 American Business Awards.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-winner Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is an American multinational brokerage firm. It operates the largest electronic trading platform in the United States by number of daily average revenue trades. The company brokers stocks, options, futures, EFPs, futures options, forex, bonds, funds, and some cryptocurrencies.

IBKR conducts its broker/dealer business on over 150 market destinations worldwide, providing direct access (“online”) trade execution and clearing services to institutional and professional traders for a wide variety of electronically traded products including stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, gold, crypto, and funds.

IBKR is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, and has over 2,650 employees in its offices in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, India, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

IBKR won a Gold Stevie Award for their mobile trading platform for socially conscious investors called IMPACT.

IMPACT by Interactive Brokers
IMPACT is a mobile trading platform for socially conscious investors that is bringing transparency to investing. IBKR believes that everyone should know as much as possible about the business practices of the companies they invest in. IMPACT was created as the simplest way to invest in companies that are aligned with the values investors care most about.

IMPACT allows investors to select their personal investment criteria from 13 impact values and principles: Clean Air, Pure Water, Ocean Life, Land Health, Consumer Safety, Ethical Leadership, Gender Equality, Racial Equality, LGBTQ Inclusion, Company Transparency, Sustainable Product Lifecycle, Mindful Business Models, and Fair Labor & Thriving Communities.

Investors can also exclude investments based on 10 categories: animal testing, business ethics controversies, corporate political spending and lobbying, energy-intensive, fossil fuels, greenhouse emissions, hazardous waste, high water usage, tobacco, alcohol and gambling, and weapons and gun manufacturers.

Based on these selections, the app provides impact scores on existing portfolios and holdings and identifies companies that align with investors’ selected criteria. Ultimately, IMPACT makes it easy to find and invest in companies that share your values, helping to better align your portfolio with the kind of world you want to create.

IMPACT: Post-Launch
Since launching IMPACT by IBKR, the team has continued to evolve the product to better enable access across the globe. This includes not only regularly reevaluating and enhancing the app’s tools to further educate clients and simplify sustainable journeys, but also adding new features such as “Carbon Offsets,” which allows users to take control of and reduce their individual carbon emissions.

Looking forward, they aim to continue to develop and introduce new features as part of their ongoing effort to encourage investment that will ultimately improve lives today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.

Interactive Brokers won a Gold Stevie Award in App & Mobile Website - Financial Services/Banking in The 2022 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-winner OSMEAC Solutions is one of the America's leading-edge accounting consulting firms. They are considered to be in the top 1% of accounting and finance professionals and are publicly marketed as such by their network partners.

With a mission to be "Mercenaries of the Business World," OSMEAC Solutions works to ensure that every client has clear and legible accounting records, financial foresight, and the ability to make sound business decisions. They utilize a fully remote team that spans the United States, assisting clients across North America and now Europe, and facilitating the future evolution of back-office workforce solutions.

President and Founder Charlie Osborne, a US Marine veteran, grew OSMEAC Solutions from $120,000 per year in revenue from 2019 to over $1.2 million in annual revenue in one and a half years, with revenue projected to double over the next 12 months.

From Military Service to Consulting Services
After separating from service with the US Marine Corps, Charlie earned both his bachelor’s and Master's degrees in Accounting. He went on to work for several companies and industries in construction, gaining skills related to SaaS, Tech, Education, Insurance, and eCommerce. He held every position in the accounting and finance field before leaving the corporate world as a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and starting his own Contract CFO firm.

After a few years on his own, seeing the lack of communication and full-service offerings from other firms in his field, he brought a team of highly skilled individuals together to provide a wide array of services to best meet his client’s needs on a contracted basis.

Navigating the Pandemic
In 2020, COVID-19 hit most companies hard. Charlie continued to provide support to his clients despite not always getting paid on time, or at all due to the hardships that were endured. As a result, Charlie found a way to continue growing his business tenfold from 2020 to 2021.

With that growth, he was able to hire over 13 employees in a very short time frame and give opportunities to those in the accounting industry who had been laid off or put out of business. That number continues to grow, with a plan to add 5 more accounting professionals in the next few months.

