2012 PRINZ Awards Results Announced

What do beer, porn and students have in common?

Two winners whose work featured students, (Student Volunteer Army) and beer, (WilliamsWarn, the best beer-porn you’ll see all day) were awarded joint Supreme Award winners in the annual Public Relations Institute (PRINZ) awards tonight.

Porter Novelli’s launch of the WilliamsWarn personal brewing system was also awarded joint winner with Convergence and Social Innovation’s Student Volunteer Army communications work after the February 22 Canterbury earthquake in the Special Project or Event category.

The projects were implemented by Alexandra Speedy and Bill Rundle of Porter Novelli (for WilliamsWarn) and Daniel O’Regan of Convergence & Louis Brown of Social Innovation (for the Student Volunteer Army).

Judges said the launch of WilliamsWarn, “…was all about creative event management, a strong focus on target audiences and clever social media strategy. The campaign had an edginess that achieved remarkable cut-through.”

Judges said the Student Volunteer Army campaign, “captured the public’s imagination and support. Working in a crisis situation with limited resources and budget, the Student Volunteer Army’s organisers achieved outstanding results by leveraging community empathy through clever mass media targeting and social media savvy.”

PRINZ President Jane Dodd said the projects were excellent examples of best practice work, undertaken on relatively low budgets and both drawing heavily on social media as a communications channel.

“The joint Supreme winners are truly deserving of the recognition. While very different, both delivered outstanding results, were well-planned and executed and are great examples of leading edge work in the public relations sector.”

Awards chief judge, Anna Radford said that the end result was an indication that professional communications practice was thriving in New Zealand.

“Around 30 PRINZ Fellows acted as judges across the categories, judging an impressive 60 entries in total, with 17 awarded finalist status. On the night there were eight winners awarded and nine highly commended. Given the record number of entries received, every finalist should feel very proud for standing out in a strong field.”

Earlier in the evening, six new PRINZ Fellows were also inducted, each receiving the title in recognition of their service to the profession and to PRINZ. They are:

• Dr Graeme Sterne, Manukau Institute of Technology
• Tracey Bridges, Senate Communication Counsel
• Paul Hemsley, PHPR
• Donna Baker, Ministry of Science and Innovation
• Brenda Saunders, Trio Communications
• Dr Margalit Toledano, University of Waikato

ENDS

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