The team at Estes Public Relations enjoyed an evening of celebration at the PRSA Landmarks of Excellence Awards at the Kentucky Derby Museum. This iconic venue was the perfect backdrop to showcase the depth of talent in public relations, journalism, marketing and professional communications. Our team was recognized with two Awards of Excellence, two Awards of Merit and the award for Best in Show for earning the highest score of any entry submitted.
Awards & Recognitions
The awards and recognitions EPR received at the 2025 ceremony are mentioned below:
Award of Excellence
An Award of Excellence for EPR’s work positioning Setton Farms Pistachios as a top brand in the snack & nut industry through local, regional and national public relations efforts. Estes Public Relations worked alongside Setton Farms to increase brand awareness of its products, origin story, and sustainable and philanthropic efforts through new angles and creative storytelling — supporting and reinforcing the brand as a leader in the consumer product goods space. EPR secured more than 100 media mentions for Setton Farms during the awards period, including prominent national placements in EatingWell, The Pioneer Woman Magazine, SELF Magazine, Food & Beverage Magazine and others. Overall, Setton Farms has yielded significant media attention, increased its market share, and expanded its processing capabilities to meet the growing demand for pistachios.
Best in Show & Award of Excellence
Best in Show and an Award of Excellence for EPR’s work and planning for Tempo by Hilton Louisville Downtown NuLu and High Stakes Rooftop Grill’s Grand Opening Events
Estes Public Relations developed a comprehensive public relations plan for the grand opening of Tempo by Hilton Louisville Downtown NuLu including three major events — “Toast to Tempo” reception, High Stakes Rooftop Grill media dinners, and the Tempo by Hilton & High Stakes Grand Opening plus press releases, targeted pitching, coordinating media visits and working with local and state tourism bureaus. Our overall campaign goal was to generate buzz around the new property through media mentions, social media mentions and word-of-mouth throughout the community. Each event achieved its own objectives and contributed to our overall campaign goal.
Award of Merit
An Award of Merit for EPR’s work on New Riff’s 10th Anniversary Campaign
Estes Public Relations was retained by New Riff in early 2020, when the distillery was relatively new, relatively unknown, and had limited distribution. Our goal was to build brand awareness through earned media, and those results have been very successful over the past five years. Building on that success, we saw this as a unique opportunity to highlight all New Riff accomplished in its first decade — putting the brand front-of-mind and exciting consumers for the future. This campaign focused on three elements over several months, building on each other leading up to the June anniversary: pitching an exclusive, embargoed feature; a press release announcing a limited-edition product release, philanthropic campaign and anniversary celebrations; and targeted media pitching with unique angles.
Award of Merit
An Award of Merit for EPR’s work on The Kentucky Bourbon Festival’s feature in Churchill Downs Magazine.
Since 2021, Estes Public Relations has worked with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival on aspects of the festival’s public relations plan, including creating and distributing press releases around the event, managing the media comp ticket program, writing and editing program content, assisting with programming, maintaining a crisis comms plan, and maintaining a media kit. As part of our 2025 public relations plan for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Estes Public Relations identified Churchill Downs Magazine as a desired media target for a feature story. Our intention was to provide useful information to those in our typical target audience while also reaching potential new attendees and grow the festival audience. We initially pitched the magazine in late 2024, secured the story in January 2025, and the story appeared in the spring issue of Churchill Downs Magazine. Following the publication of this piece, the 2025 Kentucky Bourbon Festival tickets went on sale April 16. VIP packages sold out within 5 minutes, and the entire festival sold out within 3 days — a new record.
Estes Public Relations was honored by the awards received and humbled to be honored among some of the best in the industry. As we work to shine a light on our clients every day, these awards are not only a celebration of our efforts, but a celebration of success for our clients.
As one of our favorite events of the year, the EPR team enjoyed a night of toasts, laughs, inspiration and Kentucky pride.
Cheers!
