Awards and recognition

Harris St. Laurent & Weschler LLP and Smithey Law Group LLC, two Rep Ink clients, saw their attorneys listed in the 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers guide.

Lawdragon is one of the most respected legal ranking publications in the industry. Its selection process is rooted in journalism, ensuring that the ranked attorneys have earned their spots. Lawdragon guides represent legal professionals who have successfully demonstrated that their recent work has impacted and influenced their industry and local community.

Who exactly are the people named in the 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers guide, you ask? Lawdragon says it perfectly: “We all want a fair chance. These are the lawyers who’ve made that their lives’ work.”

Congratulations to all the honorees on this spectacular achievement!

Reputation Ink, a B2B public relations and thought leadership marketing agency serving professional services firms, has been named to the Jacksonville Business Journal’s list of the 50 fastest-growing companies in Northeast Florida for the second year in a row. 

The list includes companies that have seen their revenue grow the most on a percentage basis since 2021 as well as those that have seen the largest dollar-volume increase.

“Building a company is always difficult. Building a company that continues to grow year after year is an immensely more challenging endeavor,” said Timothy Gibbons, editor in chief of Jacksonville Business Journal, upon announcing the finalists.

Reputation Ink, a B2B professional services public relations and content marketing agency, was awarded a 2024 Award of Excellence by the Communicator Awards in the "Annual Report — Corporation or Business" category for producing client Superior Construction's 2022 annual report.

Rep Ink led the project, including developing its structure, drafting the copy, and designing the final report with professional photography and custom-built financial charts.

The publication was the first of its kind for Superior, whose leadership tasked Reputation Ink with developing a reimagined recap of the company's annual financial data. The 156-page designed report — five times the length of the previous year's counterpart — elevated it from a simple financial summary to a sweeping review of the company's performance and strategic objectives that executives could present to financial partners, insurers, bonding companies and other external stakeholders.

For the second consecutive year, Reputation Ink Principal and President Michelle Calcote King has been recognized among the country’s most influential strategy advisors in the legal industry. King was named to Lawdragon’s 100 Global Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting in 2023 and 2024.

Lawdragon’s editorial team employs a longstanding selection process to develop its list, including a robust application, journalistic research and peer-reviewed vetting. The guide recognizes professionals who “have had a dizzying ascent in the past decade as the law transformed utterly and permanently into a global business.” According to Lawdragon, the 2024 list includes “the crisis communicators, marketing, PR and list gurus who conjure narratives and brands from mere mortals” and “the world’s best management consultants and diversity dynamos, who challenge law firm leaders to not just build bigger, but also better.” 

In addition to leading Reputation Ink with over 20 years of legal PR experience, King is active in the broader legal community. She serves on the board of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Southeast Region and is a frequent contributor to the organization’s events, speaking on legal marketing and PR strategy at the local, regional and national levels. King also served a three-year term on The Florida Bar’s Grievance Committee.

Reputation Ink, a B2B public relations and thought leadership marketing agency serving professional services firms, has been named to the University of Florida’s 2024 Gator100 list, which recognizes the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned by Gator alums.

Reputation Ink was founded in 2011 by Michelle Calcote King, a dual-degree graduate of the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. King graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public relations in 1998 and then obtained a master’s in international communications in 2000. She received the Outstanding Scholar Award for achieving the highest grade point average of her undergraduate class and was then selected for one of the university’s highly competitive full-tuition graduate assistantships. 

But the Gator Nation's influence at Rep Ink doesn’t stop there. Steven Gallo, director of content and PR, and Sofia Millar, account manager, also obtained degrees from UF’s College of Journalism and Communications before becoming successful on-air journalists and eventually public relations professionals.

Reputation Ink, a B2B public relations and thought leadership marketing agency serving professional services firms, has been named to the Jacksonville Business Journal’s list of the 50 fastest-growing companies in Northeast Florida. 

The list includes companies that have seen their revenue grow the most on a percentage basis since 2020 as well as those that have seen the largest dollar-volume increase.

“The companies we’re honoring this year have, in aggregate, increased their revenue by more than $2.3 billion over the past three years — fighting their way through challenges, seizing opportunities and emerging stronger than ever before,” according to the paper. 

Reputation Ink has been awarded Gold in the Best PR podcast category by Bulldog PR Awards.

Rep Ink’s “Spill the Ink” podcast is hosted by the agency’s principal and president Michelle Calcote King. Launched in January 2021, the podcast features experts on thought leadership and brand visibility for professional services firms. King interviews lawyers, architects, engineers, construction professionals, marketing and business development pros, journalists, and a range of consultants and experts, discussing ways law firms, AEC firms and other professional services firms can grow through thought leadership-fueled marketing and public relations.had two primary goals. 

