SweeneyVesty wins GMR Campaign of the Year

SweeneyVesty wins Global Media Relations Campaign of the Year

Grand prize for campaign now awarded one gold, four silvers and a bronze in international competition

New York, 1 October 2015 – SweeneyVesty has today scooped the Grand Prize for media relations campaign of the year, capping a stunning 2015 for the public relations firm, which has also won gold, four silver and bronze trophies in international competition, including a Silver Cannes Lion.

PR Daily, the US communications industry bible, awarded SweeneyVesty the Grand Prize and Best Media Relations Campaign under-$50,000 for its Scoot Airlines PR campaign that wittily took the Mickey out of fellow budget airline Spirit, whose new corporate livery and branding bore more than a passing resemblance to Scoot’s.

SweeneyVesty, headquartered in New York and with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Singapore, Berlin, London, Sydney and Ohio, also won PR Daily’s Best Brand Messaging or Positioning category.

This follows a Silver Cannes Lion, AD STARS gold and two silvers in Korea, a bronze at New York’s prestigious Clio Awards, and gold at the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity for SweeneyVesty, and advertising partner Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore’s work for Scoot.

Chairman Brian Sweeney says the Scoot campaign exemplifies the SweeneyVesty approach: creativity, intelligence, humour and the ability to execute world-class work on a small budget.

When Scoot discovered Spirit had flattered the Singaporean airline with its branding imitation, it decided to make fun of its American doppelganger rather than wasting money on lawyers.

SweeneyVesty and Saatchi & Saatchi created a series of media events and collateral, culminating in the naming of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner after them. Inspiring Spirit still flies the skies today.

“This was a superb example of how to leverage a potential PR risk into a stunning PR triumph that created international recognition and support for Scoot,” Sweeney says.

The campaign generated more than US$40 million in earned media value, was covered by more than 100 media outlets and resulted in a 32% rise in the number of searches for Scoot Airlines on Google.

Sweeney says: “I feel incredibly proud of our award-winning teams in Singapore, Auckland, Wellington and New York who created and carried out this flawlessly creative and effective campaign, which has now received global recognition.

“The prizes acknowledge that thinking outside the box and fleet-footed, PR-led campaigns can be a highly effective means of communicating brand messages,” he says.

ENDS

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