Inaugural Television Publicity Executives Committee (TPEC) Submissions Are Now Open

The Television Publicity Executives Committee (TPEC) announced today that submissions for the inaugural television publicity campaign competition, the TPEC AWARDS, are now open. The deadline to submit is Friday, March 24, 2023.

The announcement was made by Dustin Smith, Founder, SMITHHOUSE and Wendy Zocks, Founder, Wendy Zocks PR, Co-Chairs of TPEC. The professional organization for entertainment public relations executives, founded in 1992 and recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, has members involved in all forms of programming publicity from networks, studios, streamers and agencies.

“We are excited to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of our fellow television publicists,” said Smith and Zocks. “We know how hard all our colleagues work to publicize their programs and we are looking forward to giving them the recognition they deserve.”

This new television publicity campaign competition is accepting submissions across every show and platform- with the exception of talk shows, specials and documentaries this year – to recognize excellence for all programming publicity campaigns. Eligibility for these inaugural awards is the calendar year of January 1, 2022 – December 31,  2022 and entrants must have a 2023 TPEC membership to participate. The submission fee is $100 per category per show with a limit of five entries per network/streamer/production company. The date for the TPEC Awards presentation will be announced at a later date.

Overseeing the awards is a committee of executives and committee members representing networks, streamers, studios and agencies including:

• Ryan Aguirre, The Walt Disney Company

• Gabriella Alaimo, Sony Pictures Television

• Brian Eley, Crunchyroll

• Kristen J. Hall, CBS Studios

• Ryan McCormick, NBCUniversal

• Amy Prenner, The Prenner Group

• Shari Rosenblum, Disney Television Studios

• Aashna Serrao, DreamWorks

• Dustin Smith, SMITHHOUSE

• Lakeitcha Thomas, Disney Television Studios

• Lynn Weiss, SMITHHOUSE

• Wendy Zocks, Wendy Zocks PR

 Categories will include the following:

• Outstanding Campaign for a Children’s Series

• Outstanding Campaign for an Animated Series

• Outstanding Campaign for a New Comedy

• Outstanding Campaign for a New Drama

• Outstanding Campaign for a New Unscripted Series

• Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Comedy

• Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Drama

• Outstanding Campaign for a Returning Unscripted Series

• Outstanding Campaign for a Television Movie, Limited or Anthology Series

• Outstanding Multicultural Campaign

In addition, the awards committee will be selecting a recipient for the Lifetime Achievement Award for Program Publicity (Ben Halpern Award), which will go to a colleague who has dedicated their career to publicity.

The link to the TPEC Awards submission and a full list of rules and eligibility can be found HERE.

About TPEC 

TPEC (The Television Publicity Executives Committee) was created in the 1990s to foster collaboration among senior communications professionals across the television industry as they faced shared challenges, including changing technology and redefinition of media ownership regulations. TPEC is co-chaired by Dustin Smith and Wendy Zocks and executive committee members include Amy Prenner, Todd Beck, Julie Holland and Joe Schlosser. Decades later, as the industry evolves at an unprecedented pace, TPEC continues to serve that purpose while fostering mutual understanding and positive working relationships between publicists and the media who cover the TV business and elevating the next generation of communications talent. The Los Angeles-based non-profit publishes the annual TPEC Guide, an invaluable resource used by TV publicists everywhere. For more information on TPEC membership or the Guide, please visit www.tpec.tv. Follow TPEC on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.