“While I love podcasts, many of them feature hosts who engage in a lot of banter and casual conversation, taking a long time to get to the meaty, substantive information,” King said. “In contrast, our podcast episodes are straight to the point, without banter or fluff. We aim to provide a format that a busy professional can listen to on a 30-minute walk or commute and gain insights without feeling like any of their time was wasted. To make this happen, we conduct a significant amount of research prior to each episode, ensuring the conversation is focused and chock full of value.”

Reputation Ink also received Gold from the Bulldog PR awards in 2020 for its INKsights newsletter.

Reputation Ink, a B2B professional services public relations and content marketing agency, was awarded a 2022 Award of Excellence by the Communicator Awards in the “Podcast Series” category for its Spill the Ink podcast.

Launched in 2021, the podcast was created to both build relationships with industry professionals as well as establish Reputation Ink as a thought leader in the legal and AEC industries.

The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. In the past, Reputation Ink has been recognized by the Communicator Awards for work conducted on behalf of clients Stellar and Lightfoot, Franklin & White.

Reputation Ink, a B2B professional services public relations and content marketing agency, was awarded a gold ADDY by the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) for its video, “2021: That’s a Wrap.”

Reputation Ink has a history of noteworthy holiday videos. The agency won gold ADDYs in 2016 for its holiday card game, “Cards Against Content,” and again in 2017 for the holiday video, “F*ck 2016: Marketer’s Plea to Santa.” The past two years, Reputation Ink won silver ADDYs for the holiday videos “Reputation Ink’s PR tips for the 2019 holiday season” and “Rep Ink’s 2020 Nice List.” 

Reputation Ink was awarded a 2021 IABC Southern Region Silver Quill Award for its work with client McMillan Pazdan Smith, a regional, studio-based architecture, planning and interior design firm.

In response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, McMillan Pazdan Smith wanted to position Sara Robinson, an architect in the firm’s Healthcare Studio, as a thought leader in medical facility design.  

“Our team spoke with Sara and framed her knowledgeable experience into a thought leadership piece with wide-ranging benefits for those in the healthcare space,” said Kevin Beaugrand, Account Coordinator. “The article was placed in Medical Construction and Design magazine, a leading source for industry news with more than 66,000 readers per issue and even more online.”

Reputation Ink, a B2B professional services content marketing and public relations agency, was awarded a silver ADDY by the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) for its video, “Rep Ink's 2020 Nice List.” The video was also awarded gold in the AAF's District 4 American Advertising Awards show, and is a finalist for Best-in-Category.

Last year was remarkable in its newsworthiness. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the spotlight on racial injustice, there were plenty of news hooks that served as jumping off points for content marketers everywhere. However, Reputation Ink took a different approach with its holiday marketing campaign.

The agency also won gold ADDYs in 2016 for its holiday card game, “Cards Against Content,” and again in 2017 for the holiday video, “F*ck 2016: Marketer’s Plea to Santa.” Last year, Reputation Ink won a silver ADDY for the holiday video, “Reputation Ink’s PR tips for the 2019 holiday season.”

Reputation Ink is proud to be a 2020 Marketing Excellence Award winner in the category of Integrated Marketing with client Stellar.

Over the past seven years, Stellar and Reputation Ink have partnered together to create a content-focused revenue driver for Stellar, a half-billion-dollar architecture, design and construction firm. The goal of the content marketing strategy was to establish Stellar as the number-one food industry expert in the design-build space. 

Reputation Ink’s goal was to keep Stellar’s blog, Food for Thought, focused on that industry niche, rather than nodding to the many markets in which Stellar works. This would allow prospects to have an easier time finding Stellar, rather than Stellar seeking out their audience.

Reputation Ink, a marketing and public relations agency focused on law firms and other professional services firms, has been awarded Gold in the Best Blog Related Campaign category by Bulldog PR Awards.

Reputation Ink is not the first agency to send out an email newsletter. Countless agencies do the same. What sets its content apart is the agency’s focus on providing real value. All of Reputation Ink’s blog posts are client-oriented; the team boils down clients’ common frustrations and work to address those challenges. Are clients struggling to hire an experienced content writer? What are the top legal marketing trends clients should be keeping an eye on? What are the common budgeting pitfalls in-house legal marketers fall into?

Reputation Ink, a marketing and public relations agency focused on law firms and other professional services firms, has been named one of PR Daily’s 2020 Digital Marketing & Social Media Awards finalists for its email newsletter, INKsights.

The INKsights newsletter is designed to be a short-and-sweet email that gives Reputation Ink’s audience quick, meaty resources about what’s happening in the worlds of content marketing public relations. The email newsletter is written with a B2B audience in mind (specifically in-house legal marketers).