OSMEAC Solutions provides a fully remote work environment, staying ahead of the curve from most accounting professionals that are afraid to make the jump. Charlie hired employees in 10 different states, and that allowed OSMEAC Solutions to service clients nationally, but also internationally where there is a need for back-office support in an era of increasing mergers and acquisitions.

Through Charlie's leadership skills gained while leading Marines in high-stress combat situations, he has honed-in on the needs of people, clients, and employees to help everyone find that success they are looking for. He attributes his success to his Marines, employees, clients, and family who have helped shape him into the leader he is today.

Since Winning a Stevie Award
OSMEAC Solutions has continued to provide a fully remote, flexible work environment to retain and hire the top accounting talent in the United States. They now provide back-office accounting and finance solutions all over North America and Europe.

They have helped several small businesses scale by providing accurate data and reporting so business owners can make crucial decisions. OSMEAC Solutions has also moved over 6 different corporations from a cash-based accounting method to accrual to comply with US GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and gain better insight into their margins.

OSMEAC Solutions won a Gold Stevie Award for Veteran-Owned Business of the Year in The 2022 American Business Awards.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-winner Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is an American multinational brokerage firm. It operates the largest electronic trading platform in the United States by number of daily average revenue trades. The company brokers stocks, options, futures, EFPs, futures options, forex, bonds, funds, and some cryptocurrencies.

IBKR conducts its broker/dealer business on over 150 market destinations worldwide, providing direct access (“online”) trade execution and clearing services to institutional and professional traders for a wide variety of electronically traded products including stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, gold, crypto, and funds.

IBKR is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, and has over 2,650 employees in its offices in the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, India, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

IBKR won a Gold Stevie Award for their mobile trading platform for socially conscious investors called IMPACT.

IMPACT by Interactive Brokers
IMPACT is a mobile trading platform for socially conscious investors that is bringing transparency to investing. IBKR believes that everyone should know as much as possible about the business practices of the companies they invest in. IMPACT was created as the simplest way to invest in companies that are aligned with the values investors care most about.

IMPACT allows investors to select their personal investment criteria from 13 impact values and
principles: Clean Air, Pure Water, Ocean Life, Land Health, Consumer Safety, Ethical Leadership, Gender Equality, Racial Equality, LGBTQ Inclusion, Company Transparency, Sustainable Product Lifecycle, Mindful Business Models, and Fair Labor & Thriving Communities.

Investors can also exclude investments based on 10 categories: animal testing, business ethics controversies, corporate political spending and lobbying, energy-intensive, fossil fuels, greenhouse emissions, hazardous waste, high water usage, tobacco, alcohol and gambling, and weapons and gun manufacturers.

Based on these selections, the app provides impact scores on existing portfolios and holdings and identifies companies that align with investors’ selected criteria. Ultimately, IMPACT makes it easy to find and invest in companies that share your values, helping to better align your portfolio with the kind of world you want to create.

IMPACT: Post-Launch
Since launching IMPACT by IBKR, the team has continued to evolve the product to better enable access across the globe. This includes not only regularly reevaluating and enhancing the app’s tools to further educate clients and simplify sustainable journeys, but also adding new features such as “Carbon Offsets,” which allows users to take control of and reduce their individual carbon emissions.

Looking forward, they aim to continue to develop and introduce new features as part of their ongoing effort to encourage investment that will ultimately improve lives today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.

Interactive Brokers won a Gold Stevie Award in App & Mobile Website - Financial Services/Banking in The 2022 American Business Awards®.

 Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-winner LINK Agency is a Los Angeles-based social media marketing company specializing in data-driven, short-form advertising optimized for the attention span of the TikTok generation. At LINK, they seek to make ads entertaining and to empower digital content creators to become entrepreneurs with their own content.

Their patent-pending methodology links brands with TikTok trends and creative strategy to produce extremely high-performing content. They support companies with content production, media campaigns, auditing/consulting/strategy, and viral campaigns, using a combination of targeted and paid media.

LINK Agency campaigns have, to date, produced over 3 billion organic impressions and over 2 million in user-generated content. Their campaigns result in an average of $2.30 organic CPM and have a 24-hour average watch time for monthly active users.

