The best of the best of the New South Wales’ Public Relations and Communication industry were out in force last night as Sydney’s Doltone House Hyde Park hosted the 2016 Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) 40th Golden Target Awards New South Wales State Finals.
The New South Wales State Awards for Excellence saw around 100 PR professionals gather to celebrate the PR industry’s depth of talent and honour the year’s leading campaigns, teams and consultancies in NSW.
One third of the 90 State level awards for the PRIA Golden Target were handed out in NSW last night.
The PRIA Golden Target Awards are held in two stages, State Awards held at similar events around the Australia in the lead up to the National Awards where the Australia’s best compete across an expanded list of categories.
Big winners of the night included: Haystac who were finallists five times across four different categories with five awards in total – three wins in the Integrated ‘Marketing and Communication Campaign Strategy’, ‘Experiential’ and ‘Content Marketing’ categories and two commended.
Red Agency were finallists seven times, across six different categories with seven awards in total – four highly commended and three commended, with both a highly commended and commended in the Comprehensive/Major Campaign category.
Viva! Communications were finallists and awarded three times, with a win for their work ‘Driving world’s biggest gamblers and ecstasy users to Thailand for offshore rehab’ and two highly commended elsewhere; Lynsey Reilly Communications was Highly Commended in the ‘Micro Consultancy of the Year’ category; Sauce Communications won ‘Medium Consultancy of the Year’ with Ariana Shutte from Sauce receiving a Highly Commended for ‘Top sPRinters’ (outstanding achievement for PR professionals with two to five years of experience).
N2N Communications were finallists twice for their work with Primary IVF in the ‘Health Organisations’ and ‘Digital and Social’ categories, and took home one gong for each. In addition to these wins, they produced the biggest cheer of the evening when they took home the final gong of the night for ‘Large Consultancy of the Year’.
Vanessa Liell, managing director, N2N said she was delighted with the win, and is very proud to be part of an industry that is so talented and exceptional. “Congratulations to the agencies that entered and were finalists among us, we’re very proud to have partners in our industry that we respect so much,” she said.
“We wouldn’t be here today without our incredibly talented team – this is absolutely a team effort and the result of an enormous amount of passion, energy and hard work from an incredibly talented team.”
Vanessa Liel (Second from left) Managing Director, the N2N Communications team, celebrate being awarded Large Consultancy of the Year.
“The State finals are always very exciting as they give us the first look at the large number of high calibre entries across the country, and this year was no exception,” said Jenny Muir, PRIA National President.
“There are so many outstanding entries that demonstrate extraordinary work. It is a sure sign that our industry is thriving and pushing the boundaries.”
Winners from all State Awards now have the opportunity to be recognised at the 2016 GTA National Finals Gala dinner, held at the Four Points by Sheraton on Monday 14 November in conjunction with the PRIA National Conference for Communication Innovation 14-15 November. https://www.ivvy.com/event/PRIA16/gta-dinner.html
Award categories and recipients are:
Government Sponsored Campaigns
- Winner – Raising the Profile of TAFE Western Sydney – TAFE Western Sydney & Sefiani
Community Relations
- Commended – XXXX Island Turns Back into a Pumpkin – Lion – XXXX / Res Publica
- Highly Commended – Waughs Championing Cause Close to Heart Stroke Prevention – VIVA! Communications
Internal/Change Management Communications
- Highly Commended – a-FUSION: humanising a massive IT system change – Ogilvy Impact and Canon Australia
Sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility
- Highly Commended – Re-Pie-Cling – Red Agency
Health Organisations
- Commended – Gaucher Disease: telling the patients story through data visualisation – Weber Shandwick
- Highly Commended – ADHD: It’s About Time – seeing the impact of ADHD through the eyes of parents and carers – Weber Shandwick, with Shire Australia
- Highly Commended – Don’t be bone idle- ‘Know Your Bones’ to help curb bone fractures – VIVA! Communications
- Winner – Primary IVF – Increasing access to high quality, affordable IVF – N2N & Primary IVF
Small Budget/Pro Bono
- Highly Commended – “Where’s William? Campaign” – Insight Communications
- Highly Commended – Steve Waugh Foundation – Red Agency
Comprehensive/Major Campaign
- Commended – Vivid Sydney – Red Agency & Destination NSW
- Highly Commended – Western Sydney University: Unlimited – Red Agency
Content Marketing
- Winner – Headband for Good – Haystac
Digital & Social
- Commended – Headband for Good – Haystac
- Winner – Primary IVF: Increasing access to high quality, affordable IVF – N2N & Primary IVF
Start-Up
- Commended – Mighty oaks from little Acorns grow – Howorth
Experiential
- Highly Commended – EBAY Innovation Lab – Pulse
- Winner – Brisbane Winter 2015 Campaign – Haystac
Integrated Marketing and Communication Campaign Strategy
- Commended – Western Sydney University: Unlimited – Red Agency
- Commended – Dr. Oetker’s Scuro Ristorante – Haystac
- Winner – 2015/16 Yellow Pages and White Pages covers program launch– Haystac
Consumer Marketing
- Commended – Comvita Australia: Promoting Olive Leaf Extract for Heart Health – Palin Communications
- Winner – Driving world’s biggest gamblers and ecstasy users to Thailand for offshore rehab – VIVA! Communications
Business-to-Business
- Highly Commended – The SAP Australian Digital Experience Report – Howorth Communications, in collaboration with AMR Research & The Factuary
In-House PR Team of the Year
- Commended – Airbnb
- Highly Commended – ING DIRECT
Top sPRinters
- Commended – Charmaine Tanti – Red Agency
- Highly Commended – Ariana Shutte – Sauce Communications
Micro Consultancy of the Year
- Commended – LBPR
- Highly Commended – Lynsey Reilly Communications
Medium Consultancy of the Year
- Commended – History Will Be Kind
- Winner – Sauce Communications
Large Consultancy of the Year
- Commended – The Mint Partners
- Commended – Weber Shandwick
- Highly Commended – Red Agency
- Winner – N2N Communications