Reputation Ink’s INKsights newsletter focuses on bringing valuable insights and learnings to a B2B audience, specifically in-house legal marketers. The INKsights newsletter features our agency’s latest blog post, as well as curated and original resources. It offers insights into the challenges facing our clients and how our team’s expertise can help.

The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. Reputation Ink also won a 2019 Communicator Award of Excellence for its website content work with client Lightfoot, Franklin & White, as well as a 2019 Communicator Award of Distinction for video work with client Stellar.

Content marketing and public relations agency Reputation Ink was awarded a silver ADDY by the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) for its video, “PR tips for the 2019 holiday season.”

The video nodded to Reputation Ink’s specialty as a public relations and crisis communications agency, while also keeping it light for the holidays. How do you keep conversation civil around the Christmas dinner table? Enter Reputation Ink. 

The agency also won gold ADDYs in 2016 for its holiday card game, “Cards Against Content,” and again in 2017 for the holiday video, “F*ck 2016: Marketer’s Plea to Santa.” 

Reputation Ink, a business-to-business marketing and public relations agency for complex industries, is proud to be recognized by PR Daily’s 2019 Media Relations Awards for work done with client Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC. The agency’s submission “Leveraging a Lawyer’s Impeachment Experience to Secure National Media Coverage” won an honorable mention in the thought leadership campaign category.

Reputation Ink, a business-to-business marketing and public relations agency built for complex industries, obtained an honorable mention in PR Daily’s 2019 Digital Marketing and Social Media Awards. The agency was recognized for its work on Food for Thought, an industry blog developed with client Stellar. 

For more than six years, Reputation Ink has managed Stellar’s weekly, industry-specific Food for Thought blog. Food for Thought produces relevant, valuable content that is aimed toward food manufacturing professionals, a large subset of Stellar’s client base. 

Reputation Ink, a business-to-business marketing and public relations agency for complex industries, is proud to announce client Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC’s Communicator Award of Excellence for their website. The website won the highest level of recognition in the annual awards from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.

The website launched in 2019, and was created by the firm, Herrmann Advertising and Reputation Ink. While Herrmann Advertising handled the website’s design, Reputation Ink drafted the site’s content.

Reputation Ink, a business-to-business marketing and public relations agency built for complex industries, has won a Communicator Award of Distinction from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts in the “online video” category for work completed on behalf of client Stellar.

Reputation Ink developed the video blog post — “[VIDEO] See How Virtual Reality Can Take You Inside Your Food Plant Design” — for Stellar’s industry-focused Food for Thought blog. Stellar is a recognized leader in building design and construction, and their use of virtual reality (VR) technology is dramatically changing the way projects are completed. The video highlights how VR is changing Stellar’s industry by solving potential issues before construction begins, and why partnering with a firm like Stellar is becoming increasingly important.

The Reputation Ink team interviewed Stellar’s subject-matter experts, filmed the technology in action, and drafted and edited the post to tell a complete story. While the technology itself is complex, the video and blog post translate its uses into quick, digestible takeaways for potential clients.

For the second year in a row, Reputation Ink and its client Stellar have been recognized by the Construction Marketing Association (CMA) annual STAR Awards for marketing excellence in the construction industry. The CMA STAR awards recognize excellence in 16 marketing categories and 80 sub-categories each year. In 2018, Reputation Ink and Stellar received two STAR Awards for video work.

Stellar’s industry-focused Food for Thought blog published “[VIDEO] See How Virtual Reality Can Take You Inside Your Food Plant Design,” which provided Stellar’s audience with an overview of how virtual reality (VR) technology can impact their next construction project. The post breaks down the complex technology into comprehensible takeaways for potential clients, and emphasizes Stellar’s expertise in the increasingly competitive VR space.

The other award-winning video was produced for Stellar’s annual Roundtable event, an invitation-only gathering that allows food manufacturing leaders to discuss the latest trends impacting their industry. Stellar’s 2017 Roundtable theme was “Disruption: The New Norm,” and Reputation Ink developed an intro and outro video for the event.

Reputation Ink received a 2018 Communicator Award of Distinction from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts in the “Online Video: Branded Content — Series” category.

The agency was recognized for its work on behalf of global forest products company, Rayonier.

Rayonier, which owns, manages or leases approximately 2.6 million acres, retained Reputation Ink to develop a series of internal videos to enhance its communications with its more than 300 employees across the globe. In addition to video, Reputation Ink wrote feature stories and developed an internal email newsletter.

The videos featured Rayonier’s use of new technologies such as drones as well as how Rayonier works to fight wildfires in the fire-prone U.S. Southeast, among a range of other topics.

Reputation Ink received a 2018 Communicator Award of Distinction from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts in the “Design & Print: Collateral — Marketing/Promotion” category.

