An annual journey to London for the PRWeek World Awards is at all times an inspirational and insightful view into the cream of the crop of PR work upfront of the Cannes Lions Competition of Creativity in June.
This yr, I additionally managed to get a while with Kat Thomas, founder and world chief inventive officer of One Inexperienced Bean, who’s jury chair for the PR Lions on the Cannes Worldwide Competition of Creativity within the south of France subsequent month.
Whereas there’s at all times some crossover, the work, groups and people honored within the eleventh iteration of the PRWeek World Awards are distinctly totally different in character to PRWeek’s regional awards within the U.S. and the U.Ok. The massive companies and types nonetheless present up within the winners’ roster, however so do less-well-known companies and regional entities that produce nice work of their markets.
A senior group of PR execs from around the globe gathered in central London to rejoice, together with world company CEOs and leaders reminiscent of Chris Foster at Omnicom PR Group, Matt Neale from Golin, Porter Novelli’s Jillian Janaczek, Zeno’s Barby Siegel and The Weber Shandwick Collective’s Laura Schoen.
The present was excellently compered by former U.Ok. shadow chancellor turned Strictly Come Dancing competitor and Good Morning Britain TV presenter Ed Balls. Our spectacular chair of jury, Sabina Ellahi, was most lately head of worldwide PR at Charlotte Tilbury Magnificence and soon-to-be constructing a comms crew at Sephora UK. You’ll be able to hear Ellahi’s ideas on the method and work on our particular World Awards version of The PR Week podcast.
Brazil’s Sherlock Communications did notably effectively, profitable Greatest Worldwide Company, Greatest Company: LatAm and World Skilled: Company towards the massive holding firms, and marketing campaign work together with Igniting Hope and Nurturing Sustainable Change Across the World, working with The Zayed Sustainability Prize.
For these saying, “why are they profitable all these awards, I’ve by no means heard of them?”, effectively the agency grew 50% yr on yr in 2023, profitable 60 new shoppers and doubling down on inexperienced finance, blockchain and Internet 3.0.
The company historically focuses on representing worldwide firms in Latin American markets. Now it is usually gaining traction with home shoppers in markets reminiscent of Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico – and a various set of PR execs from these nations had been in attendance to rejoice the agency’s achievements.
There have been two wins for Eleven, TBWAMelbourne, TBWAChiatDay, FanClub with Winnie-the-Pooh: The Deforested Version for Who Provides A Crap.
The #TurnYourBack marketing campaign for Unilever’s Dove model adopted up its stellar efficiency within the PRWeek US Awards by profitable Greatest Influencer Advertising and marketing Marketing campaign. It was attention-grabbing to see Edelman get a winner’s credit score alongside Ogilvy this time, not like within the PRWeek US Awards.
Each companies had representatives onstage for the presentation, however I can report that the trophy positively went again to the Ogilvy desk. We will stay up for many extra of those marketing campaign “derivation debates” in Cannes subsequent month.
Edelman additionally gained greatest in Product Model Growth for its multi-awarded Mayo McHack activation for Hellmann’s that prompted McDonald’s to threaten to sue the cheeky Unilever model.
Interpublic Group had a great evening, with six wins for The Weber Shandwick Collective, together with Prime Weber Shandwick and Weber Shandwick Mexico.
For Omnicom, there have been 5 wins for Porter Novelli in Costa Rica with PADvertising for Change for nonprofit and ladies’s rights group Nosotras Las Mujeres, together with Greatest Marketing campaign of the Yr.
This was a very groundbreaking piece of labor that tackled the luxurious tax utilized to all menstruation merchandise within the nation, which renders them unaffordable to 1 in 5 of the inhabitants, leading to 1000’s of Costa Ricans lacking a number of days of labor or faculty.
The idea of PADvertising was conceived, encapsulated within the phrase “Cambiemos la regla” — Let’s change the regulation/interval (in Spanish, interval — menstruation — and regulation are synonyms known as “regla”). Folks had been invited to take part within the protest and foyer the federal government to take motion.
Rallies, sculptures, media partnerships adopting a pad-shaped banner, creating digital protests directed at congress members, urging reform. Intensive media interviews and outreach to all 57 congress members by letters, WhatsApp and Twitter.
In 4 weeks, roughly 90% of the nation’s inhabitants and 48 out of 57 congress members voted to cross the regulation. The 13% tax on Costa Rica’s menstrual merchandise was abolished and a dedication to free menstrual merchandise in public faculties and prisons was secured.
Improbable purposeful work that resulted in vital legislative change and a revolution in attitudes.
There have been additionally two wins for Ruder Finn, one in all them with Constructing Bridges to Breakthroughs on behalf of the Basis for the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the work produced on this tough final 18 months by the distinctive groups and people who gained awards is a testomony to the much-increased creativity, senior counsel, worth add and profile throughout the consumer C-suites and CEO fraternity.