We're thrilled to announce the results of the CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards 2022. Click on the links below to view the winning entries.
Note: Case studies will be available soon.
Corporate and Business Communications Campaign
Gold winner:
RNN Communications
RNN Serves Up Success for IFEX
RNN Communications had a challenging brief against the backdrop of Covid’s impact on the events and hospitality industries. The campaign had clear targets, a sound strategy that leveraged influential stakeholders and their networks, and a blend of integrated tactics. Results were impressive with visitor and exhibitor numbers exceeding targets, sales figures growing and a high proportion of new stakeholders attracted to the event.
Silver winner:
JComms
Norbrook: a team that makes a difference
Finalists:
Brown O'Connor Communications
Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign, FinTech NI
Consumer Relations Campaign
Gold winner:
LK Communications
Lidl NI Big on Quality, Lidl on Price
A well-thought-through campaign which maximised as many opportunities throughout the year as possible to keep Lidl top of mind with consumers. LK Communications secured an impressive volume of earned media coverage including broadcast and demonstrated strong organisational impact.
Public Sector Campaign
Gold winner:
The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland & Anderson Spratt Group
"True Cost" campaign
This campaign had clearly defined audiences and really took into consideration the channels they used, using insights and data to ensure activity was well-targeted. It used a blend of channels to tackle a sensitive issue head-on and secured a significant increase in traffic to The Consumer Council’s website.
Silver winner:
Belfast City Council
Belfast Region City Deal (June 2021-June 2022)
Finalists:
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Meet the Mental Health Champion NI
Public Affairs Campaign
Gold winner:
Brown O'Connor Communications
Brown O'Connor Communications & Hospitality Ulster - Modernising Northern Ireland’s Outdated Liquor Licensing Legislation
Entry set out the context well and gained lots of coverage and opportunity to see the campaign.
Silver winner:
MCE
Legislating for change: Securing Down Royal's future
Not-for-Profit Campaign
Gold winner:
RSPB NI
RSPB NI: Rallying to Revive our World
Great, evidence based campaign, with clearly defined goals. Very creative idea with 'birdsong'.
Silver winner:
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
The Right Side of Outside
Finalists:
Cancer Fund for Children
Rory's Miles 2 Mayo (RM2M)
Healthcare Campaign
Gold winner:
LK Communications
Lidl: Sport for Good Schools Mental Health Mentorship
Clear strategy. Really well written submission. Really nice approach to engaging the target audience. Achieved objectives.
Silver winner:
Mackle Communications
CFNI - breaking new ground for £29.5m reasons
Finalists:
MCE
NI catalyst for change for UK's sight-impaired communities
Integrated Campaign
Gold winner:
RNN Comms
Embracing 'Imperfection' by RNN Comms x DFI Beds
This was a really bold campaign, challenging the client and pushing the boundaries targeting a new audience market. It was based on solid research and allowed them to pitch the new idea of targeting fashion and beauty with confidence and deliver fantastic results against objectives. The choice of Ambassador for this campaign was inspired. The result is clearly demonstrated in the ROI for the client. The integration to be celebrated is the whole approach to this campaign from the brief, through research, genuinely informing the strategy and tactics, to how it was delivered. The results speak for themselves - outstanding!
Silver winner:
ASG & Partners
Good Relations Week 2021
Finalists:
Brown O'Connor Communications
Best Integrated Campaign for Manufacturing Month
Navigator Blue
Environmental Engagement Index – Driving Data to Inform Policy
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Small Moves, Big Changes
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
The Right Side of Outside
Low Budget Campaign
Gold winner:
RSPB NI
RSPB NI: Rallying to Revive our World
Case Study
This was a truly inspiring campaign, because of the amazing creative tactics that were deployed to create impact and maximise results “on a budget“ not just because the subject was for the greater good! We loved the use of creative birdsong in radio campaigns, linking into partnerships with venues and the creation of a visual Wild Wall Mural for all to see and inspire media opportunities. The RSPB harnessed the opportunity of a demonstration march carefully to generate further impact, engaging with public and stakeholder support. The end result was a wide impacting campaign getting noticed across influencers and the general public against a carefully planned and considered budget representing good ROI.
Silver winner:
Mackle Communications
Getting down with the kids, big and small
Finalists:
Mackle Communications
CFNI - breaking new ground for £29.5m reasons
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Out of this World
Arts, Culture, Sport or Entertainment Campaign
Gold winner:
ASG & Partners
Good Relations Week 2021
This campaign aimed to support the Community Relations Council’s Good Relations week via a wide range of SMART objectives. They used research and findings to inform campaign development, particularly what young people wanted to see, and recruited a steering group to drive delivery. The strategy to inform, educate and empower, really spoke to us and we loved the use of putting young people in everyday lives in campaign activity. We hope this will build on future similar campaigns for such great causes!
Silver winner:
Mackle Communications
Getting down with the kids, big and small
Finalists:
JComms
NI Science Festival: Putting the 'A' in STEM
Travel, Leisure or Tourism Campaign
Gold winner:
Fiona Brown Communications
‘We're suckin’ diesel’ with Line of Duty Experience
This campaign not only deserve to win gold in CIPR Pride but also set the benchmark for how we should work across the board. Their proactive approach in terms of generating an idea, researching and pitching it to the client, to designing and delivering a truly well-thought-out and creative campaign that delivered tangible results is the process we should all follow. The use of desk research underpinned the idea and potential marketability, leading to a collaboration of clients to create something truly unique and creative. The PR event/tour that was created was so creative and bold being based on the hype of an outgoing TV show, rather than incoming as we all may have thought! The fact that it ended up generating spin-off tours and PR for the campaign with Derry Girls is highly commendable and again a demonstration of a Gold-winning PR one that generated remarkable results and ROI for the client! Well done!