Jewelry company Pura Vida approached LINK when they wanted to develop more disruptive campaigns on TikTok to take their presence to the next level.

The Pura Vida TikTok Campaign
Pura Vida is a jewelry company committed to providing sustainable employment for communities of artisans who handcraft bracelets to spread the “pura vida” lifestyle and ignite positive change for people and the planet.

Pura Vida got in touch with LINK Agency to gain more coverage about LINK's partnership with the influencer Charli D’Amelio and seek creative ideas for the execution of the TikTok campaign.

LINK Agency conducted a deep dive of Pura Vida’s brand identity and designed a creative
strategy for their 3-week optimal TikTok campaign to support their new product launch. They also created multiple pieces of content for the Pura Vida page, which were concentrated over a 15-day timeline for maximum impact. LINK takes a unique approach to campaigns—they are detail- and data-driven, and have a knack for picking sounds that have the potential to go viral and also reflect clients' brands perfectly.

LINK provided creative input and executional support for the production of the song and its implementation, as well as guidance about music licensing on the growing video platform – a disruptive method for establishing brand awareness at scale.

The chosen campaign song, Pura Vida Feel Like By Andrey Azizov, went viral on TikTok with over 11,000 user-generated videos and over 100 million organic views in the #ShowUsYourHappy challenge period. The use of micro creators was leveraged thereafter to amplify the challenge.

Since Winning Their Stevie Award
With their Gold Stevie Award-winning campaign for Pura Vida, LINK achieved a 2.2x growth of the brand channel from 117,600 to 256,400 followers on TikTok during the 3-week promotion time. The campaign resulted in over 100 million total views from the TikTok videos using the Pura Vida sound and a total of 10.8 million likes as of May 2021.

In the last 18 months, LINK has collaborated with clients like Gameloft, Pura Vida, Supercell, Space Ape, Steve Madden, Sky Castle, Exodus, Guru Energy, Lingokids, among others. They have been hiring top-class talent to support creative needs, most recently hiring Frederico Lopes as COO and Joaquim Salgueiro as Paid Media Director. With both joining as Partners in the Company, LINK aims to raise the bar of operational excellence and continue reaching more brands and help them take advantage of new and ever-changing disruptive social media marketing opportunities.

They are also developing a new platform and implementing processes that allow clients to review, approve, and provide content feedback faster and more effectively. This will enable them to provide real-time data work and results updates to clients.

LINK Agency won a Gold Stevie Award for Influencer Marketing Campaign of the Year in The 2022 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Women-owned Saris and Things was launched in 2011 as an online-only business where customers could rent or buy traditional Indian clothing and accessories, including shoes, jewelry, and wedding clothing. Within two years, their business quickly expanded to Amazon and other online marketplaces, where they became a top seller of many brands of clothing and fine jewelry.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Saris and Things pivoted to sell face masks, hand sanitizers, gloves, and other PPE items that were suddenly in high demand. In 2021, they again expanded their inventory to sell COVID test kits and lab supplies under their DBA SNT Biotech. By staying alert to customer needs and adapting quickly, Saris and Things was able to thrive during a time of rapid, global change and uncertainty.

Determining and Prioritizing Customer Needs
Before the pandemic began in 2020, Sari and Things was an exclusive online business selling or renting traditional Indian clothing and accessories to customers at a fraction of retail prices. They feature large collections for men and women of pre-pleated saris, lehengas, anarkalis, and sherwanis for Indian weddings and Bollywood-themed parties. They also offer group discount codes and assistance to brides, event organizers, and wedding planners.

As soon as the need for face masks became clear, they immediately began selling cloth face masks in their online storefronts. In fact, they were one of the first Amazon sellers to sell cloth face masks in March 2020, selling thousands of masks since. They decided to offer more in-demand COVID-19 items later, including gloves, hand sanitizer, pulse oximeters, multiple types of face masks, and varying PPE items.

Remaining vigilant to broader market needs in this economic environment, Saris and Things DBA SNT Biotech then began reaching out to laboratories to offer PPE products and  lab consumables like swab kits, tubes, and biohazard bags. They realized the market potential in this evolving market and mobilized operations to expand this arm of their company even further.

