CHICAGO-The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) is proud to announce they are a finalist for a PR News Platinum PR Award. PR News is recognizing the year’s most outstanding communicators and PR influencers in New York. PCI’s #Becovered Natural Catastrophe Preparedness Campaign was nominated for the top Public Affairs Campaign.

“We are honored to be recognized along with a host of other great companies,” said Marguerite Tortorello, senior vice president Public Affairs for PCI. “This nomination belongs to our entire PCI team, as we are working every day to push information through both social and traditional media, in an effort to increase consumer awareness about the importance of financial literacy and understanding their insurance coverage.”

PCI uses social media platforms and twitter chats to highlight visual preparedness interactive resource guides, checklists, videos, info-graphics, and fact sheets. Social media has proven to be an effective tool when communicating about a natural catastrophes. During Super storm Sandy 20 million tweets were tagged #Sandy or related terms, more than 800,000 photos were shared on Instagram and Sandy was the 2nd most popular topic on Facebook in 2012.

“PCI is committed to helping build a Weather-Ready Nation and aims to continue to drive chatter on a variety of social media platforms to reach more people, increase awareness on preparedness, and drive engagement. We hope this consumer focused campaign will continue to educate the public on the importance of staying informed and being financially prepared for a natural catastrophe. We will continue to collaborate and with local community and business leaders, and state and federal officials  to extend our reach,” added Tortorello. 

The award luncheon will be held on September 16 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.

Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC News "Good Morning America," will emcee the event.

For more information on PCI’s #becovered campaign visit our Catastrophic Risks page and follow us on twitter @PCIAA to continue the conversation use #becovered and #itonlytakesone.

PCI is composed of more than 1,000 member companies, representing the broadest cross-section of insurers of any national trade association. PCI members write over $195 billion in annual premium, 39 percent of the nation’s property casualty insurance. Member companies write 46 percent of the U.S. automobile insurance market, 32 percent of the homeowners market, 37 percent of the commercial property and liability market, and 41 percent of the private workers compensation market.

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