Adam Ritchie was named Communications Executive of the Year in the American Business Awards. The Stevies recognize achievement in the workplace. The PR section was judged by a panel of in-house and agency experts who said Adam is "expanding what PR can do and breaking barriers…showing range and purposeful creativity across industries…bringing value to clients…giving back and sharing his talents…elevating the PR discipline to new heights."

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction received three Silver Anvil Awards of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America. The categories included Marketing for Consumer Products: Packaged Goods, Marketing for Consumer Products: Retail Stores and Restaurants and Influencer Marketing Program To Expand Awareness: Micro-Influencers. The juries called the Summer Infant work, "creative, strategic and clear…great metrics across channels…successfully sold the product…convinced consumers to take another look at the brand" and called the Life Alive work, "smart, bold and authentic…simple and effective with quantifiable results…the target audience felt heard, respected and valued…checks all the boxes." Established in 1945, the Silver Anvils are the PR industry's most iconic award, recognizing "the best strategic public relations campaigns and the highest standards of performance for the profession." (PRSA)

The PR Club of New England presented Adam Ritchie Brand Direction with Four Bell Ringer Awards in Hospitality/Travel/Entertainment, Content Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications and Micro Influencers. Bell Ringer recipients "reflect top talent and innovation, and share the common thread of driving business results and brand equity for their clients." (Business Wire)

born free, the new direct-to-consumer offering from Rhode Island-based SUMR Brands, has chosen Adam Ritchie Brand Direction as its U.S. public relations agency of record. The agency will support the brand’s mission to liberate modern family living with a curated selection of premium, design-centric and affordable baby essentials. Its first collaboration with born free is the Find Your Free pop-up event in New York City, where together they’re creating an “influencer inversion” to give real people without social followings a top-tier influencer experience. Other services will include brand strategy, content marketing, media outreach and partnership development. (Bulldog Reporter) (The Holmes Report) (O’Dwyer’s)

Adam was interviewed by PR News for an article on how communicators can instill a human touch in their work as technology grows.

Adam shared insights on how marketing communications professionals can craft more effective hashtags in a PRWeek story on hashtag misspellings.

Adam Ritchie walked the distance from Boston to San Francisco and back again using a treadmill desk made by the agency's LifeSpan client. The journey covered more than 3,000 miles and took seven years. Adam discussed living by your message points in an interview with Bulldog Reporter.

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction has released a three-part series on using PR to invent and transform. The trio of campaigns covers the performing, visual and culinary arts. Its goal is to expand the practice and perception of public relations beyond promotion and into creation, past storytelling and into authorship. (Bulldog Reporter)

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction was announced as a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil Finalist in three categories, including Marketing > Consumer Products > Packaged Goods, Marketing > Consumer Products > Retail Stores and Restaurants and Influencer Marketing Program To Expand Awareness > Micro-Influencers. The Silver Anvils are the longest-running public relations competition and "honor organizations that have successfully addressed a contemporary public relations issue with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness, contribute to the public relations body of knowledge and become part of the history of the profession." (PRSA)

Adam discussed turning a negative brand attack into a positive inventive response in a PRWeek story on the feud between Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors.

The Shorty Awards, which "honor the top content creators, influencers, brands and organizations on social media" has added Adam Ritchie Brand Direction to its shortlist. Entries from around the world are judged by the Real Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences on "creativity, innovation, use of platform and overall effectiveness."

Adam Ritchie was interviewed by Bulldog Reporter as part of its PR PROfiles series, where he shared the most misunderstood thing about PR, unusual client requests and his most memorable campaigns. He was also featured in a long-form piece where Carol Cone discussed his career and "series of commitments to the industry with one amazing feat after another." (Bulldog Reporter)

At the In2Summit, a global conference exploring the disruption and evolution in the communications industry, Adam Ritchie was presented with an In2 SABRE Award in the Innovation Excellence category for Most Innovative Marketing / Communications Professional - Agency. The jury recognized Adam for "creating a new content distribution vehicle and changing consumer behavior." The Innovation & Insights SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation & Engagement) Awards "spotlight the future of marketing and communications." (The Holmes Report)

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University will host an evening of Invention in PR, Adam Ritchie’s talk on using PR to drive product development. The special program will take place on Thursday, April 4 at 6:00 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3.

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction was shortlisted by The Holmes Report in three separate campaign categories — Best in Digital Marketing/Advertising, Best Content Creation for Media Sites (Earned) and Best Use of Illustrations + Photography — and one individual category — Most Innovative Marketing Communications Agency Professional — in the Innovation & Insights SABRE Awards. "This year's entries cover an impressive array of work — artificial intelligence, defying brand expectations, strategic challenger brands." (The Holmes Report)

Adam was included on the Content Marketing Institute’s list of experts and insights, where he discussed using content marketing to drive product development and bring influencers into the creative process. (Content Marketing Institute)

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction has been shortlisted in the PRWeek U.S. Awards for Best Content. The awards are "firmly established as the communications industry's highest accolade, celebrating the best of the best corporate, agency, nonprofit and education teams, and the work they produce." (PRWeek)

Adam Ritchie Brand Direction is reuniting intrepid craft brewery Aeronaut with music and light project The Lights Out to launch a new studio album on Spotify-coded craft beer cans. This is the latest collaboration between the brewery and the band. Night Vision reintroduces the tactile element to new music discovery and creates a complete sensory experience for beer and music fans. The album was written in a parallel reality and the beer was brewed under cover of darkness. (ADWEEK)

Adam participated in a video interview on influencers and experimentation by PRWeek and Cision for their Earned Media Rising series, alongside PR executives from Alaska Airlines, Boeing and Weber Shandwick.

The firm has added a proprietary creative process to its service lineup. The Creative Compass℠ formalizes the agency's approach to “generating breakthrough campaign concepts” which has yielded award-winning public relations work. (Bulldog Reporter)