Upon request from many of their lab customers, SNT Biotech started assembling their own FDA-registered PCR collection kits and distributing them throughout the USA. By 2021, they had become one of the largest wholesale suppliers of PCR and rapid-antigen tests, delivering to over 500 laboratories and hospitals.

During a time when many businesses were struggling to survive, Sari and Things found a way to pivot and become part of the solution to combat the COVID crisis. Although they started out in the fashion industry for a niche group of consumers, they took the leap to drastically alter and expand their inventory and client network. This foresight and adaptability enabled them to save their business from shutting its doors. At the same time, they were able to help countless individuals, hospitals, and laboratories gain access to essential PPE,  test kits, and medical supplies.

Since Winning Their Stevie
Sari and Things, DBA SNT Biotech has seen its revenue grow by over 2000% since winning their Silver Stevie Award. Today, they are one of the leading national suppliers of Hospital Supplies, Lab Consumables, PCR collection kits, and OTC and POC Rapid Antigen test kits to labs and hospitals around the country.

Saris and Things, Inc. won a Silver Stevie Award for Fastest Growing Company of the Year Among Companies with Up to 100 Employees in The 2022 American Business Awards.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-award winner NRPR Group is a full-service public relations (PR) and strategic positioning agency that serves disruptive enterprises, startups, and thought leaders within the consumer tech, HealthTech, sports, entertainment, diagnostics, and web3 innovation spaces.

Its team is made up of master storytellers, strategists, editors, publicists, and marketing minds working together to capture the true essence and soul of the brands they represent.

Headquartered in the heart of Beverly Hills, California with roots in Silicon Valley and offices across the United States, NRPR prides itself on having a powerful global network of visionaries and talent while maintaining an unwavering commitment to uplevel the way that PR is done at home and abroad.

Continuously expanding their offerings portfolio to match their clients’ evolving needs, NRPR possesses the power to help brands go from concept to reality, while delivering meaningful, measurable press results and public buy-in along the way.

NRPR Biz Pro™
NRPR won a Gold Stevie Award for the launch of NRPR Business Productions (Biz Pro™), its
business development arm that offers new businesses full concept-to-opening launch support, ranging from legal entity creation to brand identity and design.

With this new branch of business, NRPR became the only PR agency to offer cutting-edge, multimedia content creation services through NRPR Productions and end-to-end, pre-launch business development strategy and support — in addition to its core multi-channel public relations services.

The idea for NRPR Biz Pro sprang from the team’s understanding that many ambitious entrepreneurs have incredible concepts for a new product or service, but often don't know how to move forward logistically to turn that concept into a registered, operating business. Throughout the pandemic — when faced with massive industries shifts, global economic shutdowns, and a rise in demand for COVID-related products and services — several of these budding business owners sought out NRPR’s PR and marketing expertise before their actual company had been solidified.

NRPR's CEO and founder, Nicole Rodrigues, recognized the opportunity to partner even more closely with the visionaries her team serves by helping guide them through the early nuances of those pre-launch logistics in a way that could seamlessly set them up for strong storytelling and PR campaigns later. By doing so, she meaningfully disrupted the way in which truly end-to-end and thoughtful PR is done in the modern era, as NRPR Biz Pro is the first end-to-end, strategic business development offering of its kind within the PR landscape.

Going Above & Beyond
By partnering with a business owner in the earliest days of idea development and helping them navigate the complexities of incorporating the company, setting up scalable financial systems and legal entities, and helping outline a strong brand identity (to name a few of the services included within NRPR Biz Pro’s offerings), NRPR takes those clients who have trusted the agency with their story through the full spectrum of business strategy and branding support.

This is just one of the many services that NRPR offers its clients to go far beyond what traditional PR firms are willing to handle, including logo and brand identity development, website and digital media development, newsletter creation and strategic messaging framework, pitch deck creation, investor relationship building, and more.

Once those essential gears are operating at full capacity, startups can be confident that PR and marketing teams can then capture the essence of their story and brand to capture the audience they intend to reach.

