CIPR PRide Awards celebrate the Midland's thriving PR industry
More than 170 PR professionals gathered at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham last Friday to celebrate the 2023 CIPR Midlands PRide Awards – the region’s premier public relations event.
Birmingham-based agency, WPR, were the big winners on the night, sweeping the board with eight Gold Awards including a hattrick for their work with Care UK to combat stereotypes about life in care homes.
The judges praised WPR for delivering a campaign with “a clear strategy and a good mix of content” where “contextual information and insight clearly informed the ideation process” and that saw enquiries to Care UK return to their pre-pandemic levels.
The Marketing Pod and Story took home two Gold Awards each, including for the PR Consultancy of the Year and Small PR Consultancy of the Year, respectively. The British Horse Society was awarded the In-House PR Team of the Year title.
In the individual categories, WPR’s Nicole Daybell won the Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year award and Tillymint Communications clinched the Independent PR Practitioner of the Year title.
The Midlands is well known for its creative, impactful, and innovative PR and communications. As seen again this year at these annual Awards, practitioners from the Midlands continue to hit high standards and embrace new ideas to deliver value and credible PR on behalf of their clients and businesses. Many congratulations to everyone who made the shortlist and this year’s brilliant winners.
Full Gold Award winners from the 2023 Midlands PRide Awards:
- Corporate and Communications Campaign – WPR, REHAU: In The Frame
- Internal Communications Campaign – 2 Sisters Food Group, Hub, the App for all 2 Sisters colleagues
- Consumer Relations Campaign – WPR, Care UK: Fulfilling lives
- Public Sector Campaign – The Coal Authority, Stay Mine Safe Campaign
- Community Relations Campaign – BakerBaird Communications, Shaping Stapleford: from left behind to levelled up
- Not-for-Profit Campaign – WPR, World Risk Poll
- Healthcare and/ or Wellbeing Campaign – Story, Safe evacuations for all
- Integrated Campaign – WPR, REHAU: In The Frame
- Low Budget Campaign – Limegreen Communications, PRYZM Watford: Save Our Night
- Construction, Property or Infrastructure Campaign – WPR, Highways Drainage: The Route To Surface Water Management
- Best Use of Media Relations – WPR, Care UK: Fulfilling Lives
- Best Channel Delivery – WPR, Alton Towers: Britain’s Greatest Escape
- Best Use of Content – WAA Chosen, Build, Repair & Refurbish
- Best Event - The Marketing Pod (We Grow Ideas Limited), Better Together
- Environmental Campaign – Stone Junction, Driving sustainability and efficiency
- Best Publication - Linnaeus, Sparking the Clinical Mind: Linnaeus’s clinical research report
- Best Long-term Campaign – WPR, Care UK: Fulfilling lives
- Best Long-term Client Care – Mitchell & Butlers, Ten years of PR for Mitchells & Butlers
- Student of the Year Award – Maria Cristal Naoussi Sanchez
- Outstanding Contribution to PR – Philip Young
- Outstanding Contribution to CIPR Midlands – Aimee Postle
- Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year – Nicole Daybell, WPR
- Independent PR Practitioner of the Year – Tillymint Communications, From COVID Despair to PR Flair
- In-House PR Team of the Year – The British Horse Society, The British Horse Society In-House Team Entry
- Small PR Consultancy of the Year – Story
- PR Consultancy of the Year – The Marketing Pod (We Grow Ideas Limited)
View the full awards winners list online.
About the Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Founded in 1948, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is the world's only Royal Chartered professional body for public relations practitioners with over 10,000 members.
The CIPR advances professionalism in public relations by making its members accountable to their employers and the public through a code of conduct and searchable public register, setting standards through training, qualifications, awards and the production of best practice and skills guidance, facilitating Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and awarding Chartered Public Relations Practitioner status (Chart.PR).
About the CIPR Midlands Group
The CIPR Midlands group represents members working across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, whether they are in-house, agency or freelance. We’re building a community that showcases the very best of our profession and we want you to be part of it.
Through a combination of supporting our members with continuous professional development – including Chartership – and combining our collective experience to promote best practice, we aim to give current PR practitioners a cutting edge and encourage the next generation of talent into the industry.
We coordinate a diverse programme of events, training and networking opportunities, with our flagship being the Midlands PR Conference. Held in Birmingham, it tackles the challenges and opportunities facing our industry with an impressive line-up of key-note speakers, panel debates, interactive break-out sessions and student showcases.
This group represents communicators from East to West, North to South…Midlands that is! So, whether you’re writing copy in Cannock or managing the media in Mansfield, we’re here for you.
The Midlands group welcomes members from: Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland; as well as Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. We also support parts of the Thames and Chilterns, as well as the Cotswolds region, including Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.
About the CIPR PRide Awards
The CIPR PRide Awards is the UK’s most prestigious nation-wide awards scheme, recognising excellence in public relations and communications across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and six English regions. Past winners continue to reap the benefits of their successes long after achieving them. Now in its 20th year, the PRide Awards attracted around 1,000 entries from public relations teams, consultancies and individuals across the UK.