Buddy Day wins PR award

MEDIA RELEASE
4 June 2013

Buddy Day wins PR award

Hamilton company HMC Communications has received an award for New Zealand’s best not-for-profit public relations campaign in 2012 at the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) annual awards gala dinner in Christchurch last week (Thurs, 30 May).

The accolade acknowledges the firm’s work for national child advocacy organisation Child Matters, leading the PR for its annual anti child abuse awareness prevention day, Buddy Day. HMC director Heather Claycomb said it was great to be acknowledged for the team’s work on Buddy Day, especially because it is starting to make a difference.

Mrs Claycomb said in October and November last year, before and after Buddy Day, two random samples of 200 Hamilton residents were surveyed by Hamilton research company, Versus Research. The surveys found that after Buddy Day awareness of the day increased, with just over a third of those surveyed (34%) having heard of Buddy Day; an increase of 11 per cent when the same survey was run before the event (23%).

Post-event, people also had a more accurate understanding of the premise behind Buddy Day, with close to half (47%) stating they thought Buddy Day was about raising awareness of child abuse; an increase of 18% from the initial survey results.

In April this year, new statistics were released showing unique notifications to Child, Youth and Family about suspected child abuse had risen in the Waikato by 437 – more than in any other area in the country between 2011 and 2012.

“Buddy Day plays a key role alongside other important initiatives in protecting children. The research we did this year shows that Buddy Day’s messages are getting through to adults. Every person has a part to play and we were honoured to lend our communications expertise to this important project,” said Mrs Claycomb.

HMC first proposed the Buddy Day PR campaign idea to Child Matters in 2011. It was then launched in Hamilton as part of International Child Abuse Prevention Day.  The day involves community and business leaders carrying life-size card-board children around for a day to generate conversations in the community about New Zealand’s alarming child abuse statistics and the role every adult has in speaking up for children to prevent child abuse. Buddy Day has run in the Waikato for the past two years, and in 2013 will be launched in other centres around the country.

Child Matters Buddy Day manager Janine Evans said child abuse is the biggest social issue in New Zealand.

“Buddy Day is about engaging the community to change the attitude that ‘there’s nothing I can do’ to protect children, by empowering adults to speak up if they suspect a child is being abused. By playing our part we can help stop the devastating domino effect of abuse which, in the worst case scenario can end in death, and in many cases traps people in a cycle of abuse condemning them to a life of dependency on the country’s social systems,” said Mrs Evans.

HMC Communications has been appointed by Child Matters to lead the awareness day’s PR again in 2013. Buddy Day will be held on Friday, 15 November.

The PRINZ awards are an annual event attracting entrants from some of the country’s top public relations practitioners. Chief judge Anna Radford said the Awards judges assessed 58 entries, with 23 becoming finalists and 11 going on to win their categories.

“The overall standard of entries was impressive and it demonstrates the high quality and wide range of work being done by PRINZ members in New Zealand,” said Mrs Radford.

L-R Jacqui Humm, Heather Claycomb (HMC) and Janine Evans (Buddy Day)

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