"We’ve fought hard to overcome every single challenge presented to us, our clients, and our community throughout this pandemic,” said Rodrigues. “While our team put in the work, energy, and grit to remain a resilient, award-winning agency that current and future clients can rely on, we are also aware of what a blessing it is to continue to thrive against all odds recently. I am so proud of the team we have been able to expand into, the clients we have brought onboard, the new ventures we have helped establish, and the industry recognition we have been awarded for those efforts." 

NRPR Group won a Gold Stevie Award for PR Innovation of the Year in The 2022 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards? 

Stevie-winner ThreatModeler™ is a collaborative platform where security experts or non-security professionals alike can visualize design flaws within a few hours or minutes instead of weeks. ThreatModeler software was created to address the shortcomings of data flow diagrams, bring threat modeling capabilities in-house, and make it scalable. The vision for ThreatModeler software is to be able to model ALL the threats, automatically, with no security expertise required.

ThreatModeler provides 100+ Fortune 1000 companies to secure highly sensitive, regulated, complex, specialized, and global environments with a holistic view of the entire attack surface to minimize overall risk.

Traditionally, threat modeling was a resource and time heavy process – manual and non-collaborative. ThreatModeler is a collaborative platform where security experts or non-security professionals alike can visualize design flaws within a few hours or minutes instead of weeks.

For example, imagine a threat model that is more representative of today’s complex architectures. One that depicts how a hacker moves through a system, identifying where they’ll attack, and more importantly, what controls are required to mitigate it. Now imagine if your developers could use this threat modeling tool in-house, with little to no security expertise, little to no learning curve and without the needleless expense of an outside security consultant.

How is that possible? By using the same language and diagrams to model threats that developers already use. By making threat modeling just another step in the software development lifecycle. Data flow diagrams don’t do a good job of modeling threats in modern system architectures. And hiring outside security consultants to create custom threat models doesn’t scale. That's where ThreatModeler software comes in. Their unique methodology automatically and seamlessly integrates security within existing agile and DevOps workflows.

ThreatModeler is also innovating in threat modeling for cloud, with automation capabilities delivering instant, threat model-building functionality to save organizations vast amounts of time and enable collaboration—people can work on DevOps with security built in.

In line with these security principles, ThreatModeler released the CloudModeler in 2022, its flagship product in securing cloud infrastructure from design to deployment. Their CloudModeler software earned a Silver Stevie Award for New Product & Service - Cloud Platform in The 2022 American Business Awards.

CloudModeler Release
Optimizing ThreatModeler’s automated capabilities, CloudModeler enables organizations to implement true DevSecOps, providing actionable insights through continuous monitoring, empowering teams to discover unknown flaws in real-time. Designed with cloud migration in mind, CloudModeler enables DevOps teams to now detect security flaws before they become code vulnerabilities, enabling instant remediation, mitigating risk, and ensuring compliance post-deployment.

Through its integration with CI/CD and ALM toolchain, ThreatModeler empowers security architects, developers, and operations to keep track of mitigation progress until the architecture threat modeled is production ready. ThreatModeler also enables DevOps to scale with its patented Threat Model Chaining feature—entire or part of threat models can be nested as their own components into other threat models. Any changes to the threat model are reflected in the models in which they are nested.

ThreatModeler empowers enterprise IT organizations to map their unique secure requirements and policies directly into their enterprise cyber ecosystem – providing real-time situational awareness about their current threat portfolio and risk conditions.

Since winning their Silver Stevie Award, ThreatModeler has been working hard to bring a new version of the product to market. They have also invested heavily in their people and are making great strides in educating and working with customers.

ThreatModeler Software Inc. won a Silver Stevie Award for New Product & Service - Cloud Platform in The 2022 American Business Awards.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Raffetto Herman Strategic Communications (RH Strategic) is a leading public relations (PR) agency working to introduce the world to the next generation of innovators in technology, cybersecurity, government, and healthcare.

Based in Washington, DC, and Seattle, Washington, USA, the firm combines deep market expertise with creative storytelling and communications strategy to deliver meaningful, measurable PR results for clients.

