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Neiman Selected as Platinum PR Award Finalist for ‘Deli Wars’ Campaign

Dietz & Watson Crisis Communications Campaign Garners National Recognition

HARRISBURG, PA (October 04, 2010) — Neiman today announced it has been selected as a 2010 Platinum PR Awards finalist for its Dietz & Watson campaign, "The Deli Wars: Dietz & Watson Takes a Stand for Consumer Choice." The coveted awards salute the year's most outstanding work in public relations and will be handed out on October 5 in New York City.

The 'Deli Wars' campaign, which was nominated in the awards show's Crisis Management category, spoke out against competitor Boar's Head's demands for exclusivity as a precondition to selling to grocers. After learning that North Carolina-based grocer Harris Teeter was kicking them out of their deli departments based on Boar's Head's negotiations, Dietz & Watson President & CEO Louis Eni travelled to Charlotte to hold a public sampling and blind taste-testing event and asked consumers to start demanding choice at their deli counters.

"In the face of being edged out of premiere grocery retailers due to unfair exclusivity practices, Dietz & Watson stood up for its customers' right to choose and publicly pledged never to seek exclusive deals," said Neiman Vice President and PR Director Steve Aaron. "And their confidence in their customers was not unfounded — Dietz & Watson was the overwhelming favorite in the public taste test."

The campaign caught on like wildfire - multiple network news channels and thousands of consumers attended the event, garnering over one million earned media impressions and exposing Boar's Head's anti-consumer practices to the entire Charlotte community. Including print, television, radio and website media placements, the campaign generated an astounding 4.93 million gross impressions in Philadelphia and Charlotte.

"By going on the offense at a time of potential crisis, sales of Dietz & Watson products grew in competing grocery chains in the Carolinas," said Aaron. "As a growing agency, we are honored to be nominated alongside the well-established firms and amazing campaigns in this year's Platinum PR Awards show."

In the "Crisis Management" campaign category, Neiman will compete against other nationally respected campaigns, including Davies for "Neverland On-site Media Blitz and Branding Control"; Fleishman Hillard for "Protecting a Trusted Brand During Labor Negotiations with Real-Time Conversation"; General Motors with Weber Shandwick for "GM Reinvention"; Levick Strategic Communications for Heartland Payment Systems, Inc.; Weber Shandwick for "Royal Caribbean's Return to Haiti"; and Weber Shandwick/Powell Tate with The National Pork Board for "Protecting Pork Sales During H1N1". The full list of finalists is available at http://www.prnewsonline.com/awards/platinumpr2010_event-finalists.html.