PBS Reno Earns Silver w3 Award for
Death at the Disco Campaign
RENO, NV (OCT 7, 2026) – The Winners of the 21st Annual w3 Awards have been announced by the jury in the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). Receiving thousands of entries annually from across the globe, the w3 Awards honors outstanding Websites, Video, Online Marketing, Podcasts, Social Media, Creator Content, AI, Immersive, Software and Mobile Apps.
PBS Reno is thrilled to earn a Silver w3 Award in the Integrated Campaigns category for its Death at the Disco campaign. The Death at the Disco event took place May 17, 2025 at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, where attendees enjoyed a murder mystery, dinner, and raised crucial funding for PBS Reno and its services. PBS Reno sought to create a campaign that would generate excitement, strengthen community engagement, and transform participation into a memorable experience.
“Since we first started the murder mystery event in 2020, we’ve continued to develop the concept and explore new ways to extend the experience,” said Yunis Cho, PBS Reno Director of Marketing. “Death at the Disco is a great example of what can happen when we think beyond traditional event promotion and work together across content, development, membership, and other departments to create a cohesive experience for our community. We’re honored to receive a Silver w3 Award because it recognizes not just one design or digital execution, but also the creativity, collaboration, and integrated campaign behind the entire experience. It’s incredibly rewarding to see that work connects with our audience, and we look forward to continuing to find new and innovative ways to engage our community.”
The Death at the Disco campaign delivered measurable impact across awareness, engagement and fundraising, along with the following KPIs (key performance indicators):
- 57.7% Revenue Growth
- 95.3% Instagram Engagement Growth
- 211.3% Instagram Reach Growth
- 2,500% Instagram Click Growth
“To see PBS Reno join the ranks of the w3 Awards is truly an exciting and meaningful achievement,” said Megan Myers, PBS Reno Chief Content Officer. “Achievements like this remind us that every department, every team, and every individual contributes to our success. Whether creating compelling content, delivering exceptional events, serving our members, supporting operations, engaging our community, or keeping our station running strong, each PBS Reno employee makes PBS Reno worthy of recognition. I am deeply proud to be part of an organization that continues to earn new recognition, embrace innovation, and break the mold in service to our community.”
Every entry in the w3 Awards is evaluated on its own merit against a standard of excellence set by the AIVA. Jurors consider the work as a whole, using criteria specific to each category type, such as creative, technical and strategic achievement. The entire AIVA jury conducts an initial round of evaluations, and the Executive Jury conducts a final round. Each entry is reviewed by multiple jurors, scored by a rubric of criteria using a ten-point scale. The average score across all Jury reviews becomes the entry’s final score, which determines the award level honored. Scores of 9 or above typically earn Gold, while scores of 7 to 8.9 earn Silver. Best in Show, the platform's highest mark of distinction, is given only to the top 1% of all work entered.
“Digital creativity is constantly exploding in new directions, and the definition of excellence is evolving right alongside it,” said Josh Campbell, Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts General Manager. “This season’s Winners show what boundary-breaking digital work looks like. For the first time, that includes creators on social media and innovative digital platforms. None of this recognition happens without the AIVA jury. They poured their time, expertise and care into evaluating each entry, and their commitment is what gives these Awards real weight. We’re honored to spotlight Winners whose work was truly Built to Win.”
About PBS Reno
In fiscal year 2024-2025, PBS Reno reached 592,189 monthly viewers in northern and central Nevada and northeastern California across several platforms including three broadcast channels (PBS Reno 5.1, Reno Create 5.2, and PBS KIDS on PBS Reno 5.3), a YouTube channel, YouTube TV, online, livestreams, and digital platforms. PBS Reno provides PBS national programming and award-earning, locally-produced content, with many local segments posted weekly to PBS Reno’s YouTube Channel. PBSReno.org provides engaging interactive content, including the video portal at watch.PBSReno.org that streams all locally-produced content and most PBS national content. PBS Reno serves students, teachers, parents and caregivers through immersive educational services including Curiosity Classroom Workshops that bring classroom lessons to life with standards-based lessons and activities. Through the support of local corporations and foundations, as well as thousands of individual members, PBS Reno has been delivering public television and educational services to the communities it serves since September 29, 1983.
About w3 Awards
Since 2005, the w3 Awards has honored the best digital content, design and experiences, recognizing brands, agencies, institutions and independent creators who set trends, break boundaries and shape the digital landscape. The w3 Awards is evaluated by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an assembly of industry leaders from acclaimed brands, institutions and agencies like Google, Netflix, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, Monks, McCANN, Dentsu, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian and Stanford University, among many others. For more information about the w3 Awards, visit www.w3award.com.
Contact us:
Membership Questions: membership@pbsreno.org
Programming Hotline: programming@pbsreno.org
Phone: 775.600.0555
Address: 1670 N. Virginia St. • Reno NV 89503