Industrial and building-products manufacturers often need to explain complex technical products to audiences that rely on specialist publications, practical expertise and trusted industry sources. GreenHouse Digital + PR has received two 2026 Golden Trumpet Awards from the Publicity Club of Chicago for campaigns serving GF Building Flow Solutions Americas and Oatey Co. The awards recognise two distinct approaches to B2B communications: long-term trade media relations and expert-led technical content marketing, with reported results spanning media placements, backlinks and website referral traffic.

GreenHouse Digital + PR Wins Recognition for Building-Industry Marketing

GreenHouse Digital + PR, an agency specialising in construction, industrial, HVAC, plumbing and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) markets, received a Gold Trumpet Award in Media Relations and a Silver Trumpet Award in Content Marketing at the Publicity Club of Chicago's 68th Annual Golden Trumpet Awards on October 6, 2026.

The Gold award recognises the agency's 25-year media relations partnership with GF Building Flow Solutions Americas. The Silver award honours its technical thought leadership programme for Oatey Co., a manufacturer serving plumbing and building professionals.

The recognition highlights how specialist B2B communications agencies can use earned media and technical expertise to reach audiences in industries where product selection, installation requirements and practical performance matter. The campaign figures supplied by GreenHouse also illustrate how public relations programmes can be assessed using different measures, from editorial placements and estimated media impressions to backlinks and referral visits.

Long-Term Media Relations Drives Trade Publication Coverage

GreenHouse's relationship with GF Building Flow Solutions and its predecessor brands, including Uponor and Wirsbo, spans 25 years. The agency's work connects company executives, engineers and technical specialists with journalists covering plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and the wider building sector.

According to GreenHouse, its 2025 programme generated 501 publicity placements and 202 million measurable impressions across trade and consumer media. The campaign included 92 feature placements, 30 bylined articles and 10 trade-media cover stories or mentions.

The programme combined proactive media outreach, executive commentary, product announcements, case studies and trade-show media relations. In specialist markets, this type of sustained engagement can help manufacturers explain technical developments and maintain relationships with publications serving professional buyers.

However, publicity volume and estimated impressions measure exposure rather than business impact. Demonstrating commercial value requires additional evidence, such as qualified website visits, sales enquiries, distributor engagement or attributed revenue.

Oatey Campaign Uses Technical Experts to Build Editorial Authority

The Oatey programme takes a different approach, using the manufacturer's technical applications managers, product managers and engineers as sources for educational articles aimed at plumbing and building professionals.

GreenHouse reports that the 2025 programme secured 70 bylined feature placements, exceeding its target of 50. The articles generated an estimated 129,000 views across publications with a combined audience of 9.73 million. The agency also reports 120 backlinks from earned coverage and more than 2,000 referral visits to Oatey's website.

The content addresses practical subjects such as product selection, installation, maintenance, drainage and job-site troubleshooting. Rather than relying exclusively on product announcements, the programme turns technical expertise into material intended to help professionals solve real-world problems.

That strategy aligns with a wider challenge in B2B marketing. The Content Marketing Institute's B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2025 found that 56% of surveyed B2B marketers cited difficulty attributing return on investment to content marketing.

Backlinks and referral visits offer useful evidence of distribution and engagement, but connecting them to qualified leads and revenue requires additional measurement.

Market Landscape

The two Golden Trumpet-winning campaigns illustrate complementary models for specialist B2B communications. Media relations aims to earn editorial coverage through ongoing journalist relationships, timely announcements and expert access. Technical content marketing builds on subject-matter expertise to produce useful articles that can reach professional audiences through trade publications and search.

For manufacturers operating in construction, HVAC and plumbing markets, these channels can support awareness among contractors, distributors, specifiers and other professional buyers. Their effectiveness depends on reaching the right audience, providing credible information and connecting exposure to business objectives.

The distinction between potential reach and demonstrated impact is important. The 202 million impressions reported for GF Building Flow Solutions represent a measure of media exposure, while Oatey's referral visits represent observed traffic. Neither metric alone establishes incremental revenue or a direct effect on purchasing decisions.

Strategic Outlook

For industrial marketers, the campaigns offer a practical reminder that technical expertise can be a communications asset when it is translated into accessible, useful information. Combining sustained media relationships with expert-led content may help manufacturers maintain visibility across specialist publications and relevant professional audiences.

The next step for programmes like these is to connect communications performance more closely with business outcomes. Tracking referral quality, enquiries, distributor engagement, assisted conversions and sales opportunities can help marketing teams understand which placements contribute value beyond exposure.

GreenHouse's awards recognise two established communications approaches rather than a new marketing technology. Their relevance lies in showing how specialist PR and content programmes can be measured using a mix of editorial, audience and website-performance indicators.

Top Insights

• Industry recognition: GreenHouse Digital + PR won two 2026 Golden Trumpets, recognising media relations and technical content marketing for building-products manufacturers.

• Sustained media relations: The GF Building Flow Solutions programme reported 501 publicity hits and 202 million measurable impressions, demonstrating the scale of its reported media exposure.

• Expert-led content: Oatey's programme secured 70 bylined features, turning technical knowledge into educational content for plumbing and building professionals.

• Referral performance: The Oatey campaign generated 120 backlinks and more than 2,000 referral visits, providing measurable evidence of content distribution and website traffic.

• Measurement challenge: B2B marketers still struggle to attribute content ROI, making lead quality, conversion tracking and revenue measurement important complements to publicity metrics.

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