As it marks its 30th anniversary this year, the Television Publicity Executives Committee is getting into the awards business. During its annual “Hacks and Flacks” holiday party on Wednesday, TPEC leaders announced plans to launch the “TPEC Awards,” honoring TV publicity campaigns.
The launch of the TPEC Awards was announced by TPEC co-chairs Dustin Smith, founder of Smithhouse, and Wendy Zocks, founder of Wendy Zocks PR.
“Our vision is to honor and acknowledge the publicity teams throughout the industry who develop and execute strategic, creative and impactful campaigns in support of an impressive range of content in an ever-growing field of networks and services,” Smith said.
The awards will be overseen by a committee of executives and members “reflecting networks, streamers, studios and agencies.”
“TPEC is the only organization which bridges every platform and is uniquely positioned to recognize excellence in all programming publicity campaigns. We are truly excited to bring this to our members and colleagues to honor the hard work we all do,” Zocks added.
Categories will include Campaign of the Year; Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Drama; Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Comedy; Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Unscripted Series; Outstanding Campaign for a Television Movie, Limited or Anthology Series; Outstanding Campaign for a New Drama; Outstanding Campaign for a New Comedy; Outstanding Campaign for a New Unscripted Series; and Lifetime Achievement Award for Program Publicity (Ben Halpern Award).
The first awards will span work done in the calendar year of 2022. Official rules and submission guidelines will be announced soon.
The annual ICGPublicistsAwards also recognizes publicity campaigns in TV and film, at an event held during Oscar season. This year, the ICG Publicists Awards’ Maxwell Weinberg Award for Television Publicity Campaigns nominees are“Abbott Elementary”(Warner Bros. Television / ABC);“Ghosts”(CBS Studios / CBS);“Prey”(20thCentury Studios / Hulu);“RuPaul’s Drag Race:All Stars”(MTV Entertainment Studios / Paramount+); and“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”(CBS Studios / Paramount+).
TPEC was founded in 1992 as an organization for entertainment public relations executives to professionally gather and collaborate. Members come from programming publicity at networks, studios, streamers and agencies.
