FRANKLINTON, N.C. & LEWISTON, ME, May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — For many young people, manufacturing still feels disconnected from the careers they aspire to pursue, despite the industry becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing centers of innovation, science, and technology.
Seeking to reshape perceptions of modern manufacturing, Novonesis, a global biosolutions leader, partnered with Rinck Advertising, a brand and behavior agency, and the Manufacturing Institute, creator of the national Manufacturing Day initiative, on a campaign designed to inspire the next generation of biomanufacturing talent through immersive, hands-on experiences.
The campaign earned national recognition this month with a 2026 Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), one of the communications industry’s highest honors.
Presented on May 14 an the annual Anvil Awards ceremony in New York City, the Silver Anvil Awards are among the communications industry’s highest honors and have recognized excellence in strategic public relations since 1944. This year, PRSA presented just 42 Silver Anvil Awards nationwide across all categories, honoring campaigns that demonstrated exceptional strategy, creativity, and measurable impact. This marks Rinck Advertising’s third consecutive PRSA win for behavior change work.
At the center of the award-winning campaign was Novonesis’ role as the national flagship host site for Manufacturing Day 2025 at the company’s North America headquarters in Franklinton, North Carolina.
But the campaign was about far more than opening facility doors.
It was designed to help students experience what modern manufacturing actually looks like today: scientists working in advanced laboratories, engineers scaling biotechnology innovation, and teams using biology to help address some of the world’s biggest challenges, from food and nutrition to energy, sustainability, and health.
“Students can’t aspire to careers they’ve never seen,” said Kathy Humphrey, Head of Communications, Novonesis North America. “We approached this as a strategic effort to open our doors at scale and give students firsthand exposure to biomanufacturing, showing how biosolutions, science, and innovation come together to create meaningful careers that help solve real-world challenges.”
The campaign came at a critical moment for U.S. manufacturing and biotechnology. While advanced manufacturing continues to evolve rapidly, public perception has struggled to keep pace. Research highlighted in the Silver Anvil submission showed many students still associated manufacturing with outdated, low-skill jobs, even as employers increasingly seek talent in science, engineering, automation, and biotechnology. At the same time, the Manufacturing Institute projects the industry could face more than 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs by 2030.
Together, the teams created a student-centered experience that brought biotechnology and biosolutions to life through immersive storytelling, hands-on engagement, and direct interaction with scientists, engineers, operators, educators, and workforce development leaders.
As the platinum sponsor of Manufacturing Day, Novonesis welcomed hundreds of students, educators, community leaders, and industry partners to facilities in North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin, with the national flagship event hosted in Franklinton, NC. Students toured fermentation operations, research labs, and manufacturing control rooms while learning how biosolutions already play a role in everyday life, from the food people eat and the detergent they use to renewable fuels, probiotics, and more sustainable manufacturing processes.
The campaign also spotlighted the growing importance of domestic biomanufacturing and biosolutions innovation in the United States. Novonesis’ Franklinton campus is home to the largest multipurpose enzyme manufacturing facility in North America and serves as a hub for biotechnology innovation, manufacturing, and research.
“We approached this campaign as more than an event. It was a research-informed behavior-change initiative designed to help solve a growing workforce challenge facing the biotech industry,” said Katie Greenlaw, Vice President of Public Relations and Influencer Marketing at Rinck Advertising. “Audience insights helped shape every aspect of the experience, from the stories we told to the hands-on interactions students had with scientists, engineers, educators and workforce development partners. The measurable shifts we saw in student perceptions afterward reinforced the power of immersive, insight-driven communications to influence how young people think about careers in modern manufacturing.”
Manufacturing Day is a national initiative of the Manufacturing Institute, the workforce development and education affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers.
At Novonesis, biosolutions are helping transform industries and strengthen the U.S. bioeconomy through scalable, fermentation-based innovation rooted in biology. From healthier food and improved nutrition to cleaner energy and more resilient supply chains, Novonesis believes there’s a biosolution for almost everything.
About Novonesis
Novonesis is a global biosolutions company leading the era of biosolutions. By leveraging the power of microbiology with science, Novonesis transforms the way the world produces, consumes, and lives. Across more than 30 industries, Novonesis biosolutions are already creating value for thousands of customers while benefiting the planet. With more than 10,000 employees worldwide, Novonesis partners with businesses and communities to better our world with biology.
About Rinck Advertising
Founded in 2001, Rinck is a nationally recognized brand and behavior agency headquartered in Maine with teams across the U.S. Rinck helps brands change minds and drive action through behavioral insight, culture-first strategy, and experience-led execution. The agency works with local, national, and global clients across public health and healthcare, consumer-packaged goods, biotechnology, restaurant service, and more. Visit www.rinckadvertising.com or follow @RinckAdvertising on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
- Novonesis and Rinck teams receive PRSA Silver Anvil