Guinness World Record stunt receives Excalibur Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Buffalo, N.Y. – The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s Guinness World Record achievement from 2018 was the focus of three Excalibur Awards as announced Thursday, June 27 by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Buffalo Niagara Chapter at Shea’s Seneca.
The awards recognize the excellence of Tipping Point Communications’ public relations efforts as the marketing partner of the Conservancy’s 150th Celebration year of Olmsted in Buffalo. The FLOmingo world record attempt and achievement were a part of the year-long festivities.
Tipping Point won three consecutive gold level awards including the categories of: Online Communications, FLOmingos Social Media; Creative Tactics, FLOmingos Video; and Press Conference, FLOmingos.
“Being part of a winning team receiving PRSA’s Excalibur Awards is pink icing on our 150th celebration cake,” said Stephanie Crockatt, the Conservancy’s executive director. “Tipping Point invigorated our entire celebration team with creativity and positive energy, and to know the coverage of our world record hit both national and international media as well, is outstanding.”
The Conservancy successfully broke the record with 1,500 flamingos in honor of the 150th year. The idea for (Frederick Law Olmsted) FLOmingos ‘hatched’ from the Conservancy’s executive office with the basic desire for an overnight pop of pink in the Olmsted designed landscapes. Holding her degree in landscape architecture, Crockatt knew that kitschy plastic garden flamingos were the antithesis of the profession, yet ironically, have become a tongue-in-cheek industry icon as well as a growing symbol of environmental stewardship.
“When we heard Stephanie had this idea of incorporating pink FLOmingos into the 150th, I think her staff thought she was crazy,” said Michelle Ashby, founder and CEO of Tipping Point Communications. “But we know a good idea when we hear one. The entire Tipping Point team was thrilled to take this colorful idea from planning phase to international success. I’m proud of these award winning products and the partnership we created with the Conservancy.”
The 1,500 award-winning FLOmingos from Bidwell Parkway were sold within a month, rendering the stunt net neutral. Many of the other non-labelled birds set in the parks on that first day of summer were adopted by local residents. Had there been a surplus remaining, the Conservancy proactively identified a plastics company who would recycle them into molded landscape furnishings. This year the Conservancy commemorated the winning effort with two, 12-foot inflatable FLOmingo rafts on Hoyt Lake, which will be raffled off on Friday, June 28th.
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About the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy
The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is the first nonprofit organization in the nation to manage and operate an entire urban park system consisting of more than 850 acres of beautifully designed historic parks, parkways and circles. The Conservancy is an independent not-for-profit, community organization whose mission is to promote, preserve, restore, enhance, and maintain the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parks and parkways in the Greater Buffalo area for current and future generations. More than 2.5 million visits occur in Buffalo’s Olmsted Park system annually for recreation, relaxation and rejuvenation. Designed by America’s first landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted more than 150 years ago, it’s our nation’s first urban park system. Since the 2004 groundbreaking public-private partnership between the Conservancy, City of Buffalo and Erie County, the Conservancy has held responsibility for the management and care of these nationally registered historic green spaces and continues today to assist the City in bringing recognition to its collective renaissance. Most recently, the American Planning Association recognized Delaware Park as one of the 2014 Great Places in America, The Guardian publication named Buffalo’s Olmsted park system as one of the best park systems in the world, and in 2018 the Conservancy set a Guinness World Record in historic Bidwell Parkway. www.bfloparks.org
The Buffalo Olmsted Park System includes:
Six parks: Cazenovia Park, Delaware Park, Front Park, Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Riverside Park at, and South Park
Seven parkways: Bidwell, Chapin, Lincoln, McKinley, Porter, Red Jacket, and Richmond
Eight landscaped traffic circles: Agassiz, Colonial, Ferry, Gates, McClellan, McKinley, Soldiers, and Symphony
