salt PR UFS team: (left to right) Simon Marmara, Maeve O'Connor, Georgi Simpkin, Sarah Lamb, Richard Cox.
Below is the transcript from a CIPR Interview with Georgi Simpkin, salt PR Account Director.
What has winning an Excellence Award meant to salt PR?
Winning an award was a big boost of confidence to the team and to the company as a whole. Sometimes you're working in a vacuum and although you think the work you're doing is great, you aren't close to the standard of competitors, so it's good to know that the creative ideas, processes and ambitions we set and achieve are award-winning.
We start all campaigns and projects now with the rigour of the award entry procedure i.e. clearly defined KPIs linked to business objectives, strong focus on measurement and evaluation with specific criteria for each brand we work with, an emphasis on raising brand awareness, ensuring that our content is about quality not quantity and reaching the target audience.
What steps did you take in making your entry?
We involved key senior clients from the first stage, as well as inviting them to attend the shortlist interview. We asked clients and partner agencies to provide quotes on their individual and local campaigns and comment on our global PR support.
What tips and advice would you give to anyone entering the awards in 2012?
Measurement was a key part of the programme and was commended by the judges. If PR is to be seen as a valuable strategic partner for companies, then we need to make sure we apply rigour in testing the effectiveness of campaigns.
Go for it! Give it a go - you may be surprised, and even the process of going through the application procedure and the interview is hugely valuable.
What did it mean to you to attend the Excellence Awards dinner? Aside from the big moment when you received your award, what were the night's highlights for you?
Being there as a team and spending time with the client – it's nice to take a step back and think about what you've all achieved together. It's often hard to do that in the day-to-day work because you just keep moving forward all the time without stopping to reflect. It's also good to hear so many case study summaries in one go – it really opens your eyes up to the great work that's being done by our industry. And of course there was champagne to celebrate our big win!
Left to right: Sally Maier-Yip (salt), Kate Ward (salt), Ian Colvin (Global VP Unilever Food Solutions), Richard Cox (salt Chairman) , Georgi Simpkin (salt), Marianne Blamire (salt), Maeve O'Connor (salt).
Were you able to promote your achievements after the event?
Yes. The CIPR certificate and statuette is displayed in our London office, which is good for new business prospects to ask us about. The award is mentioned in our credits, on our website and the logo is on our company email signatures.
The win was also promoted by the network of partner agencies around the world who work on Unilever Food Solutions. Individual markets promoted the award with their internal audience e.g. UK had a four-page feature in their internal newsletter, talking about the success of the local campaign and the global win.