The agency was recognized for its work on behalf of global architecture, engineering and construction company, Stellar.

The winning entry, a 40-page, full-color onboarding booklet for new employees, features a welcome letter from Stellar’s President, information about Stellar’s history and current leadership, achievements and projects.

The booklet reflects both a warm welcome and Stellar’s professional work, highlighted in its thick-page design and magnetic bookflap cover. The booklets are mailed to newly hired employees’ homes before their first day of work to familiarize them with Stellar’s work and culture.

Reputation Ink and its client Stellar have been recognized by the Construction Marketing Association (CMA) annual STAR Awards for marketing excellence in the construction industry.

Reputation Ink and Stellar received a 2017 STAR Award for Food for Thought, Stellar’s educational blog focused solely on the design and construction of food processing facilities. The CMA STAR awards recognize excellence in 16 marketing categories and 80 sub-categories each year.

Reputation Ink partnered with Stellar to conceive, strategize and implement Food for Thought in 2013. The blog addresses the many issues and challenges that face food manufacturers, including refrigeration, food safety, sustainability, planning, automation, operations and maintenance. The blog serves the food industry exclusively, helping drive SEO, capture a niche audience and build Stellar’s reputation as a food industry expert. Food for Thought has previously been recognized with awards from the Jacksonville Business Journal and the Society for Marketing Professional Services.

Reputation Ink, along with our client Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC, a litigation law firm, received a Your Honor Award from the Legal Marketing Association Southeast Region (LMASE) for a PR campaign that garnered national media attention and generated new business for the firm. LMASE awarded Lightfoot first place in the “media strategy” category at the organization’s annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Reputation Ink developed and executed the media strategy in collaboration with Lightfoot when the firm’s white collar lead attorney, Jack Sharman, was retained as special counsel by the Alabama House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to guide its impeachment investigation of then-Governor Robert Bentley.

Building on that momentum, the Reputation Ink team then proactively leveraged Sharman’s experience and positioned him as a national thought leader on the ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump and alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 

Reputation Ink, along with our client Stellar, a fully integrated firm focused on design, engineering, construction and mechanical services worldwide, won a merit award in the recruitment and retention category from the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). SMPS is the premier architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) marketing and business development association.

The winning entry, a 40-page, full-color onboarding booklet for new employees, features a welcome letter from Stellar's President, infomration about Stellar's history and current leadership, achievements and projects. The booklet - which is mailed to newly hired employees' homes before their first day of work - reflects both a warm welcome and Stellar's professional work.

We ventured into new territory in 2016 by creating our first-ever video holiday card, “F*ck 2016: Marketer’s Plea to Santa.” The video — complete with adult language, cultural references and marketing jargon — features a child on the night before Christmas writing his wishes after a rather tough year. Not only was it a huge hit with clients, prospects and friends of the agency, but the Jax Chapter of the American Advertising Federation recognized the video with a gold ADDY award. The Reputation Ink team wrote the script, directed, filmed and produced the video in-house.

Along with our client, Stellar, we took home the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 2015 BizTech award for “BestWebsite for Generating Business and Leads.” The honor recognizes Food for Thought, Stellar’s educational blog focused exclusively on the design and construction of food
processing facilities.

Our team came up with the idea for Food for Thought and serves as the blog’s content
strategy, editing and ghostwriting team. Using our public relations expertise, we regularly
pitch the blog content to food trade media publications, securing multiple weekly placements
in leading trade publications, extending the blog’s monthly readership to more than 610,000 people.

Reputation Ink, and our client Stellar, a fully integrated firm focused on design, engineering, construction and mechanical services worldwide, won first place in the social media category in the 38th annual Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Marketing Communications Awards competition for the thought-leadership blog, Food for Thought.

The Marketing Communications Awards (MCA) Program is the longest-standing, most prestigious competition recognizing excellence in marketing communications among professional services firms in the design and building industry. Stellar and Reputation Ink conceived, strategized and implemented Stellar’s industry-leading blog, turning to their strategic web partner for design and programming.

As our first and longest-standing client, we have had the pleasure to help Stellar grow tremendously over the last five years. We were floored and honored when the client actually created an award to thank us for all of our hard (and effective) work—it’s the first and only time the client has recognized a vendor for outstanding service. We are so proud of this award for “Marketing Excellence in Consulting.”  

At Rep Ink, we like to have fun and let our personality shine through. The holidays are our favorite time to flex our creativity, sending out fun cards to clients, prospects and friends of the agency. In 2015, our “Crimes Against Content: The content marketing & PR party game,” which put a content spin on the notorious Cards Against Humanity game, was our biggest effort yet. Not only did the card win a Silver ADDY Award from the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Advertising Federation, it also went on to win a Gold ADDY at the district-level competition in the agency self-promotion category.