John Raffetto and David Herman founded RH Strategic in 2008 with the belief that tying great work to business objectives drives results and transforms companies into industry leaders. Their team has extensive, professional backgrounds in technology, government, and healthcare. Over time, RH Strategic has grown into a national firm of over 40 dedicated PR professionals with east and west coast offices.

RH Strategic won two Gold Stevie Awards in The American Business Awards® 2022 competition for Communications or PR Campaign of the Year in both the Healthcare and Public Affairs categories. Both Gold-winning campaigns were developed on behalf of two companies who are disrupting industries within their services: PlushCare and CYBER.ORG.

PlushCare
San Francisco-based company PlushCare is a virtual primary and mental healthcare company that grew exponentially during the COVID pandemic. Rather than focusing on technology, PlushCare takes a people-first approach. The company only hires physicians from the top 50 medical institutions in the country and empowers patients to choose their own PlushCare doctor, who then becomes their “go-to” doctor for ongoing care. This allows for more trusted, personalized patient and provider relationships, leading to better care.

PlushCare tasked agency partner RH Strategic to help the company raise its visibility among consumers and potential investors to continue its rapid growth trajectory. In pursuit of this, the team set the following activities into motion:

• Identified spokespeople
• Developed messaging
• Developed a robust media list, reaching key audiences
• Targeted high-profile consumer publications to educate readers
• Leveraged key spokespeople to develop thought leadership platforms
• Conducted broad research on the media landscape
• Hosted discovery calls with subject matter experts
• Conducted a competitive analysis

RH Strategic reached its objectives and secured nearly 2 billion potential monthly readers with 31 key placements in publications such as HuffPost, Shape, Livestrong, and more, with 110 syndications reaching nearly 1.4 billion additional readers. They also secured 15 articles reaching a total of 606 million potential monthly readers in top US business publications such as Forbes, Business Insider, TheWall Street Journal and others.

Through the work of this campaign, PlushCare was able to earn the attention of Accolade, which acquired PlushCare for $450 million dollars in June 2021.

CYBER.ORG
A nonprofit funded by the US Department of Homeland Security, CYBER.ORG’s mission is to provide a free cybersecurity curriculum to K-12 educators nationwide by inspiring students to pursue careers in cybersecurity.

CYBER.ORG spearheaded the development of the first ever K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards to introduce uniform standard cybersecurity curriculum across all 50 states and provide educators with a roadmap for teaching cybersecurity to all students.

In partnership with RH Strategic, CYBER.ORG was able to elevate its thought leadership on the national stage and create visibility for its National K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards over a 12-month period via the following strategies:

• Researching the industry landscape
  
• Developing press advisories, messaging, pitches, and bylines
• Highlighting support of the standards with over 70 social media posts
• Drafting testimony for Congressional hearings and promoted through blog content
• Developing a robust influencer engagement program
• Examining legislation

Through a variety of tactics, including media engagement, social media, events, and influencer engagement, RH Strategic reached its objectives and generated visibility of CYBER.ORG’s National K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards among policymakers, government agencies, federal and state government, and cybersecurity and education experts.

Current Focus
Since winning the Gold Stevie for “Healthcare Campaign of the Year,” RH Strategic continues to position its healthcare clients—payers, providers, pharma/biotech, and health IT companies—
as leaders pushing the healthcare industry forward. Most recently, the RH Strategic team has focused storytelling on how the pandemic has permanently changed the patient experience and where innovation is still needed to improve health outcomes and lower costs.

RH Strategic and PlushCare continue to work together to inform patients about the benefits of
virtual primary care and mental health care. Through proactive media outreach and creative content development, the team has secured opportunities for PlushCare executives, primary care doctors and therapists to be featured in The New York Times, Business Insider, STAT, NPR, U.S. News & World Report, and several community-based media outlets. 

Since winning “Public Affairs Campaign of the Year,” RH Strategic continues to position its public affairs clients—technology, cybersecurity and healthcare companies—as leaders advocating for meaningful change inside the DC Beltway and beyond.

Recently, RH Strategic has focused its public affairs efforts on helping guide policies that improve nationwide response to cybersecurity incidents and encourage policymakers to prioritize legislation that further develops the technology workforce.

