Ruder Finn facilitated the placement of PPR – the luxury and sport/lifestyle group parent to Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, PUMA and others – on Fast Company's prestigious annual "World's 50 Most Innovative Companies" list. The March issue of Fast Company is their best seller and features a carefully curated list of companies whose innovations are having the greatest impact across industries and on our culture as a whole.

PPR is named #46 on the overall list of the most innovative companies for "turning sustainability into science" and also nabbed the #2 spot within the industry category of "Style." Fast Company's 2013 list is comprised of promising start-ups, tech firms and several household names across industries. After seeding interest with the Fast Company editors over a span of several months, RF facilitated multiple interviews back in November with the reporter and PPR CEO/Chairman Francois-Henri Pinault, Jochen Zeitz, chairman of the board's sustainable development committee and PPR's newly appointed Chief Sustainability Officer Marie-Clare Daveu. The profile reports on the company's plans to roll out a meticulous, unparalleled environmental review by 2015, publicly identifying waste and costs through-out its system across all 19 brands. Pointing to the success that PUMA has enjoyed as the first brand to roll out the program, Fast Company applauds PPR's vision to tailor their sustainability approach to each unique brand across the group's two pillars of luxury and sport/lifestyle.

On Thursday, March 7, Ruder Finn won the prestigious PRWeek Award in the Employee Communications Campaign of the Year category for our work with Citi around their 200th anniversary.

In the midst of the financial environment, Citi's 200th anniversary presented a unique opportunity to reignite passion in the company, celebrate a rich history of progress and growth and demonstrate a renewed appreciation for its employees, the heart of the organization. To achieve this, Ruder Finn and Citi developed the 200 Years Citi campaign, a yearlong series of creative initiatives to engage employees globally.

The goal of the program was to reinforce Citi's new principles, and ended up receiving participation from more than 40 percent of employees with intranet access. We even involved children of Citi employees when we asked them to design the company's New Year's Card, which was distributed worldwide to clients, customers and employees. To commemorate the actual anniversary date, more than 110,000 employees around the world volunteered for their local communities on June 16, 2012 for Citi's Global Community Day.

The award entry, titled "200 Years Citi: Igniting Employee Pride with a Global Celebration" outlines all of the great work we collaborated on with Citi over the past two years. It also shows how these initiatives, among many others we created, allowed Citi to generate awareness of the anniversary, drive global engagement and celebrate the 200th anniversary in a bold and innovative way with its 260,000 employees around the world.

"This program was authentic, sincere, and genius in celebrating the diversity of its people and also humanizing the brand," noted a PRWeek judge.

Citi and Ruder Finn competed against Employee Communications programs at AECOM, Fannie Mae, Chobani and Xerox.

The 200 Years Citi program has received multiple awards from various outlets, including a Gold Stevie American Business Award in the employee communications video category, a PRSA Bronze Anvil Award for internal video programs, three Bronze Telly Awards for non-broadcast productions, and a Videographer Award of Excellence for music videos.

On Saturday, June 16th, Citi will celebrate an important milestone - the company's 200th anniversary. From their beginnings in New York in 1812 to their current status as America's global bank, Citi has a rich history that has touched people all over the globe. To commemorate the day, Citi is hosting their annual Global Community Day, which is an event that encourages employees around the world to sign up for various volunteer activities, such as teaching financial literacy, cleaning up parks, building new homes and delivering meals to those in need. RF is helping Citi to spread the word to employees and make this Citi's biggest year of participation ever. We will also join the Citi team in giving back to the community in New York.

Diane Sawyer held an exclusive sit down interview with Michael J. Fox and Debi Brooks, co-founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, for the ABC News/Yahoo! News "Newsmakers" series to discuss their progress towards finding a cure, the urgent need for patients to get involved in Parkinson's research, and Fox Trial Finder, the Fox Foundation's new online tool to help better match Parkinson's patients with clinical trials. In addition, Diane Sawyer profiled Michael J. Fox as "Person of the Week" on ABC News "World News with Diane Sawyer." To see the interview, visit ABC News Site.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has selected Thunder Communications, sister company of Ruder Finn, as its Agency of Record in China. Thunder will focus on building brand awareness, key message development and strategic PR projects,including new openings and campaign support for Four Seasons.

On March 4, 2013, Ruder Finn, Inc. announced the launch of a new worldwide Health IT specialty offering. Combining the agency's deep understanding and widespread experience in the healthcare and technology markets, the aim of this new offering will be to help clients leverage emerging technologies to improve care and meaningfully engage with stakeholders. As part of this launch, Ruder Finn commissioned a survey to gain insights on how U.S. consumers are using mobile devices to manage their health, as well as how technology platforms for healthcare services, specifically mobile apps, could be designed to better meet consumers' needs as users and patients moving forward.