Vigilante PR Named Platinum Winner of MarCom Strategic Communication Award
Top international honor recognizes agency's role in amplifying a family's pursuit of answers and advocacy that helped inspire new missing-student legislation.
ATLANTA — October 13, 2026 — Vigilante PR, a women-owned public relations agency helping brands and causes earn attention, build credibility and inspire action, has been named the Platinum Winner in the 2026 MarCom Awards for its pro bono strategic communications campaign “Justice for Megan Trussell.” The campaign sought to raise awareness and demand answers following the February 2025 disappearance and death of the 18-year-old University of Colorado Boulder student, while drawing attention to broader concerns about how missing college student cases are handled.
The Platinum Award is the competition's highest level of recognition, honoring excellence in marketing and communications. MarCom is one of the industry's largest international creative competitions, receiving approximately 6,000 entries annually from dozens of countries.
"What began as an effort to help one family find answers became something much bigger," said Melissa Christensen, co-founder of Vigilante PR. "Megan's family has shown extraordinary persistence and courage. Our role has been to help amplify their voices, bring attention to the facts and make sure their concerns remain part of the public conversation.”
The campaign supported several key developments, including a Colorado Bureau of Investigation review of Megan’s case and legislation strengthening missing-student response protocols and law enforcement training.
“We’re proud to have helped drive meaningful change that honors Megan’s memory and better protects students and families,” said Andrea Holt, co-founder of Vigilante PR. “Megan’s story deserves to be heard and her legacy deserves to make a difference.”
The MarCom Awards are administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, an international organization recognizing creative excellence and professional contributions to public service. Platinum winners represent the competition's highest-scoring entries, evaluated for their quality, creativity and resourcefulness.
To learn more about the award-winning campaign, visit: https://enter.amcpros.com/marcom/entry/megan-trussell/
About Vigilante PR
Born from the minds of two award-winning PR pros with decades of digital media expertise, Vigilante PR was founded on the belief that transparency fosters deeper, more thoughtful relationships. Everything we do is grounded in integrity, collaboration and a commitment to delivering meaningful results. We specialize in using outside-the-box storytelling to penetrate key media targets, earning coverage that actually moves the needle. Learn more at www.Vigilante-PR.com.
About MarCom
MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work, and generosity of industry professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world. Each year about 6,000 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries.
MarCom is administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). The international organization, founded in 1995, consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, digital, and web professionals.