The RH Strategic team and CYBER.ORG continue to work together to help improve K-12 cybersecurity literacy nationwide. Through meaningful stakeholder engagement, messaging and strategic storytelling, the team helped CYBER.ORG launch the first-ever National Cybersecurity Education Month in June 2022, which was introduced in Congress.

RH Strategic won Gold Stevie Awards for Communications or PR Campaign of the Year in both Healthcare and Public Affairs categories in The 2022 American Business Awards.

Interested in entering The 2023 American Business Awards?

Stevie-winner CIS Bayad Center, Inc. (Bayad) is the largest multichannel payment platform in the Philippines. Formerly known as Bayad Center, Bayad takes pride in having the largest billing network, serving more than 500 billers, including basic utilities, government contributions, loan payments, tuition fees, online shopping, insurance, and many others. To date, 80% of banks and financial institutions in the country are likewise powered by Bayad for their bill payment acceptance.

With more than 20 years in the industry, Bayad continues to be a trailblazer as it evolves from an over-the-counter payment center into a full-service fintech company, offering a whole suite of financial products & services available to both consumers and businesses.

Bayad won the Bronze Stevie Award in the Innovation in Rebranding category, where it articulated its brand transformation in an essay entry titled "Meralco's Bayad Center to Bayad: How a traditional bills payment brand authority in the Philippines adapted to the digital age."

Transforming the Digital Financial Experience

With technology continuing to develop in leaps and bounds, and with COVID-19 pandemic still in the equation, businesses big and small were pushed to undergo digital transformation to automate their services for their customers.

Through the use of real-time electronic payments and user-friendly mobile applications, transactions like bills payment, money remittances, and online shopping can now be done in the comfort of one’s home – something that Bayad makes possible. With the main goal of connecting, empowering, and providing customers with seamless relevant, and secured financial services, Bayad has aligned its initiatives with the goal of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in achieving 50% increase in digital financial transactions in 2023.

In line with this, the company has rebranded itself as a "Bigger, Better, and Younger Bayad" to introduce more payment channels and services, and to capture a significant chunk of the younger and internet-savvy market.

Anchored on its “Pay Anywhere” stance, Bayad has clinched and maintained partnerships with various billers, utility companies, government institutions, and remittance companies, enabling a network of establishments, agents, online and mobile applications, financial institutions, cooperatives, and fintech companies.

To date, 80% of the banks and financial institutions in the country are likewise powered by Bayad for their bills payment acceptance. More importantly, their extensive connections have resulted in successful partnerships with multinational financial services corporations such as VISA and Mastercard, empowering more customers to pay online.

Bayad has also opened opportunities to entrepreneurs to generate additional income for their existing businesses through its franchise model, enabling the company to receive various recognitions for its service excellence.

Scaling Innovation for the Future

According to Bayad, constant innovation is the linchpin in their development as a fintech institution. They continue to launch new and supportive services and solutions for customers.   

• Bayad has launched Bayad Asenso, a retail trade app that aims to provide opportunities for MSMEs to generate additional income for their existing businesses. This solution can be embedded within the business feature of the Bayad App, where business owners can register and manage their accounts, enabling them to become Bayad Agents, offering Bayad’s financial services in their respective communities.
• Apart from Bayad Asenso, Bayad also introduced the Bayad Checkout, a payment check-out solution that is integrated in an enterprise’s website or mobile app, allowing its customers to choose their preferred payment method.
• Lastly, Bayad has also successfully launched Bayad Express, a one stop shop payment solution that is also embedded in a merchant’s website or mobile app, which enables customers to access other billers of Bayad, apart from the merchant’s primary payment offerings.

As Bayad continues to create positive strides by maintaining dominance in payments, it advances its cyber security measures, enabling the company to obtain its Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Certification (PCIDSS), an information security standard for all business entities that handle card information.

With its ongoing efforts in security compliance, Bayad also utilizes fraud detection tools making them confident in expanding its user base as it continues to develop value-added services and additional revenue streams to community establishments and online businesses.

Bayad won a Bronze Stevie Award for Innovation in Brand Renovation / Rebranding in the 2022 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Interested in entering the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?