Silver winner:
LK Communications
Galgorm: Building a Collection of Luxury
Education Campaign
Gold winner:
JComms
NI Science Festival: Putting the 'A' in STEM
Worthwhile purpose of campaign. Well run and achieved great results.
Silver winner:
CompareNI.com
The CompareNI Fintech Scholarship
Regional Campaign of the Year
Gold winner:
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
The Right Side of Outside
A big-budget campaign designed to assist influencers create their own content and generate mass media coverage regionally. Good aim and brief, good use of existing behaviour insight from ORNI to shape plans and underline need for a mass media campaign, not just outdoors. The strapline was engaging and good partnerships were established with bloggers and others. The strategy reflected ORNI values and evaluation demonstrated the wide-ranging impact from a good campaign overall.
Best Use of Media Relations Campaign
Gold winner:
JComms
NI Science Festival: Putting the 'A' in STEM
JComms took a strategic approach to rolling out media relations for the festival targeting senior editorial staff to maximise efficiency and impact. A raft of different media opportunities were delivered with great results and quality coverage, particularly across broadcast media. Evaluation was strong and it was good to see the use of analytics to link spikes in web traffic and ticket sales directly to PR activity.
Silver winner:
Smarts
Grimbergen Abbey Microbrewery Virtual Launch
Finalists:
Belfast City Council
Belfast Stories
Brown O'Connor Communications
The Cross Border Workers Coalition
Navigator Blue
Museum of Innovation – Celebrating Role Models in STEM
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Out of this World
Best Use of Digital and Social Media
Gold winner:
Belfast City Council
Belfast City Council: #AWeeBitOfHope
Case Study
This was a simple but highly effective campaign that really tapped into the local community’s strength and spirit. A first for the council, it focused on user-generated content from across the city securing strong reach, engagement and positive sentiment across social media as well as securing earned media coverage.
Silver winner:
Smarts
Virtual Success: Revitalising the Global Bar Industry
Finalists:
MCE
#ChoicesDefineUs
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Meet the Mental Health Champion NI
The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland & Anderson Spratt Group
True Cost campaign
Best Use of Content
Gold winner:
Smarts
House of Dagmar Collection Launch
This was an impressive campaign with clear, measurable objectives from the outset. Smarts developed a creative multi-channel campaign that had a single authentic piece of content at its heart. Results exceeded expectations across the board from quality global media coverage and successful influencer engagement to outstanding sales figures.
Silver winner:
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Meet the Mental Health Champion NI
Finalists:
Belfast City Council
#BeSoundBelfast
MCE
#ChoicesDefineUs
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Small Moves, Big Changes
Best Event
Gold winner:
MCE
The Daily Mile
Event idea was well researched and it was great to link to wellbeing.
Silver winner:
Smarts
World Class Bartender of the Year 2021
Finalists:
Belfast City Council
Belfast Region City Deal: Deal signing
Brown O'Connor Communications and Clearbox Communications
Best Event - The homecoming premiere of 'Belfast'
Best Publication
Gold winner:
Belfast City Council
City Matters Residents Magazine
Good magazine, relevant content, love the measurement of brand sentiment. It fulfil's its objective with keeping residents up-to-date, and the BBC survey was good too. Using local residents as stories was a good way of getting more people to read the magazine.
Silver winner:
Housing Executive
Streets Ahead 2021
Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year
Gold winner:
Ciaran Mullan MCIPR
Rumour Mill Creative Communications
Young communicator of the year was a tough category to judge, with excellent nominees put forward. Ciaran Mullan shone through, showcasing his ability to think creatively and love of storytelling. He also had oversight of some of the challenges facing the PR industry, not least from an EDI perspective and demonstrated how he has actively sought to change this through his work. We wish Ciaran well for his future PR career.
Silver winner:
Jenna Gardiner ACIPR
Brown O'Connor Communications
Finalists:
Molly Cullen Chart.PR, MCIPR
Lighthouse Communications
Independent PR Practitioner of the Year
Gold winner:
Maurica Mackle Chart.PR, Dip CIPR, FCIPR
Mackle Communications
Clear and measurable business objectives with impressive growth coupled with a strong undertaking to give back to the industry through mentoring and developing young people. We were also impressed with the amount of charity work undertaken.
Silver winner:
Sonya Cassidy FCIPR
Sonya Cassidy PR Limited
Finalists:
Fiona Brown MCIPR
Fiona Brown Communications
In-House PR Team of the Year
Gold winner:
The Consumer Council
Case Study
There is a strong investment into and focus on the team's CPD. This small team demonstrates that both their media and social media outreach is having an impact and backed this up with some great statistics. It was clear there's a strong link between business and comms objectives.
Small PR Consultancy of the Year
Gold winner:
RNN Communications
Case Study
The judges felt that what RNN Communications have achieved over the past year is admirable and it was great reading how they were able to overachieve their goals with a four-day working week. Their growth strategy is clear with the focus on retainer.
PR Consultancy of the Year
Gold winner:
LK Communications
Case study
LK Communications nosed ahead in a competitive field with its determined growth strategy coupled with its steady commitment to CPD. The figures tell the story when it comes to growth: turnover up by 25% and profitability by 500%; no client losses and a 35% uplift from new clients through diversification into new areas of healthcare and telecoms; and 80% staff retention. When it comes to professionalism and CPD, activities such as the agency's Power of PR for post-pandemic recovery (with guest speakers including Stephen Waddington) gave it the edge.
Silver winner:
Smarts
Finalists:
MCE